The Baltimore Museum of Art next year will require curators to purchase only works created by women.
“This how you raise awareness and shift the identity of an institution,” Christopher Bedford, the museum’s director, told the Baltimore Sun. “You don’t just purchase one painting by a female artist of color and hang it on the wall next to a painting by Mark Rothko. To rectify centuries of imbalance, you have to do something radical.”
The policy will only apply to purchased works and will not cover donations or gifts.
Pieces created by women artists account for only 4% — or 3,800 works — of the museum’s current inventory.
Nationwide, a recent study found 87% of the works on display at premier art museums were made by men. Eighty-five percent were white.
The initiative in Baltimore is part of a larger effort the institution has undertaken. Dubbed “2020 Vision,” the museum plans to roll out a series of 22 exhibits featuring female artists to commemorate the ratification of the 19th Amendment.
“There are these various subtle but consistent, pervasive markers of what is considered creative achievement, and we are trying to reset all of those markers,” BMA chief curator Asma Naeem said in an interview about the project with the Washington Post. “The challenges are systemic and widespread.”
