Download or read book Cultivating Inclusion in U S Museums written by Rose Paquet and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the U.S., museums have long struggled with elitism and exclusion. Recently, however, the notion of inclusion has become a central and defining aspect of contemporary U.S. museological practice and thought. In 2018-2019 alone, a number of institutional and grassroots initiatives made strides towards centering inclusion in the U.S. museum field. For example, institutionally, the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) announced a 3-year grant initiative aimed to “provide the framework, training, and resources for museum leaders to build inclusive cultures within their institutions that more accurately reflect the communities they serve” (American Alliance of Museums, Jan. 15, 2019). At the same time, individual and grassroots efforts are many and varied. For example, museum leader, and public intellectual, Nina Simon announced her new initiative called of/by/for/all that will act as an “accelerator for change within the broader movement for diversity, equity, and inclusion in community-based organizations” (of/by/for/all, n.d.). While significant, these and other efforts remain disparate and, among them, present few explicit connections. Two interlinked objectives motivated this dissertation. The first was conceptual, and the second empirical. On the conceptual-level, I first discussed various dimensions of inclusion in museums in order to probe the question: How can systemic change centered on inclusion be brought about? I focused my discussion on the significance of inclusion to the museum field, its history, and who has been involved in conversations about it. In particular, I highlighted how authors such as Taylor (2017) and Taylor and Kegan (2017) put forth a whole system approach to inclusion in museums. Next, building on this approach, I developed a framework entitled Four Interacting Levels of System Change for Cultivating Inclusion. This framework is made of actionable strategies synthesized from contemporary sources on inclusion in U.S. museums discussed in the literature. To move the field forward, this framework can be adopted and adapted in practice. Next, on the empirical-level, I conducted a single, instrumental case study of The Incluseum, a project that I co-founded in 2012. Since then, it has become the longest run multivocal platform dedicated to ongoing, collaborative inquiry about inclusion in museums. My guiding research question was: What insights does the content of The Incluseum provide into the state of practice pertaining to inclusion in U.S. museums? Four main themes emerged through an inductive thematic analysis of Incluseum blog entries: Relationships, Social Justice, Representation and Access, and Institutional Change. Each is comprised of sub-themes. These themes are deeply interconnected and best understood as being part of one-another, as constituting a whole, or relational matrix. In other words, inclusion is best understood as existing at the center of this relational matrix; it is about the local interplay of these four themes. Looking to the Four Interacting Levels of System Change for Cultivating Inclusion Framework and the findings of this study side-by-side, we see a high degree of overlap, but must be cautious of their different orientation. More specifically, both present a whole-systems view of museums, albeit from different angles. The Framework takes an instrumental and solution-oriented approach to systems change, while the study’s findings are descriptive of a landscape and emphasize a relational approach to change with no clear prescribed method. The study’s findings point to a paradigmatic change from ‘power-over’ to ‘power-with’, which speaks to an ontological approach to inclusion; one that is predicated on a different way of thinking – a relational way of thinking. As such, care-centered values emerge as key to inclusion-related work. Importantly, the instrumental approach presented in the framework and the relational approach deriving from this study might not be mutually exclusive, but need to be contextually negotiated in practice. Future research can inquire about this local and practice-based orientation to complement the more common benchmarking studies that national groups like the AAM undertake. While this dissertation and its conclusions certainly have no pretense to close the book on the question of inclusion in U.S. museums, they have attempted to draw attention to and hold high an on-going process of collaborative inquiry involving many. This inquiry, both through the literature and through the blogposts analyzed, represents a rich diversity of museum practitioners and scholars, all continuing to learn through reflection and action. The dissertation provides perspectives from many voices, both conceptual and empirically. Its findings expand and strengthen the museological knowledge base with both conceptual and practical significance (Tracy, 2013). And, in line with Tracy’s definition of a "significant contribution", it has served to "bring some clarity, make visible what is hidden or inappropriately ignored, and generate a sense of insight and deepened understanding" (ibid, p. 240).
