SAINT LOUIS ART MUSEUM DIVERSITY STUDY GROUP REPORT TO THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS AUGUST 31, 2020 Saint Louis Art Museum Diversity Study Group Report to the Board of Commissioners – August 31, 2020 TABLE OF CONTENTS OVERVIEW 3 RECOMMENDATIONS & SUGGESTIONS FOR CONSIDERATION 8 Mission and Values 8 Governance 8 Management Team 10 Employment 11 Acquisitions 12 Collection 13 Exhibitions 13 Curatorial Addition 14 Education 15 Audience 16 Visitor Experience 16 Targeted Advertising and Marketing 18 Philanthropy and Development 18 Bearden Fellows 19 Richardson Memorial Library and Museum Archives 21 Docents 22 Contractors and Suppliers 23 Collaboration with Other Institutions 23 Endowment Investment 24 Saint Louis Art Museum as the Center of its Community 25 2 | P a g e Saint Louis Art Museum Diversity Study Group Report to the Board of Commissioners – August 31, 2020 OVERVIEW The Commissioners of the St. Louis Art Museum Subdistrict of the Zoo Museum District find that we are in a historic time as society focuses on issues of diversity, equity, access, and inclusion. As we, and our community, engage with the past and present to shape our steps into the future, we must ask ourselves how we as the governing body ensure that the Saint Louis Art Museum represents principles of diversity and inclusion, applying these principles in all that the institution does. Our role is to show our audience the complex narratives of the human condition that art can tell across the diverse cultures of the world and the diverse perspectives of all eras. As one of our Board members said: “When a museum has a great exhibit, the person traveling through its entrance is not the same person that leaves its exit because that person has been exposed to different cultures with various perspectives on distinct experiences in a given time.” In other words, the Art Museum should help its audience understand the human condition with all its successes and failures by including stories of survival, prejudice, and enlightenment. And in performing that role as an institution it must strive to represent an understanding of how society can succeed in inclusivity. The Saint Louis Art Museum should be a catalyst in St. Louis for conversations about our collective history—every race, every era, and every culture. That can be done through art and discussions about what art is saying about the human condition. That conversation will include both humankind’s successes and failures, so we can all learn from them. It requires a cross- cultural dialogue including diverse voices and perspectives. We must embrace that the Museum has a unique role to address past injustices, to raise awareness, and to encourage understanding. The Diversity Study Group has undertaken to bring to the Commission broad recommendations of how to build the institution that can lead in that role. We found that the Museum has made meaningful progress in diversity and inclusion. Works have been accessioned by African American and Black artists, including important objects by African diaspora artists. These accessions reflect a diversity of era, medium, and artistic identity. Exhibitions of Black artists have been presented with engaging interpretive and educational 3 | P a g e Saint Louis Art Museum Diversity Study Group Report to the Board of Commissioners – August 31, 2020 opportunities for visitors. We are gratified to have achieved a 2019 average Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 84 for African American visitors and an average of 86 for all visitors.1 The visitor profile for the Museum continues to draw well from racially and ethnically diverse audiences. Exceptional among art museums, ethnically diverse visitors make up 37% of the visitors, compared to 26% of the metro-St. Louis population. Finally, we are honored to have designed and stewarded one of the nation’s first and most successful pipeline programs, the Romare Bearden Fellowship, which for nearly 30 years has hosted a one-year fellowship at the Art Museum for outstanding emerging art professionals who bring diversity to the art world. The Fellows work under the direction of the Director of Audience Development, rotating through departments, collaborating on projects, and completing their year with a capstone project. Bearden Fellow alumni now hold a range of prestigious positions in the art world. They are museum directors, educators, curators, and other professionals: gallerists and academic art historians. They hold or have held roles at the Art Institute of Chicago, National Gallery of Art, National Portrait Gallery, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Saint Louis Art Museum, Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Texas, Austin, among other institutions. The Bearden Fellowship has been a highly effective program for diversifying the ranks of art professionals nationally and should be lauded for its success. In the process, it has generated a deep pool of both emerging arts professionals and senior thought leaders. The substantial