Art Museum Demographic Surveys Series

collection: series

Studies

3

Variables

650

Publications

8

About this Collection

Over the past decade, Ithaka S+R collected data on strategy, leadership, staff demographics, and governance within U.S. art museums. In partnership with the Mellon Foundation, the Kress Foundation, the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), as well as the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) and the Black Trustee Alliance for Art Museums (BTA), Ithaka S+R conducted three studies:

The Art Museum Staff Demographic Survey, conducted in 2015, 2018, and 2022, tracks changes in museum staff characteristics over time, shedding light on representational diversity within art museums.

The Art Museum Director Survey, fielded in 2020 and 2022, captures shifts in directors' perspectives on revenue, staffing, programming partnerships, and climate change since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Art Museum Black Trustee Survey, conducted in 2022, explores the experiences of Black trustees in North American art museums, aiming to increase the inclusion of Black perspectives and narratives in museum spaces.

Studies

3 results

Art Museum Staff Demographic Survey, United States, 2015, 2018, 2022

These data were gathered on behalf of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, in partnership with the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) and the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD). The goal of the survey was to study the representational diversity within art museums through quantitative means. The survey instrument, developed by Ithaka S+R, was administered to directors of AAMD and AAM member art museums. The first cycle of data were collected in 2015 (February-March 2015), the second cycle in 2018 (July-September 2018), and the third cycle in 2022 (February-April 2022). The collected data were sent to researchers at Ithaka S+R, who appended, cleaned and analyzed the data, and presented findings in a public research report.

The survey collected demographic and employment data for over 30,000 museum employees. About 27,000 of these are employed at AAMD museums, and approximately 3,000 are from (non-AAMD) AAM member museums. 332 art museums responded to the survey in 2018 and 136 of them also participated in the survey in 2015. The third cycle gathered data from 328 museums in North America between February and April 2022, encompassing records for over 30,000 individuals.

The 2018 instrument was slightly expanded to capture additional specifics of the composition of art museum employees. For the third cycle, significant enhancements were made to the survey instrument, particularly in expanding the position and race categories, separating categories such as "Finance" and "Human Resources," as well as "Information Technology" and "Web Development," which were combined in the previous survey. Additionally, new positions such as "Librarian," "Public Engagement," and "Diversity/Equity/Inclusion" were included to better track changes in these areas. The data gathered in the third wave of the study offer valuable insights into the evolving demographics of the museum sector and the pandemic's impact on staffing.

Art Museum Black Trustee Survey, Canada, Mexico, United States, 2022

The Black Trustee Survey was conducted by the Black Trustee Alliance for Art Museums (BTA) in collaboration with the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) and Ithaka S+R. It aimed to gather insights from North American museum board members, particularly focusing on the experiences of Black trustees. The survey targeted all trustees rather than solely Black trustees, allowing for a comparative analysis. In addition to collecting trustee demographics, the survey gathered information about board member experiences, committee assignments for board members, and recruitment and onboarding.

Art Museum Director Survey, United States, 2020, 2022

The first wave of the Art Museum Director Survey was launched in early 2020. It examined strategy and leadership issues from the perspective of the directors of art museums across the United States. Respondents were asked about their role as museum directors, their strategic priorities and leadership practices, budgeting and resources allocations, current and expected future staffing, their institutions' public trust and engagement with new and existing audiences, collections care and stewardship, their institutions' fiscal health and financial viability, and organizational and talent management.

Conducted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic (the survey's closure was on March 30th 2020), the data from the first wave of the survey offer a glimpse into pre-pandemic perspectives and priorities of art museums.

Launched in April 2022, the second wave of the Art Museum Director Survey offers insights into the evolving strategies of museums over the past two years, covering governance, leadership, collections, public engagement, staffing, and budgets. It also evaluates shifts in directors' perspectives since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and explores responses to other national and international crises.

Demographic variables include respondents' institutions' admission fees, years in their current position, years in the museum sector, their highest degree earned, the position they held prior to their current position as a museum director, the staff size of the museum, and the type of museum (academic or municipal).