HOW THE GUERRILLA GIRLS HOLD THE ART WORLD ACCOUNTABLE

She's My Muse | Jaime Meier

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The first time I saw artwork by the Guerrilla Girls in person was during the exhibition "The Incomplete History of Protest" at the Whitney Museum, which displayed the group's criticism of said museum for its sexist and racist collection. It was impressive to see that the impact of the group was so large that it not only pushed for the institution to change, but the institution displayed the works to publicly hold itself accountable and acknowledge its shortcomings. One of the most interesting things about the Guerrilla Girls is that, in addition to their impactful art, they are able to organize group action through anonymity and intersectionality. 

"History of Wealth and Power" by the Guerrilla Girls | Source

The Guerrilla Girls are known for their posters that call attention to gendered and racial inequality within art institutions, with their most famous poster comparing the amount of female artists and amount of naked women on display at the Met. Natalie Sherman's article gives a great overview of the group's history, beginning in 1985 and continuing to the present. A consistently relevant 35-year career is no easy feat within the art world and I believe this success is due to the 55 members that have joined the group over the decades. Some members stay for weeks while others stay for years, with the fluctuating membership allowing for new talent and ideas to keep the group relevant. A major part of their appeal to so many members is their dedication to intersectionality.

"Traditional Values and Quality Return to the Whitey Museum" by the Guerrilla Girls | Source

While the title "Guerrilla Girls" instantly associates them with women, the heart of their organization is feminism, which transcends gender. One of my favourite things about the group is that they do not homogenize by only looking at gender, they also consider racial implications that impact artists of colour. Their earliest works, such as "Traditional Values and Quality Return to the Whitey Museum," important demonstrate the distinction between gender and race. Most recently, they created a video in response to the ongoing police brutality in the United States. 

"NYC Recount" by the Guerrilla Girls | Source

Every few years the Guerrilla Girls update their posters to analyze how and if things have changed within the institutions they have critiqued. The continued accountability and calls to action are crucial for continued and sustained change. The updates often reveal minor improvement and quickly remind the institution that a one time or slight improvement will not be accepted in the place of sincere change. I believe the Guerrilla Girls are creating an art world that will allow for more people to enjoy art institutions because they will actively see themselves reflected and be more likely to engage. 

RAPID RESPONSE COLLECTING: COVID-19

Collections Corner | Martin Bierens

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Perhaps unsurprisingly, the year 2020 has led to an uptick of rapid response collecting, particularly related to the pandemic.

Rapid response collecting is a fairly recent addition to museum collections management mandates with the goal being to collect the meaningful present. This has largely come from a shifting public and internal demand of what museums should provide their visitors. From the origin of museums in the 1800s, they have been a place where visitors can expect to encounter objects from the past, but now museums are placing a much greater emphasis on the present. Museums can be places where the public gathers to interact with contemporary history that directly impacts their lives.

A notable moment where rapid response collecting hit the mainstream and began to be recognized outside of the professional museum community was in 2017 after the Women’s March on Washington protesting the inauguration of Donald Trump. In response to the march, many museums collected the now-iconic pink pussyhats worn by protestors.

Protestors wearing pussyhats at the Women's March on Washington. (Source)

In 2020, rapid response collecting is how many museums have answered to the Covid-19 pandemic. After the initial global shut-down and the frantic development of online educational material, museums have been adding pandemic related objects to their collection.

A museum that took on a leading role in rapid response collecting in 2017 was the V&A, and this pattern continues today as they collect during the pandemic. Some of the objects that the V&A and other museums have collected include the obvious pandemic essentials, such as homemade facemasks, social distancing signs, ventilators, and heartwarming signs made by children. Other materials collected are oral histories from medical and essential workers, video footage of hospitals including a video created by a doctoral resident of Mount Sinai Queens —one of the worst-hit hospitals in New York City, and a cowbell that was rung every time a Covid patient was discharged from the Samaritan’s Purse Hospital, also in New York City.

