People standing in modern gallery looking at various works of art around the room.

Visitors gather in the museum galleries on a Free Sunday, photo: Bryan Conley

Inclusivity: Strategic Plan, 2018–2020

Increase our community’s sense that this is “a place for me” by 50%. We relax and engage more when we’re in a place where we’re known, understood, and supported. CMOA is or will be a place where we might meet people who are different from us, and from whom we might learn something about art and the world. We are also a place that provides a forum for challenging and provocative discussions about relevant social and cultural issues addressed in our exhibition program. In order to remain relevant in the 21st century, we must embrace a diverse array of audiences and attract staff and board members with diverse backgrounds and perspectives in their broadest senses.

The museum’s shared values statement is a declaration of our commitment to inclusivity: CMOA celebrates humanity and respects difference. We commit to fostering equity in what we say and do.

Key Strategies

  1. Expand our interpretive strategies. We are committed to welcoming and empowering multiple perspectives in order to create space for conversation and the exchange of ideas. We will actively seek diverse viewpoints in the development of our interpretive strategies, train staff to see the value in an inclusive interpretive strategy, and help visitors understand its importance as well. Our learnings will better enable CMOA to deliver inclusive, accessible, and responsive installations, exhibitions, and programs.
  2. Develop more inclusive programming. To be successful and grow, a museum must offer experiences that appeal to—and reflect the voices of—the audiences it wishes to attract. CMOA will actively seek feedback from and involve our audiences when we develop onsite, offsite, and online programming. We must also ensure we are attracting and promoting people who have a strong understanding of the impact of inclusive programming and have shown their ability to advocate for it. We must make a conscious effort to ensure that the board and staff, who drive programming decisions, reflect the diversity of the Pittsburgh region.
  3. Build a diverse collection. All five of the museum’s curatorial departments are committed to five-year collecting plans, which include acquiring artworks by underrepresented artists. Through press, programming, and installations in the galleries, CMOA will make space and time to share these acquisitions, invite conversations with our visitors about the collection, and build transparency about what we collect and why.
  4. Present diversity. In addition to building a more diverse collection, we need to rethink how we display the extensive collections that we already possess. We do have areas of strength reflecting the diversity of human beings and cultures across time. We will be proactive in exhibiting these works. We will also use more inclusive interpretative strategies to help visitors to understand the systemic erasures of artists of color, women artists, and LGBTQ artists, and the actions we are taking to rectify them.
  5. Build strategies to embody inclusivity within our internal culture. Just as we commit to increasing our visitors’ sense of inclusion, we also commit to embodying inclusivity internally, beginning with our staff—as manifest in our CMOA values statement. We will ensure that staff feels welcomed, supported, and encouraged to express their identities in the workplace and will develop and implement strategies for building inclusion within our staff at all levels.