Museums. What’s the Big Deal?
Museums are important!
Museums are the “economic engines of the community” (American Alliance of Museums)
Museums in the United States directly generated 15.9 billion dollars, and contributed 50 billion dollars to the U.S. GDP. On top of that, U.S. museums support 762,000 jobs and provide “12 billion dollars in taxes to local, state, and federal governments” (American Alliance of Museums).
During quarantine…
1 out of 3 museums may close forever.
This may mean…
- 12,000 museums will be closed
- 242,000 jobs may be lost
Museums include, but are not limited to…
history and art museums, science centers, children’s museums, botanic gardens, zoos, and aquariums.
Museums are more popular than The Plastics.
U.S. museums receive around 850 million visits each year, which is more visits than “all major league sporting events and theme parks combined (483 million in 2011).” (Institute of Museums and Library Services study)
As we’ve seen above, museums play a very influential part in our society, so they should be good influencers… right?
Something to Note:
All museums are public service institutions and the history of museums shows that museums have always had a crucial role in expressing their concerns on issues surrounding their community.
With that being said…
The Stats:
The American Alliance of Museums shows that 84 percent of high power leadership positions in museums are held by non-Hispanic whites.
A study done by Williams College in 2019 states “85 percent of the works [in 18 major U.S. museums] were by white artists and 87 percent were by men.” (with black artists as the lowest percentage at 1.25.)
In 2010, the core museum visitor population was only nine percent of minorities. (William College Study) This shows the strong correlation between the low percentage of minorities in leadership and artworks/artists to the low minority audience rate.
The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement:
The Museums as A Site for Social Action Organization provided a research study on how many museums responded to the BLM movement. They conducted on a sample size of 1,088 accredited museums in the United States.
Out of the 1,088 museums, only 572 made a “racial-equity” related statement and 512 made no statement. Out of all of the museums, 420 were art museums and 280 of the art museums responded with a statement.
Around half of the museums do not feel the need to comment on the largest movement in the United States. All museums have a place in the BLM movement because of how widespread it is in American culture (BLM protests have occurred in all 50 states).