“I was getting paid less than half as much as he was to do seven times the work”

A letter from Drew Denny

In 2015, I was working at a major international media corporation when I approached the accounting desk to turn in an unpaid invoice. As I handed my invoice to the accountant, I couldn't help but notice that my male colleague’s invoice, sitting out on her desk, listed his pay as more than twice my own pay.

I said nothing, because I was afraid of losing my job.

But as I drove home in Los Angeles gridlock traffic, I couldn’t stop thinking about how a man with my same job title was being paid more than twice as much as me, even though he had only been tasked with finishing one episode of the show we were producing in the same period of time during which I was required to produce seven. I was getting paid less than half as much as he was to do seven times the work?!?! 

This was pre #MeToo, pre Times Up, before there were any resources for folks in my position. I couldn’t report them because I knew they would retaliate. So, I shared this frustration with my friend Paco de Leon, a fellow artist who had made the wise decision to go into business and finance, and Paco suggested I start an organization. 

I knew vaguely that there were “not enough female directors” and that museums underrepresented works by BIPOC artists and LGBTQ+ identified artists. But the statistics were bleak. At that time, less than 10% of artists exhibited in most major museums were female and less than 4% were BIPOC. Less than 2% of directors were female, and the numbers were worse for women of color and queer women. 

Paco de Leon and I founded Allies in Arts in 2015 with a mission to support artists who identify as women, BIPOC and/or LGBTQQIA2S+. We worked with a pro bono legal team to file the paperwork, and it took us about a year to officially get our 501c3 status. We started with smaller initiatives that grew organically over time.

Paco went on to found a bookkeeping agency, write a book, and be a rockstar. Kyle Lasky joined the organization, bringing with him the monumentally transformative mutual aid project @transanta and a new focus on supporting trans youth that inspired us to found our first educational program, Transchool. 

Over the years, we have facilitated affirming gifts to 7,000+ trans youth, granted funds to over 400 queer and BIPOC artists, programmed films by about 100 queer and BIPOC directors, curated public Pride art walks and murals with dozens of artists in cities all around the US, and are now providing paid classes for trans youth writers every summer (meaning - the students are paid to attend class!) 

I’m so grateful whenever I can find a way to turn something painful into something generative. What a pleasure, to zoom out from our individual crises and refocus on how we can lift each other up as a collective. I had no idea that a grumpy commute would result in over a million dollars redistributed to women, queer and BIPOC artists (It’s amazing what one really bad day at work can lead to!) but in many ways, it feels like we’re just getting started. So I hope you’ll join us - let’s even the odds!

Drew Denny
Co-founder, Executive Director