Members of the Wexner Center for the Arts union, Wexner Workers United, have formally demanded that Ohio State University remove Leslie Wexner's name from the art center. In a letter posted on Instagram, the union cites Wexner's documented ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, noting his name appears over 1,300 times in Department of Justice files. The union argues that the connection meets the university's criteria for renaming, and that staff face daily harassment while artists refuse to collaborate due to the Epstein association.
This demand matters because it extends the ongoing reckoning with controversial donors in the art world, following precedents like the Louvre, the Met, and the Guggenheim removing the Sackler name. The Wexner Center is a major contemporary arts institution at a public university, and renaming would signal institutional accountability for donor misconduct. The case also highlights how art workers are leveraging union power to push for ethical governance, linking institutional reputation to broader social justice concerns.