In June 2021, Seattle Art Museum CEO and director Amada Cruz approved a budget to hire security contractors to patrol the outside of the museum’s downtown location and install bollards to prevent tents. SAM staff members responded with a petition, which included a list of community-centered alternatives; however, leadership refused to consider them. As many members of staff and the community are aware, budgeting for these policies was new — but SAM’s discriminatory treatment of unhoused people is not.
SAM has an unwritten policy that says unhoused people will be asked to leave property between 7:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., and the police will be called on those who do not comply. There have also been structures built and lights installed to prevent people from sleeping, particularly with the protection of a tent. These policies have had a negative impact on many people’s lives, including the staff who have been asked to carry them out.
No one wants to enforce rules that cause harm, but like most security departments in Seattle, SAM security has been used as a tool against the unhoused community by its employers. This has created increased tension between staff and residents and has contributed to the criminalization of homelessness.
Harm reduction-based solutions have been proven to keep people safer. A 2006 “Drug and Alcohol Review” analysis of over 650 peer reviewed articles, by Alison Ritter and Jacqui Cameron, established that “there is sufficient evidence to support the wide-spread adoption of harm reduction interventions and to use harm reduction as an overarching policy approach in relation to illicit drugs.”
In July 2021, Cruz created a “Special Advisory Task Force on Homelessness” without consulting SAM workers, or including anyone with lived experience of homelessness, harm reduction or addiction. The task force did not issue any statements until Sept. 1. Star Protection Agency, an outside security contractor, started on Aug. 25.
One week later, a Star Protection employee paid a stranger to steal the belongings of S, a longtime Seattle Art Museum resident. Three days later, SAM leadership was informed of the incident, by workers, and terminated the Star Protection contract.
In an email informing SAM staff of the theft, Cruz wrote that she “went to the museum to find [S] and to apologize to her for her experience, but she was not there.” She could not find S because, earlier that day, SAM security and Star Protection contractors had called the police on S, who forced S to vacate the SAM property.
This sort of incident is remarkable only because we knew about it. The theft was only illegal because S’s objects were taken by a person who was not a member of SAM staff. The contract was only terminated because of the amazing support we have received from the community.
Many of us live or work in buildings with security departments. What do you know about their policies and practices? Are they “keeping you safe” by pushing unhoused people away? How can you be a better neighbor?
We demand the following changes in solidarity with our unhoused and unsheltered neighbors and in opposition to the ableist and classist policies of Seattle Art Museum:
1. Immediate improvement of SAM’s security department policies.
- Stop removing unhoused people from museum property, merely for being unhoused.
- Allow tents.
- Ensure restroom access for unhoused people during hours the museum is open.
- Provide SAM security training in harm reduction, de-escalation and sensitivity to cultural, physical and neurological diversity.
- Provide a bonus “shift differential” for security and environmental services workers who work outside during their shifts, to encourage workers to carry out these duties with extra care.
2. Removal of bollards on SAM property, and a commitment to not replace hostile architecture or hire private security in the future.
3. Disclosure and redistribution of funds originally budgeted for hostile architecture and private security as follows:
Staff training and taskforces
- Provide SAM staff training in harm reduction, de-escalation and sensitivity to cultural, physical and neurological diversity.
- Expand the “Special Advisory Taskforce on Homelessness” to include people with lived experience.
- Open the meetings and activities of the “Special Advisory Taskforce on Homelessness” to all staff and share the minutes publicly.
Sanitation and hygiene efforts
- Install flushing portable toilets and sharps containers outside the museum.
Community connections
- Use the museum’s influence to advocate for safe consumption spaces in Seattle.
- Partner with the city or an organization to provide safe, clean showers for unhoused visitors.
- Donate money to community aid and outreach groups to provide essentials and care for visitors.
- Fund museum programs that engage unhoused people of all ages in art making.
- Designate space for unhoused vendors and artists to sell their products on museum property.
4. A new, transparent, employee-protective, victim-centered system for accountability within the museum.
5. Disclosure of the tangible ways in which SAM has supported Indigenous people without profiting from, or appropriating, Native cultures and customs.
This is an abridged version — the complete list is available on our website, DecolonizeSAM.org.
Decolonize SAM’s boycott is part of a larger effort to highlight and dismantle the colonial scaffolding of modern museums and nonprofits. Investing in privatization and policing of community spaces perpetuates violence against marginalized people. Museums have profited from colonization and have a responsibility to undo some of that harm rather than promote it.
This work isn’t easy. It requires you to know and care for the people around you; it requires you to experience discomfort and sit with it; it requires you to grow and invite others to grow with you. We hope SAM will accept this invitation to become something better.
Read more of the Sept. 15-21, 2021 issue.