Contents I. A Letter from our Project Leaders 7 II. About the Project 8 Foreword 8 Project Team and Partners 9 The Museum Accessibility, Inclusion and Engagement Collaborative 9 Partner Museums 10 Advisory Committee Members 10 Our Guiding Principles 11 Development Process 12 Identification of the Gap 12 Ideation 13 Research 14 Community Engagement 14 Pilot Project 14 Inclusion in Action - Case Study 14 Guide Design 14 The Next Chapters 14 How to Use this Guide 15 III. Inclusion as a Lens 15 The Numbers – Ontario’s Changing Demographics 15 Looking Inward 16 Bias and Cultural Competence 16 Common Misconceptions 18 Change Agency 18 Self-Care 19 IV. Inclusion in Action 21 Multi-layered Collections: Reframing the Whitehern Collection (Hamilton Civic Museums) 21 Preamble 21 Our Story 22 Learnings 24 Moving Forward 25 Acknowledgements 25 2 Contributors 26 Resources 27 Dig Deeper 27 Access 2 All: Programs and Events (Ermatinger • Clergue National Historic Site) 28 Preamble 28 Our Story 29 Learnings 30 Moving Forward 30 Acknowledgements 31 Contributors 32 Resources 34 Dig Deeper 34 Diversifying Human Resources and Volunteer Policies: Activating change in small to medium-sized galleries (Art Gallery of Sudbury) 36 Preamble 36 Our Story 37 Learnings 38 Moving Forward 39 Acknowledgements 39 Contributors 40 Resources 41 Dig Deeper 41 Curating Change: Bringing Diversity to Museum Collections through Audience Insight (Markham Museum) 42 Preamble 42 Our Story 43 Learnings 44 Moving Forward 45 Contributors 46 Acknowledgements 48 Resources 48 Dig Deeper 48 Making Indigenous Collections Accessible: A Collaboration with Nin Da Waab Jig (Museums Windsor) 49 3 Preamble 49 Our Story 50 Learnings 51 Moving Forward 53 Acknowledgements 53 Contributors 53 Resources 54 Dig Deeper 54 Exhibitions and Curatorial Practice (Niagara Falls Museum) 56 Preamble 56 Our Story 56 Learnings 57 Moving Forward 58 Acknowledgements 58 Contributors 59 Resources 60 Dig Deeper 60 From the Outside In: The Welcome Experience Beyond the Front Door (The Robert McLaughlin Gallery) 61 Preamble 61 Our Story 62 Learnings 63 Moving Forward 64 Acknowledgments 64 Contributors 65 Resources 66 Dig Deeper 66 Things to Remember: Re-Examining the Design of Out from Under (Royal Ontario Museum) 67 Preamble 67 Our Story 68 Learnings 70 Moving Forward 70 Acknowledgements 71 4 Contributors 71 Resources 72 Dig Deeper 72 Engaging Community: The Affirmation Bowls Project (Simcoe County Museum) 73 Preamble 73 Our Story 73 Learnings 74 Moving Forward 75 Acknowledgements 75 Contributors 76 Resources 77 Not Just the Numbers: Representation and the Canadian Census 78 Preamble 78 Our Story 79 Learnings 79 Moving Forward 80 Acknowledgements 80 Contributors 82 Resources 84 Dig Deeper 84 Interpretation and Education (Waterloo Region Museum) 85 Preamble 85 Our Story 86 Learnings 86 Moving Forward 87 Acknowledgements 87 Contributors 87 Resources 88 Dig Deeper 88 V. Resources 90 Diversity + Inclusion 90 Self-Assessments 90 Accessibility / Disability Arts + Culture 90 5 Community Engagement 90 Events and Programming 90 Audience Insight 90 Governance 91 Human Resources and Volunteers 91 Facilities 91 Collections 91 Exhibitions and Curatorial Practices 91 Education and Interpretation 91 Marketing and Communications 91 6 I. A Letter from our Project Leaders At the Ontario Museum Association (OMA) Conference 2016, we posed a challenge to the Ontario museum community: where are the gaps in diversity and inclusion in our sector, and how can we create substantive, meaningful and sustainable change? Museums have historically held the power to shape public narrative and decide which stories and objects from the past should be preserved to present to future generations. Recent conversations in the museum sector are beginning to recognize the importance of the voices and stories that have historically been excluded from the dominant narratives, and the ethical imperative for museums to include the full diversity of these narratives and embody a more inclusive approach to our work overall. Inclusion 2025: A Practitioner’s Guide to Inclusive Museums is one of many components of the Museum Accessibility Inclusion and Engagement Collaborative (MAIEC) project that was launched in December of 2015 by the OMA, the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion (CCDI). The MAIEC project is our response to the challenge we posed to the broader museum community in the 2016 Conference, and a recognition of the needs we face as a sector to do better, and continue doing better, in truly being inclusive to the communities we serve. Informed in part by Ontario’s Museums 2025, the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport’s 2016 Ontario’s Culture Strategy, and the Indigenous Collections Next Step report, and