A Minneapolis woman, Megan Mzenga, has filed a lawsuit against the Walker Art Center after a staff member, misinformed about the museum’s breastfeeding policy, said she could not feed her infant in a gallery. Mzenga claims the museum violated her civil rights.
The incident occurred when Mzenga and her family visited the museum in early March. “My daughter got hungry, and she started rooting,” she told the local TV news station KARE11. “We were actually in a gallery with two large couches. I decided to sit down on a couch and started nursing her. At that point, a male staff member approached me and said, ‘You can’t do this here. I’ll call an escort to take you to a place where you can do this.’” Mzenga added: “My immediate mindset went to shame. And I didn’t want to make a fuss.”
On her way out of the museum, she said, she asked another employee about the Walker’s breastfeeding policy. “He didn’t think they had any and gave me a feedback form to fill out,” Mzenga said. She later got angry that she had not stuck up for herself and filed the suit.
“In that moment, I had some dignity taken away from me,” Mzenga said. “As a mom, as a woman, as a nursing mother, I don’t want that to happen to any other mother. Babies need to be fed. You can do that freely.”
“Women have the right to feed their children in public,” Mzenga’s lawyer, Abou Amara, told KARE11, “and when they can’t, they are being discriminated against in violation of Minnesota law.”
According to the Walker’s website, “parents are free to nurse children wherever feels most comfortable”. Somewhat confusingly, bottle feeding falls under the museum’s food-and-drink policy and is not allowed in the galleries.
A Walker spokesperson tells The Art Newspaper that the museum “cannot comment on the specifics of pending litigation” but does specifically outline its breastfeeding policy: “We welcome and encourage our visitors to breastfeed wherever they’re most comfortable throughout the building, including the galleries. If a visitor asks for a private space, there is a small family-friendly room on the ninth floor with a couch, sink and bathroom. If locked, the key to the space is at the front desk.”