Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #museumsarenotneutral

Most recents (11)

Hin und wieder hören wir Bedenken:

#Aktivismus stehe im Widerspruch zur scheinbaren Neutralität von Museen.

Es gibt viele Gründe, warum Museen keine “neutrale Institutionen” sind.

In puncto #Klimakrise haben Museen per se keinen neutralen Standpunkt #MuseumsAreNotNeutral 1/7 Image
Museen sind Opfer der Klimakrise, Teil des Problems und Teil der Lösung.

Sie müssen aktiv werden, wenn sie Kulturgüter für kommende Generationen erhalten wollen und dies ernst nehmen. 2/7
#Aktivismus im Museum kann viele Formen haben:

Ein aktivistisches Museum könnte sich z.B. dadurch auszeichnen, dass es Räume öffnet, in denen gegensätzliche Positionen zulässig sind. 3/7
Read 7 tweets
I'm disappointed (if unsurprised) to see the @TheAtlantic article about art world "scapegoating", which misses basically ALL of the nuance of a hard-but-necessary time of change in the museum field. 🧵
As someone who worked at the Guggenheim during the Basquiat show that @chaedria curated, I don't hesitate to say that it's really unequivocally clear that she was treated badly and that her claims of racism are 100% true and well-founded. Don't gaslight her!
By framing that situation as a scapegoating of one senior leader and dismissing it as cancel culture (🙄), this article (and so many bad faith discussions of its ilk) takes a wrongheaded, oversimplified way out.
Read 12 tweets
Earlier this week, @artstuffmatters, @WTFAnthro, & others spread news of the disturbingly hidden "public notice" which the University of Pennsylvania had posted, seeking to bury "at least 13" skulls in the Morton Cranial Collection. (thread) marketplace.inquirer.com/pa/legal/notic…
2) This "notice" hits me so incredibly hard.

But I wasn't surprised.

Not cuz Penn's past behavior has trained me not to be surprised, but because, I actually had a bit more notice, kind of.

I was told about this Orphans Court petition back on April 15.
3) Many of you know that I have studied, written about, given talks on, and taught about Samuel George Morton and the mid-19th-century Racial Science that is the root of so much. I've lived with him and his collaborators and students for some 15 years now. intersectionist.medium.com/american-power…
Read 15 tweets
Thanks to all who attended my presentation via the University of Washington's Museology Speaker Series - & huge thanks to everyone in the Museology Graduate Program!
Here are some highlights from my talk, "1000 Ways to Reshape the Future of Museums" (thread)
#MuseumsAreNotNeutral Image
The title is inspired by the words of #OctaviaButler & her call for collective action. I began reflecting on this:
"there’s no single answer that will solve all of our future problems... Instead there are thousands of answers—at least. You can be one of them if you choose to be. Image
then I playfully asked, "Do we even really need to change and reshape museums?" (yes, I've been asked this a lot). Here is a clip from my presentation slides. For me, the answer is "HELL YES!!!" But you decide...
Read 13 tweets
Making museums antiracist, antioppressive requires removing oppressive leadership & boards.
Funding models & organizational structures must change too.
The preferred diversity trainings response from management maintains the status quo. It's a cover-up job.

#MuseumsAreNotNeutral
It's no surprise that those who've created oppressive workplaces want to retain power. Even when their violence is exposed, they continue to deny wrongdoing, refuse to make amends, tokenize people.
The only thing they offer is undergoing diversity trainings.
#MuseumsAreNotNeutral
Cultural institutions do not belong to those in managment positions or to the boards.
They belong to the people.

#MuseumsAreNotNeutral
Read 6 tweets
In 2017 in a brief essay I wrote for Yale Art Gallery, I mentioned that segregation continues in the U.S. beyound the 1954 Brown decision. The gallery's editorial and communications team challenged me on my use of the term segregation.

