HINDRANCES

Many museums and artistics institutions tend to fall into the trap of balancing public benefits with collectors' and trustees' wishes.  Decisions on how to market and build the reputation of the artistic institution fall on this divide, leaving details on the environment and patrons to this polarizationn.  

Plenty of museums, such as the Kimbell, have opportunities for visitors to recieve discounted admission to exhibits with Texas' SNAP program, as do they have teen programming and Spanish-centered online text, but how many people really know about these programs? Many similar outreach programs suffer from a lack of recognition or promotion, leaving these wonderful accessibility measures in the background. 

DFW has an estimated population of 7.5 million people, with around 1.7 million of these citizens speaking Spanish as a native language and 72,000 speaking Vietnamese. Many didactic texts are only displayed in English, and while audio tours are getting better about offering multiple languages, there is still information that can only be found in English.

Some artistic institutions struggle with cultural dissonance. Especially in a time when the populace has an increased reliance on alternative modes of accessing art, such as on the internet or social media, artistic institutions are forced to wade into uncomfortable new waters to embrace this new culture. Docents in uniforms now feel stuffy and elite rather than professional, intimidation creeping into every crevice of a visit. Furthermore, artistic institutions must come to terms with a central question: who is on display? With BIPOC experiences becoming the focus of the cultural zeitgeist, many artistic institutions have yet to catch up.