Introduction
This report provides a snapshot of the art museum workplace in 2025 with analysis of shifts in many key areas since 2023. MMF intends to continue conducting this data study and report every two years until 2030, at which point we will have a critical record of the ups and downs experienced in the art museum sector during an increasingly volatile moment that many are calling the new culture wars.9
This study was designed using distinct but related surveys of three groups: staff, human resources (HR), and directors within US art museums. All three surveys were distributed to our 91 Partner Museums (full list below). The data reflects responses collected from the 3,102 staff members, 71 HR officers, and 67 museum directors who took these surveys between November 19, 2024, and February 11, 2025. The average staff response rate for this year’s survey was 48%, up from 34% in 2023.10
Data collection was conducted through a custom portal within MMF’s website using the survey platform Alchemer. Staff surveys were disseminated by museum leadership or by MMF directly, at the request of a museum. Partner Museums received customized Organizational Reports in spring 2025, which compared their individual museum’s results against all Partner Museums as well as benchmarks by geographic region, budget size, and museum type. MMF does not collect any personal information from survey respondents, so that individual responses to the staff survey are not identifiable to the museum or to anyone on the MMF team.
All three surveys were designed in partnership with SMU DataArts, the National Center for Arts Research. When designing the 2024–25 surveys, we kept many questions the same as the 2022–23 surveys to enable direct comparisons for longitudinal analysis. Changes to the surveys were informed by cognitive interviews and feedback from our pilot study participants, museum leadership, and public comment on the 2023 Report. In a few instances, we made changes to response options to ensure our data was comparable to other surveys, including the Pew Research Center’s labor workforce survey. The most significant addition to this year’s survey was a new section on unions, enabling us to measure the growing presence of labor unions in the art museum sector. Wherever available, we pulled in relevant comparison data for the US workforce overall or for the nonprofit sector as points of reference for the data we provide on art museums.
All group comparisons within the text have been tested for statistical significance and have met the threshold that we are more than 95% confident that the differences are not due to chance (a calculation that considers sample sizes and magnitude of differences being compared). We specifically call out any comparisons in the text that have not met this threshold. A full record of sample sizes for every chart in the report can be found in Appendix G.
This report would not have been possible without the generous support of the Mellon Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Teiger Foundation.
We are grateful to the members of our Vision Council for their ongoing support: Sarah Arison, Allison Berg, Dawn and Chris Fleischner, Molly Gochman, Jane Hait, Michi Jigarjian, Rashid Johnson, Miyoung Lee, Marley Lewis, Jarl Mohn, and Sonya Yu. Our sincere thanks also go to the members of our newly established Artists Alliance: Kathryn Andrews, Kevin Beasley, Diedrick Brackens, Jordan Casteel, Raven Chacon, Paul Chan, Danielle Dean, Derek Fordjour, Charles Gaines, Theaster Gates, Leslie Hewitt, Sky Hopinka, Rashid Johnson, Jennie C. Jones, Stanya Kahn, Josh Kline, An-My Lê, Michelle Lopez, Julie Mehretu, Amalia Mesa-Bains, Ulrike Müller, Catherine Opie, Paul Pfeiffer, A.L. Steiner, Stephanie Syjuco, and Anicka Yi.
We are immensely grateful for the expertise and guidance from Jennifer Benoit-Bryan at SMU DataArts, as well as the other members of her team, including Daniel Fonner and Liz Quinn. Thanks also go to our Data Study Advisory Group: Charlotte Burns, Deirdre Harkins, Carys Kunze, Jenni Kim, and Amanda Tobin Ripley.
MMF’s team is composed of three full-time staff members—Mia Locks, Liz Levine, and Hannah Marshall—and the Board of Stakeholders: Emma Batman, Makeda Best, Danielle Bias, Charlotte Burns, Connie Butler, Alana Hernandez, Rujeko Hockley, Diane Jean-Mary, Naima Keith, Christine Y. Kim, Jenni Kim, Nisa Mackie, Matthew Villar Miranda, and Amanda Tobin Ripley. Additionally, our colleagues within the DREAM Consortium—which includes Black Trustee Alliance for Art Museums, the Burns Halperin Report, and SMU DataArts—provided crucial thought partnership throughout the process.
Museums Moving Forward is a collaborative organization, and our work would not be possible without a vast network of cultural workers, leaders, and advocates from across the country. We would like to extend our deep thanks to our Editorial Council: Katherine Brinson, Marissa Del Toro, Liz Munsell, Margot Norton, Terrence Phearse, Anni Pullagura, and Lindley Warren Mickunas for their on-the-ground insights and support. Members of our Advisory Council also deserve our deep acknowledgments: Jennifer Benoit-Bryan, Ruba Katrib, Alex Klein, Brooke A. Minto, Jessica Morgan, Kelli Morgan, Melissa A. Passman, Christine Steiner, and Olga Viso.
The following cognitive interviewees provided critical feedback early on in the development of the survey: Emma Batman, Josh Davis, Lori Fogarty, Jillian Impastato, Miki Garcia, Lily Goldberg, Julianne Miao, and Shoshana Resnikoff. Thank you to Jane Hyun, our copyeditor; Michael Guidetti, our developer; Genevieve Hoffman, our data visualization designer; and Harsh Patel, our graphic identity designer.
Other groups we wish to acknowledge include the American Alliance of Museums, Association of Art Museum Directors, Beyond Neutrality, Black Trustee Alliance for Art Museums, Burns Halperin Report, Museum Workers Speak, National Emerging Museum Professions Network, Remuseum, SMU DataArts, and Verge.
Thank you to the many staff who attended our in-person and virtual convenings; your thoughtful engagement informed and continues to shape our programs. Finally, and not least, we wish to acknowledge the thousands of museum staff, HR professionals, directors, and administrators who took part in this study, demonstrating a meaningful commitment to moving the US art museum field forward.