INDIANAPOLIS – The president of the Indianapolis Museum of Art in Newfields resigned on Wednesday, days after the institution apologized for posting a list of jobs in search of a new director who would retain the “traditional, central and white art public” the museum.
The museum’s board of trustees and board of governors said in a public letter that Charles Venable’s resignation was “necessary for Newfields to become the cultural institution that our community needs and deserves”. He said that chief financial officer Jerry Wise will serve as interim president.
In the job advertisement, the museum said it was looking for a director to “attract a broader and more diverse audience while maintaining the museum’s traditional white art audience.” The post generated letters from a group of Newfields employees and community art leaders calling for Venable’s resignation.
Venable said the decision to use “white” was intended to show that the museum would not abandon its existing audience while working for more diversity. It was a dot on the fourth page of the six-page job description.
“I think the fact that you can read that sentence and now read it as a single sentence or clause, I can certainly understand and regret that it can be interpreted that way,” he told The Indianapolis Star. “It certainly wasn’t the intention.”
In addition to the resignation, the boards announced a series of measures that would be taken.
“We will involve an independent committee to conduct a thorough review of Newfields leadership, culture and our own Board of Trustees and Board of Governors, with the aim of representing our community in an inclusive way and all of its diversity,” he said.
Newfields will also expand “curatorial representations” of exhibitions and programming by, for and by blacks and Latinos, women, people with disabilities, the LGBTQ community and “other marginalized identities,” the letter said.
The museum will also include additional free or reduced-fee days to increase access, form an advisory committee composed of artists, activists and members of colored communities “whose primary function is to hold leadership accountable for these goals”, and remains anti-training racist for their councils, employees and volunteers.
Newfields is the 152-acre campus of the Indianapolis Museum, which includes gardens and a natural and art park.