Revisiting the Evolving Role of the Museum
On May 5 we presented a virtual panel discussion called “The Evolving Role of the Museum”. The question: how are museums adapting to serve our communities?
Rather than produce a video recording, we asked Nicole Martinez to cover the event on our behalf. She is a writer and editor based in Miami, and her stories have appeared in publications including ARTnews, Wallpaper*, Hyperallergic and Cultured.
In a year unlike any in recent history, the role of the museum has come sharply into focus. As a space that both collects and preserves cultural artifacts for generations, museums assume the role of historians and storytellers. But how is that position complicated by philanthropy, power, and bias? As our society demands we right what’s wrong with our culture, how must the museum evolve to meet that demand?
In May for National Museum Month, Commissioner set out to explore these questions in a virtual conversation with art world luminaries Anne Pasternak, Franklin Sirmans, and Chana Budgazad Sheldon, who respectively direct the Brooklyn Museum, the Pérez Art Museum Miami and the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami. Moderated by Wallace Foundation Arts Director Bahia Ramos, the conversation revealed that understanding how art can change the world remains difficult to grasp, and complicated to attempt.
The last year has certainly seen these directors try. The museums shape-shifted between battlegrounds and debate forums and served as centers of comfort and care. Brooklyn Museum, for example, became a bastion of safety for protestors who needed a tolerant place to gather this summer. These decisions and many more were made with the realization that museums are not neutral spaces. However, the neutrality museums are required to uphold as 501C3 nonprofits in turbulent times, Sirmans explained, also resulted in the museum navigating potential landmines on both sides of the proverbial aisle after hosting both presidential candidates for town hall discussions at the Pérez.
As authorities on what art deserves to be exalted and consecrated into our historical canon, museums can’t be neutral. “We’re central to engaging in the conversations of our time because it’s culture that leads to opening hearts and minds," Pasternak said. "We need to let go of the myth that we’re neutral. And, we must realize that while people of all beliefs and backgrounds are invited into the conversation, we have a long way to go in inviting and welcoming them in.”
Museums aren’t absolved from national conversations around equity and community when the work on the walls wants to rewrite that story. But they sit in a complicated position. Most museums adhere to a philanthropic model that has largely not evolved since the turn of the century.
Pasternak, Sirmans and Sheldon understand the forces at work and stakes for the institutions they lead. They need to balance honoring a mission, creating a healthy workplace culture, and addressing the concerns of trustees and their broader donor base. In a moment of vulnerability, Pasternak raised the issue of attacks on trustees and defended their important role in museums. Without forgiveness, there is no redemption - only deeper lines drawn in the sand.
So, what might a national conversation on remediation for museums look like? Maybe it starts with recognizing that the museum isn’t necessarily the final authority on culture in America. Maybe it’s focusing on uplifting what’s around us, like Sheldon and Sirmans did with exhibitions of local artists and acquisitions of works from local galleries. Or maybe it’s about shifting philanthropic dollars towards grassroots arts organizations working within marginalized neighborhoods, or supporting new models of philanthropy in the arts with far lower barriers of entry.
Perhaps the museum should evolve into community centers that organize programs not just around art but around the promises that art holds. “If we really want to be community centers, what do we have to do?” Sirmans asked. Can we challenge institutional leaders into advocacy? Could we create in-school programs that foster a connection to art and its changemaking power? Can we move away from focusing on the building and make the museum a traveling, borderless space where creativity and imagination is encouraged and unrestricted? Can we do a better job of meeting people where they are?
Whether artists or curators, cultural producers or consumers, what’s ultimately going to change the museum are the people — those who serve and the public itself. From small, nearly invisible individual acts that collectively cause a seismic shift, to large-scale public commitments to equity and diversity and challenging tired philanthropic models, Sheldon says that the museum leaders “have to think creatively about what change really means.” The museum will evolve because it has to.
Story thumbnail: Beverly Acha, Untitled (Fishers Island Fall Sunset), 2017, oil on canvas, 36 x 42 inches.