Perhaps one of the most glaring examples of orientalism and otherization in Western art museums is the omittance of nuance, detail, and breadth in exhibitions featuring objects, art, and ideas originating from non-Western cultures. Much of this stems from orientalism. When grand art galleries have curated exhibitions with varying degrees of complexity and specificities all around European art, but just one section set aside for an exhibit that checks off the DEAI box, it is obvious that museums not only have a problem with orientalism, but that their attempts to grow beyond the confines of an imperialist and orientalist past are weak. Here are some ways for art and history museums to confront orientalist approaches when curating exhibitions and galleries on non-Western art.

We recently interviewed Ross Edelstein, a pioneer in the museum industry in creating accessibility on all levels. Ross is autistic, and brings his lived experience into the lens of his work with museums and accessibility. Below are some key themes from our conversation that are great ideas to incorporate into your own accessibility work.

I sat down with Finnegan Shannon, a disabled artist and activist, to get a better understanding of their perspective on disability and accessibility in museum and art spaces. I was drawn to their work entitled “Do You Want Us Here Or Not” which critiqued the lack of places for rest in museums, ultimately creating inaccessible spaces. Below are a few themes we explored in our conversation.

Christena Gunther, founder and president of Cultural Access Collaborative (formerly Chicago Cultural Accessibility Consortium), sat down with me to delve into what creating accessibility and inclusivity within museums and cultural institutions can look like.

As someone who has a background in anthropology and cultural studies, understanding orientalism is something that has become embedded in my approach to not only academic study, but to everyday life.

At this year’s National Art Education Association National Convention (NAEA), I presented (although not in person as intended) as part of a session called “The Ethics of Care: Love, Morals, and the Future of Museum Education.” As my former professor Dana Carlisle Kletchka described in our presentation, the Ethics of Care, or Care Ethics, is a philosophical approach to morals developed in the 1970s with feminist roots.

In recent years, the museum field, like much of the nonprofit world, has faced a reckoning when it comes to salary transparency and equity, sparking change across the industry.

February is Black History Month. And while the responsibility of acknowledging the often overlooked contributions of Black people and inequities they face is a daily endeavor, February offers us an annual opportunity for organizations (particularly predominantly white ones) to look inward and consider whether they are living up to their anti-racist ideals.

Most museums have a generalized notion of their audiences. They may broadly refer to “families,” “empty nesters,” “locals,” and “tourists.” But those broad categories tell us very little about what audiences value, care about, and believe in.

This article, co-written by three art museum educators and Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) coaches, explores VTS’ potential as an anti-racist teaching tool.

It’s been about a year since the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) and Wilkening Consulting published “Museums and Trust 2021.” The report states that museums continue to be regarded as “highly trustworthy.” This statement made me uncomfortable last year and continues to bother me now.

The fight for the Americans with Disabilities Act (the ADA) was long, hard, and demanding. Thanks to the incredibly taxing work of disabled activists for decades leading up to the eventual passing of the ADA in 1990, Americans with disabilities have more protections than ever before.

There is a beauty in seeing history that is actively lived in, structures that are actively used rather than sitting behind a glass wall in a museum, tethered away from the lands where they were constructed.

As we look toward 2022 and beyond, many museums are working to implement their new or existing missions, values, and initiatives that embrace and foreground diversity and inclusion.

A discussion between SLAM’s Chief Diversity Officer and Fellowship Director, Renée Brummell Franklin, and Kera Collective Founder Stephanie Downey.

Seven months ago, RK&A committed to anti-racist practice. To hold ourselves accountable, we write these updates to publicly document the work we have been doing and work still to do.

Having drafted new labels, we want to ensure our approach is actually meaningful to our audiences at the Nelson-Atkins before putting them on the walls. We’re currently in the process of evaluating our new labels to better understand their impact on visitors.

In our workshops with curatorial colleagues (which we wrote about in the last post), we continually heard certain ideas rise to the surface about shared principles for interpretive text at the Nelson-Atkins.

In my last post, I wrote about harm reduction as a philosophy and how it might be applied to rethinking museum labels. In this post, I’ll explain just how we started these conversations at the Nelson-Atkins and put our ideas in action.

We're delighted to share the first post in a new four-part series by Rachel Nicholson from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (located in Kansas City, MO). This first post breaks down what is harm reduction and what motivated the Nelson Atkins' team to do this critical work.