This document examines the lack of diversity in leadership positions in the contemporary art space. It provides statistics showing underrepresentation of minorities in museum jobs, with white non-Hispanics dominating curatorial, conservation, and leadership roles at 84%. Pipelines for management positions are less established for minorities, with their representation in advanced curatorial and education roles remaining at around 27.5%. To foster more diversity, the document calls for more initiatives and educational programs to prepare underrepresented groups for careers in cultural institutions.

1. E X A M I N I N G T H E D I V E R S I T Y O F L E A D E R S H I P
T H E D I V E R S I T Y O F L E A D E R S H I P
E X A M I N I N G T H E D I V E R S I T Y O F T H E L E A D E R S H I P
I N T H E C O N T E M P O R A RY A R T S PA C E
INCLUDE ALL HUES

2. TABLE OF CONTENTS
§ Ring The Alarm (3)
§ The Stats (4)
§ Big Gaps; Big Trouble (6)
§ Race, Ethnicity, and Leadership (7)
§ Expectations (8)

3. Diversity continues to ring out as the hot button issue
of the moment, most recently in the arts community.
§ While some advances cannot be denied, the
playing field is far from even—for women or other
underrepresented minority classes.
§ A host of studies and reports have been recently
conducted, highlighting the need for more action
and initiatives to recourse the issue.
RING THE ALARM

4. THE STATS – UNDERREPRESENTATION
White Non-Hispanics and Under-Represented Minorities
by Job Category
§ The relative
underrepresentation
of people of color on
art museum staff and
the preponderance
of men in leadership
positions are well
known phenomena.
§ Authorities are
looking to data for
direction.

5. THE STATS – WOMEN VS. MEN
Job Category by Gender
In museum job
categories, many
roles tend to be
gender-specific.
The country’s art museums and their staff need to be more representative
of the growing diversity of the American people.

6. BIG GAPS; BIG TROUBLE
§ Men dominate jobs such as art handling, IT work,
and security.
§ Women are increasingly taking on positions in
curatorial, conservation, and educational fields.
§ Low-level jobs like security and facility-related
ones are pretty evenly split, but curators,
conservators, and those working in publication and
registrar are over 80% non-Hispanic white.

7. 3%
3%
6%
4%
84%
Two or More Races
White (Hispanic)
American Indian
Asian
Black
Native Hawaiian
White (Non-Hispanic)
RACE, ETHNICITY, AND LEADERSHIP
1Curators, Conservators, Educators and Leadership Only
Race and Ethnicity1
Pipelines for management
positions are not as established
when one looks at the figures for
the museum roles held by
minorities.
Zooming in on the ethnic makeup of more advanced positions reveals the
percent of minorities working in curatorial, conservation, and education
departments remains unchanged at around 27.5%.

8. EXPECTATIONS
When budgets get cut, authenticity is replaced by
‘least common denominator’ thinking, leaving
institutions to make more with less.
Future surveys can be measured against more
baseline data to track future progress.
One step that may be taken to foster progress in the
right direction is the creation of more educational
programs that prep minorities for careers in cultural
institutions around the nation.