{"id":10423,"date":"2021-10-15T10:42:31","date_gmt":"2021-10-15T10:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/media-archive.blackartinamerica.com\/?p=10423"},"modified":"2021-10-22T22:39:17","modified_gmt":"2021-10-22T22:39:17","slug":"equity-and-diversity-in-museums-much-ado-but-little-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earthexhibitions.org\/media-archive\/?p=10423","title":{"rendered":"Equity and Diversity in Museums: Much Ado But Little Progress"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Equity and Diversity in Museums:<\/h2>\r\n

Much Ado But Little Progress\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/h3>\r\n
By Yvonne Bynoe<\/pre>\r\n

“Take me into the museum and show me myself, show me my people, show me soul America. If you cannot show me myself, if you cannot teach my people what they need to know<\/em>\u2014and they need to know the truth, and they need to know that nothing is more important than human life<\/em>\u2014then why shouldn’t I attack the temples of America and blow them up?…[t]he people who count the pennies and the people who hold the keys better start thinking it all over again.”—<\/em> June Jordan, except from: A Museum For The People: A Report On The Proceedings at the Seminar on Neighbor Museums, Museums Collaborative (MUSE), 1969<\/p>\r\n
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“The Dance of Basquiat” by Thomas E. Lockhart III<\/p><\/div>\r\n
The push for museums to become more equitable and racially diverse isn’t new. In the late 1960s, it was still acceptable for museums to have neither Black curators nor paintings by Black artists hanging on their walls. In 1969, The Metropolitan Museum of Art mounted the exhibit Harlem On My Mind: Cultural Capital of Black America 1900-1968<\/em> without one painting or sculpture by a Black artist. The Harlem Cultural Council, which had been consulted in the planning stages, publicly withdrew its support of the exhibit.<\/p>\r\n
The exhibit elicited an outcry from Harlem residents and The Black Emergency Cultural Coalition (BECC) led protests in front of the MET with signs reading, “Harlem On Whose Mind?” The group founded by Benny Andrews and Clifford R. Joseph had 75 members, including Faith Ringgold and Romare Bearden. In 1971, the BECC protested the Whitney Museum Of Art’s exhibit, Contemporary Black Artists In America,<\/em> over issues of equity and inclusion. Museums in New York City and elsewhere, now under unprecedented scrutiny, pledged to do better. Their efforts however quickly petered out.<\/p>\r\n
The race to improve racial diversity within museum exhibits and permanent collections was ignited again in 1976 in the wake of David Driskell’s groundbreaking traveling exhibit, Two Centuries of Black American Art<\/em>. Aside from showcasing masterful art, Driskell’s exhibit also highlighted how museums across the country had intentionally excluded art by Black artists from their exhibits and permanent collections for generations.<\/p>\r\n
Now we fast forward to 2020: In the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd by policeman Derek Chauvin, there was renewed urgency by museums to address the lack of diversity within their curatorial staff, collections, and attendees. Museums held focus groups, conducted internal studies, and developed strategic plans to revamp their missions, make their exhibits and collections more inclusion, and to not only hire more Black curators but also retain them. However, it’s a new cycle in a historic pattern that’s beginning to feel like a game of Three Card Monty. An event, often catastrophic, happens, the topic of equity and racial diversity is resurrected by museums, and, once the spotlight dies down, action ceases.<\/p>\r\n
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“Harlem On My Mind” by Reginald Gammon<\/p><\/div>\r\n
The result is that more than 50 years since Harlem On My Mind,<\/em> the statistics on equity and diversity relating to U.S. museums show only slight improvement.<\/p>\r\n
In 2019, a William College study conducted by a group of mathematicians and curators at Williams College surveyed 18 major museums in the United States to ascertain the racial, ethnic, and gender of the artists represented in their collections. The study found that 85.4% of the works in the collections of all major U.S. museums were created by White artists and 87.4% were by male artists. African-American artists accounted for the lowest share with just 1.2% of the works, despite being approximately 15% of the U.S. population.<\/p>\r\n
The findings of a 2019 comprehensive survey on ethnic and gender diversity of museum staff by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, in partnership with the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) and the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) were also not encouraging. In 2018, the number of Black curators stood at 4%, representing 21 positions. This is an increase from the 2% finding from the first survey that was completed in 2015.<\/p>\r\n
The study showed that, while there had been nominal improvement in staff position diversity, the racial composition of\u00a0 museum leadership remained virtually unchanged. In 2018, 12% of museum leadership positions were held by “people of color,” a minuscule increase from 11% in 2015. Given the broadness of the term, “people of color,” it’s difficult to determine whether there had been change (upward or downward) with regard to Black museum leadership.<\/p>\r\n
What is apparent is that hiring more Black curators, while an important goal, alone won’t be enough to transform many museums. A museum’s culture and practices are shaped largely by its leadership. In the last few years, there have been several high profile resignations of senior curators and museum directors who were accused of racial insensitivity and\/or racially discriminatory practices:<\/p>\r\n