Set up a diversity quota of two-third of artists from discriminated groups in the selection of exhibitions and collections.

“According to 2019 study of the permanent collections of 18 large art museums in the U.S., 87% of the over 10 000 featured artists are male, and 85% white” (“Diversity of Artists in Major U.S. Museums”, Public Library of Science. 2019)

If art institutions have been recently moving toward diversifying their exhibitions and permanent collection to remediate the historic underrepresentation of non-male and non-white people in the curations, western contemporary art institutions still have a long way to go in diversifying their exhibitions and collections, as they keep excluding people who are experiencing one or several discriminations due to their gender, race, (dis)ability(es), sexuality, age, etc…

We, the Organization for the Democratization of the Visual Arts (ODBK)*, claim that the actual contemporary art world system needs urgently more representations of artists who are not from the white cis-male hegemony. Allowing more diversity in the art world is also allowing a more diverse representation of points of view and giving an opportunity to all regardless of their gender, race, (dis)ability(es), sexuality, age, etc…

Thus, we demand that art institutions start real actions to put an end to the lack of diversity in exhibitions and collections of contemporary art institutions. 

For this, we suggest the setup of a diversity quota of two-third of artists from discriminated groups in the selection of exhibitions and collections.

*Founded in 2017 by the new media artist and activist David Hinojosa Admann, ODBK is an activist organization based in Berlin (Germany) that aims to create a more equal, diverse, and democratic art world. ODBK’s Equality and Diversity Certification for Art Institutions, initiated and operated by ODBK in 2021, publicly recognizes those art organizations demonstrating a history of, and commitment to, voluntarily making the art world more equal and diverse. Furthermore, ODBK focuses as well on other projects which involve the use of alternative economic systems, democracy, participative models like PARECON (​participatory economics)​, demarchy, and referendums. In this way, ODBK​ builds both offline and online mechanisms to diversify and increase the number of active participants in the decision making which defines the current and future art world.

Join us! at www.odbk.tk