Curatorial Diversity Report – written by Culture& and Museum X, sets out the priorities for funders, museums, and arts organisations to meaningfully increase ethnic and cultural diversity in the sector.
It has been well documented that people from minority-ethnic backgrounds make up a very small proportion of the UK’s museum and gallery workforce. In 2010 it was reported that the proportion of workers from minority-ethnic backgrounds in the UK museum sector had increased threefold from 2.5% in 1993 to about 7% in 2006-2008, varying between 1.3% and 10.4% depending on museum and job role.
Within this, a very small percentage of curators are people of colour, despite many years of diversity schemes. Research from 2018 estimates that there are only 2.7% workers from minority-ethnic backgrounds in UK museums, galleries and libraries. Even according to the most optimistic estimates, only a tiny proportion of curators are Black or from racialised communities, even after many years of diversity schemes. And it is inescapable that a lack of diverse voices, experiences and critiques in shaping our collections and programmes means our institutions – their workforces and audiences – will never be fully inclusive, reflective or relevant.
To understand how to tackle this more effectively, Artfund commissioned a report to assess the impact of ethnic diversity initiatives on the curatorial workforce. The aim was to produce a piece of work to set out the priorities for funders, museums and arts organisations to meaningfully increase ethnic and cultural diversity in the sector. The final report – It’s about handing over power – is a combination of two pieces of work by Black-led organisations Museum X and Culture& across 2021-2022.