I’m also pleased to see the forward-looking aspect of building career pathways and developing future leaders. However, an ongoing challenge that remains is that in many museums (especially those affiliated with academic or governmental institutions), economic/financial advancement and career advancement are rigidly linked. This creates a structure within which many positions will have continual “churn” as people keep transitioning out of them and into other roles, while only a few positions will see more long-term occupancy. Staff members conclude that in order to attain a sustainable salary, they need to be promoted out of the job that they came to the museum field to do, or must have their duties and responsibilities expanded at the expense of doing their core work in order to “justify” higher compensation.

Many museum professionals working in collections conservation and research, exhibit design and fabrication, or education don’t necessarily want to become department directors or administrators, but remaining in their current position offers little or no opportunity for significantly higher earnings. If they don’t have access to other resources to make that work in the long term, they leave.

While I applaud any efforts to develop future museum leaders (we’ll need them!), I think it will be crucial for us to also find ways to create sustainable careers in the many roles that are not directoral/managerial (and thus not always viewed as leadership roles) but are still essential to keeping the functionality and upholding the obligations of the museum.