Download or read book Diversity Equity Accessibility and Inclusion in Museums written by Johnnetta Betsch Cole and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-02-01 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion in all aspects of museums’ structure and programming are top issues in the field today – and in the overall arts/culture sector. Much has been written, from various perspectives, over several decades. Yet, a lack of diversity remains and exclusive practices and inequities persist in all types of museums. A go-to resource for readers interested in learning about diversity and inclusion work in the field – past, present and future. This edited collection of the most important essays, speeches, and reports on these topics seeks to facilitate a much-needed intergenerational dialogue that builds on lessons from the past, broadens thinking about the many different facets of this complex work, and ignites inspiration for continuing to correct inequities across museums of all types, sizes, and locations. In this book compiled and edited by Dr. Johnnetta Betch Cole, who has served as both director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and as the president of both historically Black colleges for women in the United States, Spelman College and Bennett College (a distinction she alone holds) and Laura Lott, president and CEO of the American Alliance of Museums, (the first woman to the lead the organization), thought leaders in the museum field present their research, analysis and work to answer some of the most challenge questions facing the museum field. Why do these problems persist? How can a new generation of museum leaders champion change to better represent the communities that museums strive to serve and engage? What can we learn from those who have been observing, experiencing, and writing about these issues?
Download or read book Culture Strike written by Laura Raicovich and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2021-12-14 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A leading activist museum director explains why museums are at the center of a political storm In an age of protest, cultural institutions have come under fire. Protestors have mobilized against sources of museum funding, as happened at the Metropolitan Museum, and against board appointments, forcing tear gas manufacturer Warren Kanders to resign at the Whitney. That is to say nothing of demonstrations against exhibitions and artworks. Protests have roiled institutions across the world, from the Abu Dhabi Guggenheim to the Akron Art Museum. A popular expectation has grown that galleries and museums should work for social change. As Director of the Queens Museum, Laura Raicovich helped turn that New York muni- cipal institution into a public commons for art and activism, organizing high-powered exhibitions that doubled as political protests. Then in January 2018, she resigned, after a dispute with the Queens Museum board and city officials. This public controversy followed the museum’s responses to Donald Trump’s election, including her objections to the Israeli government using the museum for an event featuring Vice President Mike Pence. In this lucid and accessible book, Raicovich examines some of the key museum flashpoints and provides historical context for the current controversies. She shows how art museums arose as colonial institutions bearing an ideology of neutrality that masks their role in upholding conservative, capitalist values. And she suggests ways museums can be reinvented to serve better, public ends.
Download or read book Transforming Inclusion in Museums written by Porchia Moore and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-06-14 with total page 117 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Inclusion” is a word, a concept, a value, a set of practices, but what should it mean for museum staff and leaders as they envision new ways of being a museum in an emergent future? Political and environmental upheavals, and now a global pandemic, are transforming the museum landscape forever. How can our paradigm for understanding inclusion continue to transform as well? This book offers a new paradigm for understanding inclusion grounded in a retrospective of museum worker efforts to test the limits of inclusion, a reflection on inclusion’s advantages and limitations in practice, as well as the integral concerns of racial equity and social justice. Questions throughout the book invite readers to reflect on how their own experiences can add to, and expand on, new ways of thinking about inclusion in museums. Museum workers and lovers can use this book as a tool for engaging with “inclusion” anew, and as a terrain for collaborative inquiry and world-building that can help us imagine and realize new potential for museums in the future.
