ART OF THE AMERICAS REVISITED: WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO DECOLONISE A MUSEUM (original) (raw)
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Journal of Curatorial Studies, 2021
This article seeks to identify impediments to, as well as opportunities for, change in American art museums in the face of demands for social justice and greater inclusivity. Focusing specifically on the representation of American art in wellestablished encyclopaedic museums, I argue that inherited collections and taxonomies, mapped onto the physical spaces of museums, limit the speed and degree to which aesthetic priorities, values and narratives may adapt in order to meet shifting demographics and visitor expectations. In effect, the challenge for many museums is to confront and navigate an institutionalized form of white supremacy baked into their intellectual and material foundations. I end by analysing several recent strategies that have aimed at dismantling conventions and complicating the canon. Across the museum world in the United States, the year 2020 will be remembered for the deleterious impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the emancipatory force of the Black Lives Matter movement (BLM), forcing an overdue reckoning with how pre-eminent cultural institutions can foster a more diverse and inclusive workforce, environment, public face and message. On the far side of the pandemic, museums-those that survive the economic impact of COVID-will no doubt have issues of social justice, equity, diversity and
Museological Myths of Decolonization and Neutrality
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Museums are some of the most trusted public institutions in many countries. Museum as institution is the “cultural product of western history” (Wu, 2006, p. 6) that enforces the nation-state creed. Consequently, imperial ideology and colonial practices have been naturalized in present-day museums, continuing to preserve and (re)construct cultural, social, political, economic, and aesthetic hierarchies. Museums absorbed diverse subject matter disciplines, such as anthropology and ethnology, further solidifying their discriminatory hierarchies, notably representing ‘we’ (as positive) and ‘others’ (as negative) and the imagined genetic superiority of the European white race. The same applied to art history, which favors Western aesthetics and universalizes its dominance. Have those perspectives changed today? If so, why do some cultural objects end up in an art museum and others in ethnological, anthropological, and natural history museums? Why are these museums separated in the first place? Who decides what is fine art and what is not? Who creates the value of the cultural objects? Museums today still represent global inequality of economic power, sustaining the unending colonizers and colonized relations. This relation is particularly visible in the current issue of restitution of cultural materials. This paper addresses the colonial origin of the museum and examines the questions “what is it really to decolonize the museum?” and “were museums ever neutral?” We will also introduce briefly two case studies: an experimental exhibition Art of the Americas (2018) and another exhibition, opening in 2021, which will be expanding the theme of Art of the Americas to the global scale.
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2021
The cry for decolonization has echoed throughout the museum world. Although perhaps most audibly heard in the case of ethnographic museums, many different types of museums have felt the need to engage in decolonial practices. Amidst those who have argued that an institution as deeply colonial as the museum cannot truly be decolonized, museum staff and museologists have been approaching the issue from different angles to practice decoloniality in any way they can. Practicing Decoloniality in Museums: A Guide with Global Examples collects a wide range of practices from museums whose audiences, often highly diverse, come together in sometimes contentious conversations about pasts and futures. Although there are no easy or uniform answers as to how best to deal with colonial pasts, this collection of practices functions as an accessible toolkit from which museum staff can choose in order to experiment with and implement methods according to their own needs and situations. The practices are divided thematically and include, among others, methods for decentering, improving transparency, and increasing inclusivity.
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Culture Unbound, 2021
As institutions that arose during the European age of imperial expansion to glorify and display the achievements of empire, museums have historically been deeply implicated in the colonial enterprise. However if we understand coloniality not as a residue of the age of imperialism, but rather an ongoing structural feature of global dynamics, the challenge faced by museums in decolonising their practice must be viewed as ongoing. This is the case not just in former centres of empire, but in settler-colonial nations such as Australia, where "the colonisers did not go home" (Moreton-Robinson 2015: 10). As a white, Western institution, a number of arguably intrinsic features of the museum represent a significant challenge to decolonisation, including the traditional museum practices and values evinced by the universal museum. Using a number of case studies, this paper considers the extent to which mainstream museums in Australia, Britain and Europe have been able to change their practices to become more consultative and inclusive of Black and Indigenous peoples. Not only this, it discusses approaches that extend beyond a politics of inclusion to ask whether museums have been prepared to hand over representational power, by giving control of exhibitions to Black and Indigenous communities. Given the challenges posed by traditional museum values and practices, such as the strong preference of the universal museum to maintain intact collections, this paper asks whether community museums and cultural centres located within Indigenous communities may represent viable alternative models. The role of the Uluru Kata Tjuta Cultural Centre in Australia's Northern Territory is considered in this light, including whether Traditional Custodians are able to exert control over visitor interpretation offered by this jointly managed centre to ensure that contentious aspects of Australian history are included within the interpretation.
