Warhol Museum gets grant to foster leadership diversity
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Andy Warhol Museum is among 20 institutions nationwide awarded a multiyear grant by The Ford Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation as part of their “Diversifying Art Museum Leadership Initiative.”
The North Side museum will receive $265,000 over three years.
The grant will support the development of strategies to diversify curatorial and management staff at art museums across the United States.
Recent studies have shown that only 16 percent of art museum leadership positions are held by people of color despite the fact that 38 percent of Americans identify as Asian, black, Hispanic or multiracial.
The Warhol will create a multitiered pipeline project including a youth outreach program, internships and alumni and mentoring programs, the museum said in a press release.
“This transformative funding marks the start of reimagining the museum’s education and outreach initiatives not just as fostering arts engagement and creative expression across our community, but as helping to develop a diverse new generation of museum leaders,” said Danielle Linzer, The Warhol’s director of learning and public engagement.
The museum already had made a long-term commitment to establishing an inclusive and equitable workplace culture and providing opportunities for staff to develop in that direction.
The grant comes just a month after museum chief curator Jose Carlos Diaz was appointed a 2018 fellow of the New York-based Center for Curatorial Leadership. Mr. Diaz was born in Miami and grew up near San Francisco.
The two foundations are committing $3 million each over three years to the grant program. Other recipients include such prestigious institutions as the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston.
“The arts play an essential role in our society by inspiring people of all ages to dream and to imagine new possibilities for themselves, their communities and the world,” said Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, in a press release. “To ensure the future health and vibrancy of the arts in America, we need more arts leaders who understand and relate to the deeply varied perspectives and life experiences that weave the rich fabric of our nation.”