Shifting Process / Shifting Practice: Collaborative Remaking at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
PJ Gubatina Policarpio and Sophia Sanzo-Davis
What is the role of museums and museum professionals in times of transformation?
The past few years have been marked by a time of deep reflection and transformation for many institutions including us here at the Fine Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF, which comprises the de Young Museum and Legion of Honor). In the fall of 2020, colleagues in Education and a collective of former Community Representatives (part-time gallery guides) embarked on a journey to reimagine the museum’s paid gallery guide program. The collective aimed to address the program’s shortcomings as well FAMSFs’ renewed commitment to diversity and inclusion by amplifying the voices and perspectives of those who have been historically marginalized, centering equity and inclusion as core values.
The resulting programmatic evolution gave way to the Interpretation and Outreach Associates (IOAs), emerging museum professionals with diverse and intersecting experiences and backgrounds and with interests in art history, art practice, community organizing, education, museum studies, ethnic studies and more. As key collaborators, IOAs participate in a rigorous 12-week training program that includes readings, discussions, and workshops on strategies and frameworks for museum education, interpretation, and programming with museum staff and leading practitioners in the field.
Last Fall 2021, we launched the training program for the first cohort of eight IOAs. This March, the IOAs will be a part of de Young’s interactive Free Saturday programming, engaging the museum’s collections with a critical, inclusive, and people-centered approach through in-gallery conversations with families and visitors.
In this conversation, former Community Representative and working group member Sophia Sanzo-Davis and PJ Gubatina Policarpio, Manager of Youth Development at FAMSF, discuss the shifting priorities and values that led to the evolution of the Community Representatives program into the Interpretation and Outreach Associate from their individual vantage points.
PJ Gubatina Policarpio: Can you tell me when you first heard about the Community Representatives program and what attracted you to the program?
Sophia Sanzo-Davis: It was circulating through my department at Berkeley, African American Studies, because the program at the time was focused on Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power 1963–1983. I thought it would be a great way to develop my interest in African American Studies and enter it from an angle I hadn’t really practiced before, which was art.
When did you first hear about the Community Representative program and what were your initial thoughts?
PGP: I came into the Fine Arts Museums in 2020 and the Community Representatives program was already in place. At that time, it was an exhibition specific program that included representatives who had knowledge and interests that related to the topics and the themes of the exhibition Soul of a Nation. It was a vibrant way to engage new and emerging museum professionals, which I am always a big advocate for.
How was your experience engaging with visitors in Soul of a Nation as a Community Representative?
SSD: It was a very politically-charged exhibition and I got a lot of different interpretations when speaking to the public. There were moments where I think my age prefaced what I was saying. People would assume that I wouldn’t know much about the Black Power movement, even though it was what I had been studying for the past two and a half years. So there was definitely an optics aspect to it.
When it came to my colleagues, there were instances where they felt uncomfortable or experienced microaggressions from visitors. It was something that we talked about within our own group. So that also offered us a support system for understanding, “Oh, this happened to me in the galleries,” or “I had this really weird conversation,” but it wasn’t only happening to you. Talking through those experiences helped us think about the future of the program. We asked ourselves, how are we going to make the IOA a better program to ensure that this doesn’t happen to people who are working in the galleries?
Was there a moment that sparked the idea to rethink the program?
PGP: For me, exhibition focused programming has its positives and its negatives. It can be a deep and rich way to engage with a specific exhibition or topic. At the same time, staffing changes also require you to shift qualifications that match the next exhibition. For example, for Soul of a Nation, we were finding community reps who had expertise in Black and diasporic studies. And then we moved into a Frida Kahlo exhibition, which required a different set of knowledge and experiences.
So I started to think about how we can train for and strengthen in-gallery conversation in a way that translates beyond a singular exhibition. I wanted a program that was less anchored on a special exhibition that changes every three months, but rather on our permanent collection and a set of strategies and approaches which the facilitators could return to, evolve, and grow from.
There were also many things that were happening in 2020 that impacted the way that we wanted to approach the program when we could go back in the galleries again.
SSD: Can you speak about your process for creating the syllabus? What were some readings that you knew had to be part of the curriculum?
PGP: In March of 2020, we were set to continue the Community Representatives program as it was with the Frida Kahlo exhibition. With the museum shut down, we had time to think about what kind of program and experience we wanted to provide, for both our in-gallery staff and the public. The question and collective goal became, if this program were to come back again, how could we reimagine it? At the same time, a bigger question emerged for many working in museums that year: what is the role of museums and museum professionals during this time of social reckoning and transformation? So I immediately got to work thinking about what a curriculum or syllabus could look like. I reached out to respected mentors, peers and colleagues from different institutions across the country.
