INDIANAPOLIS – The Indianapolis Museum of Art in Newfields edited and apologized for a job list that said it was looking for a director who would not only work to attract a more diverse audience, but also maintain his “traditional, central, white art audience” .
The museum’s director and chief executive, Charles L. Venable, said in an interview on Saturday that the decision to wear “white” was intentional and explained that the intention was to indicate that the museum would not abandon its existing audience as part of its efforts for greater diversity, equity and inclusion.
“I deeply regret that the choice of language clearly did not work to mirror our general intention to build our core art audience by welcoming more people,” he said. “We were trying to be transparent about the fact that anyone who applies for this job really needs to be committed to the efforts of the DEI in all parts of the museum.”
The museum subsequently revised the description of the position on the list, which now says “target audience of traditional art”.
Venable said it is a pity that what he called the museum’s “fundamental commitment to inclusion” has been overshadowed by the word choice.
“This is a six-page job description, not a single bullet point,” he said. “We talk a lot about our commitment to diversity in all forms, from collections to programming and hiring.”
But, he added: “I can certainly say that if we were writing this again, with all the feedback we received, we wouldn’t write it that way.”
The incident comes at a time when the culture of the museum’s workplace and support for works of art created by non-white artists are under pressure – and amid a national assessment of institutions on how to reform work environments that in the past excluded black artists and employees.
Kelli Morgan, who was recruited in 2018 to diversify the museum’s galleries, resigned in July, calling the museum’s culture “toxic” and “discriminatory” in a letter she sent to Venable, as well as board members, artists and local media .
Morgan, who served as an associate curator at the American art museum, criticized the museum for its lack of training to deal with racism and implicit prejudices, a “racist speech” by a board member who left her in tears and an Instagram post that included the work of a black artist in a racial justice statement without consulting him after the museum stopped substantially supporting an exhibition he had created.
Venable said at the time that he regretted Morgan’s decision and that the museum was taking steps to become more diverse, but that it would take time.
Morgan, who is now working as an independent curator and consultant in Atlanta, said in an interview on Saturday that she was disappointed that, despite the fact that the museum had started training leaders in diversity, equity and inclusion, it still included language.
“Clearly there is no investment or attention being paid to what is being learned or communicated in training,” she said. “Because if there were, there would be no way that a job advertisement was written like that, much less for a museum director.”
Venable said the description was posted in January, when the museum began its search to fill the position of director. Under the museum’s new leadership structure, Venable will serve as president of Newfields, the museum’s 152-acre campus, and a second person will head the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
Venable, who has run the museum since 2012, has been criticized for serving a popular audience with a schedule like a miniature golf course designed by artists at the expense of investing in traditional art experiences. He also instituted an admission fee of $ 18 at the former free institution in 2015.
The museum is due to open an exhibition in April on the Indianapolis #BlackLivesMatter street mural, created last summer. But Morgan said that a critical understanding and commitment to diversity in the country’s art institutions is still a long way off.
“Newfields is a very visible and very bad symptom of much bigger cancer,” she added. “Until the world of museums is black and white and red and purple, and until we collectively deal with responsibility for discrimination, things like this will continue to happen.”