Giving Compass' Take:

• This Americans for the Arts post examines the state of gender and ethnic diversity in art museums, and how it's a barometer of social progress across America.

• In what ways can funders help drive more equity in the arts world and other sectors? Which governance practices might help bring more voices to the forefront?

• Here's more on fostering diversity among future leaders in music education and the arts.

About fifteen years ago, when I became director of New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts, I asked our excellent, long-serving faculty a simple question:

How are we going to be relevant in 20 years?

The Institute was one of be the best — arguably the best — institution of its kind in the world. Renowned art historians. Outstanding teachers. Leading curators and conservators. An unparalleled locational endowment, with two fantastic buildings near the Metropolitan Museum of Art and choice excavations in Egypt, Greece, and Turkey. The most aspiring graduate students from the US and all over the world. It would have been easy to keep doing what we were doing and reassure ourselves we’d still be the best.

But there was a little problem likely to become a big one as the 21st century marched on: our focus was almost entirely on Europe and the ancient Mediterranean. Eastern Europe was mostly absent from our curriculum, let alone Africa, the Americas, and most of Asia. With just a handful of professors with expertise in the arts of Islam, China, and modern Latin America, our prestige was ultimately founded on centuries-old biases of art history and archaeology. It was clear that for the Institute to attract the next generation of aspiring scholars, curators, and conservators of art, we had to expand what we researched and taught.

Read the full article about relevance, diversity and progress in the arts by Mariët Westermann at ARTS Blog.