I was a fellow in museum education at the Brooklyn Museum, which is known for its progressive approach, so I looked at their curriculum. I looked at the Studio Museum’s Museum Education Practicum and I looked at other social justice forward syllabi and reading lists. I was interested in how to insert greater sociopolitical consciousness to museum professionals at the very foundation and beginning of their practice. With that in mind, I wanted to include discussions and readings around decolonization and the movement for Black lives. I was also really interested in talking about abolition, reparations, White Supremacy Culture, access, disability justice, and how these intersect with our work and roles.
For those who are new and entering the field, what are the issues around wage, labor and museum work? I wanted the collective to think through these core foundational frameworks and issues. Museums don’t exist in a vacuum, they exist in society, they exist in a culture. And whatever systems of power and inequality that are in that society are also reflected in museums, if not heightened or enlarged. Obviously, museums have been and are complicit in colonization and upholding white supremacist values and culture. When I prepared the curriculum, it didn’t look like your traditional museum education syllabus. For example, we can’t talk about audiences if we don’t address incarceration and abolition. We can’t talk about who’s coming to our museums without talking about who’s being disappeared in society and how they are disappeared in society.
I was also really interested in talking to other people, especially emerging museum professionals. One of my guiding questions was: in entering the field of museum education, what are key texts that you wish you had access to or read early on?
SSD: What were some key elements you felt had to be included in the reimagining of the program?
PGP: We knew there were a lot of ways that we could shift the Community Representative programs to get closer to our goals, to an equitable space. There were things that we could implement right away and there were things that were more about approaches and frameworks.
One of the first things that we wanted to review was the title. “Community Representatives’’ didn’t define the role, it defined a subjectivity. “I am here to represent a community.” Well, what community are you representing? And why? Who said you could represent them? In talking to the collective, that was one of the things that they were concerned about. So we changed it from an identity-based name to more of a role-defined title: Interpretation and Outreach Associate. We believe that this would give participants the agency to step into the role and its responsibilities.
The second thing that we were able to address was the pay. We wanted to recognize and put value on the expertise, knowledge, and emotional labor that this group of people are bringing into the museums. So we were able to change the pay rate from $17/hr to $20/hr. Another thing the collective really asked for was more rigorous training around engagement and facilitation. To be equipped with strong foundational knowledge of museum education and appropriate tools and strategies to feel confident and empowered in the galleries. So we put together a 12-week rigorous training program, which looks at a variety of strategies, frameworks and pedagogical tools, and includes weekly in-gallery practices directly in front of the artwork before they engage with audiences. We’re also pairing the IOA’s instead of doing it on their own so that it’s more collaborative and hopefully there’s more support.
In a larger sense, we are also shifting our institutional culture. Who gets to engage and facilitate conversations in the galleries? What kinds of stories do we tell? What strengths and knowledge do we value? What are the qualifications we are looking for? What does a museum professional look like? What skills and background do they bring? We are interested in an intersection of identities, knowledge, backgrounds, and lived experiences. They can come from an art history background. They can come from an education background. They can come from an art practice background. They can come from ethnic studies or other disciplines. They can be community organizers and so much more.
I’d like to know how it was for you to be a part of the transition working group?
SSD: Empowering, but also reflective and cathartic. The museum, and cultural institutions in general, have always had their hand in colonialism and maintaining the power structures that have barred low income and BIPOC people from entering the museum. So understanding that, I feel empowered because I feel like we are making a change within institutions that have historically done wrong against many people. I viewed it as a moment where I could reflect on what has been happening and how that would contribute to me moving forward with understanding this program.
The question is, would this program have really gone through anything had 2020 not happened? And I think the answer is probably no. We’ve all wanted to see changes, but I don’t think there was a catalyst for making them happen. So understanding and acknowledging what had brought us to that moment and carrying that into future iterations of the program was important.
Knowing that the IOA program is something that we can change over time makes the museum feel more malleable. It’s something that we can re/create to be a necessary component of museum education based on the needs of the time.
PGP: What were your motivations? What changes did you hope or want to achieve?
