Logo image
Back
Art museums: should their staff and leadership reflect their surrounding communities?
Thesis   Open access

Art museums: should their staff and leadership reflect their surrounding communities?

Victoria Isabelle Bueso
Master of Science (M.S.), Drexel University
Dec 2020
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/00000311
pdf
Bueso_Victoria_20201.71 MBDownloadView
PDF Open Access Open Access (License Unspecified)

Abstract

Multiculturalism Museums--Administration
In today's social climate, it is crucial to discuss diversity within a museum, no matter how difficult it might be. With demographics becoming increasingly diverse, more arts organizations in the U.S. have community-based missions, but their leadership is not reflective of their communities. In this paper, I address the relationship between diversity in museum leadership and audience. Does having a diverse staff help art museums reach the ethnically and culturally diverse communities that they claim to serve? What are museums doing to reach these audiences? What more can museums do to reach them? I find that, though a museum has diverse representation in leadership, they may not reflect the city demographics. As a result, they are not successful in reaching the communities that they aim to serve. It is important for visitors to feel that they belong in the museum. If not, visitors, and even museum staff, are not likely to return. Many organizations and individuals in the arts field recognize a need for change, but it is not happening as quickly as some would like. A "renewal" or "rethinking" of why and how arts organizations exist is important in maintaining healthy arts organizations. It is crucial to organizations' survival that different groups of people are represented in leadership.

Metrics

60 File views/ downloads
80 Record Views

Details

Logo image