LACMA Scores Near Top for Curator Diversity

The New York Times has an article on diversity in curatorial positions, with a chart of self-reported data on curators identifying as persons of color. One takeaway is that LACMA and the Brooklyn Museum appear to be the most diverse of the nation's encyclopedic art museums. LACMA's share of nonwhite curators (36%) is nearly twice that of the Art Institute of Chicago (19%) and triple that of the Metropolitan Museum (11%). Of the surveyed institutions, the Pérez Art Museum Miami had the highest proportion of curators of color (50%).

Wages remain a barrier for curators not coming from a wealthy family. Major museums cluster in expensive real estate markets, where a living wage may be more than an entry-level salary. The Times' Robin Pogrebin quotes LACMA curator Christine Y. Kim: "I had to turn down a curatorial assistant offer at the Guggenheim in 1999 because of how little the pay was."

(The 1977 photo shows gallerist Betty Asher and LACMA curators Maurice Tuchman, Stephanie Barron, and Cecil Fergerson—who was originally hired as a janitor. (c) Museum Associates/LACMA)