Pitfalls of Packaged Identity (original) (raw)
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American Indian Arts and the Politics of Representation within Museums
If art can speak to issues of social justice, it can be an active voice that quickens contemporary art making about current topics. But the art of our modern world is a small portion of the art that has been made throughout and before our Western history – countless cultures, remote and distant in time and place, inhabit our consciousness through institutionalized display devised by members of our culture with our world view. Here Dr. Kevin Slivka unpacks the layers of lens distortion that western society places between us and the genuine voices of other cultures. He also highlights the systematic misrepresentation of First Nation cultures by artists and art institutions. One aspect of social justice is artistic justice – honest, respectful and unprejudiced witness that allows for the authentic voices to be heard. - Marty Merchant
Tolerance and Dissent: Representations of Islam at the Metropolitan Museum after 9/11
Confluence, 2017
This essay was originally written for a class I took Freshman year, “Museums and the Politics of Space”. The essay compares the old and new Islamic art galleries at the Metropolitan Museum in New York and examines the effects of the events of 9/11 on the new curation of the gallery. It has been published on Gallatin’s digital writing and research journal, Confluence.
Indian Made: Museum Valuation of American Indian Identity through Aesthetics
2019
Ethnographic museums create a taste for American Indian art through the acquisition of art with a narrow type, scope, and preference for particular Native artists. The taste created by museums is than communicated to their publics through the valuation of contemporary art and presenting the art through “rhetorics of value” (Kratz 22). I argue these “rhetorics of value” are creating rigid standards for what constitutes American Indian art worthy for museum display that excludes traditional art forms and contemporary motifs deemed important by tribal nations and individual American Indian artists. This article traces the process of creating contemporary American Indian art taste that valuates not only the art itself, but also the artist’s Native identity when considering good Indian art. I also track how this taste is imparted to museum publics and finally how these processes are exclusionary through a discussion of a museum passing on a truly unique piece of contemporary American Ind...
The Public Historian, 2004
In the last thirty years, ethnic museums have mushroomed in American cities. Although this is certainly a national phenomenon, it has been particularly evident in Los Angeles. In this paper we examine the genesis and evolution of these emerging institutions. We survey the mission, scope, and role of ethnic museums in Los Angeles, and we contrast them with the stated mission and scope of "mainstream" museums in the city. We further present case studies of three Los Angeles ethnic museums. The museums vary considerably in the ways they perceive their role in the community, the city, and the nation and in the preservation and display of ethnic culture. At their best, ethnic museums serve to make new art and histories more accessible and visible and provide a forum in which to debate contemporary issues of politics and identity. The paper highlights some of the tensions faced by ethnic museums as they seek to define their audience and role(s) in multi-ethnic, twenty-first cent...
Sikh Heritage at the Smithsonian
The paper presents a curator’s observations on the planning, development, presentation, and public events associated with the exhibition “Sikhs: Legacy of the Punjab.” The exhibition, currently at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (Washington, D.C., USA), represents the first introduction many of its viewers will have, both to Sikhs and to the Punjab. Given the level of worldwide Sikh (and especially Sikh-American) community involvement in this exhibition, this “curator’s” perspective should, in fact, be considered the perspective of just one “co-curator” among the many co-curators from a large and supportive Sikh community, which participated in its own self-representation through this exhibition and through the associated public events. This paper summarizes the exhibition’s development through efforts of the “Sikh Heritage Fund” within a framework of similar “heritage” funds and projects under the Smithsonian’s Asian Cultural History Program (ACHP). Then it addresses the ACHP’s procedure of treating an exhibition as the “flagship of a fleet” of related activities that gained acceptance and helped establish a growing community of supporters of the Sikh Heritage Project. The content of the resulting exhibition is also summarized, highlighting examples that illustrate extensive Sikh community involvement.
Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education, 2012
In museums with Indigenous objects, the exhibits present a particular representation of the culture and history of Indigenous peoples. More recently, the move toward partnerships with Indigenous communities represents a radical departure from long-held attitudes about the relationship between Indigenous people and museums. This article both examines the permanent exhibits at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian and uses qualitative data from visitors' experiences to explore the pedagogical nature of this museum's exhibits and the degree to which they challenge and confirm the public's conceptualizations of Indigenous identities. In considering the museum's pedagogical address (Ellsworth, 2005), this article suggests the need for educators to consider what is not presented in exhibits and the degree to which what is presented obscures new understandings from the visiting public.