March 2021 Update: Institutional Commitments

SFMOMA began the first quarter of 2021 with an earnest look inward — with renewed dedication to transforming our culture from the inside out — along with a reaffirmed commitment to centering underrepresented voices and expanding the stories told in our galleries.

After two prolonged closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the museum was finally able to open with a Free Community Day on March 7. Highlights of our reopening exhibition program include Close to Home: Creativity in Crisis, comprising seven local artists’ responses to the myriad challenges of the past year, and the series Bay Area Walls, featuring vibrant wall commissions by local artists Muzae Sesay, Liz Hernández, and Marina Perez-Wong and Elaine Chu of Twin Walls Mural Company, as well as photo-based projects by Erina Alejo and Adrian L. Burrell that explore murals created during the pandemic in San Francisco and Oakland. New Work: Charles Gaines opened on our fourth floor with two powerful works that investigate the history of racism in the U.S. by returning to the 1857 Dred Scott Decision; also this month the museum publicly announced a transformative gift of works from the Joyner/Giuffrida Collection, celebrating Black American artists of the 20th century — several of which are already on view throughout the museum. While we have successfully opened our doors, there remains much work to be done within our walls.

SFMOMA’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) journey continues daily, led by a Core Team of trustees and staff from across the organization that was formed in summer of 2020. The new year began with a series of DEI discussions and educational workshops for all staff and Board, and feedback sessions for the museum’s DEI Statement of Intention — slated for completion later this spring — which aims to establish a baseline of shared understanding to support DEI action plans going forward.

Grounded in the Statement of Intention, Project Teams with specific areas of focus will continue formulating action plans to be included in SFMOMA’s DEI Strategic Plan, slated to be finalized in summer 2021. We have urgent work to do and realize it can take time to move forward together in inclusive and intentional ways. As we continue on this complex journey, we remain committed to sharing regular progress updates on the Institutional Commitments originally made in July 2020 (below) and to welcoming your thoughts and feedback at news@sfmoma.org.

MARCH 2021 Update on Institutional Commitments

Complete

• • Launch the Inclusive Internship Initiative. In 2018, SFMOMA launched this 10-week paid summer program for undergraduate and graduate students, funded by Bank of America.
  • Participate in equity trainings and assessment with Race Forward. In fall 2019, over 300 staff and 26 Trustees participated in racial equity trainings facilitated by Race Forward. This was followed by a comprehensive assessment based on learnings from the trainings, a staff-wide survey, and interviews with over 25 staff members from all levels and departments of the museum. Initial findings and recommendations were presented to staff on February 28, 2020, with the final report shared in June 2020.These findings in part inform SFMOMA’s continued DEI work.
  • Establish Peggy Guggenheim Fund to help broadly diversify SFMOMA collection. In 2019, the museum established the Peggy Guggenheim Fund with the primary goal of broadly diversifying SFMOMA’s collection. Newly acquired works now on display include paintings by Jeffrey Gibson, Sam Gilliam, Alma Thomas, Mickalene Thomas, and Rosemarie Trockel.
  • Hire a Director of Employee Experience and Internal Communication, and Director of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging. Kenyatta Parker, director of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging started September 9, 2020. Annie Jizmagian, director of Employee Engagement and Internal Communications started September 14, 2020.
  • Create SFMOMA’s DEI Core Team to help lead DEI activity. A DEI Core Team of select trustees and staff from across the museum was formed in summer 2020. This group is responsible for designing, coordinating, and organizing racial equity plans and activities up, down, and across the museum with support from DEI consultants Leverage to Lead.
  • Finalize DEI Project Teams. DEI Project Teams were finalized in November 2020 and comprise a selection of staff from across the organization, led by a Core Team staff member and Trustee. Project Teams focus on creating equity action plans for specific areas of focus at the museum.
  • Manage and investigate employee complaints of discrimination and harassment, and conduct a review of past employee complaints, investigatory practices, and case trends. During summer 2020, SFMOMA partnered with an external employee relations legal team to review past employee complaints. All previously pending matters are closed and several corrective measures have been implemented to help prevent and promptly resolve future staff concerns.
    • Measures include a workplace-conduct investigations policy and resolution process, as well as expanded confidential reporting options and in-depth training for supervisors and staff. We will continue to take all steps necessary to ensure a safe, compliant, and inclusive workplace for staff.
    • Rodimiro “Ro” Coronado, director of Human Resources and People Operations, was hired in September 2020.
  • Begin implicit bias training for all staff, with refresher training every year.
    Since July 2020, staff completed five training sessions facilitated by Dr. Darlene Hall:
    1. Power and Privilege 101
    2. The Psychology of Privilege
    3. Conflict and Communication
    4. Sociocultural and Privilege Dynamics in Communication
    5. Closing out the Diversity Action Framework

    All staff completed a new Unconscious Bias Training in November 2020. Additional training is likely to be developed with DEI Project Team deliverables.

