Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion

We must decolonize our museums!

By Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko

“Museums can be very painful sites for Native peoples, as they are intimately tied to the colonization process,” writes Ho-Chunk scholar Amy Lonetree. Reading this passage for the first time in 2012 stopped me in my tracks and forced me …
Five Strategies for Promoting Workforce Equity: Future-proofing the Museum Workforce

By Nicole Ivy

This article originally appeared in the January/February issue of Museum magazine. 1: Re-think Cultural Fit Employers, market researchers, and cultural influencers alike have recently revisited the question of “cultural fit” in the …
Taking the Bias Out of Hiring: Identifying and eliminating unconscious bias in recruitment processes.

By Elizabeth Merritt

This article originally appeared in January/February 2017 issue of Museum magazine. I’m a fan of leading by doing. Which is to say, when I suggest to museums (as I do in every section of TrendsWatch), “you might want to…” I always ask …
We’re Not That Hard to Find: Hiring Diverse Museum Staff

By Joy Bailey-Bryant

This article originally appeared in the January/February 2017 issue of Museum magazine. Guidelines to implement change in your museum and identify a pipeline of diverse employees. In 2015, the Mellon Foundation released a report that …
10 Easy Ways Museums Can Be More LGBTQ-friendly

By Katie Slivovsky

Have you ever been bothered by something, found co-workers who were bothered by the same thing, put your heads together, and made change happen? That’s pretty much how in 2010 we got Chicago Children’s Museum’s LGBTQ Inclusion initiative …
Access and Equity in Museum Internships: A Case Study

By Elizabeth Merritt

In the US in 2015, 17.5 percent of persons with a disability were employed–compared to a 65 percent employment rate for people without a disability: a troubling statistic that should influence our discussions of museum labor and …
Painting in Blue

By Elizabeth Merritt

I became interested in Amy Herman’s work for several reasons. She harnesses the power of art to teach empathy, helping people in positions of power—be it medicine or law enforcement—relate more compassionately to the people they serve. Her …
The CFM Future of Education Tour starts in 2017 in the Southeast!

By Elizabeth Merritt

This week we are pleased to share our own bit of good news: CFM Fellows Sage Morgan-Hubbard and Nicole Ivy announce they are taking their work on the road with The Future of Education Tour. In January 2017, they will set out on the first …
Crafting courageous truths: The creation and philosophy of MASS Action: Museum As Site for Social Action

By Elizabeth Merritt

Today, Porchia Moore, Aletheia Wittman, Elisabeth Callihan, nikhil trivedi, Janeen Bryant, and Sage Morgan-Hubbard share thoughts on the recent MASS Action convening. Here they outline the vision for the three-year project and describe the …
Healing the Partisan Divide

By Elizabeth Merritt

I want to share some thoughts, post-election, about diversity, inclusion and healing. But maybe not the thoughts you expect. As I listen to museum colleagues talking about the election, I hear over and over again phrases like “I was …