The National Gallery of Australia in Canberra has launched the country’s first ever Gender Equity Action Plan in a bid to show their commitment to accelerate gender equity in all its programs and exhibits.
The Equity Action Plan will commit to five key agendas, including assigning equal numbers of women and men in collaboration projects, addressing bias, intersectionality, and gender awareness among its staff, ensuring women have access to opportunities in leadership and professional development and using data to inform strategic and operational gender equity objectives.
The director of the plan, Natasha Bullock, believes that ensuring all people regardless of gender, have the opportunity to reach their full potential is central to the National Gallery’s vision.
“Across Australia and the world, arts and cultural institutions are facing the lived realities of exclusions, inequities and histories that have shaped their collections, programs and foundational structures,” Bullock, who is also the Gallery’s Assistant Director Artistic Programs, said.
“We are now addressing the significant imbalances that exist. We advocate for change and engage with our staff, community, and partners about gender equity issues. We recognise that to effect societal change, we need to ensure our own workplace culture, policy and artistic programs demonstrate gender equity, inclusivity, and respect.
The plan, which launches today to coincide with International Women’s Day, is the first of its kind by a major public visual arts-collecting institution in Australia.
It took eighteen months to develop — a joint effort with artists, staff, Council, community, government groups and members from the the visual arts community.
A 2019 study conducted by the Gallery and Countess Report revealed that only a quarter of the Australian art collection in the Gallery were works created by women artists.
Just over a third of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art collection were created by women.
The report also found that only 27 percent of works acquired by the National Gallery between 2014 and 2018, were done by women artists.
Nick Mitzevich, Director of the National Gallery said the need for collecting institutions, including the National Gallery, to “…take a more proactive role in redressing the legacy of historical bias has been made increasingly obvious in recent years.”
The Plan runs alongside the Gallery’s continuous Know My Name initiative, which aims to highlight the gross inequality in the art world regarding how female artists are often assessed compared to their male counterparts.
In the 2020–2021 financial year, the Gallery announced it had reached gender equity in national collection acquisitions.