Conclusion

This section is intended first and foremost for museum leaders, as we offer recommendations for action based on the data. 

Before delving in, it is important to acknowledge how exceedingly challenging it is to be a museum leader in this particular moment in time. This study was conducted before the recent wave of cultural censorship and what PEN America aptly describes as “the US’s most fraught cultural and political debates,”⁶⁷ all of which especially impacts museum directors. 

We see in MMF’s data that half of art museum executives are considering leaving their jobs, and the number one reason is burnout. There is no question that these jobs are demanding and exhausting. We also acknowledge how it can be hard, as a leader in any given moment, to hear about the challenges and dissatisfactions within your workforce. We hope the scale and scope of the findings within this report make clear that these patterns reflect field-wide trends. When workers voice their unhappiness or move to unionize, for instance, we encourage you to refer to the data here and consider these actions as expressions of what the art museum sector needs to sustain itself for the long-term future.

The art museum workplace is shifting partly because generational dynamics are in flux. However, as Lindsey Pollak, a leading expert on the multigenerational workplace, affirms, there are essential needs that all workers share, regardless of generation: “Those fundamentals—meaning, purpose, good leaders, professional growth—don’t change. What changes is how each generation expresses these needs and what expectations we have about employers’ fulfillment of them.”⁶⁸

As the majority of today’s workforce, Millennials and Gen Z are reshaping museum workplaces with a particular emphasis on the need for social trust, which is lacking within the art museum sector, as evidenced by the data in this report (see Workplace Culture and Discrimination and Harassment.) This distrust in art museum workplaces presents a key issue to address together as a field. Doing so will require more courage and compassion, better intergenerational understanding, and deeper support across hierarchies within the workplace. 

The good news is that the art museum workforce remains full of purpose-driven people, the vast majority of whom develop positive working relationships and derive a sense of meaning from their work. Equally positive is that art museum workplaces have generally improved over the past two years. 

The size of the museum really makes a difference for staff experiences. Smaller-budget museums tend to have better workplace cultures than mid-sized and larger-budget museums. However, it is striking and unfortunate that 54% of art museum workers across the sector have considered quitting their jobs in the last five years.⁶⁹

Fortunately, as we see in the data, workers are expressing precisely what they need from their art museum workplaces to remain in the field: more livable wages, less burnout, and more opportunities for professional growth. These are the same three most-cited needs we heard from workers in 2023, expressed in the same order, so it could not be more evident that these are the critical issues to focus on moving forward.

There is a large gap between purpose and reality: 87% of art museum workers believe their work is meaningful, but only 24% are satisfied with their opportunities for promotion. It is hard for these workers to imagine getting promoted because the vast majority (78%) of the workforce has never received a promotion at their museum despite average tenures of six years. Career stagnation is a persistent issue. 

Meanwhile, 28% of the full-time workforce—and 69% of entry-level workers, specifically—earn below a living wage, which is part of the reason why many art museum workers are considering quitting or relying on other income sources to survive. This economic reality profoundly limits who can afford to work in art museums, especially in the long term. 

There is also a persistent racial divide within art museums in the US. White workers have the highest household incomes and “continue to have more favorable careers than anyone else in art museums. They are getting promoted the most and staying in the field the longest. They are the most satisfied with their level of pay and job security, and they are better able to cover their living expenses from their museum compensation than their POC peers. They also believe at higher rates that their museums celebrate diversity, and they experience less discrimination than their POC colleagues.”⁷⁰ This quote is from MMF’s 2023 Report, yet the same holds true in 2025.

This study serves as a snapshot of art museum workplaces in 2025, as well as a reflection of the areas of change and stasis over time, and strives to reveal key areas of opportunity. Museums must prioritize a more supportive and sustainable work environment that enables everyone to thrive and to see a future for themselves in the field. Art museum workplaces can continue to improve and advance equity if they become more people-focused and worker-centered, which will in turn enable them to serve their missions more effectively and sustainably. 

