From the Fellow: Educators as Executives: The Future of Museum Leadership

Monica Andrews (she/her) is the 2021/22 NEMA Fellow. As part of the fellowship Monica is writing a series of articles for the NEMA community. She is also the NEMA YEP PAG for Emerging Museum Professionals co-chair.

Introduction

Recent shifts in the museum field, away from solely collections-based practices and towards community-centric models and strategies, have allowed for the re-prioritization of community engagement and inclusion initiatives, solidifying the importance of the museum educator in management and planning roles.

Within art museums specifically, the pathway to executive director positions has traditionally been achieved through curatorial roles. But, the pandemic and times of social reckoning have caused many museums to look inward, reflect, and reimagine, often calling upon educators as leaders for creative solutions, innovative programming, or collaborators in forward-thinking practices, further solidifying their importance in the framework and future of our field.

Drawing from industry publications and interviews with senior leaders and education advocates, this article will examine the value of museum education and unpack how the skill sets and practices of museum educators could shape their roles as effective leaders and agents of change in our field’s next chapter.

Contemporary Workforce Considerations

Between April 2020 and today, the museum field has faced the challenges of workforce layoffs and furloughs, followed by the Great Resignation and movement across sectors, and now grapples with the shifting perceptions and needs of the workforce in our post-pandemic world. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in April 2020 the unemployment rate for the Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation sub-sector of the Leisure and Hospitality Super-Sector, which includes Museums, historical sites, & similar institutions (NAICS 712), was 47.2%. In May 2022, the unemployment rate for our sub-sector had recovered to 5.3%.^[1]

While our sector is slowly emerging from the upheaval of the last two years, nationally we are seeing a high rate of job vacancies across sectors, with 11.4 million job openings per the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data for April 2022.^[2] Aside from our sub-sector’s apparent recovery according to the quantitative data, Elizabeth Merritt’s analysis of the American Alliance of Museum’s COVID Impact Survey (pending publication) still shares that, “Over half of respondents are having trouble filling open positions, particularly for visitor-facing roles (guest services, admissions, frontline, and retail), essential support (facilities, maintenance, and security), and education. These positions not only suffer a disproportionate share of pandemic stress, they also typically offer relatively low pay and few opportunities for advancement.”^[3]

Unfortunately, this problem was likely exacerbated by the pandemic-induced furloughs and layoffs which disproportionately affected frontline workers, visitor services employees, and museum educators, as we saw at institutions like MoMA and LA MOCA.^[4] Not only were these workers forced out of their roles, but the remaining workers were met with unprecedented challenges, grappling with the persistent pandemic, social reckonings, and shifting staffing and financial structures – which created stressful environments for staff across the board. The 2020 AAM Report “Hindsight Is 2020” shared that, “Staff were already feeling overwhelmed, undervalued, and lacking in agency due to trauma from the pandemic and the way museums were generally handling furloughs and layoffs. The racial unrest in our country exacerbated the chasm forming between people in leadership positions and those they supervised, as countless informal conversations among museum professionals attested.”^[5] So, what does this mean for the museum educator today? What is the perceived value of these positions as we continue to grapple with ongoing health, social, and political challenges in our society, coupled with financial, leadership, and staffing challenges within our field?

Museum Education Today

The layoffs experienced by museum educators was concerning as these positions continue to play key roles in upholding their institution’s educational missions.^[6] Educators who remained despite these shifts in employment proved integral to the success of their institutions during a time when virtual learning became crucial to audience engagement while doors were shuttered, and when it came time to strategize creative solutions to adapt learning models upon reopening.

A 2020 open letter from National Art Educators Association President, Thom Knab, shared with cultural leaders that, “During this pandemic, museum education staff across the country have been incredibly agile in shifting their programming from in person to online. Much of the content shared on art museum websites has been developed and adapted by museum educators to meet people where they are. Museum educators are the professionals with deep knowledge of art and learning theory to create and sustain engaging virtual experiences for people of all ages. Museums everywhere are making definitive commitments to diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion (DEAI) work. Museum education departments have traditionally led the way in these efforts, often doing the slow, difficult work for years. Museum education staff must be retained to continue the forward momentum they have created and ensure that authentic change is possible. Museum educators have been cultivating relationships with many facets of the community for years, and these relationships need continued care to remain sustainable.”^[7] Knab’s writing highlights the variety of ways museum educators have long served their communities and institutions alike, whether initiating DEAI work, building community relationships, or shaping digital output and creative solutions during the pandemic.

The continuation and expansion of this work is key to the future of museums. Through email exchange, Museums As Agents of Change author Mike Murawski shared that, “Building a better future for museums involves educators and community organizers at the center. We have a lot of work to do to reimagine and reshape museums in a way that can make them more relevant for a much broader community, and I see educators as key to this work. Educators have been doing work for decades now that centers community and envisions museums as radical spaces of care, connection, belonging, learning, teaching, and sharing.”^[8]

While it may be easier to recognize how recent reckonings and socio-cultural discourse have positioned museum education at the forefront of our organizations with renewed urgency and opportunities to serve as sites for community engagement and education, let us remember that this same educational role and commitment to public service was presented as a defining duty of museums as long as three decades ago. The American Association of Museums’ (now American Alliance of Museums) ongoing report “Excellence and Equity,” first published in 1991, and again in 2008, states that, “Museums can no longer confine themselves simply to preservation, scholarship, and exhibition independent of the social context in which they exist. They must recognize that the public dimension of museums leads them to perform the public service of education—a term that in its broadest sense includes exploration, study, observation, critical thinking, contemplation, and dialogue.”^[9]

