NEW:
The president of the Newfields art campus in Indianapolis resigned Wednesday after dozens of staff members signed a petition calling for him to go.
Museum officials said they accepted Charles Venable’s resignation Wednesday morning.
The petition followed a job posting for a new director position that referenced maintaining the Indianapolis Museum of Arts’ “core, white art audience.”
The Newfields statement said CFO Jerry Wise would serve as interim president.
The institution said an independent committee would conduct a review of Newfields' leadership, culture and boards. It said it would also expand exhibitions and programming for and by Black and other marginalized communities and conduct anti-racism training.
READ MORE: Newfields Regrets Reference To 'White Art Audience' In Job Description
On Saturday, the institution expressed regret for the job listing that said the museum was seeking to "attract a broader and more diverse audience while maintaining the Museum's traditional, core, white art audience".
The San Francisco-based m/Oppenheim executive search group posted the ad in January.
It has since been changed to say the museum seeks to “welcome and embrace a more diverse audience” while maintaining its “traditional core art audience.”
This story will be updated.
ORIGINAL POST:
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields has removed and apologized for a job listing seeking a director who would maintain the museum's “traditional, core, white art audience.” The museum’s director and chief executive, Charles Venable, says the decision to use the word “white” had been intentional to show that the museum wouldn't abandon its existing audience as it works for more diversity. But the posting generated wide criticism, including from artists in an upcoming Black Lives Matter exhibit and a Black former curator who says the wording illustrates an incorrect sentiment that raising up art from African or Indigenous would somehow exclude white people.