#museum equality

We’re Not That Hard to Find: Hiring Diverse Museum Staff

An infographic based on the guidelines by Joy Bailey-Bryant from the Jan/Feb edition of the AAM’s Museum about ways that museums can change their hiring and employment practices to encourage a more diverse and representative workforce. 

Rather than just repeating the data we already know about the worrying lack of diversity in many areas of museum education and employment, this attempts to unpick some of the causes, offering concrete advice about engaged museum might enact change and help recruit a more diverse workforce. The reasons for a lack of diversity in the museum field are manifold, but this addresses some of the mechanisms that are in place that can tackled, such as unpaid internships, proper career support and management of existing staff, where positions are advertised, and looking more deeply at applicants to see identify skill sets that aren’t necessarily formal qualifications. 

As classically interdisciplinary places of learning, museums can only thrive when their perspectives are as diverse as the audiences and communities that they serve. If museums seek to be representative, then their staffing and institutions need to be as well. We know that speaking for marginalised voices and groups is inadequate, here’s how to do something about it. 

Other interesting resources and links

• Museum Hue
  
• Museum Detox
  
• University of Leicester, School of Museum Studies Diversity Scholarship
  
• UK Museums Association: “Museums Directors’ Report Outlines Targets for Improving Staff Diversity” 
  
• Report: “Valuing Diversity: The Case for More Inclusive Museums”
  
• Video: “Working Class Heroes”, a session from the 2016 Museums Association Conference in Glasgow. 
  

Posts on this blog that are of relevance:

• Punk Museology Project
  
• Knowing when to call it a day
  
• The Tomorrow People: Entry to the Museum Workforce
  
• Immaculate Integration
  
• Museum Workers Speak
  

If you know of any more projects or resources of interest, please feel free to submit them here.