Margaret Middleton | Rhode Island School of Design (original) (raw)
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Papers by Margaret Middleton
Curator: the Museum Journal, 2024
In 2022, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum opened the temporary exhibition Drawing the Curtain: Mau... more In 2022, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum opened the temporary exhibition Drawing the Curtain: Maurice Sendak's Designs for Ballet and Opera. Predicting most visitors would know Sendak as the creator of children's books such as Where the Wild Things Are, the Gardner team decided to consider families with children as potential visitors. Though the Gardner regularly offers family guides and children's programming, this would be the first time the Museum would explicitly welcome children in an exhibition. The result was a unique exhibition experience that visitors of a variety of ages could enjoy together. This article describes the process the team used to develop and design the exhibition, told from the perspectives of the fine arts curator and children's museum designer who worked together to make it happen.
Exhibition, 2023
This article first appeared in the journal Exhibition (Fall 2023) vol. 42, no. 2 and is reproduce... more This article first appeared in the journal Exhibition (Fall 2023) vol. 42, no. 2 and is reproduced with permission. www.aam-us.org/programs/exhibition-journal/
Museum workers have taken a massive hit during the pandemic when many museums closed their doors,... more Museum workers have taken a massive hit during the pandemic when many museums closed their doors, cut staff hours, instituted layoffs and furloughs, and pushed more into precarity. For many workers, the effect of the pandemic has highlighted longstanding issues of racial, economic, gender and political inequality. This article engages with how workers are responding to this insecurity by highlighting worker-led feminist mobilizations for transformation in museums based in the United States and the United Kingdom. By focusing on efforts for engaging with the Black Lives Matter movement, decolonizing the museum, unionizing workers and providing mutual aid, this article examines worker-led practices of transformation of the museum amid crisis. A special emphasis is put on how workers articulate the importance of feminist solidarity and collective action in envisioning a more just museum of the future.
Journal of Museum Education, 2020
Queer possibility is an interpretive strategy that uplifts the marginalized narratives of LGBTQ (... more Queer possibility is an interpretive strategy that uplifts the marginalized narratives of LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) historical figures and objects of queer significance. This article outlines three unspoken standards that content developers use to determine whether to include queer content in museum exhibits and tours. In a heteronormative, cisnormative society, choosing not to interpret queerness or potential queerness is not a neutral action. These limiting standards can unwittingly perpetuate a legacy of homophobia and transphobia in museum interpretation. In response to these limiting standards, the article outlines three alternative queer-positive strategies that prioritize the experience of queer visitors and the telling of queer history.
Exhibition, 2019
This article first appeared in the journal Exhibition (fall 2019) vol. 38, no. 2, and is reproduc... more This article first appeared in the journal Exhibition (fall 2019) vol. 38, no. 2, and is reproduced with permission. National Association for Museum Exhibition
In 2015 Mimi's Family: Photographs by Matthew Clowney opened to the public at Boston Children's M... more In 2015 Mimi's Family: Photographs by Matthew Clowney opened to the public at Boston Children's Museum. The first of its kind, this groundbreaking exhibit told the story of a family with a transgender grandparent through a series of large, color photographs. This case study describes the process, challenges, and outcomes of creating the exhibit and offers suggestions that all museums can use to create more welcoming spaces for transgender visitors and staff.
Museums today are demonstrating an increased commitment to LGBTQ communities through exhibitions ... more Museums today are demonstrating an increased commitment to LGBTQ communities through exhibitions that center their stories. These queer-focused exhibitions are valuable tools for broadening representation, but the messages they carry are only as strong as the institution’s commitment to queer inclusion. When queer narratives are limited to temporary exhibitions during Pride Month or isolated in queer-themed galleries, it suggests that they are “special interest” and unimportant. However, with the support of comprehensive queer inclusion, exhibitions can be stronger, more powerful tools for inclusion. This article explores queer inclusion in four tiers: programming, temporary exhibitions, interpretive strategy, and broad institutional commitment.
This article first appeared in the journal Exhibition (Fall 2017) Vol. 36 No. 2 and is reproduced with permission. www.name-aam.org
Museums & Social Issues, 2016
Museums strive to be welcoming places, but the ways museums communicate can inadvertently exclude... more Museums strive to be welcoming places, but the ways museums communicate can inadvertently exclude and alienate visitors. Words have the power to reinforce or negate the social value of museums.
Book Reviews by Margaret Middleton
FWD: Museums, 2021
Museums, Sexuality, and Gender Activism is the follow-up collection to the 2010 volume Gender, Se... more Museums, Sexuality, and Gender Activism is the follow-up collection to the 2010 volume Gender, Sexuality, and Museums: A Routledge Reader, edited by Amy K. Levin. In the new book, Joshua Adair 1 joins Levin as co-editor, and together they aim to capture developments in museum practice, case studies, and research that have emerged in the past decade, this time with an added emphasis on activism. Museums, Sexuality, and Gender Activism is part of Routledge's Museum Meanings series edited by Richard Sandell and Christina Kreps. The series responds to recent significant shifts in museological practice and uses interdisciplinary investigations to explore the changing role of museums. The authors of the chapters in this collection, ranging from the emerging to the established, draw on a diverse set of perspectives including theoretical, practical, and critical, and consider themes of inclusion, representation, and coproduction in art and history museums.
