It’s an age-old question, and it re-emerges with the revelations about sexual predations that men with power inflicted on women and, in some instances, other men: Can we appreciate art even if it was created by someone who behaved deplorably?
Theory and Practice
#notsurprised
The Role of Museums in Unmasking Society’s Inequalities
Why Museums Should Care About Young Children
“Museums are ideal spaces for young children to learn. They allow children to explore their interests through authentic objects, hands-on exhibits, and activities. Museums also provide early learners interactive and multisensory opportunities –honoring the concrete, active way children learn.”
http://labs.aam-us.org/blog/why-museums-should-care-about-young-children/
Twitter Response to The British Museum’s Suggestion about the Difficulty of Asian Names
https://nextshark.com/british-museum-complains-asian-names-can-confusing-twitter-absolutely-exploded/
Do Museums Need to Be More Socially Engaged?
“Today museums focus as much on learning and public engagement as exhibition making and collecting. To what extent should museums be useful or agents of social change?”
Museums as “tellers”
Why Medical Schools Are Requiring Art Classes
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-med-schools-requiring-art-classes
Visitors of Color Tumblr
Visitors of Color
We envision this as a space for museum folks to be able to learn from the perspectives of marginalized people. We also see this as a form of activism–giving folks who may not feel safe or welcome in our institutions a little bit of agency in their relationships with museums.
Although we’re called Visitors of Color, we wish to include voices from people of various marginalized communities–ability, gender, sexual orientation, class and so forth. Ultimately, we wish to allow space for the voices of marginalized people to be heard.
Our passion is museums, our focus is people, our position is intersectionality.
Read more about this project here.
The Role that Museums Play in Social Activism
“Should museums be seen as a place of dialogue for social change? Is it their responsibility to do so?
Recently, articles have come out addressing this topic—for example, MuseumNext conducted a survey asking “Should museums be activists?” Among the responses, data showed that “younger audiences respond very positively to the idea of museums taking a stand.”
The choice of museums to take a stand is unique to each institution, and it’s complicated, layered, and specific to the geographical location and political climate of the region. In the meantime, artists will continue to create works that question our existence and boundaries; be responsive to the emotional, social, political, and religious world around them; and ask the important questions that move us all forward as aware global citizens. Museums and cultural institutions that support contemporary artists will continue to support them, whether through curatorial or educational programming. Supporting artists will also mean empowering youth voices through museum settings and allowing young artists to continue to push boundaries, respond to the world around them in an empathetic and critical way, and ask important questions for the rest of us to listen.”
http://blog.americansforthearts.org/2017/08/02/the-role-museums-play-in-social-activism