Posts
Decolonization
In Good Relation: Reimagining the Grant Process for Community-Based Projects
In recent years, there have been renewed calls for museums to adopt more inclusive and equitable practices, with significant changes to the ways we work and collaborate at all levels of our …
An Afrofuturist School Program Empowers Children to Envision the Future
Futurism is a powerful tool to share with kids—equipping them to think about the world they want to live in when they grow up, challenging them to make it better. Today on the blog, …
Remarks from Benin Bronzes Repatriation Ceremony
On October 11, 2022, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art hosted a repatriation ceremony in which officials of the museum transferred ownership of twenty-nine Benin bronzes and …
‘Relationships Don’t Have an End Goal’: A Q&A with the Burke Museum’s Decolonization & DEAI Team
Some of the newest, and most defining, jobs in the current era of museums are those focusing on decolonization and diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion. In recent years, as more …
A Long Way Home for ‘Looted’ Art Is Getting Shorter
Curators at major museums are increasingly grappling with a thorny topic: restitution. This article is part of our latest special section on Museums, which focuses on new artists, new …
Recasting the Civic Imperative of the Museum
This article originally appeared in the November/December 2021 issue of Museum magazine, a benefit of AAM membership. Liberating collections from their imperialist pasts can occur through a …
Carnegie Museum asks for visitor feedback on cultural sensitivity, exhibits with complicated pasts
The Carnegie Museum of Natural History is taking steps to help reckon with its colonial…
Rethinking Our Human Resources Practices to Build a More Equitable Museum
Less than three weeks after COVID forced museums around the globe to close their doors last year, an article by Arundhati Roy in The Financial Times titled “The Pandemic is a Portal” …
Germany first to hand back Benin bronzes looted by British
Germany is to become the first country to hand back the Benin bronzes looted by British soldiers in the late nineteenth century. A decision on the restitution was facilitated by the fact …
How Two Artists’ Transformation of a Portland Museum May Provide a Blueprint for Larger Institutions
Washington County Museum in Portland, Oregon brought itself back from the brink of failure through decolonizing its practices and reinventing itself as the Five …
“Decolonizing is Literally Unsettling”: Repatriation of Nonprofit Land and Assets
On July 16, 2020, the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation (NACF) and the Yale Union (YU) announced that YU would transfer its land and building in Portland, Oregon, to NACF. The historic …
The Call of the Moment: Marjorie Schwarzer on the New Edition of Riches, Rivals, and Radicals
Riches, Rivals, and Radicals: A History of Museums in America has been read by students, professionals, and museum lovers alike since its first publication in 2006; its public television …