Coming Together to Address Systemic Racism in Museums (original) (raw)

Doing the Work: A Discussion on Visioning and Realizing Racial Equity in Museums

Journal of Museum Education, 2017

As museum educators move forward to promote racial and cultural equity in the field, it will be critical to consult those who have been doing this work to learn from their experiences. In this discussion, Radiah Harper and Keonna Hendrick reflect on Ms. Harper's experience advocating for racial and cultural inclusion in museum education, while considering the tools museum educators will need to employ to make immediate and long-term changes in their practice and institutions to support anti-racist work.

Museums and Race: Living Up to the Public Trust

Museums & Social Issues, 2007

Museums, as perhaps the nation's most trusted institutions, should be leaders in the national debate on race. If they are to maintain the public trust, they must present history honestly and sensitively. Public demand for inclusive history and two current museum frameworks both support this assertion. Jay Rounds asserts that visitors come to museums to do "identity work."

Minority Representation in Mainstream Art Museums: Contemporary Perspectives and Ethical Challenges

This project focused on art museums within the English-speaking world and their evolving relationship with the art of African Americans and Native peoples. As a direct result of colonialism, the English-speaking world has long held that their dominant White culture was superior to that of other races and ethnicities. Therefore, minority art has not had equal representation in White art museums. This paper used the history of minority representation in museums as the foundation for understanding the current relationship between minorities and museums. Today’s society is at a critical juncture, in which trends towards tolerance, respect, and multiculturalism, compete with deep cultural divisions and growing hostilities towards immigrants and the perceived “other.” Minority artists, whose works have often been viewed as primitive, unschooled, or inferior, are now actively seeking equity and recognition for their own cultural history and esthetic values. However, recent attempts at inclusion have been uneven and ineffective. Museums have the power to affect social change through exhibitions and programs that validate the heritage, values, and aesthetics of other cultures. This paper considered the challenges that museums face in terms of exhibitions, educational programming, staffing, and charges of cultural appropriation, as a more inclusive cultural paradigm unfolds. It is hoped that these arguments, choices, and proposed potential solutions may begin a dialogue regarding a more inclusive representation of diverse artists in the future.

Activating Diversity and Inclusion: A Blueprint for Museum Educators as Allies and Change Makers

Journal of Museum Education

Within the museum field's recent emphasis on diversity and inclusion to create meaningful experiences for all visitors, there remain problematic power dynamics that maintain white supremacy and re-inscribe disparities in privilege among museum workers and visitors. We introduce guiding principles of allyship and practical strategies for enacting equitable relationships with visitors and staff across lines of social difference, providing a blueprint for a rigorous approach to how museum educators can activate diversity and inclusion to create social change.

Desegregating Conversations about Race and Identity in Culturally Specific Museums

Journal of Museum Education

Recent years have witnessed a surge in field-wide discussion about how to talk openly about race and culture within museum education. This article provides an analysis, using case studies from three culturally specific museums to explore how these identitydriven institutions navigate challenging, and often controversial, approaches to discussing race and identity. Key findings reveal important lessons for all museum professionals and include recognizing biases, addressing language and ambiguities explicitly, partnering with community members, and inviting visitor dialogue.

Getting Intersectional in Museums

Museum professionals have long grappled with the problems of identity-based exclusion within museum exhibits, programs, and collections. Considering the diversity of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality in our communities, including the stories of all the identities that make up our communities has proven to be a challenge. The idea that identities do not operate alone but intersect with each other in dynamic and complex ways—that identities are intersectional—presents new possibilities for solving the challenges of identity-based inclusion. This article briefly introduces the foundations of intersectional theory and how this theory addresses challenges faced by museum professionals. Specific examples of how this critical feminist approach might function in museum spaces are presented. Building on these examples, this essay investigates the practical possibilities for addressing the challenges of identity-based inclusion in museum work.