Rooted in the lived experiences of art museum workers at all levels, here are four ways to move museum workplaces forward in 2025.

Leaders must prioritize trust. It is the foundation upon which healthy workplace cultures are built, and the data shows we need more of it in art museums. In particular, being a more transparent leader is one of the best ways to earn the trust of colleagues.⁷¹

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Follow through on everything, big and small. This demonstrates reliability, a key component of trust. In other words, do as you say you will, and don’t say it if you don’t mean it. When mistakes or missteps inevitably occur, handle them with trust in mind. If there is conflict or disagreement, approach colleagues with curiosity first. Communicate openly and honestly, and develop solutions together as a team.
  
  

• Make clear that standards and expectations in the workplace apply to everyone, including leaders. Demonstrate irrefutable fairness, and act quickly when someone misses the mark. 
  
  

• Share more detailed information and share more often, particularly around how decisions are being made, how money is being spent, and how strategies are being set. Share minutes or summaries after each board meeting to help workers understand what is happening at higher levels of the organization. Workers are not just curious, they are deeply invested in these aspects of museums and want to better understand them.  
  
  

• Invite more staff to leadership meetings when decisions that affect them directly are being made. Giving workers a voice in decision-making is a learning opportunity for everyone, including leaders, and goes a long way in building trust and demonstrating transparency in the workplace.

Leaders must demonstrate a commitment to a culture of care. This is critical for the future of art museum workplaces, and requires leaders with a high level of emotional intelligence to ensure that the institution is healthy (see the first recommendation from MMF’s 2023 Report). A culture of care means ensuring workers have the support and resources they need to do their jobs and prioritizing worker well-being, including psychological safety (see the second recommendation from MMF’s 2023 Report). As a recent article in Harvard Business Review notes, culture change does not happen as a result of communications and messaging. “It shifts when systems change. When leaders take personal risks. When norms are not just declared but demonstrated.”⁷²

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Ask questions that probe for aspects of emotional intelligence in manager interviews and evaluation settings. And for museum senior leadership, specifically, consider frameworks for self-awareness as one key aspect of emotional intelligence.⁷³
  
  

• Train all managers with an emphasis on their role as coaches for their direct reports (avoiding the “command and control” style of management of the past). Be clear that part of the job of managers includes professional guidance and support for the growth of all team members. 
  
  

• Implement and normalize ongoing feedback from workers, specifically related to what is making their jobs difficult or what resources they need to improve their job performance. Commit to clearing obstacles as quickly as possible. 
  
  

• Ensure that performance evaluations for anyone managing staff includes a metric related to staff satisfaction. Good management means helping people succeed and ensuring these conditions are continually addressed.

It is the responsibility of leaders to get more creative about the career paths they offer, with more options and choices for workers. The data shows just how few opportunities there are for promotions in art museums, but pay rate and title are only two aspects of a job. Plenty of workers, especially Millennials and Gen Z, are redefining success and the factors that contribute to job satisfaction. As qualitative research from MMF’s 2024 Reimagining Career Advancement Study Group notes: “Rather than getting on an advancement ‘escalator,’ always in pursuit of ever-higher status or salary alone, we want to consider other factors that bolster quality of life, knowing that it is important to grow and sustain these as well.”⁷⁴In other words, workers of all generations want to feel they are growing, not stuck. 

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Create roadmaps for workers that allow for tailored career paths based on individual goals. Let workers articulate what they are looking for in their personal career and work together to set goals and timelines to support their growth.
  
  

• Be transparent about promotion rates at your museum. Let workers know specifically what they need to do to be considered for a promotion and the likelihood of receiving one.
  
  

• Offer more autonomy and flexibility as one of the perks of career growth. An investment in your employees’ success includes trusting them to meet the expectations you have set without meddling or micromanaging. 
  
  

• Be supportive if workers choose paths that might lead away from your museum. It is the responsibility of all managers to support the career growth of their team members, even when that includes a move that is external.