Now here’s an idea: Have a government team audit the country’s public art collections to see just how many women are included, how often their work is exhibited, and why there isn’t a greater proportion of art by women in museums.
OK, maybe not, not in the U.S. But that’s what’s happening in Sweden, where seven researchers are assessing the collections of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the Goteborgs Konstmuseum, and the regional museums in Malmo and Norrkoping. Jeff Werner, research director at the Goteborg museum, is leading the effort, according to a short report in The Art Newspaper’s September issue. Werner plans to study “acquisition strategies and organizationals structures to see how they have influenced gender representation.”
And the report will be published, not hushed up like a lot of museum information in the U.S.
I’m not really advocating that the U.S. government undertake a parallel effort here. In Sweden, the project is costing $58,000, with funding provided by the Swedish Arts Council. But imagine the cost in the U.S., and the probable outrage about interference from the government and wasted spending.
Still, I would like to know the numbers; the museums should do the work or they should agree to provide access to interested researchers. A few are trying, like the Museum of Modern Art.*
The numbers would raise consciousness of the issue. Afterall, biases may be unconscious.
Photo Credit: The painting is by an artist named Marie Bashkirseff, and I borrowed the image from a blog called Art and Influence by Armand Cabrera.
* I consult to a foundation that supports MoMA