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“All you need to do is count,”
the Guerrilla Girls pointed out in the eighties. Who’s on the wall? Who gets to exhibit? Who gets collected? And who doesn’t?
In Everybody Hates Quotas, Szine #4, Emma Harjadi Herman (head of education and inclusion, Stedelijk) and Hannah Sweering (independent researcher) examine five years of acquisitions at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Combining quantitative analysis with a candid conversation with director Rein Wolfs and curators Leontine Coelewij and Amanda Pinatih, the publication investigates the impact of the museum’s decision to spend at least 50 percent of its acquisitions budget on works by artists and designers identifying as Black, of colour and/or belonging to an ethnic minority and/or born outside Western Europe and North America.
The publication provides evidence-based insights about representation in the museum’s collecting practices and reflects broader questions about institutional change, accountability, and the role of museums in a changing society. Everybody Hates Quotas is an invitation to discuss how cultural institutions can measure, evaluate, and rethink the stories they choose to preserve.
Installation view ‘Everyday, Someday, and Other Stories. Collection 1950 – 1980’. Fltr: Naomi Kobayashi, Ito wa ito, 1980; Claudio Parmiggiani, Zoo Geometrico, 1969; and a series of framed works on paper by Raja Babu Sharma, 1985-1995, collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Peter Tijhuis.