#MuseumsAreNotNeutral
They told me the Brown decision ended segregation. They claimed segregation no longer exists. I told them I would like to live in that United States. I also noted that I am a historian who specializes in race.

#MuseumsAreNotNeutral
I entered a long back and forth exchange with one editor to prove segregation exists. Yes, it was ridiculous. I noted types of segregation de facto and de jure. They eventually 'allowed' me to say de facto segregation exists.

#MuseumsAreNotNeutral
Read 7 tweets
This is a #MuseumsAreNotNeutral thread: 

Four months ago, @DesignMuseum reached out to me informing me that a project of mine had been shortlisted for their #BeazleyDesignsoftheYear.
I responded asking about accessibility as well as what disabled experts they were consulting. The remainder of the conversation did not go well.
My last email to them was "Question for you. How would you respond to this email if you were on the receiving end of it?"
Read 15 tweets
THREAD (a reading list for white museum folk, by non-white museum folk)

Some of my fellow white museum workers have shared that they discovered this @PorchiaMuseM's "Cartography: a Black woman’s response to museums in the time of racial uprising" via @MuseumNext's newsletter...
- which, don't get me wrong, great that MN is getting Dr. Moore's writing in front of more eyes - this piece should be mandatory reading for the entire museum sector. But I encourage you to read it where it was originally published, on @incluseum incluseum.com/2020/06/10/car…
The Incluseum is dedicated to "advanc[ing] new ways of being a museum through dialogue, community building and collaborative practice related to inclusion in museums" & has been publishing on issues of the intersection of museums and race for years
Read 16 tweets
i lasted three years in an institutional space. after seeing my former museum’s BLM letter, i knew i had to hold myself accountable to Black artists, collectives and organizations in speaking out: link.medium.com/ePx9Suzxb7 #MuseumsAreNotNeutral
TY everyone for signal boosting + supporting this call to BLM action. it means a lot. i want to open this space up to acknowledge + promote the people/orgs i cited in the text, as well as those who directly supported its drafting. pls RT, drop coin, etc. THREAD:
first off, this work is ongoing. how can you support? by recognizing #museumarenotneutral, and demanding #artsaccountability and #museumtransparency. as a constituent, you have power. Here’s how you can use it: instagram.com/p/CBO36rhpAsU/
Read 20 tweets
Zur Feier der Tatsache, dass Museen wieder offen haben, habe ich mir heute eine Jahreskarte für die @Pinakotheken gekauft.

Da ich schon oft in der Alten Pinakothek war, habe ich mich heute mal nach dort abgebildeten Schwarzen Menschen umgesehen, weil: #BlackLivesMatter ⬇️
Nun ja. Sagen wir es mal so: ein Glück, dass bei den Heiligen Drei Königen traditionell einer, meist der jüngste, Afrikaner (neben einem Asiaten und einem Europäer, als Sinnbild für die drei Erdteile) ist. Und ein Gefolge dabei hat.
In Memlings „Sieben Freuden Mariens“ ist richtig was los. Beim Ritter auf dem braunen Ross bin ich mir nicht ganz sicher. In Brügge im späten 15. Jahrhundert gab es also genug Afrikaner, die Memling Modell stehen konnten. Wie das in Deutschland war? Ich weiß leider zu wenig.
Read 13 tweets
Returning to Audre Lorde --
from Age, Race, Class, and Sex...

"Traditionally, in american society, it is the members of oppressed, objectified groups who are expected to stretch out and bridge the gap between the actualities of our lives and the consciousness of our oppressor.
Audre Lorde--

For in order to survive, those of us for whom oppression is as american as apple pie have always had to be watchers, to become familiar with the language and manners of the oppressor, even sometimes adopting them for some illusion of protection.
Audre Lorde --

"In a society where the good is defined in terms of profit rather than in terms of human need, there must always be some group of people who, through systematized oppression, can be made to feel surplus, to occupy the place of the dehumanized inferior."
Read 52 tweets

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