The diversity plan extends over two years with the goal of improving recruitment processes so that more people with different backgrounds are employed, increasing diversity both in terms of the board and art purchases. The museum also wants to work to reach a wider audience, writes The New York Times.
The diversity plan was adopted on Monday, two months after about two hundred employees and former employees submitted a letter to the board with accusations of promoting racist structures in the work environment. Among the signatories was a woman who curated a Basquiat exhibition for the museum in 2019. The woman believes that she has never been treated as racist in her professional life, as when she worked for Guggenheim.
It is in connection with Black lives matter that the American art world has come under scrutiny. Earlier this summer, among other things, the museum director at the San Francisco museum of modern art quit, following accusations of racism.