Diversity: The condition of being different or having differences. Differences among people with respect to age, class, ethnicity, gender, health, physical and mental ability, race, sexual orientation, religion, physical size, education level, job and function, personality traits, and other human differences. 

Equity: Justice according to natural law or right, freedom from bias or favoritism.

Accessibility: Accessible means a person with a disability is afforded the opportunity to acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services as a person without a disability in an equally effective and equally integrated manner, with substantially equivalent ease of use.  

Inclusion/Inclusiveness: As a diversity concept, it is a strategy, an approach, or a concept focusing on all members playing a part in a group’s or an organization’s mission, and a level of respect which offers the opportunity to share unique perspectives and contribute individual strengths. 

*Source for the definitions: Yale Diversity Glossary and the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education

Related Resources: 

Davis staff used the following resources to assess our museum’s challenges and opportunities, and to plan and implement goals and actions related to diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion. We found the MASS Action Readiness Assessment tool especially useful for identifying areas of both strength and need, and for generating discussion among each other. 

• MASS Action: Museum as a Site for Social Action - This platform was developed as part of a series of collaborative workshops hosted by the Minneapolis Institute of Art held between 2016 and 2018. Davis staff used the Readiness Assessment to determine where we were with respect to our journey toward equity.

• Bayard Love and Deena Hayes-Greene, The Groundwater Approach: Building a Practical Understanding of Structural Racism (Racial Equity Institute, LLC, 2018).

• Jen Benoit-Bryan, et.al., Centering the Picture: The role of race & ethnicity in cultural engagement in the U.S. (Slover Linette, 2020)

• Race Forward,  Racial Equity Impact Assessment Toolkit (Race Forward, 2009)

• Essential Partners: Bold Explorations in Community, Moments of Dissent: An Exercise, (Essential Partners, 2020)

• Ann Porteus, Conflict Mediation Guidelines, 1980. (Adapted by Mary Ann Huckabay for Stanford University Residential Assistant Training in 1991).

• Floyd Cheung, Cynthia Ganote, and Tasha Souza, “Micro Resistance as a Way to Respond to Microaggressions on Zoom and in Real life,” Faculty Focus: Higher Ed Teaching Strategies from Magna Publications, April 7, 2021

• Mimi Fox Melton and Karla Monterroso, “If you want a truly Equitable workplace, you must get over fear of conflict,” Fast Company, March 30, 2021

• Association for Art History, Resource Portal on Anti-Racism and Decolonial approaches to art history and Visual Culture

We stand in solidarity with those who have experienced and resisted anti-Asian racism, misogyny, and violence. These are some of the resources we are drawing upon to challenge anti-Asian racism in our work, workplace, campus, and communities.

• Asian American Racial Justice Toolkit

• Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center “Learning Together”

• Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center “We Are Not a Stereotype ”

• Asian Americans Advancing Justice’s Atlanta Chapter

• Activating Diversity and Inclusion: A Blueprint for Museum Educators as Allies and Changemakers, Journal of Museum Education 

• Red Canary Song

Institutional DEAI Plans:

The Davis DEAI Working Group consulted many useful institutional models—including those linked below—through the course of our own research, assessment, and action plan development.

• Bowdoin College Museum of Art

• Getty

• RISD

• The Cleveland Museum of Art

• The Met