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This article investigates the relationship between politics, decolonization and museums. It explores the curation of the Asian and African collections at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, 1950-1970, in the context of US involvement in the ‘end’ of European empire, Third World nationalism and the Cold War. Close analysis of museum archives reveals the diversity, dynamism and occasionally progressive nature of museum anthropology during a period often considered uninteresting and even moribund. It demonstrates the myriad entanglements between museums and US government policy, and how cultural representation in the US was influenced by the specificities of colonization and independence in different regions of the Global South. Museums are positioned as agents in mediating wider political change.
Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research, 2022
As institutions that arose during the European age of imperial expansion to glorify and display the achievements of empire, museums have historically been deeply implicated in the colonial enterprise. However if we understand coloniality not as a residue of the age of imperialism, but rather an ongoing structural feature of global dynamics, the challenge faced by museums in decolonising their practice must be viewed as ongoing. This is the case not just in former centres of empire, but in settler-colonial nations such as Australia, where "the colonisers did not go home" (Moreton-Robinson 2015: 10). As a white, Western institution, a number of arguably intrinsic features of the museum represent a significant challenge to decolonisation, including the traditional museum practices and values evinced by the universal museum. Using a number of case studies, this paper considers the extent to which mainstream museums in Australia, Britain and Europe have been able to change their practices to become more consultative and inclusive of Black and Indigenous peoples. Not only this, it discusses approaches that extend beyond a politics of inclusion to ask whether museums have been prepared to hand over representational power, by giving control of exhibitions to Black and Indigenous communities. Given the challenges posed by traditional museum values and practices, such as the strong preference of the universal museum to maintain intact collections, this paper asks whether community museums and cultural centres located within Indigenous communities may represent viable alternative models. The role of the Uluru Kata Tjuta Cultural Centre in Australia's Northern Territory is considered in this light, including whether Traditional Custodians are able to exert control over visitor interpretation offered by this jointly managed centre to ensure that contentious aspects of Australian history are included within the interpretation.
Decolonizing African-american Museums: a Case Study on Two African-american Museums in the South
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DECOLONIZING AFRICAN-AMERICAN MUSEUMS: A CASE STUDY ON TWO AFRICAN-AMERICAN MUSEUMS IN THE SOUTH by Anastacia Scott The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2016 Under the Supervision of Professor Doreatha Mbalia This dissertation seeks to understand how African-American museums’ exhibits help individuals gain their sense of racial identity through public memory. In an era where the United States is supposedly “post-racial” African-American museums are flourishing. As institutions serving an important role in preserving the collective memory of AfricanAmerican people in the US, African-American museums evoke questions of representation within the larger US narrative that confirm the persistent saliency of race in society, and therefore continue to have a public function in maintaining and developing a racial AfricanAmerican identity (Jackson 2012; Eichstedt and Small 2002; Wilson 2012; Golding 2009). My research is focused on the following question: What impacts do African-American mu...
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Decolonizing and Indigenizing work needs to be done in museums and our day-today lives. On Turtle Island or so-called North America, the current settler colonial states add urgency to this work. Many settlers live on stolen land and benefit from colonial structures in ways that Indigenous friends, colleagues, and hosts do not. This article presents a self-reflective account of two museum studies courses I have been part of developing and delivering that incorporate decolonizing and Indigenizing principles. From my white settler perspective, I discuss the need for settlers to educate (or reeducate) ourselves as museum practitioners by putting decolonizing and Indigenizing words into conversation with our accountabilities in daily life.
Decolonise Art History, decolonise art museums!
Museological Review, 2019
The call for decolonising in the fields of culture studies has gained impetus, especially through numerous publications from and interviews with the circle around Walter Mignolo. In this article I look specifically into decolonising the art museum. For this I take it for granted, also based on my experience as a curator, that museums, including art museums are struggling with issues of cultural diversity and inclusivity. This struggle is rooted in fundamental frictions in which Art History plays a role.