Help us fight back. If you care about the art, you care about the guards, it's as simple as that. Please sign our petition to the trustees and Matthew Teitelbaum, Director of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and demand that he and the Museum management:

"SAVE THE GUARDS' JOBS!"

It has been made clear that the Museum of Fine Arts does not value the Visitor Experience, nor its artwork.

Since time immemorial, the guards at the MFA have been there to protect the art and assist visitors. They have always been commended for their excellent service by various other departments throughout the Museum, such as the Curators, Conservation, Gallery Instructors, and even mystery shoppers. But most importantly, the visitors and members of the MFA! It is no doubt that they genuinely care about their work and the art that they protect. The Museum wants to do away with all of that. They want to erase what we understand as the "Gallery Guard," and make the extreme understaffing of the galleries that we see today become the norm for the future. They want to rely entirely on cameras to protect precious artwork so that guards will not have any incentive to care for the art. They also want to implement a draconian schedule change which would leave some of our guards with no option but to quit, or to completely rearrange their personal lives so that they would not be able to see their families, loved ones, or fulfill other long time personal endeavors such as their teaching, studies, or artwork.

Museum management seems to care less about enhancing the "museum experience" for the visitors and the guards ability to protect the art and instead sheds a corporate eye and militaristic predisposition on the guards place in the museum.

The MFA guards represent the most diverse staff in the whole Museum with people from all ethnic and racial backgrounds, and many who are artists, students, teachers, musicians, single parents, and grandparents. They are considered one of the most knowledgeable and courteous Museum guard staffs by the people who truly know, the patrons of the Museum, yet they are being undercut and unappreciated by Museum management who see the Museum as more of a business than a public service and cultural treasure. We all feel that the Museum should represent the best, not the worst in the treatment of their workers, as well as for their precious artwork.

Please save the guards of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts who love the Museum and its patrons and love serving them but are in danger of losing their jobs and/or their ability to interact in a meaningful and loving way with Museum visitors.

With enough signatures, we could end this nightmare of security transformation in which the Visitor Experience is completely neglected and the artwork is forever at risk.

Please sign and leave a comment as well to show your support for the guards!