A Culture of Abuse at The Fabric Workshop and Museum — And the Art World’s Tacit Complicity
Below is the unedited text of my Facebook post, published on May 26, 2017, detailing the abuse I personally suffered while employed at the The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM). While I am not the only person to have experienced abuse at FWM, at the Arcadia Summer Arts Program (Kamp Kippy), or in the personal employ of Kippy Stroud and Clint Swingle, I speak for myself and abuse they directed at me. That said, I witnessed and can corroborate other inexcusable instances of abuse towards other employees.
My decision to speak publicly about this series of events and the culture of abuse at FWM unfolded with grave — although not unexpected — repercussions that included attempts to intimidate and silence me, blacklisting me in my chosen professional field, and ultimately culminating in the retaliatory termination of my employment at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) at the University of Pennsylvania where I worked for over eight years after having departed FWM. In subsequent posts I shall explain the chain of events set off by my post below.
The outrageous physical assault that now-Representative-elect Greg Gianforte perpetrated on The Guardian journalist Ben Jacobs has inflamed me. There are far too many occasions in which an abuser like him operates with impunity. Today I want to share my own story of assault in the workplace. Some will already know this story, or know it secondhand. I have not shared it widely for a number of reasons: shame and embarrassment; reluctance to appear vindictive; fear of being blackballed in my professional field; apprehension that I will be blamed, rather than the perpetrator, for having done something to deserve it; and now, the fact that I am maligning the reputation of a deceased beloved figure. But I have decided that I want this story to be in the public arena.
I worked at the The Fabric Workshop and Museum from 2007 to 2010. This was a turbulent time at the museum, which saw temporary resettlement at a makeshift storefront, and ultimately relocation to a new facility, necessitated by the expansion of the PA Convention Center. Kippy Stroud and her husband Clinton Swingle bought, through an LLC they named Museum 1214, refurbished, and leased the building that would become the museum’s new home. Clint, as he was known, assumed control of the building refurbishment and later the day-to-day facility management. His background was in construction and sanitation, not in any kind of museum work. He bragged of having dealt with the mafia in his waste management days. He was also in his eighties, hard of hearing, and very obviously exhibiting signs of advancing Alzheimer’s disease. He was frequently onsite at the museum, while Kippy almost never was. He would make strange and outrageous demands from the staff, in spite of having no official management position at the museum, which often were diametrically opposed to museum best practices and put employees and art at risk. When he was contradicted by a staff person he would react with angry threats and verbal abuse. Clint had also hired two men to be his eyes and ears in the museum when he was not present. They had no official training and no credentials for the job. One was a drunk who came into the museum visibly impaired and smelling of alcohol on a daily basis. He had hired them as they were going door-to-door asking for odd jobs. They were called “museum security,” but they acted as his goon-squad enforcers towards the museum staff.
At a certain point I became a target in Clint’s crosshairs. I use this metaphor because he was very vocal gun aficionado. In fact, the fear played in my mind that he carried a concealed firearm and in his abusive and dementia-impaired mind he might brandish it. He began to verbally threaten me with firing — again, without any official standing at the museum to do so — as well as to act physically imposing towards me. His overtures escalated as days passed. It was his intention to make me increasingly isolated from the staff and from Kippy, making it harder for me to do my job. If I had known what it was at the time, I could have considered this constructive dismissal. It was the summer of 2009. During summers Kippy almost completely abandoned and ignored the museum and its staff, focusing her attention solely on her Arcadia Summer Arts Program in Maine.
The denouement arrived when Clint violently assaulted me at my desk as I was working. He approached me and began to scream at me. I stood up and shouted back at him. He then punched me in the head, told me to get out, and walked away. I was in a state of shock. A co-worker was witness to it all. I called 911 and asked the police to come so that I could file a report. The police came and took my statement. They then took a statement from Clint, in which he acknowledged that he had assaulted me. I also had a visible mark on my face from the blow. One officer took me aside and advised me to hit back if he did it again. It was not really the advice I wanted to hear. Then the police left.
Immediately afterwards, I notified Kippy, the Board chair and the Vice Chair (who was an attorney) of what had happened in writing by faxed letter. I would add, these individuals retain their Board positions today. They called me with concern and to assure me that something would be done. Nothing ever was — literally nothing. In addition to an eye-witness, the incident was caught on security camera and this footage was viewed by the Board Vice Chair. I also have a signed letter sent to me by Clint in which he acknowledged assaulting me, and in which he further tried to threaten and intimidate me, and attempted to gaslight me into thinking that this was somehow all my own fault. When it became clear to me that the museum administration would do nothing I explored pursing legal recourse. However, the chances at recovery were not viable for a firm to take on the case.
Luckily, I soon found my way out of the museum and into a new job. Unluckily for the co-workers I left behind, Clint Swingle remained free to terrorize them until his death in 2013. As far as I know, he was not held to account for his actions. Rather, he continued to act without oversight and was enabled and abetted by the museum administration having turned a blind eye.
Public link to my original post: https://www.facebook.com/jeffrey.bussmann/posts/10158714331615150
If you need a refresher on the incident I referred to concerning Representative Greg Gianforte assaulting journalist Ben Jacobs: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/24/greg-gianforte-bodyslams-reporter-ben-jacobs-montana
