Giving Compass' Take:

• The Ford Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation launched the Diversity in Museum Leadership Initiative in November with 20 museums across the United States. The goal: Diversify museum staff in creative, educational, and leadership roles. 

• The funding collaborative wanted to better understand the talent pipeline. What are the best ways to measure if enough career opportunities in the arts are directed toward people of color?

• Read about how museums are letting classrooms borrow artifacts for learning. 

At a time when division is raw in American society, no sector should remain immune to self-reflection, or ignore the call to address diversity, equity, and inclusion. Museums are no exception. Today, museums need to work to improve not only who feels welcome attending them, but also who works in them.

Mindful of this, the Ford Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation (WFF) launched the Diversity in Museum Leadership Initiative (DMLI) last November, in collaboration with 20 museums across the United States. The initiative aims to address the legacy of historic and pervasive inequity in American society as it relates to museum staffing in the arts.

The primary focus of our collaboration is to support and develop qualified talent from underrepresented backgrounds. The goal of the initiative is to help American museums fulfill their promise of serving as inclusive “anchor” institutions in their communities.

We also believe the lessons emerging from this initiative—particularly related to how the foundations and grantees have chosen to approach measuring and learning together—hold value for the broader social sector, not just art museums. Efforts to develop and place leadership talent from underrepresented backgrounds at cultural institutions and beyond share a common set of dynamics: the importance of networking, the challenges of mentoring when staff themselves are not representative of a participant ’s background, and of course how best to address financial needs, to name a few.

In the summer of 2017, the Ford Foundation and the WFF partnered to contribute $6 million ($3 million each) toward advancing the diversity of curatorial and management leadership in art museums. Our approach is to strengthen the pipeline of talent coming into the field through K-12 education programs and postdoctoral fellowships.

One of the biggest questions we have in understanding this pipeline is: At what point is a well-designed program likeliest to significantly impact career trajectories for under-represented populations?

Read the full article about funding for museum staff by  Jeff Dean, Marc Holley & Drew Jacobs at Stanford Social Innovation Review