Eleventh International Conference on The Inclusive Museum

Abstract

This paper examines the growing trend in museum practice towards putting museology on display. In an opening scene of the blockbuster film, Black Panther, the character Erik Killmonger regards a display of miscellaneous objects from Africa and asks an imperious white curator in the fictional Museum of Great Britain, “How do you think your ancestors got these? Do you think they paid a fair price?” The curator winds up dead and Killmonger carries his critique of discriminatory systems of power into plans for worldwide revolution. Audiences are left understanding the art museum to be an outpost of colonialism and a bastion of white privilege. In a departure from past practice, museums have begun to acknowledge publicly their own complex histories and the cultural power they hold. Examining wall texts, object labels, juxtapositions, and new types of exhibitions that interrogate both collecting practices and the idea of a singular authoritative voice, this paper analyzes the scope and implications of museums’ increasing embrace of transparency. Long regarded as sacred spaces that promote passive consumption of knowledge, museums in the West have begun to encourage critical engagement from viewers. Moving beyond celebration of enlightened collectors and founding patrons, curators increasingly include reflections on museum procedures, acquisitions, and the processes of decision-making that shape the stories objects tell. This transparency makes the museum itself an object of reflection. It invites viewers to reexamine assumptions embedded in looking and creates possibilities for recasting the museum as an agent of change.