Contents I. A Letter from our Project Leaders 9 II. About the Project 10 Foreword 11 Project Team and Partners 14 The Museum Accessibility, Inclusion and Engagement Collaborative 14 Partner Museums 15 Advisory Committee Members 15 Our Guiding Principles 16 Development Process 19 Identification of the Gap 19 Ideation 20 Research 22 Community Engagement 22 Pilot Project 22 Inclusion in Action - Case Study 23 Guide Design 23 The Next Chapters 23 How to Use this Guide 24 III. Inclusion as a Lens 24 The Numbers – Ontario’s Changing Demographics 24 Looking Inward 25 Bias and Cultural Competence 27 2 Common Misconceptions 29 Change Agency 30 Self-Care 31 IV. Inclusion in Action 34 Multi-layered Collections: Reframing the Whitehern Collection (Hamilton Civic Museums) 34 Preamble 34 Our Story 35 Learnings 39 Moving Forward 41 Acknowledgements 42 Contributors 42 Resources 44 Dig Deeper 44 Access 2 All: Programs and Events (Ermatinger • Clergue National Historic Site) 46 Preamble 46 Our Story 47 Learnings 49 Moving Forward 51 Acknowledgements 52 Contributors 54 Resources 57 Dig Deeper 57 3 Diversifying Human Resources and Volunteer Policies: Activating change in small to medium-sized galleries (Art Gallery of Sudbury) 59 Preamble 59 Our Story 61 Learnings 63 Moving Forward 64 Acknowledgements 65 Contributors 66 Resources 67 Dig Deeper 68 Curating Change: Bringing Diversity to Museum Collections through Audience Insight (Markham Museum) 69 Preamble 69 Our Story 70 Learnings 72 Moving Forward 74 Contributors 76 Acknowledgements 79 Resources 80 Dig Deeper 80 Making Indigenous Collections Accessible: A Collaboration with Nin Da Waab Jig (Museums Windsor) 81 Preamble 81 Our Story 82 Learnings 84 4 Moving Forward 86 Acknowledgements 87 Contributors 87 Resources 89 Dig Deeper 89 Exhibitions and Curatorial Practice (Niagara Falls Museum) 91 Preamble 91 Our Story 92 Learnings 93 Moving Forward 95 Acknowledgements 95 Contributors 96 Resources 97 Dig Deeper 97 From the Outside In: The Welcome Experience Beyond the Front Door (The Robert McLaughlin Gallery) 99 Preamble 99 Our Story 101 Learnings 103 Moving Forward 104 Acknowledgments 105 Contributors 105 Resources 107 Dig Deeper 107 5 Things to Remember: Re-Examining the Design of Out from Under (Royal Ontario Museum) 108 Preamble 108 Our Story 109 Learnings 113 Moving Forward 115 Acknowledgements 115 Contributors 116 Resources 117 Dig Deeper 118 Engaging Community: The Affirmation Bowls Project (Simcoe County Museum) 119 Preamble 119 Our Story 120 Learnings 121 Moving Forward 122 Acknowledgements 123 Contributors 124 Resources 125 Not Just the Numbers: Representation and the Canadian Census 126 Preamble 126 Our Story 127 Learnings 129 Moving Forward 130 Acknowledgements 131 6 Contributors 133 Resources 136 Dig Deeper 137 Interpretation and Education (Waterloo Region Museum) 139 Preamble 139 Our Story 140 Learnings 141 Moving Forward 142 Acknowledgements 142 Contributors 143 Resources 144 Dig Deeper 145 V. Resources 147 Diversity + Inclusion 147 Self-Assessments 147 Accessibility / Disability Arts + Culture 147 Community Engagement 148 Events and Programming 148 Audience Insight 148 Governance 148 Human Resources and Volunteers 148 Facilities 149 Collections 149 Exhibitions and Curatorial Practices 149 Education and Interpretation 149 7 Marketing and Communications 149 8 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. 9 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 II. About the Project 10 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; 11 ● 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