diversity progress achieved under the guidance and leadership of the Museum Director and in accordance with the current long-range plan, gives the Museum a strong foundation on which to build. In undertaking and now adopting this Report, the Commission is evaluating progress and, with the Director and staff, helping the institution move forward. Indeed, even as we acknowledge our accomplishments to date and their positive impact on St. Louis and beyond, we know we have much work to do. The Art Museum aspires to become a local leader among cultural institutions and a national leader among museums to embrace and integrate diversity and inclusion across our mission, in our values, and through all aspects of Museum operations. In order to become a local and national leader, we as a governing body are prepared to take responsibility for that work. 1 The average NPS for museums is 54. Net Promoter Score is a measure of consumer loyalty and advocacy used across many industries, and increasingly, by museums. NPS is determined based on the question “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend the Saint Louis Art Museum to a friend or family member?” Their numeric answer determines the NPS that can range from -100 to +100. Scores above 0 are considered good, over 50 excellent, and over 70 world-class. 4 | P a g e Saint Louis Art Museum Diversity Study Group Report to the Board of Commissioners – August 31, 2020 The role of this Diversity Study Group was not to create specific plans and proposals. The Commission has governing responsibility for the institution. In accordance with that responsibility, the Commission will set the standards for the Art Museum and devise processes that allow for the design and execution of Museum operating strategies through its governing committees, management, and staff. This Report makes several recommendations for immediate Commission action in stating the Art Museum mission and values, and modifying governing infrastructure. These actions will ensure that further progress is made as the Museum pursues its mission and adheres to its values. Furthermore, this review suggests a number of ambitions and potential opportunities for the institution but none could be implemented other than through our governance process. Fundamentally, we believe sound process creates the most effective results. On that basis, highlighted below are a number of key Museum areas and diversity considerations for each. The list of items “To Consider” is intentionally exhaustive of all the suggestions we have heard and found desirable through the assessment process. We believe further examination is warranted and required in every case. We view these areas and groups of suggestions not as isolated silos but instead as component parts of a comprehensive effort by the Museum to reflect diversity, justice, inclusion, and welcoming to all in everything it does. Accountability for the implementation of the ideas and items in this Report rests with the Commission itself. Once the Commission has established the Diversity Committee with its charge and charter (both recommended in this Report), that committee will monitor, assess, and report progress with respect to all matters raised in this report. Each of the items set out in this Report as “To Consider,” if exclusively the province of the Board and Commission, will be assigned by the Diversity Committee to the appropriate Board committee. The “To Consider” items that are not exclusively the province of the Board will be considered by Museum management and staff, who will report progress on a regular basis to the Diversity Committee, who will in turn report to the Commission. Neither the item nor how it is to be executed is mandated by this Report. Instead the Boards and Museum staff will determine which items to implement, in what priority, and how. We expect that new ideas will be generated as the Boards and staff move through this process. The Commission has the ultimate responsibility to ensure that every item in this Report is considered, and where desirable and feasible will be implemented. The Art Museum values diversity in all its forms including: age, disability, economic status, gender, national origin, race, religion, sex, and sexuality. Given the current national calls for 5 | P a g e Saint Louis Art Museum Diversity Study Group Report to the Board of Commissioners – August 31, 2020 racial equity and events in our home city St. Louis, the Study Group decided to focus an initial diversity, equity, access, and inclusion case study on the Black community, which includes Africans, African Americans, and others members of the African diaspora. The strategy is for the Museum to design, implement, and assess with the Black community, and then revise and implement the process and plan more broadly to be inclusive of other groups. We will use lessons learned from this initial study to create a template to guide our aspiration to become a national model for artistic ambition and excellence through inclusion of diversity in all forms.