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DEAI from the Front Lines

Category: Museum Magazine

Museum DEAI professionals talk about their accomplishments, challenges, and more.


This article originally appeared in Museum magazine’s November/December 2024 issuea benefit of AAM membership


In recent years, a new function area has emerged in the museum field focused on diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion (DEAI). The number of museum professionals with DEAI-related titles has grown into the hundreds, with most having been in their roles for fewer than five years. Titles in this function area range from chief diversity officer (CDO) and director of inclusion to program managers and assistants within DEAI teams. Individual experiences in these roles vary widely. As the Director of Equity & Inclusion for AAM, I reached out to some of my museum counterparts to share their experiences.

The museum DEAI professionals who so generously took the time to share their insights are Monique Davis, Director of the Center for Art and Public Exchange (CAPE) and Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer, Mississippi Museum of Art; Mara-Lynne Payne, Director of Inclusion, Equity & Diversity, Tennessee Aquarium; Rhonda Sewell, Director of Advocacy and External Affairs, Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio; Kajette Solomon, Social Equity & Inclusion Specialist, RISD Museum in Rhode Island; Carla Tinsley-Smith, Director, Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA), Detroit Institute of Arts in Michigan; Lavita McMath Turner, Chief Diversity Officer, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; Alejandro Victoria, Vice President, Head of DEIA & Culture, National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York; and Beth Ziebarth, Head Diversity Officer, Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Their responses have been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

 


What are you most proud of accomplishing or progressing at your institution during your time in the DEAI role?

Kajette Solomon: Instituting regular internal staff dialogues around difficult topics in the museum industry. It has helped provide space for staff to feel seen and heard, fostering increased trust. It has also increased our capacity and the stamina to confront nuanced topics like race, class, ability, and gender inequities, especially in our decision-making.

Rhonda Sewell: I am most proud of several accomplishments in my 3.4 years at the Toledo Museum of Art (TMA). These include overseeing the completion of a 28-page Belonging Plan, which is available on our website and is reviewed annually to ensure adherence to the guiding principles of DEAI; overseeing the four TMA Employee Resource Groups; overseeing governmental affairs and advocacy at TMA to raise needed infrastructure funding to improve museum access; serving as a founding member of the DEAI ALLiance of Northwest Ohio; and serving as the objective lead of a new Community Gallery for Toledo-based, -reared, or -affiliated artists.

Mara-Lynne Payne: I’m very proud of the increased awareness and intentionality of embedding DEIA principles into our daily operations. The development of inclusive policies and the focus on accessibility also make this work worthwhile. While this work can be challenging, its focus helps reinforce our values. The buy-in from staff has been inspiring.

Monique Davis: The institution understands the importance of collecting data and is willing to develop policies and practices that address gaps in terms of inclusion and equity. Over the past three years, we have collected vendor data that now informs staff in making vendor selections. Our goal is to have vendor demographics mirror our community demographics.

Beth Ziebarth: I serve as the inaugural Head Diversity Officer for the Smithsonian and am working with my staff to integrate Access Smithsonian into the newly established Office of Diversity. We substantially met four out of five major activities in the Institution’s DEAI strategic initiative in the first year. Now in year two, we developed a three-year office strategic plan, employee resource group governance, a DEAI Advisory Council, a curated LinkedIn Learning Roadmap for all staff, and accessibility guidance on film- and time-based media programs. It’s a good start, but we recognize that sustaining organizational DEAI requires a long-term commitment to efforts that are staff-owned, informed by our collective lived experiences, and driven by a commitment to equity.

Carla Tinsley-Smith: Reflecting on the past three years, I’m most proud of the opportunities we’ve created to amplify team members’ voices and foster meaningful conversations around inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility at the Detroit Institute of Arts. By employing various methods to gather insights and actively involving team members in processes designed to act on feedback, we’ve created spaces for authentic cross-departmental engagement and promoted shared accountability. These inclusive processes sparked a desire among employees to build community, leading to the launch of the Employee Belonging Group (EBG) program in 2023. These museum-chartered, member-driven affinity groups bring together individuals of diverse backgrounds around shared experiences and interests, promoting awareness, resource-sharing, community-building, and the celebration of diversity. The EBGs are designed to cultivate a more inclusive, diverse, and accessible work environment throughout the employee life cycle while aligning with the museum’s strategic direction.

