At Mia, Everyone Is Welcome—Always

February 7, 2025—To truly honor this commitment, Mia is dedicated to transforming itself into a space where inclusivity and accessibility are at the forefront of everything we do. Arts and cultural organizations like Mia play a critical role in building connections and representing the broadest range of human experience through the lens of art. We believe everyone should be able to see themselves here. That’s why we’re focused on changing the way the museum works.

Mia’s sustained, intentional commitment ensures that a focus on diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and belonging isn’t just a one-time event but a core value woven into the museum’s mission, vision, and values. Mia has been and continues to be committed to delivering on three key DEI priorities:

Increasing Representational Diversity

We’re dedicated to fostering a staff, leadership, and partnership network that reflect the rich diversity of the community we serve. We’re focusing on strategies to enhance diversity across all levels of the organization, including fair hiring practices, equitable access to opportunities, and initiatives like internships and fellowships.

Improving Workplace Culture and Belonging

We’re creating an environment rooted in equity, respect, and inclusivity, where employees feel valued, supported, and empowered. We aim to strengthen staff engagement and enhance belonging by providing meaningful opportunities for growth, connection, and contribution. Initiatives like Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), well-being programs, and targeted training ensure Mia is a workplace where every individual can thrive.

Co-creating and Innovating for Inclusive Excellence

Through collaboration and innovation, the DEI Division integrates diverse perspectives to address key accessibility, sustainability, and inclusion goals. Our focus on co-creation ensures initiatives are not only innovative but also aligned with Mia’s mission to celebrate and serve the vibrant diversity of its community.

These DEI priorities guide Mia’s efforts to celebrate the rich tapestry of cultures, perspectives, and histories that make up our community. Through this important work, Mia strives to enhance the visitor experience and inspire meaningful change within and beyond the museum walls.

Katie Luber, the Nivin and Duncan MacMillan Director and President at Mia, recognizes Mia’s unique opportunity to engage with topics around diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and belonging to support purposeful progress and impact.

“Our commitment to fostering diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility remains at the core of our mission, which is to enrich the community by collecting, preserving, and making accessible outstanding works of art from the world’s diverse cultures,” Luber said.

One of Luber’s first accomplishments was to create and permanently endow a Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at the Leadership Team level. This ensures that, no matter what happens in the museum field or in our society, Mia will always be ready to address the ever-changing nature of diversity needs and initiatives, the evergreen importance of inclusion, and the role of all these elements in building a truly equitable society.

At the same time, Luber instituted a bold new staffing structure, upending the traditional HR model in which DEI reports to Human Resources. Under this new model, the HR department reports to the CDIO, infusing DEI principles across the museum’s systems, processes, and staffing procedures, with the hope that the entire staff feels empowered and motivated to incorporate this work into their alignment with the museum’s mission.

“Currently, we are working with the entire staff to reach broader audiences through museum programming, hiring, and exhibitions,” Luber said. “The museum is always looking for opportunities to connect with new communities. For example, the recent addition of a domestic Tibetan Shrine to Mia’s permanent collection opened up new connections to Minnesota’s Tibetan community, and exhibitions like ‘Giants’ showcase the work of African American artists at the highest level.”

“We believe in the power of art to make our world a better place, one visitor at a time, whoever they may be,” Luber added. “We want to be sure that everyone feels welcome at Mia.”

Mia’s CDIO, Virajita Singh, is proud of the way Mia is setting a new standard for inclusion in museums by fostering trust, collaboration, and partnership both inside and outside the organization.

“By organizing ourselves in this way, we can address DEI at a deep structural level across every division and department,” Singh said.

“It sets us up to increase representation for both staff and visitors and enhance our culture of belonging. It’s essential that we have both components—we need to increase diversity and be welcoming for all. We can’t do one without the other and expect to achieve our goals.”

Additionally, Singh encourages every staff member to look for opportunities to find innovative ways to expand the implementation of DEI initiatives across the museum. Recognizing DEI as mission-critical to meeting the needs of the business and infusing inclusive excellence throughout the institution is vital to success. She believes DEI needs to be an iterative process to make a true impact. Mia is building upon the foundation of its 110-year legacy to grow into the museum it needs to become for today and tomorrow.

“Advancing DEI is everyone’s everyday work—not just those of us who have DEI in our job titles,” said Singh.

“When you understand people’s views, you can better define the problem or challenge and enact solutions. Everything is dynamic; we are always asking ourselves what we can do better, then evolving our policies and practices to help us get there.”

People have complex and rich identities. The work underway at Mia is setting a new standard for inclusion in museums by cultivating trust, collaboration, and accessibility, both internally and externally. Through targeted DEI efforts, Mia aims to create a museum experience that is beneficial to our staff, our audiences, and the broader community.

And ultimately make Mia a place where everyone feels seen, valued, and included.