Thanks for sharing Sierra Van Ryck deGroot! This was such an important article from Stephanie Downey and Amanda Krantz (I can't believe it's been 2 years!) -- and we should be doing more to show the continued harm being done to museum educators as museum directors expect more & more from a smaller staff. The pressure for more visitors, more programs, new forms of engagement, new community partnerships, more events, etc. continues, yet museums have failed to hire the staff needed to support this growth (or pay museum educators the proper wage/salary for their expanded work). I'm seeing extreme burnout across the field, and so many incredible folks in education continue to leave museums for other jobs. No one is listening to them when they talk about their overwork and the urgent need to slow things down. And many are afraid to even mention their burnout for fear of being fired, looked upon as a failure, or even passed by when a rare promotion opportunity comes along. It is a crisis within museums that will far outlive the COVID pandemic. And the saddest part is that it doesn't have to be this way. Any museum can begin right now to listen to their educators, value the work being done and the people doing it, right-size the levels of programming and visitor engagement, prioritize the hiring of additional staff, and take steps today to address long-standing pay inequities. Change is possible, and we're the ones that can & must build a better future for museums.
"Taken all together, these data signal to us that education in museums is in a much more vulnerable position than it was before the pandemic. A February 2020 survey of (art) museum directors showed that directors prioritized educational programming above everything else (followed closely by displaying artwork in the permanent collection). Yet, as we have seen, education was among the greatest casualties of pandemic-related staffing and budget cuts. How do we reconcile this dramatic difference in stated priorities and reality?" https://lnkd.in/dhT75AXh
Andrea K. Jones
10mo
Mike - you nailed it. And it can't go on this way. I'd really like to get to the bottom of why we're churning a burning. Is it all coming from the top? Is it a trauma response? Are folks putting undue pressure on themselves?
Founder, Thinking Museum | Reimagining guided experiences in museums | The Art Engager podcast | Thinking Museum® Approach |
10moHear hear! I spoke about this (and quoted Stephanie Downey and Amanda Krantz ) at a talk I gave at ICOM CECA International Committee for Education and Cultural Action conference in Singapore a week or so ago. It’s a systemic field-wide issue. The irony is that museum education is currently booming, but museum educators are exhausted, taking on far too much work with too few staff and huge expectations, whilst also doing most of the ‘emotional heavy lifting’ with audiences too.