Lavita McMath Turner: I am most proud of the strong partnerships that have developed between the DEAI, Human Resources, and General Counsel’s offices. It is not uncommon for these departments to have challenges, so as a new department head, my number one goal was to build healthy relationships with my colleagues, as we are each critical to transforming workplace culture.

What is currently your greatest challenge or barrier to progressing DEAI work within your institution?

Solomon: Capacity. As a department of one, I rely on my colleagues to accomplish tasks and goals. This means there’s no backup to help move the work forward if I am unavailable. I’d also like to do more but, again, don’t have the capacity.

Davis: I view my greatest challenge as an opportunity for continued growth. Our Equity Team members have varying degrees of familiarity with DEIA issues, and building this capacity is essential for long-term sustainability and success.

Sewell: The greatest challenge to advancing DEAI work at TMA is ensuring that we hold true to being a data-informed (never data-driven) museum and hold ourselves accountable for data collection tied to our Belonging Plan. While we have implemented the Results-Based Accountability™ methodology to measure our progress, data collection has been a struggle in recent years, as it wasn’t previously collected or processed in the way our current administration envisions.

Payne: It’s such a long journey. We still face challenges, at times, in bringing ideas and actions to fruition. Fatigue and burnout are real. The politically charged environment that we find ourselves in plays a part in creating some of these challenges.

Tinsley-Smith: A key challenge in advancing DEAI work is integrating strategies and actions into the organization’s strategic direction and institutional priorities to ensure the necessary resources and support for meaningful progress. This can affect the pace of change needed for full integration across the organization. Building shared understanding, support, and accountability remains an ongoing effort. To address this, we are implementing annual surveys, hosting listening sessions, and providing learning opportunities that explore various dimensions of diversity. We are also aligning performance competencies to encourage inclusive communication and behavior in daily interactions. This approach supports our long-term goal of embedding DEAI values throughout the organization.

How has the current socio-political backlash against DEAI impacted your work and DEAI progress at your institution?

Davis: The current political climate has heightened awareness about what words we use and how we engage in conversations about equity and inclusion. The work at our institution is moving forward; however, the terrain does raise concerns about potential backlash.

Sewell: TMA is fully aware of the socio-political backlash against DEAI; however, our strategic plan and Belonging Plan remain steadfast in reflecting our leadership, staff, board, stakeholders, and volunteers’ desire to become the model museum in the United States for our quality and our culture of belonging. TMA has put DEAI at the core of all we do, and what’s happening with the backlash has not impeded our commitment.

What do you hope to see happen with DEAI in museums over the next five years?

Solomon: I hope DEAI practitioners become more commonplace, holding positions that report to CEOs/directors and serve as accountability partners. I also hope that DEAI becomes ingrained in everything museums do while still maintaining the ability to report on the specific goals and tasks met.

Davis: I would like to see the development of a community of practice, with an annual convening and a library of resources tailored to a museum’s size and budget.

Sewell: Over the next five years, I hope the museum field will implement best practices in DEAI so that we see more diverse exhibitions; greater representation of more female artists; a place for veterans to enjoy art; and a celebration of our cultural differences reflected in museum programming, activities, and in art collections.
I envision the development of community councils, like what we are launching at TMA, so that visitors have a say in the work we are engaged with; thoughtful reinstallations that tell a global story of our interconnected world through art; regular staff-wide allyship trainings; Employee Resource Groups; community galleries in every art museum; and annual reviews of DEAI strategies. Additionally, I hope to see land and labor acknowledgements; active outreach in nearby neighborhoods, doing business with more disadvantaged business enterprises, minority business enterprises, women business enterprises, and LGBTQIA+ local businesses; living wages for all museum employees; more diverse curators; and so much more!

