PRESS RELEASE - ‘DREAM’ Pilot Launches in Partnership with Six Major US Art Museums
‘DREAM’ Pilot Launches in Partnership with Six Major US Art Museums
March 31, 2026
New York, NY—DREAM (Data & Research on Equity in Art Museums) is launching a two-year pilot program in partnership with Dia Art Foundation, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Perez Art Museum Miami, Seattle Art Museum, Toledo Museum of Art, and Walker Art Center.
Stewarded by Museums Moving Forward (MMF), DREAM is a collaboration between researchers at MMF, Black Trustee Alliance, Burns Halperin Report, and SMU DataArts to streamline data collection efforts for the art museum sector.
DREAM was awarded a Mellon Foundation grant to support the pilot in the creation of a shared web portal where museums will be able to view data from each of the DREAM research initiatives in a single place, and to gather critical insights from museum leaders as a cohort during its development. Each museum has agreed to fully participate in the DREAM research and to test the newly created portal over the next two years.
"The DREAM pilot brings together research organizations and museums committed to data as a way of understanding the current realities and future potential of the art museum field," says Mia Locks, executive director and cofounder of Museums Moving Forward. "We are very grateful for the support of the Mellon Foundation and excited by the possibility of scaling to include more museums over time."
Connecting previously siloed data, the pilot program is designed to look across different aspects of the institution—trustees, leadership, staff, collections, and operations—to surface new insights for leaders and for the field moving forward.
"As long-time partners of these organizations and their data collecting efforts, it's wonderful to be working with them in this new, collaborative way, with the leadership and expertise of Mia Locks and the MMF team, and to be connecting with other museum leaders who are invested in data-driven decision-making,” says Franklin Sirmans, director of the Pérez Art Museum Miami.
In addition to streamlining museum participation in each data study, the pilot will allow the DREAM initiatives to share findings in a centralized repository and to determine best practices for visualizing data and analysis alongside the museum leaders best positioned to act on it.
"While we have long tracked staff engagement data at TMA,” adds Adam Levine, the Edward Drummond and Florence Scott Libbey Director of Toledo Museum of Art, “we are pleased to be part of the DREAM pilot, which we hope advances these practices and standardizes these tools across the field."
The DREAM pilot runs through 2027 and will culminate in a shared resource for the field.
About DREAM
DREAM stands for Data & Research on Equity in Art Museums. It is an alliance between Museums Moving Forward, Black Trustee Alliance, Burns Halperin Report, and SMU Data Arts to pool resources, data, and expertise for the betterment of the art museum field.
PRESS CONTACT: