After Students of Color Were Harassed at the MFA Boston Earlier This Year, the Museum Is Now Hiring a New ‘Director of Inclusion’

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
is creating a new staff position to oversee the institution’s
diversity efforts. The
news follows a much-publicized incident last May in which
several students of color
were harassed during a visit to the museum—an episode that has spurred an official
apology from museum management, the banning of two of its members,
numerous public discussions with the community, and an
investigation from
the Massachusetts state attorney general. 

The person who fills the new
role, with the title senior director of inclusion, will oversee a
department within the museum’s division of learning and community
engagement. Following a roundtable meeting with Boston city council
members and other local leaders last month, the museum is writing
the job description now and will post it in the coming
weeks. 

“This new position signals the
MFA’s deepened commitment to inclusion, community, and
generosity—core tenets of the museum’s 150th anniversary in 2020
and beyond, key to inspiring new audiences to explore the
collection,” according to a statement
from the museum. 

The meeting, led by museum
director Matthew Teitelbaum and chief of learning and community
engagement Makeeba McCreary, also yielded several new changes to
the way the institution handles visits from school groups.
Now, the museum, which receives
roughly 60,000 elementary and high school students annually, will
provide field-trip attendees with a questionnaire, a digital presentation,
and a video produced by the the museum’s teen program in an effort
to address potential student concerns and to better understand what
teachers are hoping to gain from the experience. Additional staff
will be placed at the entrance to the museum where school groups
enter, and educators will be stationed in popular galleries to
answer questions.  

“It’s not a secret that this
museum doesn’t serve folks who are black and brown,” McCreary, who
will oversee the new senior director of inclusion, told the Boston
Associated Press. “We
know enough to know that’s not who we want to be.”

Representation of women is an
issue at the museum as well. A study published by
artnet News last month
found that just 4 percent of the work collected by the museum
between 2008 and 2018 was done by women. Though the institution may
be taking steps to address this disparity, too. Currently on view
at the museum is “Women Take the
Floor,” an expansive
exhibition of women artists that occupies the entire third level of
its American wing.

The post After Students of Color Were Harassed at the MFA
Boston Earlier This Year, the Museum Is Now Hiring a New ‘Director
of Inclusion’ appeared first on artnet News.