Museums face calls to better represent people of color

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — As young as 5 years old, La Tanya Autry loved visiting local museums like the Detroit Institute of Art with her mom. She relished the shows, dances and plays she saw there. But as she walked through their halls, she felt a disconnect.

There were few artworks by Black Americans like her in the works on display.

“They didn’t show my experiences or the experiences of so many other communities,” said Autry. “That has to change.”

Today she is on the front lines of a movement calling on museums to better represent communities and artists of color.

“What museums call `neutral’ is all part of a status quo system,” said Autry, a curatorial fellow at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland who helped start an initiative called Museums Are Not Neutral. “And that system perpetuates oppression, racism, injustice and colonialism.”

Museums already were struggling with questions of inclusivity when the coronavirus pandemic forced a lot of them to shutter in March. Then in May, the police killing of George Floyd led to protests and calls for racial justice. Tech and film companies, banks, sports leagues and other institutions started making changes as part of a racial reckoning.

Museums set the standard for what art is, and this standard has generally been decided by white men and excludes other viewpoints, said Mike Murawski, a Portland-based leader of Museums Are Not Neutral.

Among 18 major U.S. museums, 85% of artists featured are white, while 87% are men, according to a 2019 study conducted at Williams College.

Museums Are Not Neutral is calling for structural change, including in museums’ hiring practices, the makeup of their boards and their partnerships. They say museums should also return looted African artifacts, and other items...