SSD: I thought a lot about our experiences in the galleries during Soul of a Nation, and hearing how a lot of my colleagues were feeling about certain dynamics. As a group that primarily identified as Black/POC, subjectivity was a common topic — that is, feeling subjected to the rich white patronage of the museum. We talked about the constant micro-aggressions and not-so-micro-aggressions we experienced and, while it was comforting to know that we weren’t the only associates to have these feelings, it was a sign that the program asked for too much vulnerability on the part of the Community Representatives. A lot of these experiences left my colleagues and me feeling like we didn’t belong in the galleries and as a result, like we didn’t belong in a museum profession. That was the opposite of why the Community Representatives program was created.
Hearing those conversations and knowing that I could be a part of redesigning this program to ensure that people feel welcome — both visitors and museum workers — was really important to me. When we finally approached the program redesign I was very intentional about implementing ideas and practices that I utilized throughout my studies and my experience as a Community Representative. One of the projects I took on within our working group was benchmarking Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives of other museums, so I thought about what other institutions were doing in their approaches to anti-racism and decolonial thought.
PGP: What did you learn and gain from being a close collaborator in reshaping and drafting the language for the new Interpretation and Outreach Associates program?
SSD: I learned a lot about what goes into program ideation, and about all of the unintended consequences that could come about based on the program description you’re putting out. It’s really important to be intentional with what you’re saying and who you’re saying it to. Keeping in mind questions like: who are you creating this program for, what types of candidates do you want within the museum to shift our current frameworks? Drafting and writing a program description requires a lot of thought and care.
PGP: What are your hopes for the future of the program and the future of museums broadly?
SSD: I would love to see this program replicated at other museums. It offers a great opportunity for people to gain experience in museums, especially people who have non-traditional educational backgrounds, and those who may have previously thought that museums weren’t a space that they could enter, either for entertainment or for work. My overall hope for museums in the future is that they truly do become community spaces. In my time working both in and outside the galleries, I’ve witnessed how easily and how beautifully communities can gather within museums to find something they can relate to or are interested in, especially when they feel welcomed and happy.
And last question for you, what does the future of museum education look like and how do we support this as activists and museum workers?
PGP: I want to imagine a museum of the future where people who have been marginalized and excluded don’t always have to be activists for our knowledge and expertise. Acknowledging that our lived experiences are not only valid but actually bring tremendous value to the institution. There are many different ways of knowing and learning that we can all bring into museums that will make them more dynamic, more energizing, and more relevant to our communities. I hope that museums can be places that truly listen to people no matter where they are in their life and how they choose to participate.
I want museum education to be more thoughtful about supporting new and emerging professionals in our field, opening up opportunities to be a part of our institutions without having to compartmentalize their identities or aspects of themselves. This also means challenging and shifting our views on qualifications and expertise. Again, what kinds of skills do we value in our museums? How do you acquire or train those skills? For me, the most radical thing that you can do is to mentor and support people as they want to be supported while continuing to advocate and commit to larger systemic institutional changes.
Syllabus for the Community Representative Program
Fall 2020 // Saturdays, 9:30–12:30pm
What is the role of museums and museum professionals in times of transformation?
The Community Representative program provides participants with a foundational understanding of racial equity and social justice frameworks and practices that apply within a museum/institutional context. Informed by these frameworks, interns will review the Community Representative program and collaboratively construct and develop program elements for greater equity, agency, relevance and impact. Additionally, participants will gain knowledge in museum-based educational approaches and strategies for engaging and reaching a wide range of audiences. The Community Representative program will prepare interns to collaborate on digital teaching projects and community outreach initiatives for diverse audiences in the Spring of 2020.
This program will include weekly readings, critical reflections, group discussions, projects, and research, as well as presentations by leading scholars and professionals on the role of museums and museum professionals in advancing social and racial justice today. At the end of the program, participants will be able to engage in discussions on issues facing museums and social justice.
Interns will:
● Read and respond to key texts (articles, documentaries, podcasts, etc.) on equity and social justice, culturally responsive pedagogy, and museum learning practices
● Participate in and lead conversations on museums’ roles in advancing social justice
● Understand and develop critically reflective teaching and learning practice
● Write a Personal Values Narrative that represents your core values, beliefs, and goals in relation to museum work
This internship will allow participants to:
● Gain understanding of racial and social justice frameworks within a museum context
● Gain knowledge of museum pedagogy; develop strategies and techniques for engaging audiences
● Expand exposure to museum operations, including school, youth, family, access, and public programs
● Meet leading museum professionals, educators, scholars, academics, and activists
● Join a cohort of emerging museum and art professionals from diverse backgrounds
● Strengthen public speaking and critical thinking skills in a museum environment After Week 2, interns will sign up to facilitate group discussions on a single reading or text.
