Toxic Workplace Allegations Lead to Resignation of Cantor Arts Center Director

The director of Stanford’s Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University—better known as the Cantor Arts Center—has resigned following reports revealing a toxic work culture at the renowned university museum.

Susan Dackerman’s resignation, effective immediately, comes at the end of an inquiry into the Renaissance art scholar’s conduct during her roughly three-year tenure as director of the Cantor.

The external investigation revealed reports of staff being overworked and underappreciated.

According to a Stanford Daily article published in August, more than 30 staffers left under Dackerman’s leadership, many of them people of color.

At the same time, the world-class art institution continued to display an impressive public front, as with its 2019 acquisition of a major photography collection including works by Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Gordon Parks and Helen Levitt, among others.

“But behind that facade hides what many Cantor employees have called a toxic work culture, demoralizing museum leadership and a University administration that seems loath to substantively address repeated concerns,” wrote Elena Shao in the Stanford Daily. “All circumstances that have been pushing employees out at an alarming rate.”

In a letter to community members Thursday, Stanford’s interim senior associate vice president for the arts, Matthew Tiews, said the university is currently putting together a transition team.

“This is sad news to share,” Tiews said. “Stanford remains deeply committed to the success of the Cantor and of the arts at Stanford.”

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