with funding support from the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration and the Ontario Trillium Foundation, this project aims to inspire the Ontario museum sector to push the envelope on how museums can meaningfully engage diverse communities. Diversity and inclusion are complex and fluid, ever-evolving subjects, which cannot be addressed with static solutions. As such, Inclusion 2025 and the overall MAIEC project will not provide definitive rules on how to make your museum more inclusive, but rather, an invitation to all of you to use Inclusion 2025 and the Inclusion in Action case studies to guide your process. Open the conversation in your own spaces and join us in creating a more inclusive museum sector in Ontario! Inclusion 2025 includes: ● Inclusion as a Lens – guidelines on how to begin thinking about diversity and inclusion in your own spaces ● Inclusion in Action – stories from the field submitted by our 10 partner museums ● Resources – to support your own work in diversity and inclusion ● Community – a list of people committed to the cause of championing diversity and inclusion in the cultural sector Thank you for joining us on this journey, and we look forward to working with you in building a more inclusive Ontario museum sector by 2025! Sincerely, Marie Lalonde, Executive Director, Ontario Museum Association Cheryl Blackman, AVP Audience Development, Royal Ontario Museum Cathy Gallagher-Louisy, Senior Director, Consulting, Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion 7 II. About the Project Foreword At a panel discussion at the Ontario Museums Association (OMA) Conference 2016, Towards the Future: Diversity and Inclusion, the OMA, the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion (CCDI) publicly announced our collective intention to engage Ontario museums in a collaborative project to make our sector more diverse and inclusive. We challenged the community to reflect critically on the current gaps in diversity and inclusion in our sector and respond in a meaningful manner to long-present community voices calling for substantive change. We recognize that calls to action are not enough, and are committed to continuing our work to do right by our communities, audiences, staff and volunteers. The challenge we raised was inspired by conversations that have been happening in the cultural sector for years, possibly decades, and in December 2015, the OMA, ROM and CCDI made a commitment to collaborate to enhance diversity and inclusion in concrete ways. Under the leadership of Marie Lalonde, OMA Executive Director, Cheryl Blackman, ROM AVP Audience Development, and Cathy Gallagher- Louisy, CCDI Senior Director, Consulting, it was decided to leverage the OMA’s Ontario’s Museums 2025 vision and work across the province, the ROM’s award-winning work in museums engaging communities through the ROM Community Access Network and the ROM Diversity and Inclusion Committee (previously the Accessibility Advisory Committee), and CCDI’s expertise in diversity and inclusion research to develop and implement three primary project deliverables: ● A Diversity Census and Inclusion Survey of Ontario museums, to gauge current state demographic diversity and feelings about inclusion across the sector; ● An Emerging Museums Professional Mentorship project, which was delivered in partnership with Museums of Mississauga and Peel Art Gallery Museum and Archives in 2017; and ● A Guide to Inclusive Museums, to cover key areas of museum work and be developed in partnership with 10 museums across the province, who in turn would have mentorship and advisory access to a committee of leaders in diversity and inclusion in the cultural sector. Inclusion 2025 is the result of this work. If the museum of the future is driven by, entrenched in, and indistinguishable from, community, then how can we support museums and museum professionals in the complex work of becoming diversity and inclusion champions? As many working in the field can attest, there is no clear roadmap to diversity and inclusion. Inclusion 2025 is therefore not a definitive toolkit but rather a collection of tools, guidelines, cases, strategies and practices that museums can use to increase their capacity and effectiveness in addressing accessibility, diversity, inclusion and equity. It is informed and inspired by the OMA’s vision for the Ontario museum sector, Ontario’s Museums 2025, the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport’s 2016 Ontario’s Culture Strategy, and reports like the Indigenous Collections Next Steps. We believe that museums and museum professionals are enriched by prioritizing diversity and inclusion, and we are committed to challenging established practice and advocating for greater access, diversity, 8 inclusion