BCMA’s Brain offers a collection of learning resources suitable for museums of all shapes and sizes.

Help keep our collective Brain active and growing by sharing your ideas for new resources and innovative practices here.

 

Essentials

• An Equity Audit is a comprehensive benchmarking tool that assesses diversity, equity, and inclusion for schools, nonprofit organizations, and companies
• Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion (Canadian Museums Association (CMA) resolution from the 2019 Annual General Meeting – all museums are encouraged to embrace this statement and policy position which includes acknowledgement of the unjust treatment of Indigenous communities
• Neighbourhood Arts Network Arts Equity Toolkit
• Inclusion 2025: A Practitioner’s Guide to Inclusive Museums 
• Roundup (Issue 265): Cultural Connections: Promoting Diversity  (BCMA, Summer 2016)
• Accessibility and the Arts: A Series of Community Conversations from the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria can be found here
• Rod Naknakim Declaration (BCMA, 2017)
• Museums as sites for social action toolkit
• Board Diversity Training toolkit
• LEAN Canada – Leadership Emergency Arts Network Information for Organizations
• Respecting Focus: A Behavior Guide for Intelligent Systems
• Designing for Guidance
• Inclusive Design Toolkit
• Inclusive Design Manual
• Valuable Webinars:
  • An Introduction to Brave Spaces, free!
  • Diversity & Community Support in Membership & Visitor Services, free!
  • Striving Towards an Equitable Future: Addressing Systemic Injustice as a Cultural Organization, free!

LGBTQ2+

• The No Big Deal Campaign offers free tools for people to show their support for transgender and/or nonbinary people and our pronouns in everyday life.
  • No Big Deal Campaign poster
• The American Alliance of Museums (AAM) LGBTQ Alliance’s Task Force for Transgender Inclusion has released Gender Transition and Transgender Inclusion in the Museum Workplace: A Toolkit for Trans Individuals, Institutions, and Coworkers. This expansive set of guides approaches trans inclusion from various perspectives in an approachable and easy-to-understand format.
• LGBTQ2+ Inclusion in Canadian Museums draft document is an introduction to LGBTQ2+ inclusion for Canadian museums, which will help launch a series of inclusive strategies to help guide cultural institutions on how to engage, reflect, and celebrate diverse Canadian communities.
• Working With Gender Diverse Artists– New Resource from BC Alliance for Arts and Culture
• LGBTQ Alliance Welcoming Guidelines for Museums can be found here
• An LGBT best practice guide for employers can be found here
• Canada’s largest LGBTQ2+ Archives
• LGBTQ+ People with Disabilities toolkit
• Organizations that fund and support the 2SLGBTQ+ community of Metro Vancouver

Black and POC

• Operationalizing Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion in your Nonprofit tips can be found here
• A valuable article titled “Black people don’t go to galleries”
• An article titled “Challenging Assumptions and Practices in Board Diversity” with the accompanying Governance for Social Impact panel discussion.
• A Step-by-Step Guide to Cultivating Diversity and Inclusion can be found here
• This comprehensive guide outlines the theory and tools for practice towards creating greater equity within the museum field.
• BC Government Anti-Racism Network and FAQ can be found here
• How to intervene in a racist attack
• Fighting Racism and Unconscious Bias toolkit
• Multidisciplinary space for creative explorations, featuring work by Indigenous, Black and People of Colour artists can be found here, their latest magazine issue can be explored here, and their video library from past programming can be explored here
• Museum Professionals of Colour Facebook group can be found here
• BC Black History Awareness Society has some great resources for teachers, educators, students and researchers that can be found here.
• Canada’s Institutional Racism Problem is Also Embedded in Its Museums — How Can We Address It?
• Valuable Webinars:
  • Unpacking Systemic Racism: Making Meaning of this Moment, free!
  • Whiteness at Work, free! 
  • Racism, Unrest, and the Role of the Museum Field, free!
  • #MuseumsAreNotNeutral: White Supremacy in Museums and Calls to Immediate Action free!

Indigenous Peoples

• Indigenous Repatriation Handbook can be found here
• An article unpacking cultural equity can be found here
• The Museums Association of Saskatchewan’s Responsible Exhibit and Interpretation of Indigenous Artifacts guide can be found here
• Diversity & Inclusion resources compiled by Heritage BC 
• BCMA’s Brain offers a collection of resources suitable for Indigenous communities, cultural centres and museums of all shapes and sizes. These resources can be found here
• Indigenous Ally Toolkit (Montreal Urban Aboriginal Community Strategy Network)
• A Guide to the Pronunciation of Indigenous Communities and Organizations in BC from the September 2018 Guide to Aboriginal Organizations and Services in British Columbia.
• Indigenous Languages in Canada: What you need to know. (McIvor, O.  CCUNESCO. 2018)
• First People’s Map of BC from First Peoples’ Cultural Council
• Reconciliation Canada
• Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission Web Archive
• Royal BC Museum Indigenous Collections and Repatriation Department Resources
• University of British Columbia Indigenous Portal which includes resources such as the Indigenous Peoples Language Guidelines.
• Valuable Webinars:
  • An Open Discussion: Indigenous Cultural Heritage, free!

Physical Disabilities

• Accessibility for Historic Places (Heritage BC publication, 2019)
• The Smithsonian Guidelines for Accessible Exhibition Design can be found here
• This accessibility toolkit will help you to make your services, buildings, information, and websites more accessible to customers with disabilities
• Design for Accessibility: A Cultural Administrator’s Handbook can be found here
• Accessibility in Creative Spaces toolkit
• Inclusive Education Resources on Disabilities toolkit
• Employers Embracing Employees with Disabilities toolkit
• Ensuring Virtual Events Are Accessible for All toolkit
• Valuable Webinars:
  • Disability Inclusion at Nonprofits: A Guide to Success, free!
  • How to Ensure Accessible Websites and Social Media, free!
  • How to Ensure A Welcoming Lexicon and Inclusive Storytelling, free!
  • How to Ensure Accessible Events, free!
  • How to Recruit, Accommodate and Promote People with Disabilities, free!
  • Introduction to Web Accessibility: Tips and Tricks, free!
  • Disability Etiquette Webinar, free!
  • Making your documents and presentations accessible to all, free!

Blind and Visually Impaired

• Access to Museums and Parks for Patrons who are Blind or Visually Impaired article
• Accessibility information for social media can be found here
• Verbal description training information can be found here
• 4 Ways To Increase Accessibility For Low-Vision And Blind Patrons In Art Museum
• The Audio Description project has resources on how this technology can be used in museums. Information can be found here
• Suggestions on how Museums can be made more accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired can be found here, here and here
• Valuable Webinars:
  • Open Access Workshop: Organizing Accessibility from the Grassroots, was facilitated by Vancouver-based artist Carmen Papalia. Papalia featured his ten years of art-making for creating space for non-visual learning, modelling support networks, and disrupting the passive experience of viewing in museums.

 

 

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