In light of the Milwaukee Art Museum Director's salary seeing a significant increase, Supervisor Steve F. Taylor has taken issue with the fiscal management of the institution. The director's compensation more than tripled, reaching $549,000 in the fiscal year 2022-23, as reported by Milwaukee County. In stark contrast, the museum made the decision to slash staff while its director's pay dramatically increased, leading to the current demands for explanation.
Taylor, perturbed by the disparity, is now pushing to have Museum Director Marcelle Polednik appear in front of the County Board. "The taxpayers of Milwaukee County deserve full transparency," Taylor stated, expressing his concerns over the decision to simultaneously cut down staff and hike executive salaries at a taxpayer-subsidized institution, as stated by the Milwaukee County. The supervisor is convinced that public dollars, rather than to inflate executive wages, should rather go to support struggling arts organizations within the community.
The finding comes after years of financial input from Milwaukee County into the museum, totaling nearly $19 million since 2015, while other local arts groups faced financial challenges and reductions in workforce. Milwaukee County arts funds suffered a $100,000 cut, whilst the museum appeared to make room in its budget for hefty executive raises. Supervisor Taylor sees this as a misuse of taxpayer money and is actively questioning why the Milwaukee Art Museum finds itself in a position to offer such substantial salaries to its executives amid cutbacks elsewhere.
Taylor's focus remains on holding the leadership accountable and reevaluating the distribution of public funding within the arts community. "We have organizations struggling to survive while the Art Museum showers its executives with bloated salaries," he pointed out, expressing a sentiment shared across the sector, as per the Milwaukee County. Taylor, together with County Board Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson, is working to schedule an item related to the Milwaukee Art Museum with the goal to ensure transparent and fair handling of the cultural institution's funding and expenditures.
