Blog

Today, we’re excited to announce the launch of the 2025 Art Museum Director Survey. Fielded originally in 2020 and again in 2022, with funding from the Mellon Foundation and the Kress Foundation, the survey gathers the perspectives of museum directors on topics including leadership and strategy, budget and staffing, visitors and the public, and collections. As the first survey was distributed shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic led museums across the country to close their doors, the findings served…

In 2023, with funding from the Wallace Foundation, Ithaka S+R began a research collaboration with Cave Canem, a non-profit Black literary arts organization based in Brooklyn, New York. Last week, we published the report resulting from this joint effort: Magnitude and Bond: A Field Study on Black Literary Arts Organizations. For more on the report, we invite you to visit the Cave Canem website.

Since 2014, Ithaka S+R and the Mellon Foundation have fielded the Art Museum Staff Demographic Survey in collaboration with the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) and the American Alliance of Museums (AAM). We are excited to announce the continued collaboration through a fourth cycle of the demographic survey of art museum employees. For over a decade, the Staff Demographic Survey has stood as one of the most cited quantitative studies on demographics within North American art museums. By measuring…

In the fall of 2023 we announced the launch of a new research project, funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, designed to assess the impact and implementation of open educational resource (OER) initiatives at public institutions of higher education. Today, we are publishing the resulting report, based on an initial literature review and interviews with OER leaders in four US states. In Charting the Course: Case Studies in OER Sustainability, we identify five key takeaways: There…

In October, the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) hosted their second annual Future of Museums Summit, hosted by Elizabeth Merritt, AAM’s vice president of strategic foresight and founding director of the Center for the Future of Museums. The summit focused on four themes that emerged from this year’s TrendsWatch report: Culture Wars 2.0 What role can museums play in bridging the gaps that divide the communities they serve? This theme featured presentations relating to attacks on DEAI,…

In collaboration with the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), we are publishing a new report assessing the link between civic engagement, higher education, and participation in democracy. The report draws on studies from the past few decades and focuses on how researchers and practitioners define civic engagement, the nature of the relationship between higher education and civic behaviors and attitudes, the equity implications of civic education, and what the research says about the effectiveness of different…

Today we are excited to announce that Ithaka S+R is embarking on a one-year research project, funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, to assess the impact and implementation of open educational resources (OER) programs at public institutions of higher education. Through the project, we will develop a framework to guide sustainable OER adoption and implementation. At their core, OER initiatives aim to increase student learning outcomes by reducing costs. Our project aims to explore how OER strategies…

At the end of July, I flew to Nashville to attend the 45th annual Association of African American Museums (AAAM) meeting. Established in 1978, AAAM, a non-profit membership organization, provides support to African and African American focused museums and their dedicated professionals. This year’s conference delved into the significant roles of the African American community in shaping museums, music, and societal movements. As a new member and a first-time attendee, I was excited to explore the conference offerings and…

Today we are excited to announce an Ithaka S+R research collaboration with Cave Canem, funded by the Wallace Foundation. The project, “Magnitude and Bond: A Field Study on Black Literary Arts Service Organizations,” will focus on Black literary arts organizations from the perspective of sustainability, community engagement, and resilience. Cave Canem, founded in 1996, is a Brooklyn-based, non-profit Black literary organization that serves as a hub for the many voices of Black poetry. Founded by artists for artists, Cave Canem…

Last year, Ithaka S+R, in partnership with the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD), the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), and with funding from the Mellon Foundation, was able to launch the third cycle of the Art Museum Staff Demographic Survey. Filling out this survey can be time intensive, as rather than survey staff directly, we ask that museums submit data that has been recorded in their human resources system. This requires museum directors or their designee to fill…

Today Ithaka S+R releases two research reports, the 2022 Art Museum Trustee Survey and the Art Museum Staff Demographic Survey 2022, which introduce new insights into key constituencies in the cultural sector. For roughly a decade Ithaka S+R has produced research reports that shed light on strategy and leadership, staff demographics and employment characteristics, as well as governance and organizational structure within art museums.

In early 2020, Ithaka S+R launched the inaugural art museum director survey. This survey gathered the attitudes of museum directors on topics including leadership and strategy, budget and staffing, visitors and the public, and collections. When the COVID-19 pandemic closed the doors of museums across the country, the museum director survey had been in the field only a few weeks. We closed the survey with a fifty percent response rate. The evidence gathered…

In 2014 and 2018, Ithaka S+R partnered with the Mellon Foundation, the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD), and the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), to conduct a quantitative study on diversity within art museums who are part of these associations. We are excited to announce the continued collaboration through a third cycle of the demographic survey examining diversity amongst art museum employees.  Previous Cycles The idea…

We are excited to announce the launch of Ithaka S+R’s collaboration with the Black Trustee Alliance for Art Museums (BTA). BTA, a sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, is a membership organization working to increase the inclusion of Black perspectives and narratives in North American art museums to make these institutions more equitable and excellent spaces of cultural engagement. Using programming, research, and strategic communications, BTA is helping its members–Black trustees…

On November 1, Deirdre Harkins joined Ithaka S+R’s Libraries, Scholarly Communication, and Museums team through a collaboration with the Black Trustees Alliance for Art Museums (BTA). In this interview, she reflects on what brought her to BTA and what she hopes to accomplish during her fellowship.  What attracted you to the BTA fellowship? I found BTA’s mission statement of increasing the inclusion of Black perspectives in museums especially compelling. It directly coincides with the research approach…