Excellence and Equity: 25 and Still Alive

“Museums must become more inclusive places that welcome diverse audiences, but first they should reflect our society’s pluralism in every aspect of their operations and programs.”  Excellence and Equity.  1992 This sentence on the first page of Excellence and Equity makes it the prescient and seminal publication that it was in 1992 and that it remains today.…

#MuseumsrespondtoFerguson: What’s Authentic?

  In December 2014, in the midst of demonstrations and widespread discussion about race and racism in the aftermath of a grand jury’s decision against indicting a white police officer for shooting an unarmed black teen,  a group of bloggers (including this one) and colleagues posted their Joint Statement urging museums to become involved and…

Following up on Ferguson

Carol Bossert’s weekly  Museum Life program on VoiceAmerica satellite radio brings all kinds of current museum issues to the fore. I was happy to be part of a discussion she hosted on Friday, January 23, 2015 called “Following up on Ferguson.”  I joined Melanie Adams, the Managing Director for Community Education and Events for the…

The Empathetic Museum: Help Widen the Conversation

Following up on  June 7 and June 29  posts on empathy in museums, six museum colleagues from a variety of areas in the field are proposing a session called “The Empathetic Museum”  for the  May 2014 American Alliance of Museums Conference in Seattle, WA.  I’m one of the panelists, so this is a shameless plea for…