Summer Reading List: Letter from the Editors
As we on the Viewfinder Editorial Board prepare for our summer vacations, we have been thinking about what we would like to read that would inform our practice as museum educators. Our choices include books or articles we have been meaning to read for some time and others that we come back to repeatedly for inspiration or encouragement. We encourage you to add what you will be reading this summer in the comments below.
This bonus issue with our summer reading list will be the last issue of Viewfinder that the three of us are editing as a team. After four years of service as one of the founding editors of Viewfinder, Sara Egan will be rotating off the board. After two years of service to Viewfinder, 2019 National Award winning NAEA Museum Educator Keonna Hendrick will also be rotating off the board. Kabir Singh will stay on for two more years as Editor in Chief in a new structure for the board, which we envision will help editors divide the work among a larger team. If you are interested in joining our team, apply at bit.ly/viewfindereditor by July 31, 2019.
Keonna’s Picks
hooks, bell. (2000). All About Love: New visions. New York: William Morrow.
I purchased bell hooks’, All About Love: New Visions, in 2008 while idly browsing a NYC bookstore, thinking that it might offer some immediate clarity on relationships I was navigating at the moment; little did I know that hooks’ exploration of psychological and sociological research through personal anecdote would challenge me to be more accountable to the ways I extend and receive love in professional and personal relationships. In this book, hooks presents love as an intentional action that can be demonstrated authentically in any and all relationships. In each chapter, readers analyze the potential of love as action through distinct interactions: interactions with children, interactions with self, interactions with social justice, and interactions with family. Every few years, I read this book as it offers new questions and possibilities that enable me to gain clarity on the type of educator, leader, colleague and friend I want to be.
D’Souza, Aruna. (2018). Whitewalling: Art, race & protest in 3 acts. New York: Badlands Unlimited.
My teaching is often motivated by the opportunity to support learners in critical examination of personal and institutional values with consideration to identity and power. Navigating these conversations, particularly through the lens of display of artworks, can be difficult to say the least. This summer I’ll be reading critic and curator, Aruna D’Souza’s Whitewalling: Art, Race and Protest in 3 Acts to consider her opinions of recent controversies surrounding racist politics of museum display as well as the historic precedent for curatorial practice and protest. D’Souza explores the connections between the protests of three distinct art exhibitions: The Whitney Museum’s 2017 Biennial, New York Art Space’s The Nigger Drawings in 1979, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Harlem on My Mind in 1969. I’m looking forward to digging into D’Souza’s arguments and learning more about these histories within our field.
Sara’s Picks
After hearing about this book all year, I knew it was next on my list to read. As if I needed any more reason, docents and volunteers at my museum requested that we read it together this summer. This will be our first project as I take over management of that program, setting a strong foundation for our anti-racist work. DiAngelo explores the challenges that white people have in discussing race and acknowledging our role in upholding white supremacist culture. I hope this book will offer tools for working through racial stress with colleagues and visitors, help me recognize opportunities to dismantle racist systems, and support my work encouraging other educators to do the same.
I first encountered this piece in grad school and it articulated a vision I had never put words to: that artists put new possibilities into the world, and that one of our roles as art educators is to grasp those potentials and bring about a new reality. Greene’s essay keeps me hopeful, and on each reading re-ignites my commitment to the social justice aspects of museum education.
Kabir’s Picks
Nhất Hạnh, Thích. (1987). The Miracle of Mindfulness : A manual on meditation. Boston: Beacon Press.
Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Zen teacher, describes the essence of meditation in this volume through simple, but thoughtful, prose. I began reading this book earlier this year and want to finish it this summer, because I believe that being “alive to the present reality” is an essential part of being a skilled educator and facilitator.
Full disclosure: I know both of these authors. I was fortunate enough to take a course taught by El-Amin (in which Cohen was a fellow student) about supporting students of color to develop positive racial identity and critical consciousness. I was excited to read this article as soon as I saw it in Art Education and the issue has been sitting on my shelf unread for too long!
NAEA Members can follow this link to the Art Education online archives for full access, if you have already recycled your copy.
— The Viewfinder Editorial Board
Sara Egan
Sara Egan is a museum educator whose work is grounded in constructivism and the use of discussions about works of art to affirm all voices. She connects Boston students and teachers with the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum as School and Youth Programs Manager. Sara holds a BA from Vassar College and an Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and is an adjunct professor of art at Simmons College.
Keonna Hendrick
Keonna Hendrick is a cultural strategist whose teaching, writing, and strategic planning promote critical thinking, expand cultural perceptions, and support self-actualization. She currently serves as School Programs Manager at the Brooklyn Museum, where she leads a department of skilled and empathetic educators in designing learning experiences that invite learners to expand their understanding of themselves and the world. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications including the Journal of Museum Education (2017), Multiculturalism in Art Museums Today (2014) and the Journal of Folklore and Education (2016). As the co-creator of multicultural critical reflective practice, a professional development model, Keonna continues to provide professional development to educators in museums and classrooms nationally, including ArtsConnection, The Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, National Art Education Association, and The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
Kabir Singh
Kabir Singh is an educator and writer based in Los Angeles. He has been teaching in art museums since 2008 and is dedicated to working towards greater equity in education and the arts. Kabir is a VTS Trainer for the organization Visual Thinking Strategies, where he leads professional development for educators nationwide in a constructivist pedagogy that teaches thinking through conversations about visual art. He also regularly teaches in the galleries of the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California, and supports teacher professional development at The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles. Kabir serves as the National Art Education Association (NAEA) Museum Education Division Pacific Regional Representative. Beginning September 2019, he will be the Editor-in-Chief of Viewfinder, after serving on its editorial board for two years. Kabir holds an EdM in Arts in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a BA in Art History from Columbia University.
