m/Oppenheim Selected by Mississippi Symphony Orchestra to Find New President huntscanlon.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from huntscanlon.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
How Museums Use and Misuse Corporate Consultants as a Bandaid to Address Diversity and Solve Their Biggest Problems
Missteps and voided promises are bringing new scrutiny to for-profit strategies in the nonprofit field.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.
The task should have been simple for an executive search firm like m/Oppenheim Associates. The Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields was paying the company to help bring a new director through its doors. But the job listing on the search firm’s website created an explosive controversy when it expressly requested that applicants help attract not only a more diverse crowd, but also maintain its “traditional, core, white art audience.”
Feb 16, 2021 / 06:27 PM EST
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) In a letter released Tuesday, dozens of anonymous Newfields staff members asked for the museum’s president to step down after Newfields’ response to a job posting that cited its “traditional, core, white art audience.”
The letter, attributed to a group of 85 Newfields staff and stakeholders, said staff are “disheartened” by the museum’s lack of leadership in addressing racial equity, calling the posting and the museum’s response to uproar about it “a symptom of a much larger problem.”
The letter goes on to say that while President Charles Venable managed to “financially stabilize” Newfields and get through the pandemic “without sacrificing employees to stay afloat,” staff members are frustrated by what they see as leadership breaking the trust of the community and “do not see a way forward if Dr. Charles Venable remains at the helm of our institution.”
Calls for CEO resignation after Newfields racial job posting wthr.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wthr.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.