Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging

Working collaboratively, the Rose team is committed to transforming our museum into an inclusive, diverse, equitable and accessible space for experiencing art. Below we have captured how our vision is reflected in our collecting, curating, and programming practices.

Collection

• In collecting intentionally, we elevate and diversify our holdings of underrepresented artists in the collection, artists who expand and question established art historical narratives, and emerging artists.
• Continue to hold ourselves accountable as equitable collection caretakers, evaluating gifts of art by the strengths they bring to the collection and not by existing or potential relationships with their donors.
• Move towards and embrace more open, less proprietary modes of collecting, partnering with other institutions in consortium and shared acquisitions, and raising the visibility of these co-owned works to promote alternative practices of accessioning.
• Review our collection and repatriate objects as appropriate per the standards of NAGPRA.
• Support initiatives that increase accessibility to and democratize the museum’s permanent collection: digitization and online publication of the collection; more frequent loans of works to organizations and spaces outside of the museum; and investigate the possibility of open storage.
• Invest in the resources required to make the collection more physically accessible for faculty, scholars, and students from Brandeis and beyond.

Exhibitions

• In addition to amplifying artists’ voices, publicly address the values in which we believe, using our DEIA vision statement as an active set of guiding principles for every aspect of our programmatic work.
• When hiring contractors and freelance workers (designers, editors, photographers, and others) to work with the museum, make a more concerted effort to invest in Minority and Women owned businesses, expanding our search processes beyond the established and familiar sources.
• In conversation with artists, determine if there are other, more impactful, and mutually beneficial ways—such as residencies or funding for site-responsive projects—to support their practices beyond the traditional commercial and capitalist systems.
• Using experts’ advice and experience, adopt exhibition planning practices and implement technology that make participation possible and welcome all visitors, including members of the disability community and non-English speakers.
• Educate and train museum staff, gallery guides, gallery attendants, and volunteers to be more knowledgeable about the art on view, feel equipped to engage in challenging conversations in the museum’s galleries, and better represent the values central to the Rose’s mission.

Programs 

• In public programming, we develop and offer programs that reflect the reality and lived experiences of our communities, including people of color, people of all gender identities and sexual orientations, religions, socioeconomic backgrounds, immigrants, and people with disabilities.
• Identify where there are gaps in audience outreach and engagement, and what can be done to build these connections.
• With the advice and experience of experts, adopt program and event planning practices that make participation possible for members of the disability community and for non-English speakers.
• Create more equitable and community-invested programming models, with public events that amplify community voices.
• Create new models to fund and support the work and training of young and underrepresented museum workers at various stages, from internships for Waltham and area Teens, to Brandeis SSSP students, to post-Baccalaureate and post-Doctoral opportunities.

We are committed to actively engaging as listeners and partners with our audience and community members to build authentic relationships and to ensure that the communities’ voices and needs are considered and reflected in the museum’s artistic mission. We want to invite and make welcome constituencies who have previously not had access to or been embraced by museums.

• Emphasize a welcoming, accessible atmosphere in which we create and deepen relationships, empower visitors, and work to ensure that they feel that the Rose is their museum.

• Invite full participation through an open, dynamic, and inclusive process in which we consistently solicit frequent feedback from our audiences and work to address concerns through continuous improvements.

• Design a timely and effective process for responding to visitors’ inquiries and comments.

• Review Rose website with input from experts in digital accessibility and incorporate changes to increase accessibility.

• Actively reach beyond the museum’s walls to find new and underutilized pathways for audience engagement, community partnerships, and employee recruitment.

• Actively engage with the Rose Campus Council composed of Brandeis students, faculty, staff, and members of the Rose team.

• Conduct direct outreach, convene town hall meetings, and leverage public programming to elevate the work of individuals, organizations, and leaders from neighboring communities to create genuine, lasting partnerships.

• Utilize virtual technologies to broaden our reach nationally and internationally.

• Continuously educate ourselves about the past and present of Indigenous communities in our region and beyond. Forge meaningful relationships with Indigenous artists and communities and strive to repair relationships with native peoples and with the land.

• Read the land statement at the start of each of our programs and work to post onto our website, physically in the galleries, and in printed materials.

• Hire, include, and collaborate with Indigenous workers in our field, and involve Indigenous perspectives in our programming and operations.

The Rose Art Museum believes that addressing systemic racism and inequities begins with examining our own structures, hierarchies, leadership, and internal culture. Noting that the composition of our staff and board lacks adequate representation of non-white individuals, we are committed to making changes and to diversifying our team. To support change, we will engage the entire organization in the process, along the way building systems of accountability, power sharing, and an open and inclusive culture.

