Intersectional Explorations
Dynamic Change Making the World a Better Place through Culture
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Elisa Bailey
‘Making the world a better place’ is a sweeping statement that, in many sectors, often leads to more questions than solutions. Within culture, however, this is consistently achievable, and this study explores some of the myriad ways and discernible results that prove this, at a time when museums are being held to account for issues like climate justice, equity and inclusion. The paper considers the following topics under the umbrella of Dynamic Change: 1. New museum roles around care and responsibility; 2. Values that inspire new ways to create and communicate meaning from the evidence and stories their museums collect, research and display; 3. How museums are addressing repatriation and restitution of artifacts, works of art and specimens that were looted, stolen or purchased under duress; 4. Changes in human resources priorities and sharing authority with multiple agents, groups and individuals, thus converting museums into centres both for and of community, with a spirit of respect for science and multiple perspectives. Drawing from case studies and Lord´s latest research on the matter, this paper reviews how museum management can facilitate the dynamic change, that now more than ever, is happening within institutions. This, in turn, is affecting dynamic change in society, and vice versa, all the while making the world a better place.
Connecting Womanhouse with Disability Studies in Art History: Contemporary Intersections in Marginalized Identities View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Asher Tures
This paper re-interprets and centers on "The Linen Closet" by Sandy Orgel, an installation of Womanhouse as the bodily and social narratives of oppression are read in the piece, both in terms of feminist and disability activism. The intersection between the two fields exposes a lineage of thought about minority groups in the museum, and the still-present marginalization these groups face in institutional settings. Womanhouse (1972), a public art project by the Feminist Art Program at CalArts, tackled aspects of female identity and social roles through installations that confronted assumptions about women’s innate abilities and purposes, and perceptions about their social expectations and daily realities, often in tension. The scholarship on this installation heavily focuses on oppression and the connections between feminist artists and scholars as they discuss these realities, and I add to this conversation by introducing the parallel structure of arguments happening in the scholarship of disability studies in art history. Disability studies offers a recent framework with which to reconsider formal and thematic choices in Womanhouse, such as the fragmentations and deformities of represented bodies, in the socially imposed expectations for disabled individuals, and finally in the coexistence of these models of understanding marginalization in art historical settings.
Facing Isolation through Conversation in the Museum’s Threshold: Learning by Cultural and Educational Institutions
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Fabiana Dicuonzo, Alice Semedo
The museum’s threshold can be identified as the first and last step of the museum’s experience. From the sacral and intimate value introduced in the museum of the nineteenth century, nowadays this public realm is turning into a space addicted to tourism massification, focusing the attention on the “instagrammability” of the museum’s space and commercial activities such as bookshops, restaurants, cafè, with even façade serving as a digital billboard spreading museum’s information. In this framework, the museum’s architecture can play a relevant role in affecting the visitor’s experience and creating a language that can face isolation by promoting social places for the community. The paper proposes an investigation of the liminal spaces of the museum as the place of encounter between multiple agents, human and non-human included, where a contemplative meeting with the self, as well as conversation and socialisation, can still happen. In this hectic ensemble, the research intends to tackle the potential of the museum’s threshold taking into account the concept of the in-between introduced by Aldo Van Eyck in educational architecture and developed by Herman Hertzberger and Giancarlo De Carlo, to build a map of uses and layouts of the halls of inspiring schools, libraries and cultural centres proved to be successful meeting places. The aim is to highlight the underestimated social impact of the threshold in architecture to develop a discourse about inclusion and accessibility in museum studies.
Apart/Together: Challenges and Opportunities for Exhibition Curation during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Xiaonan Jiang
This research discussed a co-curated hybrid (online + onsite) exhibition Apart/Together, which was specifically created to support the community during the challenging times of COVID-19. Its primary aim was to highlight and foster the theme of friendship, while also showcasing the artworks of two contemporary artists, one from the United States and the other from China. The curatorial team forming the backbone of Apart/Together consisted of students from China and the United States and this diverse team of curators played a crucial role in shaping the exhibition’s content and approach. In this study, we delved into the curatorial process of Apart/Together, examining how it was carried out through the lens of cultural competency. Cultural competency is a dynamic developmental process that develops the ability or sensibility to collaborate effectively with individuals from different cultures. During a collaborative curatorial process, the curatorial team employed appropriate methods to engage participants, leveraging their cultural diversity to foster intercultural communication and integration. The curatorial experience of Apart/Together during the COVID-19 pandemic confirmed the importance of cultural competency in curation and contributed to the literature on online collaborative curation and visitor-centered exhibitions.
