Davis Museum 
Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion Plan
June 24, 2021

The Davis Museum stands in solidarity with all members of our community who experience the effects of racism—our colleagues here at the Davis, our students, staff, and faculty at Wellesley College, our neighbors and friends, and our communities across the country and around the globe—and joins in the fight against rising levels of hate crime and racist violence. We are committed to anti-racist action, and to ensuring that the Davis welcomes, represents, and celebrates our community in all of its diversity.

Along with its collections, the Davis has inherited legacies of racism and colonialism. We want to work with you—to learn from this history in order to transform our shared future. The Davis commits to anti-racist action by educating the next generation, amplifying the voices of diverse artists and scholars, listening to our communities, and continuing the hard work of social change in our own offices and galleries.

DEAI Working Group 
Following an institution-wide self-assessment, the Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion (DEAI) Working Group has drafted this planning document to organize the Museum’s work, to share that work with Davis audiences, and to hold ourselves accountable for pursuing the goals identified below. Written with collaborative input from the entire Davis Museum staff, this document reflects ongoing internal work, a commitment to transparency through our process, and an investment in engaging with the Museum’s many diverse publics. 

The Davis Museum’s DEAI Working Group was formed in spring of 2020. Our work responds to the pandemic’s disproportionate impacts on BIPOC communities and calls to anti-racist action in the wake of the killings of unarmed Black civilians, including George Floyd. We also have been  motivated by a reckoning in the cultural sector, which demands that museums reflect on the historical roots of our institutions in systemic racism. The DEAI Working Group is committed to a generative and all-encompassing process that aligns with the mission and values of Wellesley College. We continue to make strides: identifying goals and action steps that respond to the imperatives of our moment and ensuring that our work proceeds mindfully, from interpretation to policy, through the lenses of social justice and anti-racism. We are commited to anti-racist action in support of Wellesley’s BIPOC students and our wider communities, and to realizing museum-specific imperatives—to decenter white privilege and Eurocentric art historical narratives, to decolonize, and to ensure diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion at every level of Davis operations.

Goals and Action Items 
The goals identified here relate to both internal functions of the Museum, and to the external relationships that sustain and inform our work. We are committed to improving the Davis’s internal workplace culture and staff diversity; to the stewardship and presentation of our permanent collections through a critical DEAI lens; and to widening the circles of connection that make the Davis welcoming and accessible to all. 

This is a living plan. We invite and welcome suggestions and questions about this plan in whole or in part. Please write [deai-davis-feedback@wellesley.edu] with any inquiries. 

We have identified the following four broad goals and commit to:

1. Making diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion central priorities in all aspects of the Davis Museum’s work. 

2. Developing a staff that reflects the diverse communities invested in the Davis and building an equitable, accessible, and inclusive workplace in which all staff members from diverse backgrounds can thrive. 

3. Stewarding, displaying, and interpreting the Davis Museum’s permanent collections in a manner that reflects the staff’s shared commitment to anti-racism, diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion.

4. Presenting exhibitions and programs that are welcoming to diverse audiences as spaces where their voices are heard.