Download or read book Museum Metamorphosis written by nico wheadon and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-02-28 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Museum Metamorphosis, over forty cultural innovators and changemakers in contemporary art share strategies for building sociocultural relevancy and responsiveness in museums. Representing diverse perspectives from across the entire arts and culture ecosystem, the book offers tools to reshape museums into collaborative platforms for collective impact and social change. Part One features seven roundtables in which practitioners discuss best practices for dismantling barriers to entry and building reciprocal, sustained engagement with diverse constituencies. Part Two documents four case studies in structured collaboration, prompting museums to invest in both hyperlocal relationships and cross-sector partnerships. And Part Three features four interviews with thought leaders who discuss how to shift equity from a measure of compliance to a vital daily practice of organizational accountability and sustainability. Compiled during a moment of heightened social action, cultural transformation, and institutional critique, Museum Metamorphosis considers and responds to the following prompts: how will museums learn to embrace real-time change and adapt to meet the evolving needs of a rapidly shifting sociopolitical landscape? How can this metamorphosis open new pathways for engagement and encourage museums to meet more audiences where they are? And, how might reconstituting the essential DNA of the museum recalibrate the power dynamics between communities and institutions, producing a sustainable model for engaged cultural citizenship? In addressing these questions,Museum Metamorphosislooks to innovation transpiring beyond the museum echo chamber and lays bare both the opportunities and challenges of adopting new ways of working. It dares readers to identify their respective position within the social change ecosystem, and empowers them with tools to reorient their work towards cultural equity and social justice.
Download or read book Understanding and Implementing Inclusion in Museums written by Laura-Edythe Coleman and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-04-06 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do museums need to be inclusive? How do we define inclusion? Understanding and Implementing Inclusion in Museums is the pioneer text to focus solely on the notion of inclusion for museums. This book is intended to demystify the much-debated idea of inclusion for museum professionals, theorists, professors, and researchers. The chapters within this book are intended to function as a guide for understanding, implementing, and evaluating inclusion in your museum. This insightful examination ofinclusion in museums features: An introductory definition of inclusion for museums. Guidelines for creating inclusion in your museum through partnerships with people and community organizations. Strategies for driving social change through inclusive museum practice. Tools for implementing inclusion in your museum. Mechanisms for evaluating the inclusiveness of your museum. An encyclopedic Who’s Who of museum professionals serving as advocates, agents, and architects of inclusion today. An extensive resource list to aid you and your museum. We have never had a book solely about inclusion for museums, and never with such a strong focus on American institutions. I invite you to join the conversation concerning inclusion armed with greater understanding and the tools to implement change through your museum.
Download or read book Cultivating Futures Thinking in Museums written by Kristin Alford and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-10-21 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cultivating Futures Thinking in Museums provides examples of the active and diverse roles that museums are taking to expand futures thinking in communities, including developing capabilities to envision and enact more prosperous, equitable, and sustainable futures. Presenting 21 examples that demonstrate how museums are cultivating futures capabilities in diverse global contexts, the volume acknowledges innovative practice, builds a foundation for growing futures work in the museum sector, and inspires others in the field to adopt futures frameworks in their practices. This realm of thinking, including components of anticipating futures by exploring drivers of change; imagining immersive experiences of futures; creating tools and methods to enable futures capability; and participatory futures informing museum design practice provides important responses to the multitude of complex contemporary problems like climate change, technological development, and social inequity. The book prompts museums to think about their role in shaping alternative and novel narratives for our future. Cultivating Futures Thinking in Museums will primarily appeal to museum professionals, inspiring and informing them to adopt practices to further futures literacies. It will also appeal to academics, researchers, and students with an interest in museums, futures, design, contemporary art, curating, and cultural studies.
