Joslyn Art Museum — Attraction in Omaha

I enjoy art especially at museums.. But on this day, I was singled out, discriminated towards, and harassed by an employee regarding my small purse that transforms into a backbag or hand bag. I was already in the museum for nearly 30 minutes multiple staff members walked by greeted and nothing more. My purse was on my back the whole time even in a secluded area with two staff members standing right near me or slowly walking by, said nothing about my purse and where it was located on my person. I continue to journey through the museum and this particular female employee with glasses and dark hair comes up to me and says “you are standing too close to the painting you must be at least 12 inches away” I say ok and carry on, there was a group of people standing just as close to a painting a few feet away and she walked right past them to me. But I didn’t say a word, just wondered why she did this. And then she proceeds to say you must carry your book-bag to the front of you, in your hand to the side, or there are lockers you can use. I asked her why no one else said anything to me. She stated it was a lot of people and sometimes you can’t see what people are carrying on them. My point exactly, my purse was small. But she went on to say in case you were to turn and hit the art with your bag you can’t have it on your back. She explained there are signs throughout the museum that state bag policy. Future visitor’s, the signs are small and not noticeable, had I seen it I would’ve have followed the sign. But the real issue at hand was her tone and aggressiveness toward me. My purse was moved towards the front of me, she comes back over to harass me and say ma’am, ma’am, ma’am, ma’am, I asked you to carry your bag a certain way. I was confused because my bag was being carried the way she asked. It’s like she was intentionally antagonizing and gaslighting me. At this point, I’m feeling embarrassed because other patrons are leaving the area or staring as if I’m causing a problem. I wasn’t being loud or rude but I did raise my purse in the air for the cameras to see and placed it back to my front but she continued saying a bunch of nothing just standing in my space. I asked her was there anything else I can help her with because my purse was where it was supposed to be and I want to finish enjoying my visit. She just stood there being weird and saying it wasn’t in the right place and she was going to call her supervisor. I made up my mind at that point and decided to leave the museum because she was harassing me and I felt extremely uncomfortable. This employee was rude and proceeded to say I’m calling my supervisor ma’am. I then see a patron with her purse bigger than mine crossed over towards her back, I advised the employee to please get away from me and go ask that other woman to fix her purse, she did not and wouldn’t leave me alone. This was an embarrassing moment because she was persistently annoying when I did what she asked. There were multiple people with bags on their backs more noticeable than mine in the museum. The supervisor comes and I asked to speak to her alone in the lobby and told that employee to stay right where she was and away from me. She was polite and said she’d talk to her employee but she was just doing her job. She did her job but continued to harass me as if she was going through some form of inferiority complex and needed to prove something, it was strange. The supervisor apologized for the way I was feeling but that employees attitude ruined my experience at this museum and I more than likely will not return or recommend it. (Reading this post carries no weight to the actually in-person...

would give zero out of five stars. Visted today with my service dog and was interrogated about my service animal for his breed and because he wasn't immediately showing a service animal badge, was told "he doesn't look like other animals that come in here." and another comment about his collar which was not illegal to have either. nor does a service animal badge need to be shown. I answered Marys very rude questions which was illegal for her to ask me about my own disability and what it was. it was upsetting me that we where being discriminated against. she than said comments about my dog not having a visible vest or that he had a particular collar on. i was very upset at hearing these comments. My service dog alerted me in the moment by a single bark which is what he is trained to do. I than realized i was getting worked up and that i needed to leave or i was going to have a medical moment. i told the woman at the desk that we where leaving that this was wrong and illegal. I left with my dog got us back in our car where i googled the number to report what had happen. when i asked to speak to a manager the women who got the phone told me she was just informed by her employee about "who i was" and was implying my dog was not a service animal at all again hearing the comment about him not having his vest visible. Mind you it was raining and he still had his coat jacket on we had just walked in the door when stopped. Again she repeated that my dog was naughty and couldnt be a service animal. i told her he was and was willing to give her his id number. i also told her he alerted me and did his job he was trained to do. i told her that it was wrong the comments her and her employee had said and that i knew these where recorded lines and that i was going to report them to the state for what had just happen. where the manager got frustrated with me and told me "well if your still here and your dog has calmed down you can come back in." my service animal was never upset to begin with. HE WAS DOING HIS JOB! which is what i again repeated to the woman on the phone. again i asked her to check the footage and show me where my dog was misbehaving. where the manger went on to tell me my dogs breed was scary to other patrons. Which is illegal to discriminate against breeds as well. ANY dog breed can be a service animal. Again the woman just got frustrated with me and repeated "once me and my dog calmed down we could come back in." i again told her "we couldn't be coming back in today because not only was i still upset. But if this how the staff reflects treatment of disabled people or people with ESA animals than we don't want to come back. thats when i told her i was still going to write a review about this experience." once coming on here to write this review i also scrolled to find many people with disability's or people who work in group facility's with special needs are often hassled and tormented here...

Pros: I love the Joslyn art museum. I love the curation. I love the architecture. I love the fact that it is free and accessible to all of Omaha. I am happy it exists. Cons: My feedback is geared towards the staff. I have been (3) times since the re-opening and am immensely disappointed with the general vibe of the staff. We had a toddler for part of the trip today we took him down to the children’s art zone- he was barely done using a station before staff was coming behind to tidy up after him, and we totally get keeping it tidy so everyone has fun- but it was the type of thing that felt like we weren’t actually welcomed in the space and they would prefer we not play with the blocks or actually use the space. Like the tidying and keeping things reset was more important than the experience if that makes sense.

THEN we had staff stop us multiple times to reprimand us for being too close to the art or telling us our jackets were puffy or asking us to wear our bags differently because the “sculptures aren’t bolted in”….

And it would be one thing if this was the first time I’ve had this experience but now I’ve been three separate times and had the staff repeatedly cultivated this sort of experience for the guests I’ve been with.

In my opinion, discernment and delivery goes a long way- I’m sure that it gets exhausting telling folks to not crowd the art and deal with people with bad attitudes. I can respect that.

Nobody from our group was being rambunctious or even remotely close to being disrespectful or unaware that we were in art museum. We were very much aware and had a lot of reverence for the pieces and the place, there was absolutely zero need to handle the group of folks I was with with the urgency and talking down to tone or the following us from room to room to talk into the radio. Weird.

It really zaps the enthusiasm to continue to go. It zaps the enthusiasm to want to buy merch or things from the gift shop or cafe.

If I had out of town guests, I sincerely wouldn’t at this point roll the dice and bring them to the Joslyn art museum because the staff is what I would call militant instead of welcoming or hospitable or honestly even just….not a fixture of the experience. As someone who has gone to art museums in Paris, London, Edinburgh, Denver, Chicago, etc. I have NEVER been to any other art museum where I left and talked about the staff and how they made me and my companions feel versus how the art and space made me feel. To walk away from a shared, community space meant to be filled with reflection and happy memories feeling picked on and deflated was a truly bizarre thing.

I don’t know if the staff aren’t being treated well, or if they were having a bad day the last three times I was in - or if they have truly nothing else to do but badger folks but it didn’t feel inclusive or welcoming....