• Conduct DEI trainings with Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees completed three in-depth trainings with DEI consultants Leverage to Lead in spring 2021.
• Task leadership and supervisors with creating employee work plans that allow staff to dedicate paid time each month toward DEI work and community volunteering. In March 2021, SFMOMA announced and implemented a new internal policy that allows employees to allocate up to ten hours per month in DEI-sponsored efforts and initiatives at the museum.
• Participate in a collaboration/paid intern partnership with the Art History and Curatorial Studies Collective, a consortium of three historically Black colleges and universities: Spelman College, Morehouse College, and Clark Atlanta University. Summer interns in the Department of Painting and Sculpture concluded their remote internships and made final presentations on August 27, 2020.
• Begin plans to publicly share a breakdown of the racial and gender diversity of our staff, trustees, and collection, as we strive to diversify the museum. The Collections and Curatorial departments continue conversations about the complex challenges around placing data about artist identities in a collections management system (CMS). While valuing the importance of that ongoing conversation, in January 2021 the Collections team commenced the process of readying the CMS to receive meaningful, carefully expressed data about artist backgrounds. On a parallel track, the Curatorial department is developing a fresh process for connecting with living artists about biographical information, as well as information about their works. The project is conceived as having three parallel tracks:
  • Track A – Collections: research, review, and express data related to deceased artists
  • Track B – Collections: research, review, and express placeholder data related to living artists (replaced subsequently by self-reported data)
  • Track C – Curatorial: ask living artists directly about their identities

In Progress

• Continue to expand and diversify collections and works on view, with an increased focus on the sustained presence and prominence of works by underrepresented artists in the galleries. Hire curatorial staff who can support these efforts. The Curatorial staff continues to broaden the stories told in collection displays, with a particular emphasis on amplifying Black and other underrepresented voices. Newly installed works by Black American artists, including 31 works by 20 artists from Pamela Joyner and Fred Giuffrida’s gift to SFMOMA, further our efforts to provide a full representation of the history of Modern and Contemporary art. The Curatorial division is committed to increased diversity at every level. The division continues its search for new staff members which launched in fall 2020.
• Revise our exhibition review process through a DEI lens to make this process more transparent and inclusive throughout the museum. The first pilot for the Exhibition Development Process rolled out in October 2020. More voices were incorporated (including all senior staff and project/content producers, a new values rubric, and staff opportunities to pitch project ideas as part of the new workflow). Robust analysis from Exhibitions and Program Management followed to determine project scope and budget size. Much was learned from initial meetings and they continue to evolve. Exhibition Development meetings are held approximately five times a year for sizable exhibitions that require multiple stakeholders to contribute. Several DEI Core and Project Team members participate as part of the process. All meetings are recorded and available for staff to access and learn about exhibitions and the ideas that are generated that build content and scope.
• Pilot gender-neutral restrooms in our staff spaces, to be extended throughout the entire museum when funding allows. All staff restrooms (multi- and single-occupancy) on levels LL, 8, 9, and 10, and Single and Family restrooms in public spaces on museum Floors 1, 2, 3, and 4 have been made all gender-neutral using new signage (no physical retrofits). Additional restroom modifications are being explored for a possible Phase 3.
• Participate in Facing Change initiative. SFMOMA’s Board is currently participating in Facing Change: Advancing Board Diversity and Inclusion, a three-year program (2019–2021) created by the American Alliance of Museums.
• Museums and cultural organizations are not (and should not be) neutral; we need to address what this means for our work at SFMOMA. The DEI Core Team worked with consultants Leverage to Lead to create SFMOMA’s DEI Statement of Intention. The statement is being socialized to staff and trustees for input with a final version slated for late spring 2021. The Statement’s goal is to provide context for SFMOMA’s DEI work and to establish a baseline shared understanding.
• Develop a long-term programming partnership with one or more Black arts organizations in the Bay Area. We have had several conversations with a potential partner with whom we hope to work.
• Provide a professional development program for prospective staff in all areas of museum operations. Opportunities will be provided to staff in 2021 to participate in Talent/People training topics. Further programmatic developments are being evaluated to create pathways for our employees. Training and professional development opportunities are also being brainstormed with DEI Project Team deliverables.