Thirteenth International Conference on The Inclusive Museum

Abstract

While museums may pride themselves on the diversity of its visitors and exhibitions, many popular practices employed to demonstrate multiculturalism are not as inclusive as these institutions may think. In many cases, community outreach and programming efforts often maintain top-down colonial practices established at the beginning of the history of museums. In order to present solutions that challenge museums’ colonial past, this exposition evaluates how social justice initiatives and exercises of communal cooperation encourage more non-traditional museum visitors to feel welcomed and reimagine themselves as producers of knowledge and culture. It examines the impact of a special exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia Assembled, to provide a tangible model that demonstrates radical ways of including community members into curatorial, programming, and public spaces within the museum. It also argues the museum functions as a hegemon, or an institution with cultural power, which has the responsibility to consider its impression on communities of color and low-income, while actively working towards serving these communities more directly and equitably. Another important component is to acknowledge how neutrality often sides with the majority and to create an equitable space, museums must be prepared to listen deeply, work through disagreement and maintain the empathy to negotiate with their local community members. Lastly, taking all the aforementioned information into consideration, this composition analyzes how allowing space for community members to make decisions, address political issues, and present their own forms of knowledge within an exhibition, transformed the museum into a new postcolonial artistic paradigm.