Download or read book Fostering Empathy Through Museums written by Elif M. Gokcigdem and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-07-19 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fostering Empathy through Museums features fifteen case studies with clear take-away ideas, and lessons learned by vividly illustrating a spectrum of approaches in the way museums are currently employing empathy, a critical skill that is relevant to personal, institutional, economical, and societal progress. The need is rapidly growing for empathy to serve as a lens through which we find our purpose and connection in a complex world. This demand brings with it an appetite to cultivate it through safe and trusted platforms. Museums are uniquely equipped to undertake this important mission. This book will help museum staff and leadership at all levels working at a variety of museums (from animal sanctuaries to art museums, from historic house museums to children's and science museums) to better understand the multitude of ways how empathy can be cultivated, and employed in museum setting. Fostering Empathy through Museums will provide inspiration, examples, and lessons learned from a balanced spectrum of museums currently employing empathy in museum setting: as an educational tool to better connect their content with the audience, as an integral element of a museum's institutional values and behavior, and as a phenomenon that is worthy of exploration on its own and as an intentional outcome. This publication provides museum professionals as well as formal and informal learning educators to receive an overview of the variety of approaches to empathy in museums, and to create a shared language and methodologies that could enable them to utilize and nurture empathy as a "shared vision" that would serve not only their organizational mission, but also the greater good. Empathy can be a tool, or an intentional outcome depending on the institution’s objectives. Regardless of the choice, the ideas presented in this book are intended to inform and inspire institutions to unlock exciting possibilities in the areas of improved visitor experience, creative community partnerships, and contribution to social progress by bringing empathy to public discourse through institutional strategies, exhibitions, experiences, and programs. The book also provides ideas for future strategies where empathy is considered as a "shared vision" by museums, and a product of a museum experience that might lead to positive social impact.
Download or read book The Inclusive Museum Leader written by Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-07-05 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The museum field is experiencing a critical gaze that is both “of the moment” and long overdue. Museums were built as colonial enterprises and are slow to awaken to the harm caused by their actions which are not limited to the capturing and keeping of Indigenous ancestors, the exclusion and erasure of Black voices, bodies, and creativity, and the positioning of white power in the C-suite and board rooms. For decades, the conversation about equity and inclusion in the museum field has become louder. It is no longer possible to ignore the systemic racism embedded in our society and our profession. The Inclusive Museum Leader offers insights and perspectives from two recognized museums leaders who have joined together to offer practical solutions and opportunities for today’s museum leaders. Authors share their journeys to becoming inclusive leaders, as well as decisions they have made and actions they have taken to build equitable practices within their organizations. Throughout the book are personal exercises and provocations the reader is invited to respond to, making the book a valuable tool for any museum leader looking to enhance their style and re-frame their decision-making process.
Download or read book Access and Institutional Change written by Oliver Fulton and published by Open University Press. This book was released on 1989 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book From Small Wins to Sweeping Change written by Priya Frank and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-07-15 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How does a diverse community thrive in spaces that were designed to be exclusionary? Museums—with histories tied to colonial violence and racist practices and whose survival is largely reliant on the generosity of wealthy donors—were not built to be inclusive. Yet many museums’ missions and the people who bring these missions to life have egalitarian aims. In recent years museum practitioners across the country have been proactively confronting our histories of colonization and exclusion and advancing equity and inclusion. Museums of all types have formed cross-departmental teams to critique their internal practices, review hiring processes, and ultimately foster a more diverse and inclusive environment for both visitors and staff alike. But how do such initiatives get off the ground? How do individuals build support among all stakeholders and successfully advocate for new positions, programs, and cross-departmental working groups? How can colleagues work together across departments to foster more inclusive museum practices? This book from the American Alliance of Museums brings together a collection of tools, solutions, and models from DEAI practitioners who have actively worked together towards institutional change. With 60% BIPOC authorship, this book will provide hope and inspiration, as well as concrete strategies for museum workers all over the country who are achieving small wins and fostering sweeping change in the predominantly white cultural sector through innovation, collaboration, and courage. This is the first book to focus specifically on collaborative and inclusive practices in equity and anti-racism work in different types of museums. Its case studies demonstrate the importance of relationship building, authentic connections, and developing foundations together over time, providing a much-needed resource for museum professionals at every level who are grappling with inequities that are pervasive in museums.
Download or read book Do Museums Still Need Objects written by Steven Conn and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this broadly conceived study Steven Conn examines the development of American museums across the twentieth century with a historian's attention and a critic's eye. He focuses on an array of museum types and asks illuminating questions about the relationship between museums and American cultural life.
