ORGANIZING POWER

Made for people who make culture

Organizing Power is a series of Risograph-printed guides for arts and nonprofit workers unionizing their workplaces. The booklets address realities of organizing within mission-driven institutions that don’t extend that mission to their employees.

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Project History ↘︎
Multiple copies of the Organizing Power, Volume 1 booklet with a blue-and-white satellite image of Earth on the cover, arranged on a white surface.

Organizing Power was a core part of our union introduction. It spoke our language.

— Worker, Philadelphia Museum of Art

The booklets helped communicate complicated ideas to our bargaining unit. As an independent union, that was particularly important.

— Security guard, Seattle Art Museum

Cover of Organizing Power, Volume 1: Unionizing Your Workplace for the Arts/Nonprofit Worker, featuring a blue-and-white satellite image of Earth beneath a black title band.

VOLUME 1

Unionizing Your Workplace

Covers the basics of starting a union, from early conversations with trusted coworkers through building a campaign and winning an election. It addresses common employer push-back and what organizing looks like in practice, built from worker experiences across cultural institutions.

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Free for workers organizing and negotiating. Also available to download or purchase.

Cover of Organizing Power, Volume 2: Negotiating Union Contracts for the Arts/Nonprofit Worker, featuring a blue-and-white satellite image of Earth beneath a black title band.

VOLUME 2

Negotiating Union Contracts

First you win a union election. Then you negotiate a union contract. Volume 2 guides you on this journey, from forming a negotiating committee to reaching a tentative agreement. You’ll find plain language, practical frameworks, and worker voices from MoMA PS1, the Frye Museum, SFMOMA and beyond.

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Printed copies currently out of stock (sorry!). We’re working on a reprint.

PROJECT HISTORY

Since its debut at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in 2019, Organizing Power has been used in organizing campaigns at cultural institutions across the US and Europe.

Organizing Power was commissioned through the YBCA Fellows program. The yearlong initiative brought together artists, organizers, and community members to discuss political power and imagine new ways of building it.

As part of the 2018–2019 cohort, Jessalyn Aaland developed Organizing Power in response to a problem she kept hearing from workers across cultural institutions. Numerous museums were in the middle of unionization drives, and without fail, workers described the process as purposefully opaque, inaccessible, and hard to communicate.

This fellowship year culminated in YBCA’s Public Square, where Organizing Power was presented as a one-day public event focused on labor education for arts and nonprofit workers.

Flanked by artwork from the 2019 Oakland teachers’ strike, the program included roundtable conversations with labor organizers and cultural workers, alongside a public Q&A with an OPEIU Local 29 organizer. Tables covered with handmade pro-union buttons lined the room. Risograph prints spelling ORGANIZE were installed in the windows, visible from Yerba Buena Gardens and Mission Street, extending the project into the surrounding public space.

The day also saw the release of the project’s first Risograph-printed publication, Organizing Power Volume 1. The booklet’s structure, voice, and design were a direct response to what workers kept saying: “We need help explaining this process to our co-workers.” Copies were free. Attendees were encouraged to take as many as they needed. Thousands of copies have been distributed to date.

Two of the day’s conversations were recorded:

Why Unions? – Fred Glass (labor historian, CCSF educator) and Peter Olney (former ILWU Organizing Director)

How Can You Unionize Your Workplace? – Matt Kennedy (former CCA organizing committee, SEIU Local 1021 organizer) and Nat Naylor (OPEIU Local 29 organizer, SFMOMA union rep)

Attendees seated in a circle during a roundtable discussion at the Organizing Power Public Square event at YBCA, June 2019. Two speakers sit at a table at the front of the room holding a microphone, with the colorful 'ORGANIZE' window installation and Oakland teachers' strike banners visible in the background. A screen displays a CCA union organizing flyer.
Colorful hand-painted banners hanging on wooden easels at the 2019 YBCA Public Square event. The banners read 'Public Schools are the Heart of the Community' and 'Keep Teachers in Oakland,' created during the 2019 Oakland teachers' strike.
A scattered collection of colorful pro-union pinback buttons in pink, teal, green, and gold, displayed alongside copies of the Organizing Power booklets on a table at the 2019 YBCA Public Square event. Button slogans include 'Union Yes' and 'This Place Needs a Union.'
Colorful "ORGANIZE" signs displayed in the windows of the conference room, viewed from an interior hallway with people visible inside.

