diversity, equity, access and inclusion
The staff at SCMA has been working to incorporate more inclusive and equitable practices over a number of years. That work has taken different forms, including foregrounding the values of inclusion and diversity in the museum’s 2017–2022 Strategic Plan and being one of the first art museums to shift to only paid internships in 2017. Along with many peer institutions, SCMA made a deepened commitment during the racial justice uprisings of 2020 to prioritize equity and inclusion in all that we do.
Now we are eager to share with you—the museum’s community members—updates on the steps we have taken in the intervening time. We are sharing these actions to help establish ongoing accountability, one of four pillars that we laid out in 2020 for enacting change at SCMA. The three others are strengthening transparency and feedback, developing more equitable policies and structures and cultivating ongoing learning and self-reflection. In advancing these priorities, we will coordinate with the Smith College Office for Equity and Inclusion (OEI) and with the campus-wide Toward Racial Justice initiative led by the OEI.
As many have observed, this work must be continuous. The actions we share here are also not exhaustive. New ideas and goals have emerged, especially as we welcomed new staff members to the museum when we reopened in August 2021. Staff members are regularly taking actions—in their teaching approaches; their interactions with visitors, colleagues, students and faculty; and their decisions about how to display artworks and which artworks to put on view—that are not fully reflected here. Through all of these individual and collective actions, we aspire to get to the point where the museum continually prioritizes values of equity, inclusion and anti-racism across all its activities and decision-making. In that spirit, we will continue to share updates on accomplishments we are proud of and the stumbles and setbacks along the way.
This work is ultimately about how people experience SCMA. We have benefited hugely from the wisdom and candor community members have shared about their experiences at the museum. Continuing to hear from you will be essential to our progress. We invite you to let us know what you think of these actions at the museum. We look forward to continuing to collaborate with you, our visitors and community members, on developing more just and multivocal ways of connecting people with art, ideas and each other at SCMA.
- Developed organizational core values for SCMA and held all-staff learning groups to brainstorm steps to enact them.
- Drafted an updated five-year collection plan that prioritizes the values of diversity, equity, access and inclusion.
- Developed community guidelines for the museum that build on the Smith College Code of Conduct.
- Continuing to share updates on goals and progress in SCHEMA and on our website.
- Conducted an equity review with partners Tanya Williams and Bari Katz that included an all-staff climate survey and 21 group and individual listening sessions with staff, students and advisory board members.
- Held all-staff conversations about recommendations from the equity review.
- Developed a charter outlining the responsibilities of the museum’s senior leadership team and began to share weekly notes from Senior Leadership Team meetings with all staff.
- Developed inclusive hiring practices and tools that are now used for all museum staff searches. Since March 2020, 35 percent of new staff hires are people of color.
- Introduced benefited positions for visitor-facing team members and increased salaries to better reflect the cost of living in our area.
- Developed an updated model for the museum’s post-baccalaureate fellowship program to increase support and mentorship. The redesign is based on feedback from previous fellows, and we will launch the updated program in the summer of 2023.
- Thanks to their incredible energy and commitment, the museum advisory board revisited policies and priorities for nominating new members. 70 percent of Museum Visiting Committee members who have joined since March 2020 are people of color.
- Held three all-staff workshops to reflect on people-centered approaches to the museum’s mission.
- Held two workshops for visitor-facing teams and an all-staff workshop on supporting inclusive community in collaboration with the OEI.
- Held two workshops on inclusive language for visitor-facing teams.
- Embarked on inclusive leadership skills development for the museum’s Senior Leadership Team.
above: First-year students in Justin Cammy’s FYS 186: Israel Through Literature and Film seminar discussing works on paper in the Cunningham Center for the Study of Prints, Drawings and Photographs. Photo by Charlene Shang Miller