Cowbell rung at Samaritan's Purse Hospital, now part of the New-York Historical Society's Collection. (Source)

Though there has been a very quick reaction by many museums to begin rapid response collecting, there are some museums that are taking measured steps to ensure that they are not reacting too quickly. Dean Oliver, the director of research at the Canadian Museum of History expressed that now, more than ever, there is a need to act deliberately, respectfully, and sensitively. The Royal B.C. Museum’s website has put a call out on its website for objects related to the pandemic, but they are holding off on formally accessioning any material at this time. This is a general cautiousness to ensure that they are acting appropriately and ethically, rather than making rash decisions.

Museums currently find themselves in something of a catch-22. If a museum chooses that they must undertake rapid response collecting at this time, they will be able to acquire a large amount of valuable material, but there is a possibility that the museum could take advantage of a bad situation, and may be treating donors unethically, be it unwittingly or not. However, if a museum decides to wait, ensuring that they are respectful and deliberate, there is the possibility that much of the material history of the pandemic may be lost forever. Joanne Orr of the Royal B.C. Museum expresses this concern, 

“Often in an emergency situation, things are thrown away, so a lot of things will be discarded at the end of this and we want to make sure we can capture examples of that.” 

Pandemic essentials, such as facemasks, are quickly being added to museum collections. (Source).

Museums are now faced with the difficult choice of collecting material but perhaps making best-practice mistakes, whereas on the other hand, if they decide to be cautious, there is a chance that they will never be able to collect material because it will already be gone. Museums are tasked with the difficult demand of practicing rapid response collecting, but balancing it with due diligence and ethical collecting practices.

Thank you to Chloé Houde for her assistance with this article.

RISKY BEHAVIOUR IS 'STICKING TO THE STATUS QUO': CLIMATE STRIKES AND MUSEUM FUTURES WITH DOUGLAS WORTS

Museums on Earth | Defne Inceoglu

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Illustration courtesy of Defne Inceoglu.

On September 27th 2019, people around the world gathered and rallied for action on the global climate crisis.

Simultaneously, Museum Studies alumni, faculty members and students were celebrating the 50th year as a program with the Unconference. (Read Jordan Fee’s in-depth summary of the day here). It was emphasized to us in the morning that if any attendees wished to leave to join the march at Queen’s Park - just a stone’s throw from campus - were encouraged to do so. So, many of us did- joining the crowds to return to the conference later in the afternoon.

The city was a-buzz with thousands upon thousands streaming into the Queen’s Park area. Folks of all ages gathered to voice their concerns about the climbing and alarming climate crisis that is plaguing many people around the planet both geographically and psychologically. Image courtesy of Defne Inceoglu.

In keeping up with the themes of both the conference, the conversations around museum risk-taking, climate change and the future action (or inaction) of museums, I had the opportunity to invite alumnus Douglas Worts to join in and speak with me briefly on these very poignant issues.

Image courtesy of Defne Inceoglu.

A bit about Worts:

Worts graduated the Museum Studies program in 1982, going on to work at the AGO as an Educator in the Adult Programs department. Worts introduced the practice of integrated audience research into the exhibit development process – with a focus on exploring experimental interpretive strategies. Through his work, he became a founding member of the US-based Visitor Studies Association. In 1997, his focus shifted from individual visitors to how museums could help catalyze meaningful cultural impacts and adaptation in a fast-changing world – specifically related to local/global sustainability.

Worts’ current project is WorldViews Consulting as a culture and sustainability expert. Worts also consults on the ‘Sustainability Task Force’ for the American Association for State and Local History. Read Worts’ full bio here.

I: You attended the climate strike in Toronto. Can you speak a bit about your experience during this strike? What were some positive things you took away from this?

