Effective Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism Practices for Museums, edited by Cecile Shellman. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2022
REVIEWED BY KINZIE WHIPPLE
In recent years, many museums have made countless efforts to appear more inclusive, but most of these efforts have fallen flat. Museum diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion consultant, Cecile Shellman, took the initiative to create an all-in-one resource that outlines important practices that museums should implement to make their spaces more inclusive. The book, Effective Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism Practices for Museums discusses the apparent need for diversity within museums, while highlighting important actions museums can take to ensure they are a safe space for everyone. Shellman reveals that she wrote this book “to challenge museums professionals to develop a capacity for empathy; recognize their own exclusive and oppressive habits in museum culture and personal comportment; and locate those actions along a continuum of emerging intercultural awareness through a DEAI and justice lens” (2). Shellman poses this call-to-action with the hopes of making museums a more inclusive and equitable space. The book discusses Shellman’s personal accounts of workplace segregation while she worked within various museums; these experiences led her to question her value and worth as an individual. While the focus may be on visitors for some, museum professionals need to ensure there is diversity taking place between them and their colleagues. Diversity within museum professionals is essential for achieving diversity within their visitors. The personal experiences Shellman includes strengthens her claim and increases the likelihood of emotional response from the readers.
Effective Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism Practices for Museums recognizes these institutions have greatly benefited from white supremacy, in a society that caters to white culture. Because of these deeply rooted systemic beliefs, there are often instances of bias, specifically unconscious bias. These biases can be damaging to anti-racism movements because they reinforce negative stereotypes and facilitate discrimination, such as microaggressions. Shellman discusses four main areas museums need improvement in, which are: Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion (DEAI). Museums used to rely on their human resource departments to tackle these topics, but Shellman argues these topics need to be addressed by every employee within a museum. She graciously provides ten things museum staff could do to ensure their guests feel welcomed and included. Some recommendations include having a visitor service staff person available at the entrance of a museum and making sure signs are legible and in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) guidelines (32). These recommendations seem simple, but they greatly enhance the visitor experience.
Shellman does an excellent job at simplifying the beginning stages of implementing DEAI practices. She identifies key important questions museums should be asking themselves, as well as provides an exercise to get museum professionals in the right mindset for tackling their DEAI journey. The key is for museums to be specific with their intended goal, often DEAI practices fall flat because the goals are too vague to be successfully accomplished. These goals should be known by everyone within the museum, from the director to the food staff. Museums should strive to withhold an authentic commitment to social justice, as this increases their dedication to implementing DEAI practices.
DEAI work exists in four main realms: personal, interpersonal, institutional, and systemic. To ensure these goals are being implemented, an audit should be conducted every so often to verify the museum is withholding their commitment to these practices. Shellman recognizes there will be an adjustment period for some once the implementation of these practices takes place. She states it is crucial for designated trainings and meetings to yield “an environment in which humble collective learning experiences can occur without shame or guilt” (68). This allows museums to facilitate respectful conversations in a space where their employees can modify damaging behavior. Shellman provides her readers with ten different case studies that combine matters surrounding diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion. Each case study features questions at the end to further expand on each scenario and bring in different viewpoints. Shellman wraps up her book by identifying organizational changes that could be made throughout museums. Some of these recommended changes include topics such as structure, governance, staffing, and skills. She provides detailed examples of how different sections within museums can actively embrace DEAI practices. It is crucial to remember all parts of a museum have to be in compliance with DEAI practices to see substantial changes being made.
Cecile Shellman’s book is an important resource for all museums. At its core, Effective Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism Practices for Museums demands the need for inclusive and diverse practices in all spaces within a museum. Museum professionals must remember that museums “have counted on the continuation of white leadership, tradition, collections, prestige, finance, visibility– often at the expense and to the detriment of people of color, people with economic need, and others at the margin” (92). It is up to current and incoming museum professionals to dismantle the system and be the change they seek. Museums no longer should be quiet, rather they should loudly advocate for systemic and organizational change, which will positively lead society in the right direction.
My only critique of Cecile Shellman’s book is the lack of concrete examples on how the DEAI practices she focuses her book on positively changed museum environments. I believe including examples of these changes would have been extremely beneficial and inspiring for museum professionals. Interviewing museums who have implemented these practices would have strengthened her overall call to action. Besides this critique, Shellman’s book was thoughtfully written and provided crucial evidence of the need for museums to implement DEAI practices within their institutions.
Kinzie Whipple is a first-year MA student in the IU Indianapolis Museum Studies program.
