2026-27 Report on Workplace Equity and Organizational Culture in US Art Museums

Why are you doing this study?
MMF’s Data Study is designed in response to urgent calls for change in art museums. Our research provides data—which was missing until our study launched in 2022—from the people working in art museums to better understand these institutions as workplaces. Over the course of four planned rounds of data collection from 2022–2028, MMF’s study will ultimately capture a complex historical moment for art museums, what is changing and what is not, using vital insights from its workforce and leadership nationwide. The 2026 cycle of the study marks the halfway point of MMF’s organizational life span and is the penultimate chance to participate in this movement toward a more just museum sector by 2030.

Who are your data partners?
MMF works in partnership with data scientists at SMU DataArts, the national center for arts research whose mission is to provide and engage organizations and individuals with the evidence-based insights needed to collectively build strong, vibrant, and equitable arts communities.

Who is eligible to participate?
The staff survey is open to any current staff member at an art museum in the US. Informed by the International Council of Museums’ definition of a museum, MMF considers an art museum to be a nonprofit organization in the service of society that researches, collects, conserves, interprets and/or exhibits tangible and intangible heritage related to arts and culture. If you have questions about eligibility, please reach out to us at info@museumsmovingforward.com. 

Museum leaders may sign up on behalf of their institution to become a Partner Museum, which ensures their entire staff receives access to the survey. Art museum workers unaffiliated with a Partner Museum may take the survey as an individual. Sign up to participate through the links above.

What does being a Partner Museum entail?
Partner Museums agree to support data collection across three surveys: a Staff Survey, an HR Survey, and a Director Survey. This means ensuring that all staff members (full time and part time) get a link to complete the Staff survey, at least one HR staff member gets access to complete the HR survey, and the museum director(s) get access to complete the Director Survey.

Why should I participate?
Partner Museums with at least 10 responses to the Staff Survey are eligible to receive Organizational Reports, which include aggregated data from the Staff Survey for their museum as well as benchmarks to other museums based on type, region, and budget size. Organizational Reports are not public and only accessible through MMF’s secure web portal, which offers custom data visualizations, dynamic viewing features, and longitudinal analysis. We ask that Partner Museums share Organizational Reports with their staff in alignment with MMF’s commitment to data literacy and transparency. If you have questions or do not wish to receive an Organizational Report, please notify MMF upon registration or contact mia@museumsmovingforward.com. 

Partner Museums also receive access to MMF's initial fieldwide findings and are able to offer additional context to help inform analyses. Partner Museum leaders receive early access to the public report and a special preview of key takeaways.

What kinds of questions are you asking?
The main topics of the staff survey are employment information (tenure, position level and department, salary and household income, union status, promotions, etc.); organizational culture (career and workplace satisfaction, experiences of discrimination, etc.); and  demographics (gender, race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, disability status, etc.).

The main topics of the HR survey include: count of staff members by type and salary, union details, workplace policies, and employee benefits. The director survey includes questions on: board engagement and demographics, museum performance, and director experiences. 

What is different in the 2026–27 Data Study cycle?
Each of the three surveys is available through a universal link. This will enable a more streamlined survey distribution process, making it easier for both Partner Museums and individual survey takers to find and complete a survey. 

In recognition of the many complex circumstances facing art museums today, we are providing an option for Partner Museums to opt out of receiving Organizational Reports. If you do not wish to receive an organizational report, please notify MMF upon registration or contact mia@museumsmovingforward.com with any questions. We continue to encourage best practices for data transparency and ask any Partner Museum that receives an Organizational Report to share it with their full staff.

How long do the surveys take?
The staff survey takes approximately 10-12 minutes to complete.

The HR survey takes approximately 60-90 minutes to complete. We provide an Excel template of the survey for HR officers to answer at their own pace. Once complete, the template can be used to complete the survey in one sitting.

The director survey takes approximately 8-12 minutes to complete.

How are you protecting the confidentiality of responses?
Participants provide answers to MMF’s survey(s) and all survey responses are kept confidential. Surveys are securely encoded before they leave the participant’s internet browser, and they are never connected with any personally identifiable information (name, email, etc.).

Aggregate reports are created for Partner Museums if they receive 10 or more staff responses, which is our threshold for ensuring anonymity. Reports at the organization-level are shared by SMU DataArts and MMF with the Partner Museum alone and will not be shared with any other party. If you do not wish to have any organization-specific data tied to your staff’s participation, please notify MMF upon registration or contact mia@museumsmovingforward.com. 

How will this data be managed?
Survey data is collected via the survey management platform Alchemer and is protected by Amazon Web Services (AWS) global infrastructure as well as the Open Web Application Security Project (WOWASP) standards during the software development process (see here for more). Data from Alchemer is then fed back into the MMF portal to provide aggregate response insight to participating museums.

MMF’s app server, database, and object storage are hosted by DigitalOcean. DigitalOcean’s managed database service is encrypted at rest with LUKS (Linux Unified Key Setup) and in transit with SSL (see here for more). Data is not stored encrypted within the database itself. The database is backed up daily and retained for seven days. 

Authoritative longitudinal datasets and metadata are preserved indefinitely on secure servers as well as via Alchemer. This preservation allows for future research that might include comparative analysis of multiple studies or probing the data if new research questions arise. Working copies of anonymized aggregated datasets are temporarily stored locally and in MMF-managed cloud storage platforms during analysis. A museum can request that their data be deleted after the 2026–27 Data Study & Report is developed, but doing so means the institution will not have the ability to compare their 2026 data to future waves of data collection and will thus be opting out of longitudinal analyses.

How is MMF’s study different from other studies out there?
MMF’s Data Study is the only sector-wide survey that gathers insights directly from art museum workers at all levels and departments across the country. The study is designed by and with art museum staff and leadership and is informed by decades of combined experience in the sector. We are interested not only in the experience of the average art museum worker, but in how experiences differ based on a worker’s identity, job characteristics, as well as the organizational characteristics of their museum. Through this unique methodology, we are able to collect and triangulate data on multiple levels and from diverse viewpoints within the institutional landscape in partnership with those closest to the problems and best positioned to effect change. 

We are also collaborating closely with other equity-focused research initiatives in the art museum field, including the Black Trustee Alliance for Art Museums and the Burns Halperin Report in addition to SMU DataArts.

What is the deliverable or final result of the study?
MMF will publish a field-wide report in Fall 2027, which will include data collected from all three surveys. This is the only public report and it will be available for free on our website in Fall 2027. Previous public reports from 2023 and 2025 can also be found on our website.

What is the timeline?
Data collection for the study begins on October 15, 2026 and closes on December 15, 2026. All surveys must be completed during this time. If Partner Museums anticipate limited internal capacity during this period, we encourage them to select the option (during registration) for MMF to distribute the surveys on their behalf, easing the burden on their teams.

Data analysis will begin in February 2027 and we expect to deliver Organizational Reports to Partner Museums in Spring 2027. In summer 2027, MMF will host a series of convenings with Partner Museums to share and discuss initial findings. Finally, MMF will produce a field-wide report in Fall 2027, which will be available to Partner Museums first before being publicly released.

How much does it cost to participate?
MMF’s data study is free of charge for all museums thanks to the generous support of the Ford Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Teiger Foundation, and MMF’s Vision Council.

What is the deadline for signing up?
September 15, 2026.

What do I do if I have another question not listed here?
Please email us at: info@museumsmovingforward.com.