The Inclusive Museum Leader (American Alliance of Museums)

Review
The Inclusive Museum Leader provides unique, first-Voice perspectives on how museums can and should position themselves to best service the needs, interests, and priorities of deserving, diverse communities. Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko and Chris Taylor have long labored in museum trenches doing the good work of lifting up the necessary stories and voices to counterbalance the legacies of exclusion and erasure and to promote the principles and strategies of diversity, inclusion, equity, and accessibility. Museum professionals at all levels of experience and expertise would do well to add this volume to their reading list.
-- Eduardo Díaz, museum administrator
The Inclusive Museum Leader should be required reading for all museum professionals. This brilliant and urgently needed book provides critical reflection and deep and rigorous analysis of the steps needed to achieve a more inclusive museum world. Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko and Chris Taylor have assembled an amazing group of museum leaders and scholars to think through effective leadership styles that will enable transformative practices in museums. It is time for museums to assist with efforts towards social justice, community healing, and empowerment, and this superb book provides a road map on how to achieve these necessary goals. The book is well researched, the prose lively and engaging, and will serve as an invaluable resource for all those seeking to understand how museums can, and should, promote inclusion and social justice in the 21st century. -- Amy Lonetree, associate professor of history, University of California Santa Cruz
This book has so much heart and hope for our field. Thank you to the editors and authors for pointing the way forward, toward museums that are equitable, accountable, reflective, and human--from the inside out. -- Rainey Tisdale, museum consultant
The Inclusive Museum Leader offers a refreshingly candid insight into museum leadership for the twenty-first century. The editors and contributors confront the troubling trends in diversity, equity & inclusion work and challenge the reader to deeper more deliberate approach to leadership.
-- Noelle Trent, PhD, director of interpretation, collections & education, National Civil Rights Museum
The museum field is experiencing a critical gaze that is both “of the moment” and long overdue. Museums were built as colonial enterprises and are slow to awaken to the harm caused by their actions which are not limited to the capturing and keeping of Indigenous ancestors, the exclusion and erasure of Black voices, bodies, and creativity, and the positioning of white power in the C-suite and board rooms. For decades, the conversation about equity and inclusion in the museum field has become louder. It is no longer possible to ignore the systemic racism embedded in our society and our profession.
The Inclusive Museum Leader offers insights and perspectives from two recognized museums leaders who have joined together to offer practical solutions and opportunities for today’s museum leaders. Authors share their journeys to becoming inclusive leaders, as well as decisions they have made and actions they have taken to build equitable practices within their organizations.
Throughout the book are personal exercises and provocations the reader is invited to respond to, making the book a valuable tool for any museum leader looking to enhance their style and re-frame their decision-making process.