PROGRAMS

Since 2019, Organizing Power has brought together worker-organizers at art book fairs across the US.

Los Angeles Art Book Fair, 2023

Six panelists seated at a table with microphones during the Organizing Power panel discussion at the Los Angeles Art Book Fair, August 2023. A projected slideshow showing union organizing imagery is visible in the background.

Panel discussion featuring Jillian Grant, J Raul Guzman, Jessi Jones, Olivia Leiter, and Emily VanKoughnett on union campaigns at the Academy Film Archive, the Academy Museum, MOCA, the New Children’s Museum, and Skylight Books.

Seattle Art Book Fair, 2024

Five panelists standing together after the Organizing Power roundtable at the Seattle Art Book Fair, May 2024. One participant wears a 'United We Bargain, Divided We Beg' t-shirt. A screen displaying colorful pro-union buttons is visible behind the group.

Roundtable featuring Andi Berkbigler, Wanda Burghardt, Josh Davis, and Graham Shutt on organizing efforts at Elliott Bay Book Company, the Frye Art Museum, and the Seattle Art Museum.

San Francisco Art Book Fair, 2024

Four panelists standing in front of a projected slide reading 'Organizing Power: Arts Workers, presented by Current Editions' at the San Francisco Art Book Fair, July 2024.

Conversation with Matt Kennedy, Amy Lange, and Erin Schilling about union organizing in Bay Area arts institutions, including SFMOMA, California College of the Arts, and the Oakland Museum of California.

WORKING MATERIALS

Contract Archive

When negotiating a union contract, reviewing agreements from comparable institutions is one of the most useful things you can do. This archive includes full Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs) and Memorandum of Understanding (MOUs) from museums and nonprofits.

Browse Archive →︎

Bargaining Calculator

Organizing Power Volume 2 explains how to calculate the cost of wage proposals during bargaining. This spreadsheet automates those calculations, letting you quickly model and compare percentage and dollar-based offers.

View Spreadsheet →︎

PRESS

Bay Area Artists Put Together an A-Z Guide for Forming a Museum Union
Hyperallergic — Oct 26, 2021

Organizing Art Worker Power with Jessalyn Aaland
Art and Labor Podcast — Sept 2021

New York’s Jewish Museum Staff Push to Unionize
Hyperallergic — Jan 11, 2022

8 indie publishing gems worth your time and money
Fast Company — May 22, 2025

CREDITS

Organizing Power was developed as part of Jessalyn Aaland’s 2018–2019 fellowship at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Organizing Power Volume 1—Unionizing Your Workplace for the Arts/Nonprofit Worker text written and compiled by Jessalyn Aaland and Ana Fox-Hodess with support from Nat Naylor. Contributions from Piper Alldredge, Amber Bales, Richard Cheung, Clyde Lanier, and Stella Lochman. Illustrations by Tanna Tucker.

Organizing Power Volume 2—Negotiating Union Contracts for the Arts/Nonprofit Worker text written and compiled by Jessalyn Aaland, Ana Fox-Hodess, and Martin Oropeza. Contributions from the Art Workers Union at the Frye Museum, Amber Bales, Jill Grant, Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein, Jamie Kavanah, Matt Kennedy, Dana Kopel, Yasmin Adele Majeed, Nat Naylor, and SFMOMA bargaining team members.

Organizing Power publications designed by Paul Morgan and published by Current Editions. Support provided in part by Southern Exposure’s Alternative Exposure Grant Program and the Andy Warhol Foundation.

2019 YBCA Public Square program organized by Jessalyn Aaland and Ana Fox-Hodess, featuring Fred Glass, Peter Olney, Matt Kennedy, and Nat Naylor. Oakland teacher strike artwork lent by the Oakland Education Association and Rumi Koshino. Event photos by Minoosh Zomorodinia and Paul Morgan.

Thank you to participants in public talks and roundtables: Andi Berkbigler, Wanda Burghardt, Josh Davis, J Raul Guzman, Jessi Jones, Amy Lange, Olivia Leiter, Erin Schilling, Graham Shutt, and Emily VanKoughnett.

Organizing Power is a project by Jessalyn Aaland and published by Current Editions in Emeryville, CA.