What we are doing to tackle racism

Our actions at the Museums Association

We are convening a sector-wide campaign for museums to tackle racism. This includes work towards a strategy for anti-racism in museums and campaigning for workforce and governance diversity. 

We have published Museum Essentials: Supporting Anti-Racism, a free online learning programme for all our members, and we are embedding anti-racism in our professional development and funding programmes as well as developing inclusive recruitment guidance for the sector.

Our campaign also includes delivering our Supporting Decolonisation in Museums guidance and our Decolonisation Confidence and Skills programme.

We are committed to funding anti-racism practice and work that centres equity and justice through our Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund and other funding.

As a membership organisation we also recognise we have a significant role in looking at our own practice. To address this we have taken the following actions:

Inclusive events places and memberships 

Working with our Benevolent Fund, we have extended our inclusive places for people who face barriers to participation so that we now offer at least 10 free places at each of our events, plus 100 free memberships per year.

Inclusive recruitment and internships 

We have implemented an inclusive recruitment policy to ensure that we follow best practice and take positive action. Where we have interns and work placements, we are looking to schemes that support people who experience discrimination. 

Anti-racism training  

We have rolled out anti-racism training for all our staff so that they understand the context and importance of this work, as well giving them practical advice to improve their practice. 

Speakers at our staff meetings  

We have had a series of speakers at our staff meetings to discuss how the sector and the MA can understand the issues and respond to them. 

Measuring our practice 

We regularly audit the diversity of our staff, board and volunteers, and we are developing impact measures for our equity and inclusion policies.

Budgeting for action 

We have created and significantly increased our access and inclusion budgets to deliver against our anti-racism and inclusion targets.

Further reading and resources

Examples of commitments and frameworks

If you want to add your case studies to this list please email info@museumsassociation.org with the subject line “anti-racism case study”.

Image courtesy of the International Slavery Museum, Liverpool