Diversity in Art

The Urgent Need for Diversity in the Art World

• Black artists only make up 1.2% of collections in 18 of America's most respected museums, despite comprising 13% of the population.
• Works by Asian artists only total 9% of collections, and Hispanic and Latinx artists only about 3%, despite comprising 18% of the population.
• Non-white or Hispanic people made up nearly 36% of the U.S. workforce, but only 25% of the artist workforce from 2012 to 2016.
• From 2008-2018, only 11% of all work acquired by the country’s top museums was by women, and only 14% of museum exhibitions represented female artists.
• Works by women comprised only 2% of art sold at auction from 2008-2018.
• Racially marginalized women were the least represented, with work by African-American women making up just 3% of the market for women-produced art.
• Large scale research projects about trans and queer representation in the art world are scarce to nonexistent.
• Only 1.2% of work in New York galleries was by Latinx artists, despite being the U.S.’s largest minority group, comprising around 18% of the population.
• Curators, even today, just aren’t seeking out work by minorities, with only 2.37% of acquisitions and gifts from 30 prominent museums being by African American artists.
• The lack of diversity in the top museums reflects the limited, often Euro-centric lens through which much of these collections are curated.
• Art4Equality, The Feminist Art Project, The Professional Organization for Women in the Arts and ArtTable, and The Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art are organizations working towards a more equitable art community.
• The onus of representation lies with those with power in the art world, and those who choose wield their institutions to challenge narrow-minded industry standards are more vital than ever.