Board of Advisors

• Transform the makeup of the Rose Art Museum’s Board of Advisors, inviting more diverse members in terms of experience, skill sets, communities, race, ethnicity, gender, class, perspectives, and more.
• As part of the strategic plan, revise and approve Board bylaws and policies that align with the Rose’s DEIA values.
• Discuss DEIA/Justice work with Board members, especially with the Governance Committee and hold joint staff-board meetings to refine plans.
• Discuss and implement term limits for members of the museum’s Board of Advisors, working with the Governance Committee.
• Recommend to the board an annual board DEIA audit and consistent DEIA goal-setting.

Staff (Job Descriptions, Payroll, Benefits)

• Benchmark art handlers' pay and discuss with art handlers ways to improve their pay and benefits and how the Rose can support them.
• Design a process for salary transparency to advocate for equitable pay related to expected labor and how the Rose compensates full and part-time staff.
• Redesign museum student positions and advocate for higher wage rates.
• Evaluate and structure the way that the museum works with guest curators to ensure a welcoming, inclusive, and equitable relationship with permanent museum staff.
• Advocate for equitable benefits alignment between non-exempt and exempt university staff at Brandeis as well as transportation subsidies.
• Evaluate pay structure and explore more equitable models.
• With increased funding, create curatorial positions for entry-level, underrepresented professionals, allowing the Rose to serve an educational/mentorship role for curators.
• When recruiting and hiring, review job descriptions to consider whether accommodations may be made for individuals with disabilities to perform the job; if so, specify this when advertising open positions. Consider the accessibility of advertising sites and consider posting in locations where people with disabilities are likely to find Rose job listings.

Structures (Meetings, Systems)

• Conduct an annual internal DEIA audit that evaluates all aspects of the museum with a comprehensive survey or feedback session of all part-time, full-time, contract, and student staff and interns to collect feedback to be used for continuous improvement.
• Establish a student advisory council.

Culture (Who We Want to Be, How We Want Working with Us to Feel)

• Create and invest in a more fully inclusive museum structure and culture, fostering open dialogue among staff at all levels and incorporating ideas generated by these conversations into plans for the future of the Rose.
• Incorporate more “Plus Delta,” “Roses & Thorns,” or “debrief” meetings after all events/projects/installations to build a culture and practice of learning and improving.
• Build into staff meetings regular, inclusive, supportive opportunities for hearing and developing responses to institutional feedback. Arrange training for staff on how to take in, receive, and grow from feedback on the institution. Make sure every staff member is supported and well-prepared to respond to feedback from the public.
• Create a culture that empowers staff to avoid over-work and to claim their off-work time, by adopting practices that respect everyone’s labor and time.
• Museum workloads vary in terms of intensity and urgency. Divide the labor and onsite commitments equitably between all personnel. Avoid gaps and discrepancies of labor, effort, and time commitment between members of the team.

Since its founding at Brandeis, the ideals and values of social justice have been embedded in the mission and practices of the Rose Art Museum. We see anti-racism as part of this identity as an organization with a social justice soul, which demands that we stand against all forms of injustice and oppression. Some of our commitments therefore extend beyond our mission as an art museum, into how we interact with each other, the art world, other institutions, our community, and our planet. As such, we will devote planning and energy to our impact and the changes we can make beyond the museum walls.

• Continuously review language and structures used both internally and externally, in order to affirm inclusivity and build positive, productive relationships.
• Advocate for positive changes in our interactions with Brandeis Public Safety, our first responders, including but not limited to: use of plainclothes officers at Rose events and unarmed response; support for campus efforts to disarm and restructure the police force; improved safety and emergency response training for Rose staff; improved security technology at the Rose; request ongoing dialogue with Public Safety staff on issues that may affect visitor experiences.
• Commit to ensure that any future expansion plans for the museum do not contribute to gentrification, displacement, and housing insecurity.
• Through relationships and collaborative programming with our neighbors, increase awareness of community issues, especially those that disproportionately affect BIPOC residents.
• Think expansively about the resources that the Rose can share (space, knowledge/skill/experience, time, position) in ways that support community efforts on campus and in our surrounding communities.
• Adopt our own policy on responsible investment and gift acceptance requirements. Review Brandeis’s socially responsible investment policy for alignment with our values and advocate for positive changes where possible.
• Learn more about university expansion plans and how they impact the community in order to advocate for responsible development.
• Adopt a statement on the Rose’s commitment to wage equity and avoid asking for uncompensated labor.
• Support the work of other groups on campus (such as student organizations) that are looking at divestiture from prisons and other entities that profit from destruction.
• Report progress on this plan and results from DEIA audits publicly in the interest of transparency around our accomplishments, challenges, and areas for improvement.