Duane Morris is committed to providing a safe and supportive working environment at our offices. Recently, privately owned artwork was installed – by non-Duane Morris personnel and without Duane Morris management’s knowledge – at our Philadelphia headquarters and we acknowledge this particular artwork was disturbing and painful. It was installed after normal business hours and the following morning when Firm management discovered the work, they immediately took it down. Our Firm Chairman Matthew A. Taylor and Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer and partner Joseph K. West subsequently conducted a video meeting with the Firm’s Black/African American Attorneys and Black/African American Staff ERG organizations, which was attended by more than 100 attorneys and staff members. During this meeting, our Chairman apologized for this mistake to the group personally and on behalf of the Firm.
We will continue to work collectively to learn from this event, as it does not reflect our Firm values.
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The artwork is from 20th century African American artist Herbert Singleton, whose work depicts images of the poverty, violence and crime he experienced growing up in the American South.
This piece was not appropriate for display at our law firm, regardless of individual views on art and the purpose of art in our society. It is part of a private, world-renowned collection of “Outsider Art” owned by a retired partner and was installed by non-firm personnel. The artists in this collection, who come from varied backgrounds and work in a range of styles and media, are often collectively labelled as “outsider” because they did not train in typical art schools, nor come up in the mainstream art world.
This collection includes additional artwork from Herbert Singleton as well as many other African American artists. In their work, these artists often depicted the social injustices and trauma that they and their families have experienced.
For more than 40 years, hundreds of artworks from this extensive collection have been exhibited as part of a rotating display; the collection as a whole and Herbert Singleton’s work specifically has also been the subject of exhibitions at major museums, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC.
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Works from the collection displayed in Duane Morris’s office have been routinely moved for curation and conservation purposes. When an artwork is removed, it often replaced by non-Duane Morris personnel with another artwork for a period of time, and that was the case in this instance.
Going forward, Duane Morris will conduct an internal evaluation of artwork from this collection to determine whether certain pieces are appropriate for display at the Firm and any future placements in our offices, consistent with our values and concern for our personnel.