Day 8: Snowstorm
We met in Midtown to speak with three professionals working in different institutions dealing with climate change, a fitting topic for our early spring nor’easter. We had to cancel the second half of the day due to the weather, but just the first half provided plenty of food for thought.
Something our speaker from the Climate Museum said stuck with me — something to the effect that what we put in museums reflects what we care about as a society.
This was an argument featured in the discussion of why a museum was chosen as the means to communicate the Climate Museum’s ultimate message. It also made me think back on this theme in the museums we’ve visited so far.
The Brooklyn Historical society has been focusing on bringing in diverse audiences through programming that tackles current events. At the DUMBO location, the displays discussed issues like slavery, gentrification, and women in the labor force, along with highlighting local environmental concerns and the topic of environmental justice. The New York Historical Society took a similar approach, collecting from the women’s marches and Black Lives Matter, and displaying history that doesn’t just include the “great men” of New York City.
The Newark Muesum and especially the National Museum of the American Indian’s work highlighting native voices and challenging the way Native American culture has historically been (and often still is) displayed is also a great example of the importance of the messages museums send about what we value. I doubt that museums can make up for past crimes and imperialsm, but museums’s willingness to work on addressing these issues feels like an important step.
The comment was a reminder, as so many parts of this seminar have been, about the importance of thinking about whose voices we highlight, who and what museums choose to feature and collect, and the messages those choices send.