Curator: the Museum Journal, 2024
In 2022, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum opened the temporary exhibition Drawing the Curtain: Mau... more In 2022, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum opened the temporary exhibition Drawing the Curtain: Maurice Sendak's Designs for Ballet and Opera. Predicting most visitors would know Sendak as the creator of children's books such as Where the Wild Things Are, the Gardner team decided to consider families with children as potential visitors. Though the Gardner regularly offers family guides and children's programming, this would be the first time the Museum would explicitly welcome children in an exhibition. The result was a unique exhibition experience that visitors of a variety of ages could enjoy together. This article describes the process the team used to develop and design the exhibition, told from the perspectives of the fine arts curator and children's museum designer who worked together to make it happen.
Exhibition, 2023
This article first appeared in the journal Exhibition (Fall 2023) vol. 42, no. 2 and is reproduce... more This article first appeared in the journal Exhibition (Fall 2023) vol. 42, no. 2 and is reproduced with permission. www.aam-us.org/programs/exhibition-journal/
Museum workers have taken a massive hit during the pandemic when many museums closed their doors,... more Museum workers have taken a massive hit during the pandemic when many museums closed their doors, cut staff hours, instituted layoffs and furloughs, and pushed more into precarity. For many workers, the effect of the pandemic has highlighted longstanding issues of racial, economic, gender and political inequality. This article engages with how workers are responding to this insecurity by highlighting worker-led feminist mobilizations for transformation in museums based in the United States and the United Kingdom. By focusing on efforts for engaging with the Black Lives Matter movement, decolonizing the museum, unionizing workers and providing mutual aid, this article examines worker-led practices of transformation of the museum amid crisis. A special emphasis is put on how workers articulate the importance of feminist solidarity and collective action in envisioning a more just museum of the future.
Journal of Museum Education, 2020
Queer possibility is an interpretive strategy that uplifts the marginalized narratives of LGBTQ (... more Queer possibility is an interpretive strategy that uplifts the marginalized narratives of LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) historical figures and objects of queer significance. This article outlines three unspoken standards that content developers use to determine whether to include queer content in museum exhibits and tours. In a heteronormative, cisnormative society, choosing not to interpret queerness or potential queerness is not a neutral action. These limiting standards can unwittingly perpetuate a legacy of homophobia and transphobia in museum interpretation. In response to these limiting standards, the article outlines three alternative queer-positive strategies that prioritize the experience of queer visitors and the telling of queer history.
Exhibition, 2019
This article first appeared in the journal Exhibition (fall 2019) vol. 38, no. 2, and is reproduc... more This article first appeared in the journal Exhibition (fall 2019) vol. 38, no. 2, and is reproduced with permission. National Association for Museum Exhibition
In 2015 Mimi's Family: Photographs by Matthew Clowney opened to the public at Boston Children's M... more In 2015 Mimi's Family: Photographs by Matthew Clowney opened to the public at Boston Children's Museum. The first of its kind, this groundbreaking exhibit told the story of a family with a transgender grandparent through a series of large, color photographs. This case study describes the process, challenges, and outcomes of creating the exhibit and offers suggestions that all museums can use to create more welcoming spaces for transgender visitors and staff.
Museums today are demonstrating an increased commitment to LGBTQ communities through exhibitions ... more Museums today are demonstrating an increased commitment to LGBTQ communities through exhibitions that center their stories. These queer-focused exhibitions are valuable tools for broadening representation, but the messages they carry are only as strong as the institution’s commitment to queer inclusion. When queer narratives are limited to temporary exhibitions during Pride Month or isolated in queer-themed galleries, it suggests that they are “special interest” and unimportant. However, with the support of comprehensive queer inclusion, exhibitions can be stronger, more powerful tools for inclusion. This article explores queer inclusion in four tiers: programming, temporary exhibitions, interpretive strategy, and broad institutional commitment.
This article first appeared in the journal Exhibition (Fall 2017) Vol. 36 No. 2 and is reproduced with permission. www.name-aam.org
Museums & Social Issues, 2016
Museums strive to be welcoming places, but the ways museums communicate can inadvertently exclude... more Museums strive to be welcoming places, but the ways museums communicate can inadvertently exclude and alienate visitors. Words have the power to reinforce or negate the social value of museums.
FWD: Museums, 2021
Museums, Sexuality, and Gender Activism is the follow-up collection to the 2010 volume Gender, Se... more Museums, Sexuality, and Gender Activism is the follow-up collection to the 2010 volume Gender, Sexuality, and Museums: A Routledge Reader, edited by Amy K. Levin. In the new book, Joshua Adair 1 joins Levin as co-editor, and together they aim to capture developments in museum practice, case studies, and research that have emerged in the past decade, this time with an added emphasis on activism. Museums, Sexuality, and Gender Activism is part of Routledge's Museum Meanings series edited by Richard Sandell and Christina Kreps. The series responds to recent significant shifts in museological practice and uses interdisciplinary investigations to explore the changing role of museums. The authors of the chapters in this collection, ranging from the emerging to the established, draw on a diverse set of perspectives including theoretical, practical, and critical, and consider themes of inclusion, representation, and coproduction in art and history museums.