Interns will also sign up to lead Community Circle exercises (30 minutes).
● Introductions and Intentions
● Community Circle
● Group Discussion
● Reflection
Read
● Brookfield, S. (1998). “Critically Reflective Practice.” The Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions, 18, 197–205.
● Multicultural Critical Reflective Practice in the Art Museum by Melissa Crum and Keonna Hendrick
● Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. (pp.71–86), New York: Continuum
Assignment
● Please share a memorable personal photo of you or one you have taken. Consider what information and/or questions you might introduce to viewers. Be prepared to talk about your picture for 3–5 minutes.
● Complete one of the activities outlined in Multicultural Critical Reflective Practice in the Art Museum by Crum and Hendrick. Be prepared to share your activity.
● Prepare at least 3 questions on the week’s readings/text for discussion.
Week 2: November 7 — The Role of Museums
● Community Circle
● Group Discussion
● Reflection
Read
● Thomas, Nicholas. 2019. “What Are Museums Really For?” Apollo Magazine, September 2019.
● Weil, S. (2002). “The Museum and the public.” In Making Museums Matter, (pp. 195–214). New York: Smithsonian Books.
● Clifford, James. (1988). “On Collecting Art and Culture,” in The Predicament of Culture. (215–36). Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
● America’s Big Museums on the Hot Seat — Holland Cotter, NY Times
● De Young at 125 — History and Collection and Timeline
Assignment
● Write your own definition of what a museum is and what it is for? What is a museum’s role and responsibility to society? Be prepared to share your definitions and discuss how we each understand the role and work of museums.
● Prepare at least 3 questions on the week’s readings/text for discussion.
● Complete the Critical Incident Questionnaire
Week 3: November 14 — Decolonizing the Museum
● Community Circle
● Group Discussion
● Reflection
Read
● Decolonizing Museums: Representing Native America in National and Tribal Museums, Amy Lonetree
● What does it mean to decolonize a museum? (web only)
● Kassim, Sumaya. 2017. “The Museum Will Not Be Decolonised.” Media Diversified. 2017.
● The Fight to Decolonize the Museum — The Atlantic
Optional Reading
● Tuck, Eve and K. Wayne Yang. “Decolonization is not a Metaphor.” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 1, no. 1 (2012), 1–40
● What is Decolonization? Abbe Museum
● Decolonizing the Art Museum: The Next Wave — Olga Viso
● The Racist Statue of Theodore Roosevelt Will No Longer Loom Over the American Museum of Natural History
● Decolonize This Place: https://decolonizethisplace.org/ Assignment
● Prepare at least 3 questions on the week’s readings/text for discussion.
● Complete the Critical Incident Questionnaire
Week 4: November 21 — Reflection, Questions, Co-Construction
Assignment
● Write a personal narrative reflecting on your relationship and experiences with art, art education, and museums. What are your earliest memories of these intersections? What are your most significant memories? Where were you? Who was with you?
● Schedule a 30-minute individual reflection conversation.
November 28 — Thanksgiving Weekend — No session
Week 5: December 5 — Museums and the Movement for Black Lives
● Community Circle
● Group Discussion
● Reflection
Read
● Exhibiting Blackness, Introduction — Bridget R Cooks
● Cahan, Susan E. (2016). “Epilogue.” Mounting Frustration: The Art Museum in the Age of Black Power. (pp. 253–267). Durham: Duke University Press.
● The 1619 Project, Introduction — Nikole Hannah-Jones
● Museums & #BlackLivesMatter — Adrianne Russel and Aleia Brown
Optional Reading
● Museums Are Finally Taking a Stand. But Can They Find Their Footing? — Holland Cotter
● Jones de Almeida, A. “The Art of Social Justice: Behold the Beautiful Struggle!” Retrieved from: #MuseumsRespondtoFerguson: An Interview with Aleia Brown and Adrianne Russell by Kami Fletcher
Assignment
● Prepare at least 3 questions on the week’s readings/text for discussion.
● Complete the Critical Incident Questionnaire
Resources
● Black Lives Matter Movement
● #MuseumsRespondtoFerguson
● Museums Are Not Neutral
● Museums and Race
Week 6: December 12 — Abolition and Reparations
● Community Circle
● Group Discussion
● Reflection
Read:
● The Case for Reparations — Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic
● Rodriguez, Dylan. “The Disorientation of the Teaching Act: Abolition as Pedagogical Position.” The Radical Teacher
● Documentary: 13th — https://www.netflix.com/title/80091741
● Podcast: Throughline — American Police
Assignment
● Prepare at least 3 questions on the week’s readings/text for discussion.
