Sexism and Racism Must Be Addressed as Systems
While revealing individual misogynists is hard, uprooting misogyny is much harder. Lozada, When Women Dare to Step…
MASSAction 2017: Decentering Whiteness
How to transform museums into places of greater inclusion and equity? This is the key question of the MASSAction (Museum as Site for Social Action) initiative, begun in 2016 and coordinated out of the Minneapolis Institute of Art. A few weeks ago 36 museums (art, history, science) from across the country gathered for…
Diversity and Inclusion: Thinking Systemically
What is thinking systemically? A system, as we know, is a group of interrelated and interconnected parts, such that what happens to one has an impact on all. I’ve been noticing, in all kinds of media, references to the importance of examining problems from a systemic point of view, i.e. recognizing that a problem is…
The Empathetic Museum and The Empathy of Librarians
As many of you know I often post about The Empathetic Museum (by the way, those of us working on that project now have a new website). At the AAM Conference in Washington, DC in May, I met Laura-Edythe Coleman, a follower of Empathetic Museum posts and a professional involved in both the museum and…
Characteristics of the #Empathetic Museum: 1) Civic Vision
Museums have to look at where they can challenge the status quo, and where they can push, but also where they can partner. Peoria, IL City Manager Every once in awhile a confluence of books, articles, conference presentations, and blog posts calls attention to the same phenomenon in the museum world. Is this synchronicity, the zeitgeist,…
Learning about Persistence and Inclusion in India
As many readers know I was in India from mid-July to early August this year, teaching a museum studies class for the National Council of Science Museums masters program in Kolkata. My co-teacher Karen Lee of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and I also had a chance to travel north to Dehradun and Mussoori…
#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…
Front Page Dialogues: Museum Resources for Timely Responses
Guest Post by Sarah Pharon, Senior Director, Methodology and Practice, International Coalition of Sites of Conscience I travel frequently for my work. I spend more time than I would like at airports eating an embarrassing amount of “bad food” from food courts. While waiting for my order from one of the airport fast food chains…
Joint Statement from Museum Bloggers and Colleagues on Ferguson and Related Events
The recent series of events, from Ferguson to Cleveland and New York, have created a watershed moment. Things must change. New laws and policies will help, but any movement toward greater cultural and racial understanding and communication must be supported by our country’s cultural and educational infrastructure. Museums are a part of this educational…
The Changing Role of Museum Educators: A Conversation
For some months now museum educator, consultant, and blogger Rebecca Herz and I have been exchanging thoughts on the roles and future of museum educators, mostly by email. But we’ve also been talking about making our conversations more public. Rebecca’s recent thoughtful post, What Does a Museum Educator Do? (And Do We Need Them?) offers, I…