INTRODUCING THE QUESTIONNAIRE

Introductory messaging, which includes honest and transparent information about the survey, is an integral part of the document and should therefore be embedded within it so that the questionnaire cannot be removed from this context. To make it as accessible and visible as possible, it’s best to present it as a cover sheet, but it should be also included at the top of the survey.

Return to your original questions from the start of the project around goals, usage, intent, mission, and vision (see Planning and Policy Documents). The answers to these questions should still be applied and help form the information you will provide in the introduction to the survey. If they don’t align at this stage, the project must be paused and the statements reviewed, adapted, and modified to match the updated intent or the project itself reconsidered and revised to align.

State that the organization will never populate any sections at any point, including with information from the public sphere, scholarship, or existing data and that self-identification is paramount. Indicate that the artist should fill out the form themselves but provide an option for receiving assistance if needed. Outline practical information such as how long the questionnaire should take to complete and if there is a deadline for completing the form. Adherence to a deadline will vary, but having one is helpful in encouraging responses to come in by a certain timeframe. It is recommended to set a deadline no longer than three weeks after the request to complete the survey, because artists may not feel compelled to respond and may forget about the request, and to send a reminder before the deadline.

Emphasize that participation is optional.

Institutional Significance

Explain why your institution is gathering this information, including why it is important to your organization and how it aligns with its mission, values, strategic plan, and exhibition/acquisition policies. It is critical to be transparent and authentic. If you are seeking to bring change through this effort, to redirect the organization’s current and past trajectory, share that and be clear where the institution is seeking to go.

Usage

Be transparent about what you intend to do with the captured data and the impact the information could have on the organization. Share how the institution intends to use and communicate the data, whether internally or externally, and specifically where it might appear—catalogues, labels, print materials, website, social media, funding requests, policy creation, etc. Explain what will be reported in aggregate and what will be utilized individually (this can also be indicated by a question, if relevant). Indicate how the responses may affect change at the museum, for instance, by amending acquisition policies and practices to center on more diverse representation in the collection. Describe the security measures the institution has in place to protect the information, but also clarify that privacy cannot be guaranteed.

Privacy

It is important to assure artists that their identity information will not affect the institution’s relationship with the artist, including acquisitions of their work, plans for programming with them, etc. However, to set reasonable expectations, state that respondents shouldn’t share any information that they would not want used for curatorial choices, scholarship, cataloguing, etc., as relevant to planned public uses by the institution.

Storage

Indicate where the data will be stored (analog and digital) and archived and who will have access to the information in as broad and understandable a way as possible. While you may wish to be exclusive here, you should be as wide and open as possible, highlighting departments and not titles or specific individuals. Recognize that if you intend to use the data in a certain way, then those areas involved in that usage should have access to the data collected.

Other Questionnaires and Interpretation

Clarify the relationship or intersection between this questionnaire and other medium- or object-specific questionnaires that typically aid registration, curatorial, and conservation teams. Explain if you have demographic data on artists already, which could be from an acquisition, loan, object record and/or from a program, that this new form will replace it as the standard. For example, if a response is received from this survey that conflicts drastically with a current object record, the artist needs to be aware that the new survey response will replace older information. If there is an intent to contact every artist that this may happen with, it must be done so consistently and fairly with every discrepancy, not limited to certain questions or artist profile. This can be an unexpected capacity issue. The collecting organization needs to be very clear about this process and its intent when conflict arises in records.

Bias and Feedback

Indicate the feedback mechanisms and/ or contact information for respondents’ questions and concerns. Outdated cataloguing structures can be entrenched in institutions, and it is important to acknowledge the bias that may be present in the form and that the organization of the data in the survey might not match an artist’s conceptualization of their own identity. Feedback should be welcomed, as it can help to highlight bias and inequities, and those collecting the data need to accept input, as that shared information needs to inform current and future endeavors. The process will require recognition that the data-gathering organization and team may, intentionally or unintentionally, have a narrow realm of understanding that can be expanded through this process. (See Feedback and Updates.)