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INDIANAPOLIS – The president of the Indianapolis Museum of Art in Newfields resigned on Wednesday, days after the institution apologized for posting a job offer seeking a new director who would maintain the ” traditional, main, white art museum audience ”.
The museum’s board of trustees and board of governors said in a public letter that Charles Venable’s resignation was “necessary for Newfields to become the cultural institution our community needs and deserves.” He indicated that CFO Jerry Wise will serve as interim president.
In the job posting, the museum said it was looking for a director to “attract a larger and more diverse audience while maintaining the museum’s main white art audience.” The display prompted letters from a group of Newfields employees and community art leaders calling for Venable’s resignation.
Venable said the decision to use “white” was intentional to show the museum would not abandon its existing audience as it worked towards more diversity. It was a dot on the fourth page of the six page job description.
“I think the fact that you can read that sentence and now read it as a single sentence or a clause, I can certainly understand and regret that it could be taken that way,” he told The Indianapolis Star. . “That was certainly not the intention at all.”
In addition to the resignation, the boards of directors announced a series of measures that would be taken.
“We will engage an independent committee to conduct an in-depth review of the leadership, culture of Newfields and our own board and board of governors, with the aim of inclusive representation of our community and its full diversity,” a- he declared.
Newfields will also expand “curatorial representations” of exhibits and programs from, for and by blacks and Latinos, women, people with disabilities, the LGBTQ community and “other marginalized identities,” the letter said.
The museum will also include additional free or discounted days to increase its access, form an advisory committee of artists, activists and members of communities of color “whose main function is to hold leadership accountable for these goals. », And continues to fight against racist training for its boards of directors, staff and volunteers.
Newfields is the 152-acre campus of the Indianapolis Museum, which includes gardens and an art and nature park.
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