W: The enthusiasm of the youth leaders and their willingness to step up and become voices in this moment, has been inspiring to me. Joining in the march was pretty amazing! I had no idea how many tens of thousands of people were there - but there were lot of people! Part of me was thrilled to hear the chanting and singing and the strength that comes from large groups of people. I kept hearing the refrain “Climate Justice Now!” and I wondered, how many people in the crowd would be able to describe what that phrase meant to them. I knew that it was important that large numbers needed to make a loud noise.

A Google Maps screenshot of Queen's Park and College Street. The protestors shut down the roads and created congestion in the city; evidence of a massive turnout. Courtesy of Defne Inceoglu.

(con't) But the next day, the leaders needed to be able to move forward with:

- An understanding of what Climate Justice actually requires
- The causes and impacts of current climate change trends
- The leverage points across our society where change must happen in order to affect the climate change trends (because these trends are symptoms of much larger, cultural dysfunction).

In my view the drivers of climate change, as well as social and economic inequity, are rooted deep in the values, behaviours and structures upon which our economic, social, political and legal systems are based. These are in fact the core of our cultural reality - and yet not even discussed by this thing we call the ‘cultural sector’. Given the global scale of existing museum networks, our sector has the ability to re-tool itself to become catalysts of cultural change and adaptation. And yet, this really doesn’t even seem to be on the table in museological circles.

Toronto Climate Strike. Image courtesy of Defne Inceoglu.

I: Going off of the theme of the Unconference, “risk-taking”, what do you feel is the most important, yet risky, change we must make in our institutions?

W: As for the idea of "risk" - there is altogether too much focus on 'risk-taking’ as an attribute of ‘excellence’. I certainly have witnessed directors talk about ‘risk’ as a brand characteristic. To me, this kind of thinking is mostly marketing hyperbole and a misunderstanding of the notion of risk. There are risks associated with absolutely everything.


At this point in time, the ‘risky’ behaviour is sticking with the status quo.

We know that human overconsumption, unconscious systems, greed, self-interest, wastefulness are all attributes of the status quo. Perhaps the most serious risk that museums can take is to remain committed to their three historical pillars - buildings, collections and exhibits. It seems so obvious to me that buildings, collections and exhibits are strategies in the service of catalyzing public value. Yet few museums truly plan for, or measure, the catalyzing of public value. I see this absence of planning as being risky behaviour, because the potential for negative consequences is very high.

Museums, for me, embody the potential for generating ‘the place of the muses’, which is not fundamentally a physical place - but a psychological and social space. The muses belong everywhere where our living culture is playing it self out hopefully in adaptive ways. Risk must be consciously calculated in order to maximize the potential for adaptive impacts and minimize non-adaptive impacts. Risk assessment is fundamental and central to what all parts of our society must be doing. Museums could be helping to catalyze these processes across society, but it will require significant internal transformation of the historical and existing assumptions about the core goals, activities, and measures of success of museums.

What are some other things you would like Musings readers to know about you?

I taught Museum Education in the MMSt program from about 1991 to 1996 and have been guest lecturing in the program across my entire career. In 2014, I had the honour of being the first Research Fellow in Museum Studies at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Research Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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The future of the museums' role in participating in, teaching and pursuing climate action is a sentiment that must be pushed further than our current efforts as museum professionals. It will not be easy, it will not be quick and it will not be without growing pains and resistance. However, we can now see the public, our potential and probable audiences, rallying all over the world for action. Is this the sign of change to come? Can we begin to pick up the pieces of what needs to be fixed, or should we rebuild it all together? Keeping these important questions in our minds as we go forward will be paramount to the ability to incite real institutional change. The challenge will be, as Worts mentioned, internal transformations to our mandates, missions and values that will reflect response versus reflection.

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This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

TOXIC MUSEUMS AND TOXIC DONOR RELATIONSHIPS

Muse News | Amy Intrator

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In today’s Muse News, I am focusing on two recent museum news stories that exemplify two different threats for museums: dangerous collections and dangerous donor relations.


Uranium Ore and the Grand Canyon Museum

What happened?

