To celebrate International Women’s Day, Ottawa’s Bytown Museum is hosting a virtual roundtable Mar. 4 to highlight the importance of female leadership within museum institutions.
The Women Museum Leaders Roundtable was organized as part of the museum’s cost-free Beyond Bytown virtual lecture series.
Organizers plan to virtually bring together a group of female CEOs of science centers, art galleries, and museums across Canada as they discuss the challenges and triumphs of the industry.
Robin Etherington, Bytown Museum executive director and roundtable moderator, said she hopes to champion the diversity of female CEOs and address the challenges that have confronted the tourism and culture industries during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The beauty of doing this series online is that we can gather not only Ottawa-based speakers but women from all over Canada,” she said.
Etherington said the pandemic has been harshly affected the tourism industry across Canada due to shutdowns, economic difficulty, and restricted in-person visits.
A report released by UNESCO revealed that nearly 90 per cent of 95,000 cultural institutions worldwide had closed their doors as of May 2020 because of the COVID-19 crisis and, according to the International Council of Museums (ICOM), more than 10 per cent may never reopen.
The task of moving the museum’s programming online was a daunting one but has nonetheless garnered success, largely due to the popularity of the Beyond Bytown lecture series.
The previous two panels have highlighted leaders from LGBTQ+ and Jewish communities in Ottawa and have received high attendance rates, according to Etherington.
The Bytown’s staff are extending the series beyond its original end date in April, through into the fall with plans to spotlight leaders from Ottawa’s Black community and Syrian community in an effort to champion diversity in the city.
The event will feature a number of panelists in leadership positions including Margaret Beckel, CEO of the Canadian Museum of Nature.
“I believe as leaders in the museum sector we have an obligation to share our experience and learn from each other through these types of events,” she said.
For Beckel, the roundtable is an opportunity to recognize how COVID-19 has been a transformative force for the museum industry.
She said the pandemic has increased the importance of understanding science.
“[COVID-19] has also created an obligation to step up and play a more active and vital role in creating a shared understanding of nature’s past, present, and potential future,” she said.
Beckel said the conversation is also an opportunity to emphasize how vital it is that those in management roles, across all industries, show support for their employees and communities during this difficult time.
Alexandra Badzak, CEO of the Ottawa Art Gallery and a participant in the event, said these public discussions are vital to putting a spotlight on the barriers and challenges women continue to face in the museum sector and how championing diversity can improve the workplace.
“I also believe that it is important to showcase women [and more diversity] in museum leadership,” Badzak said in an email to the Charlatan.
Both Badzak and Beckel said they hope this open discussion will serve to inspire attendees to pursue leadership roles in the future.
“It is important to showcase women in museum leadership so that we can inspire a new generation of emerging, diverse leaders in our field,” Bazdak said.
Etherington said she believes the panel is a great way to celebrate International Women’s Day as it provides a unique opportunity to hear from accomplished women in leadership positions as they deep dive into the future of their industry.
The Bytown’s Women Museum Leaders Roundtable, sponsored by Conway Litigation will live-stream on Mar. 4 at 3 p.m.
Featured graphic by Sara Mizannojehdehi.
