How Museums Use and Misuse Corporate Consultants as a Bandaid to Address Diversity and Solve Their Biggest Problems
Missteps and voided promises are bringing new scrutiny to for-profit strategies in the nonprofit field.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.
The task should have been simple for an executive search firm like m/Oppenheim Associates. The Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields was paying the company to help bring a new director through its doors. But the job listing on the search firm’s website created an explosive controversy when it expressly requested that applicants help attract not only a more diverse crowd, but also maintain its “traditional, core, white art audience.”
Indianapolis Art Museum Apologizes for Job Posting
Sarah Bahr, New York Times, February 14, 2021
The Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields has edited and apologized for an employment listing that said it was seeking a director who would work not only to attract a more diverse audience but also to maintain its “traditional, core, white art audience.”
The museum’s director and CEO, Charles Venable, said in an interview Saturday that the decision to use “white” was intentional and explained that it had been intended to indicate that the museum would not abandon its existing audience as part of its efforts toward greater diversity, equity and inclusion.
The IMA collection was bound to be a vehicle with no gas in the tank for a scholar who, like Morgan, describes herself as a social-justice curator. She’s better suited to be an independent scholar or to work for an advocacy group.
Indianapolis Museum of Art President Charles Venable Resigns, Board Issues Apology artfixdaily.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from artfixdaily.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.