Posts
Decolonization
Ceding Authority and Seeding Trust
This article originally appeared in the July/August 2019 issue of Museum magazine, a benefit of AAM membership. Through a decolonizing collections practice, the San Diego Museum of Man is …
Discomfort in Learning: Museum audiences react to decolonizing practices.
This article originally appeared in the July/August 2019 issue of Museum magazine, a benefit of AAM membership. Traditional museum models of interpretation have historically failed …
Hiding In Plain Sight: An exhibition showcasing America’s obsession with Native American iconography aims to start a new conversation.
This article originally appeared in the July/August 2019 issue of Museum magazine, a benefit of AAM membership. By most standards, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian …
The Hand of Native American Women, Visible at Last
The Minneapolis Institute of Art is opening a sweeping exhibition of art by Native American women, and in the process has worked to right some of the wrongs in the relationship between …
Taking Native Lands and Lives
Museums have power—the power to tell stories, shape narratives, and influence the lens we bring to bear on the past. That power can be harnessed for healing, as museums contribute to a …
“As Native Americans, We Are in a Constant State of Mourning”
In this opinion piece, repatriation scholar Dr. Chip Colwell dismisses claims that returning unethically obtained objects to their original owners is a loss for museums, instead emphasizing …
TrendsWatch 2019: Confronting the Past: The long, hard work of decolonization
This is one of the five trends from the 2019 TrendsWatch. Click here to read more about the full report. “Colonialism and imperialism have not settled their debt to us once they have …
Finding Resilience in Challenging Times
This article originally appeared in the March/April 2019 issue of Museum magazine, a benefit of membership with the Alliance. Click here to learn more about membership! Museums must embrace …
What does it mean to decolonize a museum?
Whether you’re new to the discourse on decolonization, or just in need of a refresh on the expanding definition and evolving practices around the term, this thorough primer has the …
What New Year’s Resolutions Should Art Museums Be Making?
“An institution is not an organism but an instrument, a tool. It may be a bloodied tool but remember there are no clean tools, only those that still serve a purpose and those that …
Listen to the Interns: The Importance of the “Budding Scholar” for Museum Decolonization
As a junior in college, I think I might have found my calling—for now anyway. For the past two and a half years I have been studying Art History, Museum Studies, and African American …
Museopunks Episode 32: Changing the Canon
Museum collections in established institutions come with long histories. So how do you change a museum’s canon? In this episode, we speak with Christopher Bedford, Dorothy Wagner Wallis …