Eleventh International Conference on The Inclusive Museum

Abstract

This paper will examine a workers’ education program initiated by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1942 as a collaboration between the museum and various labor unions in the greater New York City area. It will trace through the use of archival material and published documents how this program emerged out of a belief in the ability of historically grounded art education to create broad communities of mutual respect and tolerance during a time of political crisis. This belief was informed, in part, by the writings of the US philosopher John Dewey, who promoted the value of democratic education as the foundation for an active citizenry. The paper will focus on three key individuals, the Museum’s director Francis Henry Taylor, Roberta Fansler of the Museum’s Department of Education (who initiated the workers’ education program), and Fannia Cohn, a key figure in both Museum program and the educational initiatives of the International Ladies Garment Workers. The communities these three individuals envisioned were shaped by their own personal backgrounds and political affiliations, but all three believed in the power of the arts to create a certain kind of synthetic experience, a bridging of differences across time, ethnicity, and socio-economic class.