“Curator” journal cites Rough Sketch
Zahava Doering, editor emerita of the publication, quotes this newsletter.
In what appears to be a first—of hopefully more to come—for this young newsletter, it is cited in a peer-reviewed article: Zahava D. Doering’s “No Small Steps: The Time Has Expired” in the Oct. 2020 issue of Curator: The Museum Journal.
The Wiley journal’s editor emerita, senior social scientist at Thinc Design (N.Y.) and former senior social scientist at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, Doering states in the abstract that she believes “museums risk societal irrelevance, unless they effect profound changes in response to calls for inclusiveness and equity on the part of Blacks, Latinx, and other disenfranchised groups.”
Museums, she adds, must
pledge to fill positions with people of color and from other marginalized minorities. Hiring should privilege societal accomplishments and life experience over age, gender, and education credentials. … Current exhibitions and collections, or even complete museums, should be re-interpreted by people represented in them. Decolonization efforts should include a national portal of items with suspect provenance and the Eurocentric nomenclature for cataloging should be revised. Overall, museums must promote “shared authority" and include individuals and communities in their re-creation.
She mentions this newsletter—which did not make that prescriptive argument—in the section on “Decolonization” at the very end of the article. “As I write, with the shadow of museum history hovering, I fear that museums will hold fast to the status quo and fail the public—as they have in the past. We are already beginning to see the signs of ‘business as usual,’” she writes.
“In a recent post, Menachem Wecker (2020) lists about a dozen well known urban museums that privileged donors as attendees to re-opening events. All previously made commitments to action, to providing ‘safe places’ for all members of their community, and to listen. He wondered who [sic] they listened to about an equitable way to readmit people,” she continues.
She also cites personal communication of former Smithsonian assistant secretary Tom Freudenheim on the Metropolitan Museum of Art reopening, “Imagine the impact they might have had if they had started with first responders, MTA personnel, people who have kept working, grocery and other workers who made sure the ‘members’ could get their food delivered safely, etc. But let’s admit that it’s just not in the DNA of museums to think that way.”
For readers who missed my piece that Doering cites, “Despite commitments to greater equality, many museums to reopen for donors first,” you can read it here.