Art Museum Director Survey, United States, 2020, 2022 (ICPSR 38701)

Version Date: May 28, 2024

Cite this study |

Principal Investigator(s):
Liam Sweeney, Ithaka S+R; Jennifer K. Frederick, Ithaka S+R

Series:

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38701.v2

Version V2 ()

  • V2 [2024-05-28]
  • V1 [2023-03-21] unpublished
Slide tabs to view more

Summary

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).

Citation

Sweeney, Liam, and Frederick, Jennifer K. Art Museum Director Survey, United States, 2020, 2022. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2024-05-28. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38701.v2

Export Citation:

  • RIS (generic format for RefWorks, EndNote, etc.)
  • EndNote

Funding

Samuel H. Kress Foundation (RG-201912-19435), The Mellon Foundation

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
Hide

Time Period(s)

2020, 2022

Date of Collection

2020-02-25 -- 2020-03-26, 2022-04-05 -- 2022-05-12

Data Collection Notes

  1. For more information on the Art Museum Director Survey, please reference the research reports for the 2020 and 2022 data.

  2. The two waves of this study were supported by different funders. The 2020 wave was supported by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, and the 2022 wave was supported by the Mellon Foundation.

Hide

Study Purpose

The purpose of this study was to solicit information from museum directors on their institutions and own careers.

Sample

The sample contains directors at museums within the United States that are either members of the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) or American Alliance of Museums (AAM). All AAMD museums were surveyed and only academic museums from AAM that have 4 or more staff members were sampled.

Time Method

Longitudinal

Universe

All art museum directors within the United States from the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) and directors at larger academic museums from the American Alliance of Museums (AAM).

Unit(s) of Observation

Individual

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Response Rates

The overall response rate was 50 percent.

Hide

Original Release Date

2023-03-21

Version History

2024-05-28 Produced full statistical package and ICPSR Codebook for 2020 Data and added 2022 Data and updated title.

2023-03-21 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Created variable labels and/or value labels.
  • Performed recodes and/or calculated derived variables.

Hide

Notes

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

  • ICPSR usually offers files in multiple formats for researchers to be able to access data and documentation in formats that work well within their needs. If you have questions about the accessibility of materials distributed by ICPSR or require further assistance, please visit ICPSR’s Accessibility Center.

NADAC logo

This study is maintained and distributed by the National Archive of Data on Arts & Culture (NADAC). NADAC is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.