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Factual Inaccuracies and Misleading Omissions in VPM's story, "Open to the Public? Creating Truly Inclusive Museums."

Click here to read the Museum's response about this story.

Each bullet includes the information reported in VPM’s story followed by the accurate information related to those statements in bold.

  • VPM reported that Science Within Reach is the only program aimed at diversity noted in the Museum’s last three annual reports. Science within Reach is an umbrella term describing a core value that encompasses many programs in the Museum’s repertoire. This information was provided to VPM in the fall of 2020. VPM mischaracterized this by stating it was a singular program. Further, several activities designed to reach diverse audiences and reduce barriers to entry were detailed in each year’s annual report.
  • VPM included a statement that Martina Hernandez felt that the translated information about the Museums for All membership was “kind of prejudiced, assuming that all Hispanic families are on some sort of assistantship.” When the Museum first introduced the Museums for All program, the Museum acted on a recommendation from the Department of Social Services, driven by their data, to translate that document into Spanish.
  • The VPM report stated that two administrative assistants were hired within days of each other and the white employee sat at a desk outside the director’s office and the Black employee did not. VPM’s source stated, “I was told I would be working in the basement.” Further it was reported that “it’s common knowledge that people of color work in the basement.” This section of the piece includes several inaccuracies.
    • The Museum does not have a basement. The Museum has four levels. Level 0, also sometimes called Track Level, includes both public exhibit and experience spaces (Boost!, LightPlace, The MiX, etc.) as well as private employee work space (exhibit fabrication area, graphic development, receiving, etc.)
    • The Museum hired three administrative assistants around the same time period, two Black part-time employees and one white part-time employee. All three employees were hired to rotate between workstations in the Museum, the two primary stations being a desk outside the director’s office on Level 3 and a desk in the administrative area on Level 0. Administrative functions were to be performed while at each location. While working in the administrative area on Level 0, these employees were to oversee receiving for the Museum, which takes place on Level 0. Each employee received a schedule that spelled out when to work from each workstation. Had we been asked, the Museum could have provided VPM with those schedules showing that all three employees worked at each location. It is important to note that the schedule is based on both Museum need and each employee’s available schedule. Employees with more availability on the weekends were told they would work more of that time on Level 0 to oversee receiving, as that is the primary administrative need on the weekend for the Museum.
    • The administrative team at the Museum was and is a flexible unit that works in many areas of the building on short notice. That works includes meeting support as well as assisting all departments with special projects (anything from handing out headphones for an exhibit to laminating signs for graphics to assisting HR with filing). All members of the administrative staff work this way and everyone on the team, including the administrative coordinator, worked in the Level 0 administrative area when required. Further, as Museum staff had to be reduced as a result of the pandemic, employees outside the administrative team, regardless of color, have covered shifts in the Level 0 administrative area to assist with receiving.
    • Employee work locations are not based on demographics. Work locations are based on each employee’s work duties and where those duties can best be performed. The Museum has 11 employees who have workspaces on Level 0. Eight of those employees are white, three of those employees are Black.
  • VPM included a statement from Ella regarding another colleague – a person of color – who told her a supervisor wrote them up for being late to work and she noted that her falling asleep at work twice was worse. State employee privacy policies prevent the Museum from providing details about individual employee performance. That said, Ella’s statement is a gross simplification of a larger, documented performance issue. Further, the Museum followed the same disciplinary process for both employees, which includes first verbal warnings and then written warnings when issues are not addressed.
  • The VPM report included a quote from Nic Ekanem stating “Everybody I saw upstairs in the offices was white.” Nic’s workstation was on Level 3 among several other Museum staff members. There were four offices in Nic’s immediate work area. Two of those offices were occupied by people of color.
  • VPM included statements misrepresenting the terms of Nic’s contract with the Museum. When it published Nic’s contract, VPM selectively redacted the period of performance for the contract which clearly outlines the dates of the contract which Nic agreed to. It is made clear in the contract that Nic was not an employee of the Museum, included an end date, and had no mention of future employment.
  • VPM reported that Nic felt uncomfortable being asked to participate in a Museum brand video to increase diversity. The Museum never wants to make anyone feel uncomfortable and apologizes that this request made Nic feel this way. It should be noted that a clearly stated work product in Nic’s contract was the co-production of Museum brand videos, so this request was not outside of the scope of Nic’s contract. The Museum would have welcomed a discussion with Nic regarding how to better reflect diversity in Museum content if these concerns had been brought to light while Nic was fulfilling their contract.
  • VPM included the statement “Ekanem said Hoffman’s talk didn’t match his walk.” That statement is incredibly reductive and omits the many years Dr. Hoffman has spent working first on research that demonstrated that communities of color are more negatively impacted by the heat island effect and further that historical practices of redlining have exacerbated climate impacts on communities of color. The Museum and Dr. Hoffman are continuing its work with community partners around these troubling findings. The Museum’s heat island and redlining work has been leveraged to attract over $1M for equity-focused climate action projects across the city external to the Museum. In addition, Dr. Hoffman has been an advisor/working group member for both RVAgreen2050 and Richmond 300, both of which envision a more equitable climate future for Richmond. VPM has reported several times on the positive impacts of this work, yet failed to include any such mention of these impacts in this story.
  • The VPM report stated that the Museum launched its new website without any translation services that the Museum director noted could be addressed. The Museum did take translation services under consideration and investigated adding Google Translate to its new website. When investigating this option, the Museum discovered that Google Translate is no longer supported on websites. While the widget is still available to those who already had it installed, as of January 2019, Google stopped providing access to new website translator widgets. Because the Museum is committed to offering translation services on its website, it further investigated options to add more robust translation API services to its website and has already begun the contracting process with its website developer to integrate this service. While this process unfolds, the Museum has been working with a professional to have educational materials translated into Spanish and has made those available to the public as they were completed.
  • VPM stated that the Museum’s Board is made up for 15 people, four of whom are people of color. It was omitted that the Museum’s Board is appointed by the Governor and the Museum has no control over who is appointed to the Board. Board members represent all of Virginia, not just Richmond, with seven of the 15 trustees living outside the Greater Richmond area. It was further omitted that the Museum’s current vice-chair is a person of color who will take over as the board chair in October 2021.
  • The VPM report stated that the Museum did not discuss the history of segregation at the centennial celebration. Among other activities at the celebration, the Museum worked with architectural historian, Dr. Brian Clarke Green, to host three architectural walking tours during the celebration. As part of these tours, Green talked extensively about how movement through the building was segregated by race.
  • VPM included a caption in a photo on the digital story noting that the gates separating the “colored waiting room” still remain today. These gates are not original to Broad Street Station and were not in place when this room was used as a segregated area.
  • The VPM report stated that the Museum hosted a black-tie event as part of the centennial celebration of Broad Street Station. The Museum did not host a black-tie event as part of the centennial celebration of Broad Street Station .
  • The VPM report stated that the Museum has expanded over the years, mostly to accommodate large gatherings and events in the area. The Museum has not expanded mostly to accommodate large gatherings and events. The Museum grew into other spaces in Broad Street Station to allow for more exhibits and experiences for guests. The first expansion of the Museum’s footprint was adding the Dome planetarium in 1983. The only expansion at the Museum that included space to be used for large gatherings and events was the Dewey Gottwald Center, which opened in 2017. This space was designed both as an event space and as a touring exhibition space to allow the Museum to host larger exhibitions in the summer.