Museums Must Attract Diverse Visitors or Risk Irrelevance
They must “fulfill a cultural contract that demands they serve audiences beyond their traditional patrons.”
Entranced by a museum’s beauty, visitors might not notice that most of the other patrons are probably white, female, and middle-aged, if not older. This lack of diversity is symptomatic of a national problem.
The Mellon Foundation and the American Association of Art Museum Directors sounded the alarm when they recently published the first-ever study of diversity in American art museums. People of color represent 28 percent of staff at museums around the country, but most work as janitors and security guards.
If museums don’t act now to fulfill a cultural contract that demands they serve audiences beyond their traditional patrons, their continued relevance into the 21st century will be
