Few People of Color Lead in Art Museums. Can Philanthropy Change That?

At American art museums, a movement to increase racial diversity — among staff and leaders — has been gaining slow but steady results, due in part to prominent philanthropies supporting the effort.

Since 2015, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and research firm Ithaka S+R have conducted three surveys to determine the racial composition of staff members at art museums. The reports have drawn attention to a work force that, in the words of Elizabeth Alexander, Mellon’s president, fails to “reflect the demographics of our richly diverse country.”

The latest survey, from 2022, revealed that people of color now account for 36 percent of overall museum staff up from 27 percent in 2015, and found that over 40 percent of new staff and hires are people of color. But the survey, which assembled data from 328 North American museums with more than 30,000 employees, also found that 80 percent of some key roles — such as director roles and those in conservation — are held by white people and that the percentage of Black and Indigenous staff hasn’t changed over the past eight years.

In May, these findings inspired the Mellon Foundation, along with three other grant makers — the Alice L. Walton Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and Pilot House Philanthropy — to award more than $11 million over five years to 19 museums to increase diversity in leadership roles. Each grant maker contributed about $3 million to the new effort.

“Museum leaders — from curators to board members — play a key role in determining the art on display in these cultural institutions,” stated the news release announcing the Leadership in Art Museums Initiative. “A 2019 study found that only 1.2 percent of works in all major U.S. museums were created by Black artists, with 9 percent for Asian artists and only 2.8 percent for Hispanic and Latinx artists.”

The Leadership in Art Museums Initiative builds on lessons from past philanthropic efforts. Concerned that previous internships and fellowship programs for people of color didn’t make a enough of a difference, the grant makers are enabling museums to create new permanent positions for curators, conservators, art educators, collection managers, and other top roles.

“That’s really what guided us in thinking about making this about permanent, full-time positions,” says Rocío Aranda-Alvarado, a senior program officer at the Ford Foundation. “We wanted professionals of color who have the experience and expertise to be in decision-making power.”

Most museums will receive grants of $650,000 to support new positions for five years, covering salary and professional development as well as acquisition and exhibition of artwork.

For example, the St. Louis Art Museum in Missouri aims to hire a collections manager and a collections fellow to oversee the museum’s 35,000-plus objects and display lesser-known items. And the Wing Luke Museum in Seattle will hire a curator to build partnerships with local hospitals, clinics, and nonprofits as well as an HR professional.

Diane Mallow, the head of registration at the St. Louis Art Museum, says collections roles haven’t been filled by people of color as much as have other museum positions.

“White women are predominantly the demographic that has historically been in collections management,” she says. “So it’s great to have an opportunity to really diversify the people working there and give them that opportunity.”

Learning From the Past

The Leadership in Art Museums Initiative grew out of a previous effort (called the Diversifying Art Museum Leadership Initiative) to help young people gain exposure to arts and museum careers.

Wing Luke Museum

Under that effort, the Ford Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation spent $6 million to support 21 U.S. art museums. From 2017 to 2020, the philanthropies funded 35 fellowships and supported diversity training sessions for the more than 500 museum staff members, according to a 2021 report from Ford. (The Ford Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation are financial supporters of the Chronicle of Philanthropy.)

Naiomy Guerrero, who was the recipient of a fellowship at the Perez Art Museum in Miami, says the role exposed her to new opportunities and a mentor. But she was given only two years to become familiar with Miami residents and build partnerships with local organizations and organize events.

“I really think that I spent half that time, at least, not even taking any action in terms of organizing events on my own but really just listening to what people needed in Miami, specifically, Black and brown people,” she says.

Guerrero is currently a Ph.D. student in art history at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center, but her career trajectory is not the norm. The report from the Ford Foundation found that only one in four fellows funded by the foundation project secured employment or pursued doctoral programs in museum studies or visual arts.

Culture Change Still Needed

While the move to create more permanent solutions is welcome, some experts on diversity in the arts see the grants from Ford, Walton, and others as little more than a Band-Aid that won’t do enough to ensure lasting change.

Andrew Plumley, who previously led a foundation-funded effort to diversify museum boards at the American Alliance of Museums, says too many new positions are temporary. And, he says, when organizations hire just one person of color, new hires can be seen as tokens.

“We’ve done the pipeline thing for 50 years, as we’ve tried it in every sector, and we have not made that much progress,” says Plumley, who is now chief people and equity officer at the philanthropy consultancy Arabella Advisors. “It’s never been a pipeline issue. We have brilliant Black and brown people in positions. And it’s not that we can’t find them. We’ve chosen to not find them.”

He says museums that want to diversify their work force need to figure out what causes inequities and then tackle the problems by building a strategic plan, assessing their policies and work, and getting feedback from both staff and the public. Achieving diversity, particularly in leadership roles, he says, can lead to more exhibitions that feature overlooked artists and history.

“We need diversity at the highest levels of museums and in senior leadership positions,” Plumley says. “But at the end of the day, if we don’t change museum culture, if we don’t fix the root of the problem, which is structural inequity within museums that were designed to be inequitable, and we don’t fix the culture that’s there that perpetuates those things, no Black person, no brown person is going to come in and do a damn thing about it.”

Cecile Shellman, a consultant who advises museums on diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion, says it is vital for museums to make sure they’re going beyond just hiring candidates of color.

“One of the failings of past efforts is those four [letters], DEAI, become more of a checklist,” she says.

She recommends that museums build connections among leadership, staff, and volunteers to create a trusting work culture where colleagues can talk openly about racism and other forms of bias.

“The ones who are doing well are really being creative in how they think about working with the communities in which they live,” she says, “to make sure that they’re diversifying their staff, diversifying their offerings, diversifying their exhibitions.”

Possible Hurdles Ahead

A potential hurdle in making art-museum leadership and staff more reflective of national, and especially urban American, demographics could be the political and legal landscape.

While the Supreme Court’s June decision to strike down affirmative action in college admissions doesn’t affect employers’ hiring practices, some legal experts are concerned it could fuel future lawsuits. Museums are still parsing through what implications this could have, says Brooke Leonard, interim CEO of the American Alliance of Museums.

“For us, the imperative to continue the work in diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion has never been stronger,” she says.

Ford has not commented on whether the ruling would affect specific grant programs, but it joined dozens of other foundations in a statement that denounced the Supreme Court’s ruling and pledged to stay committed to goals of racial equity.

One of the most immediate effects of the affirmative-action ruling, Plumley says, is that museums and philanthropists already reluctant to focus on diversity may abandon it.

“That’s the whole point of this Supreme Court decision is to strike fear and to have people stop doing the necessary work,” he says. “And I think that will happen in museums.”

Reporting for this article was underwritten by a Lilly Endowment grant to enhance public understanding of philanthropy. The Chronicle is solely responsible for the content. See more about the Chronicle, the grant, how our foundation-supported journalism works, and our gift-acceptance policy.