Workforce diversity slowly improving
Although the DCMS has come close to making half of public appointments female, it has no explicit targets for sexuality, ethnicity or socio-economic class. By Patrick Steel
Several recent initiatives suggest that museums in England are making steps towards losing their “male, pale and stale” tag, although there is still some way to go.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has come close to meeting its target of making 50% of public appointments female by 2015. The latest figures show the proportion has risen from 38.1% in 2012-13 to 48%.
However, of the DCMS-funded museums, only Tate, the Horniman Museum and Gardens and Sir John Soane’s Museum, all in London, have boards that are at least 50% female.
And the DCMS does not have explicit targets for other forms of diversity, which Arts Council England (ACE) defines as “race, ethnicity, faith, disability, age, gender, sexuality, class and economic disadvantage and any social and institutional barriers that prevent people from creating, participating or enjoying the arts”.
In December, Peter Bazalgette, the chairman of ACE, announced that National Portfolio Organisations (NPO) and Major Partner Museums (MPM) would be required to reflect the communities they serve as a condition of funding.
They would also have to complete equality action plans from which workforce diversity data from both portfolios would be published annually.
ACE is referring to this as the “creative case for diversity”, building on a report it commissioned in 2010, Beyond Cultural Diversity: the Case for Creativity. It is accompanied by a £6m diversity fund, to which museums outside the NPO or MPM portfolios can apply.
ACE is also considering the possibility of highlighting “diverse-led” organisations in the sector, recognising that there are fewer than one in 10 black, Asian or minority ethnic managers of NPOs.
Slow progress
Lucy Shaw, who wrote a 2013 report into the Museums Association’s (MA) Diversify scheme, thinks that the sector is making progress, albeit slowly.
The MA’s scheme started recruiting people at entry-level in 1998, Shaw says, so they have only recently arrived at mid- to senior-level positions. She added that in terms of gender, while most national museum directors are men, if MPMs are included, there is “a better balance”.
Shaw, the manager of the Oxford University Museums Partnership, an MPM, thinks museums should be pushing the business case for diversity over the creative case. “If you don’t appeal to your local community, they won’t come to your museum,” she says.
But, Shaw adds, ACE’s case-by-case approach to equality action planning, and the ongoing dialogue between MPMs and ACE’s relationship managers, are preferable to the now-defunct Museums, Libraries and Archives Council’s one-size-fits-all template approach.
Gemma Dhami, the museum development officer for Worcestershire and an alumna of the MA’s Diversity scheme, believes museums are still better at diversifying their audiences than their staff, with too much emphasis on academic qualifications.
This is something that the British Museum’s Learning Museum scheme, which offers entry-level vocational training to young people from diverse backgrounds, is aiming to address.
The challenge now, says Skinder Hundal, the chief executive of the New Art Exchange in Nottingham, is how museums manage diversity issues on a day-to-day basis and maintain momentum in the face of all the other challenges they have in the current climate.
Of those identifying themselves as black, Asian or minority ethnic, 42.3% visited a museum in 2014, compared with 53.1% of those identifying themselves as white. This has increased from 35.4% and 43% respectively since 2005-06.
In 2014, 60.8% of those from upper socio-economic groups, visited a museum, compared with 38.8% from lower socio-economic groups. This compares with 51.9% and 28.3% respectively in 2005-06.
Of those with a long-standing illness or disability 45.2% visited a museum in 2014, up from 36.1% in 2005-06.
In 2014, 52.9% of women and 50.8% of men visited a museum, up from 42.1% and 42.5% respectively in 2005-06.
Source: DCMS
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has come close to meeting its target of making 50% of public appointments female by 2015. The latest figures show the proportion has risen from 38.1% in 2012-13 to 48%.
However, of the DCMS-funded museums, only Tate, the Horniman Museum and Gardens and Sir John Soane’s Museum, all in London, have boards that are at least 50% female.
And the DCMS does not have explicit targets for other forms of diversity, which Arts Council England (ACE) defines as “race, ethnicity, faith, disability, age, gender, sexuality, class and economic disadvantage and any social and institutional barriers that prevent people from creating, participating or enjoying the arts”.
In December, Peter Bazalgette, the chairman of ACE, announced that National Portfolio Organisations (NPO) and Major Partner Museums (MPM) would be required to reflect the communities they serve as a condition of funding.
They would also have to complete equality action plans from which workforce diversity data from both portfolios would be published annually.
ACE is referring to this as the “creative case for diversity”, building on a report it commissioned in 2010, Beyond Cultural Diversity: the Case for Creativity. It is accompanied by a £6m diversity fund, to which museums outside the NPO or MPM portfolios can apply.
ACE is also considering the possibility of highlighting “diverse-led” organisations in the sector, recognising that there are fewer than one in 10 black, Asian or minority ethnic managers of NPOs.
Slow progress
Lucy Shaw, who wrote a 2013 report into the Museums Association’s (MA) Diversify scheme, thinks that the sector is making progress, albeit slowly.
The MA’s scheme started recruiting people at entry-level in 1998, Shaw says, so they have only recently arrived at mid- to senior-level positions. She added that in terms of gender, while most national museum directors are men, if MPMs are included, there is “a better balance”.
Shaw, the manager of the Oxford University Museums Partnership, an MPM, thinks museums should be pushing the business case for diversity over the creative case. “If you don’t appeal to your local community, they won’t come to your museum,” she says.
But, Shaw adds, ACE’s case-by-case approach to equality action planning, and the ongoing dialogue between MPMs and ACE’s relationship managers, are preferable to the now-defunct Museums, Libraries and Archives Council’s one-size-fits-all template approach.
Gemma Dhami, the museum development officer for Worcestershire and an alumna of the MA’s Diversity scheme, believes museums are still better at diversifying their audiences than their staff, with too much emphasis on academic qualifications.
This is something that the British Museum’s Learning Museum scheme, which offers entry-level vocational training to young people from diverse backgrounds, is aiming to address.
The challenge now, says Skinder Hundal, the chief executive of the New Art Exchange in Nottingham, is how museums manage diversity issues on a day-to-day basis and maintain momentum in the face of all the other challenges they have in the current climate.
Who visits museums in England?
Of those identifying themselves as black, Asian or minority ethnic, 42.3% visited a museum in 2014, compared with 53.1% of those identifying themselves as white. This has increased from 35.4% and 43% respectively since 2005-06.
In 2014, 60.8% of those from upper socio-economic groups, visited a museum, compared with 38.8% from lower socio-economic groups. This compares with 51.9% and 28.3% respectively in 2005-06.
Of those with a long-standing illness or disability 45.2% visited a museum in 2014, up from 36.1% in 2005-06.
In 2014, 52.9% of women and 50.8% of men visited a museum, up from 42.1% and 42.5% respectively in 2005-06.
Source: DCMS