Unionized workers at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio, have demanded that the institution remove the name of top funder Les Wexner from its moniker, citing his close ties to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. In a letter to Ohio State University leadership, Wexner Workers United (WWU) argued that Wexner’s name on the building harms the center’s mission and community trust. Wexner, a billionaire retail magnate and art collector, donated $25 million to the center’s construction in the 1980s and has been mentioned over a thousand times in the Epstein Files; Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre named Wexner as among those she was trafficked to, though Wexner denies the allegations.
This demand matters because it reflects a growing movement within cultural institutions to confront the ethical implications of donor names linked to scandal, following precedents like the removal of the Sackler name from museums due to the opioid crisis. The Wexner Center operates under Ohio State University, which has a formal process for name-change requests, and the union’s call could pressure the university to act. The controversy also highlights the ongoing reckoning with Epstein’s network and the role of art philanthropy in enabling reputational whitewashing, raising broader questions about institutional accountability and the values art spaces project to their communities.