● Complete the Critical Incident Questionnaire
Week 7: December 19 — Reflection, Question, Co-Construction
Assignment
● Please write a short statement reflecting upon your own core beliefs and values as it relates to museums and museum work.
Holiday Break: December 26 and January 2 — No Sessions
Week 8: January 9 — White Supremacy Culture and the Museum
● Community Circle
● Group Discussion
● Reflection
Read
● Uncovering White Supremacy Culture in Museum Work — Hannah Heller, nikhil trivedi and
Joanne Jones-Rizzi
● To Bear Witness: Real Talk about White Supremacy in Art Museums Today — Kelli Morgan
● On the Limits of Care and Knowledge: 15 Points Museums Must Understand to Dismantle Structural Injustice
Assignment
● Prepare at least 3 questions on the week’s readings/text for discussion.
● Complete the Critical Incident Questionnaire
Week 9: January 16 — Access and Disability Justice
● Community Circle
● Group Discussion
● Reflection
Read
● This Is Disability Justice — Nomy Lamm
● Watch: Ableism is The Bane of My Motherfuckin’ Existence — Barnard Center for Research
on Women — https://youtu.be/IelmZUxBIq0
● What Does It Mean to Be an Accessible Museum? — Francesca Rosenberg, MOMA
● The A.D.A. at 30: Beyond the Law’s Promise — The New York Times
● How to make museums more accessible for disabled people? Ask them — The Art Newspaper
Assignment
● Prepare at least 3 questions on the week’s readings/text for discussion.
● Complete the Critical Incident Questionnaire
Resources
● Disability and Inclusion Resources for Museum Studies Programs — Art Beyond Sight
Week 10: January 23 — Wage, Labor + Museum Workers Speak
● Community Circle
● Group Discussion
● Reflection
Read
● The Year According to Art Museum Transparency — Walker Art CenterLabor of Love:
Revaluing Museum Work — American Alliance of Museums
● The Museum Does Not Exist — Dana Kopel
● Museum Workers Across the Country Are Unionizing. Here’s What’s Driving a Movement
That’s Been Years in the Making — Catherine Wagley
● The Art of Organizing — Beige Luciano Adams
Assignment
● Prepare at least 3 questions on the week’s readings/text for discussion.
● Complete the Critical Incident Questionnaire: https://forms.gle/D1ZQM8r9uZDGK3d87
Resources
● Art + Museum Transparency — https://www.artandmuseumtransparency.org/
● Change the Museum Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/changethemuseum/
● Museum Workers Speak — https://museumworkersspeak.weebly.com/
● Death to Museums — https://deathtomuseums.com/
● POW Arts Salary Survey — https://www.powarts.org/salarysurvey
Week 11: January 30 — Mapping — Reflection, Question, Co-Construction
● Cartography: A Black Woman’s Response to Museums in the Time of Racial Uprising -
Porchia Moore, The Incluseum
● Reflexive Cartography: Or, A Ritual for the Dying Museum Landscape — The Socio-Political
Impact of Change in Museums — Porchia Moore, The Incluseum
Assignment
● Prepare at least 3 questions on the week’s readings/text for discussion.
● Complete the Critical Incident Questionnaire
Week 12: February 6 — Reflection, Question, Co-Construction
Assignment:
● Schedule a 30-minute final individual reflection conversation
PJ Gubatina Policarpio (he/him)
PJ is an educator, curator, and community organizer. He has over 10 years of experience in museum education, programming, and art administration, previously at The Contemporary Jewish Museum, Queens Museum, and The Museum of Modern Art. PJ was a Fellow in Museum Education at the Brooklyn Museum in 2012. As the inaugural manager of youth development at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, PJ leads a dynamic portfolio of youth-centered initiatives that engage diverse audiences. Born in the Philippines, PJ migrated to the United States in his early teens. Instagram @pjpolicarpio
Sophia Sanzo-Davis (she/her)
Sophia is a recent graduate of UC Berkeley, where she studied African American Studies and Public Policy. She began working with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in 2019 during the exhibition, Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power. In Spring 2022, she will begin working with the Brooklyn Museum on learning and social impact. As an advocate for equity, visibility, and social justice, she hopes to contribute to decolonization and anti-racism within museums. Instagram @phrijah
