America is changing—but are its art museums?
A recent Art Newspaper article addresses the issue, America is changing- but are its art museums?
The article questions the diversity of art museums:
”..you do not have to look at major US art museums for long to realise that most of the senior management is white, unlike staff at comparable levels in corporations, universities and government offices. When is this going to change? Those leading efforts to diversify museums say the economic reality of who pays to support institutions has not evolved sufficiently to require any lasting push for change. But American demographics are shifting swiftly. US minority groups will become the majority in a few decades. And art museums will have to diversify to survive.
The Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) raised the issue back in the 1990s, but “sufficient progress” has not been made, says Johnnetta Cole, director of the National Museum of African Art (NMAfA) at the Smithsonian Institution…
“If museums are to be vibrant and sustainable,” she ( Johnnetta Cole) says, “they cannot present the work of only a select group of people.”
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I’ve always thought that art should aim to be accessible to everyone; it speaks to people from everywhere and maintain a universal quality. The elitism in art is what sometimes makes it hard for it to progress forward, and so initiative to diversify the art insitutions and the art they represent is a very good step forward.
2 years ago | Tags: changing art museums diversity in art museums diversify art multicultural art art institution changes johnetta cole