Alejandro Victoria: I hope to see museums make substantial progress in DEAI by fully supporting the people leading these efforts. This includes providing sustainable funding and resources for DEAI practitioners as they navigate the ever-changing DEAI landscape. In the next five years, I envision museums embracing systemic changes, reevaluating hiring practices, diversifying leadership teams, overhauling curatorial approaches to prioritize underrepresented narratives, revising audience engagement strategies to reach marginalized communities, and embedding equity-focused decision-making in governance and budgeting processes. I also hope to see investments in leadership pipelines through mentorship and career development to cultivate the next generation of diverse museum leaders. By embedding DEAI principles into their core operations, museums can become truly inclusive spaces that reflect and serve diverse communities.

Tinsley-Smith: In the next five years, I hope museums continue evolving into truly inclusive spaces that reflect the diversity of the communities they serve—where both visitors and staff genuinely feel a sense of belonging. This transformation should be evident not only in exhibitions and programming but also in leadership, staffing, and decision-making processes. I envision greater collaboration across museum functions, deeper engagement with underrepresented communities, a firm commitment to accessibility, and the implementation of robust supplier diversity programs. Ultimately, I hope to see DEAI work fully integrated into the core mission of museums—where the focus shifts from asking, “Who does this impact? Whose voice is missing? What more can we do?” to confidently stating, “The impact of DEAI has fostered a sense of belonging for our employees and visitors. DEAI is essential to living our vision, mission, and values; it is an explicit priority, not a peripheral initiative.”

Turner: I hope to see continued institutional focus on DEAI, with dedicated positions and departments leading the work. High turnover in these roles across sectors, including museums, could make it easy to eliminate the person/office and merge the work into HR or Education departments under the assumption that DEAI will continue to be a priority.

What is one thing you wish others knew about being a DEAI officer in a museum?

Davis: The work is ongoing and requires consistent commitment and participation from all parts of the institution. DEIA is everyone’s responsibility and is critical to the ongoing relevance and resonance to the communities we serve.

Victoria: While the role involves driving critical change, success is impossible without strong support from executive leadership and a shared commitment across the institution. DEAI work cannot be effective if siloed or viewed as the responsibility of just one person or department. Real progress requires executive leaders to actively champion these initiatives and integrate them into the museum’s mission, strategy, and resources. Everyone—from top leadership to frontline staff—needs to understand that building a more inclusive and equitable museum is a collective responsibility, not just the work of DEAI officers.

Tinsley-Smith: DEAI officers promote a culture of shared responsibility. Expecting one person to drive change is misguided. Executive leaders model the change, people managers influence the change, and teams support the change. Together, we create change. This collective approach fosters accountability and ensures that everyone understands the core principles of DEAI, creating a culture of awareness and support throughout the journey.

Solomon: We are often under-resourced and doing more than one job. While I have one job, I’m asked to weigh in on a lot and can sometimes feel stretched or in need of more time to thoughtfully respond and give input.

Turner: I wish others understood that being a DEAI officer in museums and other sectors can be lonely. We take on this role as change agents because we believe we can meaningfully contribute to making our institutions more equitable, inclusive, and welcoming for all. And while it is a very public role, we are expected to lead significant change frequently as individual contributors or as small teams. For this reason, I am so grateful for the network of DEAI colleagues from across the country and Canada who provide much-needed support as thought partners, counselors, and cheerleaders.

 


Resources

Lily Zheng, DEI Deconstructed: Your No-Nonsense Guide to Doing the Work and Doing It Right and Reconstructing DEI: A Practitioner’s Workbook

Shereen Daniels, The Anti-Racist Organization: Dismantling Systemic Racism in the Workplace

Victoria Mattingly, Sertrice Grice, and Allison Goldstein, Inclusalytics: How Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leaders Use Data to Drive Their Work

Cecile Shellman, Effective Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism Practices for Museums: From the Inside Out

Peter Block, Community: The Structure of Belonging

Amber Cabral, Allies and Advocates: Creating an Inclusive and Equitable Culture

Alida Miranda-Wolff, Cultures of Belonging: Building Inclusive Organizations that Last

Robert R. Janes, Museums and Societal Collapse: The Museum as Lifeboat

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