Download or read book Artifacts and Allegiances written by Peggy Levitt and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2015-07-07 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What can we learn about nationalism by looking at a countryÕs cultural institutions? How do the history and culture of particular cities help explain how museums represent diversity? Artifacts and Allegiances takes us around the world to tell the compelling story of how museums today are making sense of immigration and globalization. Based on firsthand conversations with museum directors, curators, and policymakers; descriptions of current and future exhibitions; and inside stories about the famous paintings and iconic objects that define collections across the globe, this work provides a close-up view of how different kinds of institutions balance nationalism and cosmopolitanism. By comparing museums in Europe, the United States, Asia, and the Middle East, Peggy Levitt offers a fresh perspective on the role of the museum in shaping citizens. Taken together, these accounts tell the fascinating story of a sea change underway in the museum world at large.
Download or read book Museums and the Paradox of Change written by Robert R. Janes and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-05-29 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Museums throughout the world are under increasing pressure in the wake of the 2008/2009 economic recession and the many pressing social and environmental issues that are assuming priority. The major focus of concern in the global museum community is the sustainability of museums in light of these pressures, not to mention falling attendance and the challenges of the digital world. Museums and the Paradox of Change provides a detailed account of how a major Canadian museum suffered a 40 percent loss in its operating budget and went on to become the most financially self-sufficient of the ten largest museums in Canada. This book is the most detailed case study of its kind and is indispensable for students and practitioners alike. It is also the most incisive published account of organizational change within a museum, in part because it is honest, open and reflexive. Janes is the first to bring perspectives drawn from complexity science into the discussion of organizational change in museums and he introduces the key concepts of complexity, uncertainty, nonlinearity, emergence, chaos and paradox. This revised and expanded third edition also includes new writing on strengthening museum management, as well as reflections on new opportunities and hazards for museums. It concludes with six ethical responsibilities for museum leaders and managers to consider. Janes provides pragmatic solutions grounded in a theoretical context, and highlights important issues in the management of museums that cannot be ignored.
Download or read book Museum Accessibility by Design written by Maria Chiara Ciaccheri and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-05-23 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does museum accessibility mean today? How can it generate impact in museums and in society itself? Where should we begin to take concrete action? Museum Accessibility by Design: A Systemic Approach to Organizational Change guides readers through the process of designing a museum accessibility strategy. Real world examples, tools, and resources foster implementation. This book offers a comprehensive exploration of museum accessibility, with an up-to-date and critical survey of the discipline; a detailed, step-by-step guide on how to set up a rigorous and effective process that promotes accessibility throughout the museum institution; tools and suggestions for rethinking accessibility and usability for a diverse range of museum visitors; international case studies and best practices; and, a full accessibility training course with activities and exercises aimed at fostering an accessible mindset within any institution. An engaging and accessible resource for university students, museum professionals and researchers, this book speaks to museum professionals of all types, from those just starting out to seasoned experts looking for a comprehensive, multi-faceted look at museum accessibility.
Download or read book Remembering Enslavement written by Amy E. Potter and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2022-03-15 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Remembering Enslavement explores plantation museums as sites for contesting and reforming public interpretations of slavery in the American South. Emerging out of a three-year National Science Foundation grant (2014–17), the book turns a critical eye toward the growing inclusion of the formerly enslaved within these museums, specifically examining advances but also continuing inequalities in how they narrate and memorialize the formerly enslaved. Using assemblage theory as a framework, Remembering Enslavement offers an innovative approach for studying heritage sites, retelling and remapping the ways that slavery and the enslaved are included in southern plantation museums. It examines multiple plantation sites across geographic areas, considering the experiences of a diversity of actors: tourists, museum managers/owners, and tour guides/interpreters. This approach allows for an understanding of regional variations among plantation museums, narratives, and performances, as well as more in-depth study of the plantation tour experience and public interpretations. The authors conclude the book with a set of questions designed to help professionals reassemble plantation museum narratives and landscapes to more justly position the formerly enslaved at their center.
Download or read book Including Museums written by Richard Sandell and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores issues around the social responsibility of museums and galleries and their potential to impact on inequality and disadvantage.
