[to be entered in the final page title box] Anti-Racism Action Plan: Executive summary
In July 2020, the staff of the Manetti Shrem Museum (MSM) adopted a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEAI) Mission Statement formalizing a shared commitment that was posted to our website on June 12, 2020.
We make an ongoing commitment to confront systemic racism in the Manetti Shrem Museum’s culture and practices by understanding the fraught history of museums and breaking down barriers to diversity, equity, accessibility and inclusion.
This mission statement drives the process of internal interrogation prompted by a long-overdue reckoning with the racism and injustice inherent in the museum field, and our culture at large.
The Anti-Racism Action Plan is a working document that outlines the start of an ongoing process to confront systemic racism. The plan is the process by which the museum is identifying the questions that will empower change. The plan is intended to be a high-level outline and timeline that tracks many nuanced and complex projects—what we are calling “specific actions”—that range from collection assessment to staff training. We proceed from a belief that every aspect of our organization must be assessed while our staff and leadership at all levels deepen our understanding of, and ability to locate, the mechanisms of systemic racism at work in our museum.