In 2019 the writer and organiser was working at New York’s New Museum as an editor, helping to set up the institution’s union. By the next year, after successfully establishing a museum branch and negotiating better contract terms, Kopel was laid off amid pandemic cuts. This year, in a series of articles, including the widely shared ‘Against Artsploitation’, Kopel detailed her experiences and set out the limitations of art institutions’ abilities to address inequalities, despite countless proclamations to the contrary. While others on this year’s list, such as Sara Ahmed, have long publicly spoken of these issues, Kopel’s writing has made her the unofficial spokesperson for the museum union movement, the record of a personal journey providing a galvanising and recognisable point for wider struggles happening in art institutions worldwide. ‘Labor organizing in the art world is critical, but so is acknowledging that there will never be a “good” museum under racial capitalism,’ Kopel wrote. ‘Why cling to the museum when we could start anew, toward justice?’