Today, we see yet another effort to cement these educational missions and commitments to community service and inclusion. The International Council of Museums (ICOM) has drafted a proposal to update the very definition of “museum” itself, which will be presented to the ICOM Executive Board for a vote to adopt the language during their general assembly meeting in August 2022. The proposed definition is: “A museum is a not-for-profit, permanent institution in the service of society that researches, collects, conserves, interprets and exhibits tangible and intangible heritage. Open to the public, accessible and inclusive, museums foster diversity and sustainability. They operate and communicate ethically, professionally and with the participation of communities, offering varied experiences for education, enjoyment, reflection and knowledge sharing.”^[10]

When we take this defining role of museums as providers of education and public service, and pair it with our need to disrupt and rebuild the systems in which we operate, the need to work towards facilitating authentic change and internal transformation, and the need to advance diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion, we cannot ignore the role and importance of museum educators as long standing leaders in these areas. “Museum educators and their departments are often at the forefront of change within their institutions given they are the main catalysts for connection, interpretation, and relevance between collections and communities,” says Wendy Ng, et al. in “Radical Reimaginings in Museum Education”.^[11] Knab concurs that, “Museum educators are critical bridge builders between communities and collections.”^[12]

New Pathways to Directorship

In his fall 2021 article, Artnet writer Zachary Small shared that, “There’s a generational shift among leaders sparking a wave of retirements, while controversies, pandemic-induced budget shortfalls, and demands for increased DEAI engagement are pushing other leaders out the door. According to an analysis by Artnet News, no fewer than 22 director positions are currently open at important art institutions across the country.”^{[13] [14]} As we unpack these challenges for leadership, reflect upon the impact of the pandemic on the landscape of museum education, and recognize the role of museum educators as innovators and facilitators of community engagement and public service, one may ask: Why do many executive director job listings still prioritize curatorial and art history backgrounds when the field is moving away from solely collections-based practices and towards community-centric models? How can institutions support the devaluing of museum educators as we witnessed in the pandemic furloughs, low pay, and position vacancies, yet position them as essential to the role of museums, calling upon them as innovators and agents of change? Museum educators may be uniquely positioned to serve as the next generation of leaders for the museum field based on their demonstrated experience with listening, innovation, community engagement, and work to advance DEAI through interpretive programming, partnerships, curriculum development, and more.

In a phone interview for this article, Director and President of Philbrook Museum of Art and Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) Trustee, Scott Stulen, shared, “If you looked at an overall roster of museum leaders across the country, it is normally weighted towards curatorial and art history…I think that has to change as museums become less solely about their collections. I feel strongly that the collection and the building that we have, and those resources, are only valuable if we can connect them to our community. For me, it is really understanding what audiences need, and what they are asking for, instead of us prescribing it to them – I think that is what museums often do. I think that [understanding audiences] is something that educators do all the time in their work…that’s what happens through programs, tours, the relationship through schools... In my case, it [the question] is, ‘What if you take those mentalities and you take it up to an Executive Director level and apply it across the whole institution?’…Everybody has to buy into these same principles.”^[15]

Stulen’s point about top-down leadership and prioritizing an educational and community-based lens is reflected in the same AAM “Equity and Excellence” report discussed earlier. The report argues that, “Leadership is the foundation. Museum leaders set the tone for the institution and establish the values that guide decision making. To foster both excellence and equity, museum trustees, directors, management, and staff along with the American Association of Museums and other professional organizations should increase their efforts to advocate the primacy of educational and public service functions. Sensitive, strong leadership will also guide museums as they seek to include a broader spectrum of their communities.”^[16]

Over the course of the past two years, or perhaps as a result of it, we have seen the restructuring of museum hiring with the combining of curatorial and education departments, mobility and turnover throughout the field, and even some educators rising to top leadership positions. One example is the appointment of Sandra Jackson-Dumont to the role of Director of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which is slated to open in 2023. In an interview for the podcast Hope & Dread, Naima J. Keith speaks of Jackson-Dumont’s appointment saying, “I am optimistic and excited that someone like Sandra is now leading a museum, and demonstrating that educators are brilliant, and see a museum holistically…Coming directly from being the head of education to a museum director, I think hopefully will open more doors for my colleagues. For them not just to consider applying for and really going for museum director roles, but also boards to consider educators.”^[17]

Hopefully, more doors do open for museum educators to share their ideas, assume leadership positions, and lay the groundwork for museums to further their community impact as we move forth into a complex post-pandemic socio-cultural landscape. Yet, while doors may indeed open for educators, we also need to reshape our systems to better support their work. “I feel very strongly that museum education, and all the various aspects that it encompasses, is vital to all the work that we are doing in museums. I also feel like it is not being funded in the same way,” says Scott Stulen. “It’s been said many times that if you want to look at priorities in museums, look at their budgets. We still spend too much money on exhibits over programming, in my opinion – it’s not even close…That’s got to change, and I think more places are seeing that the programming can be as big a driver as some of the exhibitions. I do think this is changing – I think it is slow, and I think the thing that hasn’t quite caught up to it, is how these places are investing in the staff to do that work.”^[18] Investing in education staff and their department budgets is an important part of shifting practices to help prioritize an institution’s educational mission and expand its ability to serve its communities. Another important piece of this puzzle is found in reframing traditional leadership models themselves to support collaboration, listening, and leadership throughout an organization. “When it comes to the role of Executive Director, ultimately I think people in these positions of power need to take the lead on the critical changes we need to see happen in museums,” says Mike Murawski. “This involves rethinking these leadership roles themselves, significantly restructuring institutions to move away from the harmful top-down hierarchies and inequitable power structures, and recognizing and valuing leadership at all levels and in all areas of an institution…I'm hopeful that we see more of a shift in the field of museums toward recognizing the pivotal value of educators as leaders.”^[19]