Museum Workers Must Listen Carefully to What Our Community is Saying During Demonstrations and Unrest

Abstract

The author discusses the ongoing disturbances around the USA that have come about since the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers, the latest in a long line of similar cases in recent years that has inflamed sentiment about the need to reform policing around the USA. This letter from a docent advocates for museums to take on the role of storyteller to help their publics understand the connections between past oppressions and current police brutality. The author claims that museums play an essential role in public education and a vital role in the formation of visitor identities. Museums have always been places for learn about ourselves and contextualize the past while understanding the present. Museums are now well placed to provide the information that their publics miss in traditional formal school history curricula, and are ideally suited to provide safe places to tackle difficult discussions around race.

Measuring a Sense of Belonging at Museums and Cultural Centers

“…Sometimes feeling uncomfortable can be a sign of progress when designing culturally responsive exhibits (Garibay, 2017 ). As Jackson (2020) put it when referring to the power of museums to put guests in the footsteps of others, “Museums have a duty to bringing the stories into our consciousness by being brutally honest” (p. 318). Regarding collective identity, experiences that strengthen existing community connections can at the same time also build brand new linking identities that lead to a stronger sense of belonging (Zhuravlev, 2015).…”