Response from the Science Museum of Virginia

Response from the Science Museum of Virginia Regarding VPM's Piece "Open to the Public? Creating Truly Inclusive Museums."

VPM's piece "Open to the Public? Creating Truly Inclusive Museums" discusses how state museums, including the Science Museum of Virginia, are falling short on matters of race, equity and inclusion.

The Museum is not perfect, but we do work to serve our audiences across all of Virginia and we are committed to continuing that work in the future. We know the value diversity brings to our organization and to the work that we do. We have always been a learning institution and we will learn from what we have heard in this piece. We welcome productive conversations, both from our community and our staff, around ways the Museum can continue to evolve and grow as an organization. We acknowledge that breaking down barriers takes deliberate action and that we must be intentional in our continued efforts to create a more inclusive Museum.

The Museum never received complaints about racial inequities from these individuals and was therefore not able to address these concerns. However, the Museum in no way dismisses the feelings of the individuals included in the story and is sorry to learn that their time at the organization left them feeling uncomfortable. The Museum works to create a culture where all employees feel valued and we are disappointed to hear that was not the case for the individuals included in the piece. Yet, to make the leap to accusations of racism levied in this piece is disheartening.

We hope our community will approach this from the standpoint of seeking to understand, and will recognize that some of the situations reported in the story require more context and explanation than could fit into their limited coverage.

For more than 40 years, the Museum has served its community. Over the past decade we have put into place several programs designed to reduce potential barriers to ensure we are serving the broadest cross section of the community possible. Outside of programing, the Museum works to use STEM to help foster a strong community. The Museum has also invested significant resources into turning that lens of inclusion inward to ensure the organization and its staff reflect and respect perspectives and contributions of a diverse audience. The concerns shared with the reporter date back to 2019, and do not account for any progress we have made in the recent past to continue those diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion efforts.

The Museum is a community organization and should be held accountable for serving the entire community. Similarly, VPM is a public news organization and should be held accountable by the public to report balanced stories. Click here to read more about information that was omitted or inaccurately reported in the story.