Use Your Imagination to Disrupt Norms
It’s all too easy to reinforce the status quo. It’s exciting and powerful to challenge the status quo, to unlearn, and see anew. This month, we’re sharing resources to help you to think critically about something familiar and reimagine it from a different perspective.
February Coffee Break Picks
RACHEL’S PICK
Tenement Museum’s Exhibition on Black New Yorkers
“The Tenement Museum has recently opened a permanent apartment exhibition called “A Union of Hope: 1869” focused on a family of Black New Yorkers. To showcase the Moores’ story, the Tenement Museum has broken out of its usual mold of focusing on the immigrant experiences of families that lived in the building that houses the Museum—it’s exciting to see this new approach of introducing stories outside of that scope. I love how the Moores' apartment has been reconstructed to showcase their daily lives. Their experiences represent the struggles of many who migrated to New York City to build a better life.”
EBONY’S PICK
Dismantling Design History
“My selection was inspired by Lina’s pick last month, which focused on decolonizing design. Anoushka Khandwala’s piece, “What Does it Mean to Decolonize Design: Dismantling Design History 101,” calls for designers to intentionally decolonize design practices and interrogate key concepts, such as perspective, values, labor, and more. At the end, Khandwala lists many additional resources for decolonization within design. In particular, Dr. Elizabeth (Dori) Tunstall’s Decolonizing Design Lecture stuck out to me—I had the pleasure of hearing her keynote at the 2023 Association of Art Museum Interpretation Conference. Promptly after the talk, I bought her book, which provides a helpful guidebook and a compelling firsthand account of facilitating institutional change.”
AMANDA’S PICK
Philanthropy and The Love of Humanity
"I first heard about Amy Schiller’s book, The Price of Humanity: How Philanthropy Went Wrong and How to Fix It, in an interview with comedian and podcaster Adam Conover. I was intrigued professionally since our work supports nonprofits, but also personally as someone who wants to do good via their own donations. Then, I came across this conversation between Amy and Rachel Sherman, published in Public Seminar. It explores where philanthropy has fallen short of its literal meaning ‘love of humanity’ and how philanthropy might be humanized. Their discussion highlights why Amy’s book is on my ‘to read list’ for 2024.”
New on the Learning Hub
What’s New At Kera?
We’re excited to announce that Rachel Jackson has joined our team as an Assistant Researcher at Kera Collective! Rachel is eager to support her fellow researchers and help clients identify audience needs.
Check out this project summary of our work with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Latino, where we helped define the impact of their Latino Museum Studies Program.
Moment of Wonder
“I recently saw Going Dark at the Guggenheim Museum. The exhibition includes 28 artists, mostly Black, and raises questions about hypervisibility, surveillance, and invisibility. This artwork, Redecode, by Dominican-raised artist Joiri Minaya drew me in with its beauty and strength and also provoked me with a feeling of terror. I’m typically drawn to contradictions like this because they force me to see outside my normal point of view. In this work, Minaya pixelates tropical prints of hotel-room wallpapers until they’re blurred, and, as the artist explains, ‘challenges the viewer to unlearn imposed, violent histories.’”
— Stephanie
