Aiding the Evolution of Art Museums to Reflect the Diversity of Our Country

Art museums play a vital role in our civic life. They are the keepers of our stories, our histories, and our aesthetic traditions—sharing, studying, and preserving visual culture. They are places for convening, for learning, and for inspiration.

Given their unique role in our society, art museums must reflect the demographics of our richly diverse country. A wider range of perspectives, values, and knowledge in museum staff and leadership can support richer and more accurate curation and cultural narratives within these institutions. If their staff are reflective of their communities, museums can become ever more inviting spaces.

Since 2014, the Mellon Foundation and Ithaka S+R have conducted research to better understand the reality and the impacts of art museum staff diversity. Through studies of North American art museums in 2015, 2018, and 2022, the Art Museum Staff Demographic surveys offer a comprehensive collection of the field’s ethnic, racial, and gender demographics to date. 

Since its inception, the study has revealed gradual progress toward a fuller representation of women and people of color. Nevertheless, data also show that progress has been uneven, with certain positions remaining overwhelmingly and disproportionately white, and limited gains overall among staff members who are Black or Indigenous.

The survey is intended as a tool for the future—whether quantifying the challenges we still face, establishing a baseline against which to measure progress, or equipping the field with insights to strengthen fair and equitable hiring practices. It is our hope that these findings contribute to and encourage a more robust and informed discourse on issues of equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility in museums.

In 2022, with support from the Mellon Foundation and in partnership with the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) and the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD), Ithaka S+R conducted a third cycle of the Art Museum Staff Demographic Survey. This cycle gathered data from 328 museums in North America from February to April 2022. During that time, participating museums reported records for over 30,000 individuals, whose demographics are analyzed in this report.

The 2022 survey reflects emerging hiring trends in the art museum field, explores how the COVID-19 pandemic affected museum staffing, and highlights the gradual increase in diversity across museum staffs in recent years. While museum staffing has become more racially diverse between 2015 and 2022, both in aggregate and within some roles, certain positions in museums remain disproportionately held by white staff.

The full reports from 2022, 2018, and 2015 are available below, along with eight museum case studies published in 2018, examining their approach to museum diversity, equity, and inclusion.