For 18 years, three 5-gallon buckets of uranium ore were stored dangerously close to exhibits and visitors at the Grand Canyon Park Museum. On February 4th, Elston “Swede” Stephenson – the safety, health, and wellness manager for Grand Canyon National Park – sent an email to all Park Service employees to warn them that they might have been exposed to an unsafe level of uranium ore. Stephenson didn’t send the email through proper channels, but rather, he sent the warning to fellow Park employees. He worried that there was no action to warn employees and visitors about their potentially dangerous levels of exposure to radiation. The email goes so far as to accuse the lack of communication on a “top down failure.”

Image of Grand Canyon Park, where one of the onsite museum buildings was housing uranium ore for 18 years. Source.

How did we get here?

The buckets of uranium ore were first discovered in March 2018. After the buckets were discovered, they were safely removed from the premises of the museum, but according to the Park’s safety manager, visitors were “exposed” to uranium levels that exceeded the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s safe limits. Any visitor to the museum could have been exposed to the radiation, but the discovery is all the more alarming since the buckets were found near a taxidermy exhibit where  school groups stopped for presentations that sometimes lasted as long as 30 minutes. Museum visitors’ safety was compromised due to a confounding level of negligence.


The Oil Giant and the British Museum

What happened?

On Saturday, February 16th, 350 activists gathered inside the British Museum’s Great Court to protest the Museum’s relationship with BP, an oil giant with a history of exploitation. The protesters wielded signs denouncing BP, particularly the company’s exploitation of Iraq’s oil fields after the Iraq War. The protesters, part of a group called “BP or Not to BP?” were particularly infuriated by BP sponsoring the current exhibit at the museum titled I am Ashurbanipal: king of the world, king of Assyria. The exhibition focuses on Middle Eastern art, so BP’s sponsorship – given the company’s history in the Middle East – seems particularly distasteful. The group included many climate change activists who wanted to draw attention to BP’s exploitation of the land and unparalleled damage to the environment. In addition to the museum’s relationship with BP, the protesters also claimed that the artefacts featured in the exhibit were unlawfully removed from Iraq, and therefore the British Museum is exhibiting “stolen goods.”

Hundreds of activities from the pressure group BP or not BP demonstrates in British Museum against BP’s sponsorship of the exhibition "I am Ashurbanipal: king of the world, king of Assyria." . . . #BP #britishmuseum #museum #climatechange #protest #bpornotbp #NoWarNoWarming #DropBP #Ashurbanipal #fossilfree #ClimateStrike #Ashurbanipal #AncientHistory #Climatejustice #BritishMuseumprotest #decolonizemuseums #climatechangeisreal #protest #londonprotest #demonstration #onepicperday2019 #metroldn #timeoutlondon @BP_plc @britishmuseum

A post shared by Dinendra Haria (@dinendra_haria) on Feb 16, 2019 at 1:33pm PST

How did we get here?

BP is sponsoring the current exhibition, but the British Museum has a relationship with the company that spans over 22 years. The Museum boasts that this corporate sponsorship, which has now been renewed until 2022, allows millions of visitors to view the museum’s exhibitions, but this “success story” conveniently omits the details about the company’s reputation. The public is beginning to pay more attention to museums’ sources of funding, and this protest exemplifies the danger when museums are aligned with “tainted” donors. Other recent protests, like those of Nan Goldin, take over museum spaces in order to command visitors’ attention and force visitors to consider museums' misaligned ethics.


Where do we go from here?

Although the two news-breaking stories are technically unrelated, the two cases both demand a closer look at museums’ accountability to their publics. With the Grand Canyon Museum, there was a failure to communicate and act on a major risk to the public’s health and safety. With the British Museum, there was a failure to critically assess the museum’s funding sources and reconsider corporate sponsors in light of public outcry.

These two different cases both exemplify that museums are at their weakest when they lose public trust. From failing to communicate a major health risk to failing to reconsider donor relations, these two institutions now have extensive work to repair their relationship with the public and restore their reputation as cultural institutions.