I read with interest a recent post by Emma Heald,
concerned with the topic of museum constituencies and
diversity. A research focus of mine as well has been
the various approaches museums have taken to
diversifying their audiences, staff, etc. I am aware
of the multitude of sessions offered this May at the
AAM conference, but like Emma, am interested in
hearing from list museum professionals as to their
personal experiences with the "diversity initiative"
many museums seem to be undertaking (or not
undertaking, as the case may be).

Although this list has been pretty quiet on the
subject, I thought I would go ahead and post a
questionnaire developed from some of my research
interests (condensed from a longer questionnaire),
although I realize several of the questions overlap
with Emma's as well. I know both she and I would be
very interested in reading responses to any or all of
the questions, either posted publicly or sent
privately. I have included some information about my
background at the end. Thanks!

-------------------------------------------------------

1. What institution are you affiliated with, and in
what capacity?

2. Briefly, how would you characterize your
institution's response to the task of attracting new
audiences (be they minority, "non-traditional" age
groups, the disabled, or any other constituency not
well represented in your visitor pool) ?

3. At your institution, do you feel this issue has not
been explored sufficiently, is at just the right
level, or has been given too much emphasis in recent
years?

4. In your opinion, which is the more pressing issue:
lack of cultural diversity among museum staff or
museum visitors? Why?

5. Can you recall specific programs (at your
institution or another) with the goal of
diversification in mind? What have been their results?

6. In your opinion, which is a greater problem in
diversifying audiences: lack of interest or lack of
opportunity/accessibility?

7. Is your museum board/donor/volunteer pool
representative of the community it serves? Do you
think this is a problem?

8. How would you rate the current accessibility of
your institution to bilingual audiences and/or the
disabled?

9. Although we wish we had the time and money to
implement every great idea, which of these approaches
do you feel is/would be the most effective for a
professional working to diversify the visitor pool:

a) attract new audiences to existing programs
b) design new programs around specific audiences
c) change staff demographics to be more representative
of groups desired as visitors
d) other?


-----------------------------------------------------

Please feel free to give your honest response- I am
interested in your personal experience as a museum
professional, not as representative of your museum,
generation, ethnic background, etc. Responses sent
privately will not be shared with the list. Also, this
is intended as a qualitative, not quantitative,
questionnaire- no statistics here :)

I know in many ways these questions only graze the
surface of this difficult, complex topic. I also
apologize for the repeated use of the word
"diversity", which has gone nearly limp from overuse,
but is still the most recognizable and understandable
term for the subject at hand.

In terms of my background, I am a graduate student
with a degree in art history and Spanish, working
towards a masters in arts administration (and soon a
Ph.D. in art history.) I also work for the Indiana
University African American Arts Institute, an
extremely active performing arts organization. I have
been studying diversity development and visitor
outreach for about a year. I would include more
information, but I prefer it not bias responses.

Thank you!

Emily D. Mark
Indiana University
African American Arts Institute







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