Now, more than ever, we need the museum.
The COVID-19 pandemic has promulgated questions regarding the operation of artistic institutions throughout the world. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City closed its doors on March 13 and reopened only recently, with new visitor guidelines mandating the wearing of masks and socially distancing from others. Before its recent closure on 20 November, the Philadelphia Museum of Art employed similar restrictions, asking visitors to purchase tickets in advance for designated time slots and enforcing temperature checks upon entry. While these safety features aim to protect and look after the well-being of visitors, we must also ask what the priority of the museum ought to be in these strange times: physical safety for in-person visits, activism relating to the current social climate, or, perhaps more optimistically, both.
Now is a time when cultural institutions can either close down and turn away social progress, or they can act as beacons of hope which promote both equity and equality. We cannot ignore the present state of our country, nor can we ignore the fact that such institutions are struggling monetarily as a result of the pandemic. A recent American Alliance of Museums survey indicated that 33% of museums in America are not confident that they will stay open within the next year, with 56% of respondents reporting that they only had enough resources to support staying open for the next six months. These numbers are bleak and force us to consider what the world would be without the arts and institutions that preserve our past and the beauty and pain imbued within it.
Art museums showcase the works of individuals who challenged the status quo and who we have interwoven with the fabric of history. There would be no museums without such individuals who diverged from the norm and followed their own paths. At their best, our museums celebrate their achievements and remind us that it is those who question the workings of society who spark social change. Museums remind us of our own ability to inspire change in the world and to bring about new ideas that diverge from established norms in order to make the world a better place. In this way, the institution of the museum should strengthen its identity as a communal space that brings to light the ills of society and fights for the preservation and equality of all people.
Should museums serve as activists? How should they engage their audiences? Technology has the ability and reach to further connect the public with cultural institutions, and it is the responsibility of these entities to respond to current events and engender meaningful conversations regarding the state of the world.
In certain ways, the pandemic has democratized the consumption of the visual arts. Museums have initiated online discussions pertaining to salient social and political issues and the virtual format has extended these conversations to people throughout the globe. Philadelphia’s Institute of Contemporary Art leads Mindfulness sessions each week to further ground people within this moment in time, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art has developed virtual programs for children to encourage artmaking in a time of lockdown and uncertainty.
In the midst of such social and political uncertainty, how can and should museums respond? Since last March, we have missed the special experience of walking through a museum’s galleries, an experience that cannot be matched virtually. Has the physical space of museums become a more symbolic entity to us as a result? Perhaps the answer lies in one perspective of the duty of the museum to disseminate knowledge to the public. The most remarkable, thought-provoking exhibitions essentially arise from an engagement with the present. Perhaps one of the most important current exhibitions in Philadelphia is the Mutter Museum’s Going Viral: Infection Throughout the Ages, which underscores the methods through which people have understood infectious diseases throughout history.
Connecting our past with our present may be the only way in which we can understand and shape our future. Curation methods and practices that consider the issues burdening our society can allow for the development of exhibitions that challenge our ways of thinking and help us forge a path towards a heightened understanding of our individual and collective place in the world.
As we have seen, cultural institutions have wronged the public throughout history by representing select, privileged artists and, as a result, completely dismissing the achievements of others. In 1985, the Guerrilla Girls formed in order to combat the male-dominated world of art by creating artworks that shed light on museums and galleries that included female artist representation of 10% or less within their institutions. The recent past has showcased a heightened awareness of representation of all people within the visual arts, with particular exhibitions such as 30 Americans showcasing the art of contemporary African American artists. Nevertheless, museums are responsible for shedding light on diverse artists in all facets of their collections. Individual actions, such as those seen in the collective of the Guerrilla Girls, can change the manner in which museums respond to curation and artist inclusion. People at large change history for the better. Museums should feel obligated to respond to the will of society as individuals bring to light social issues.
While attempting to showcase the works of certain artists, museums can make mistakes. A controversial Philip Guston retrospective was recently postponed out of fear by museums that audiences would misunderstand Guston’s works depicting Ku Klux Klan figures, which Guston intended as a form of criticism of racism and bigotry. The postponement sent shockwaves through the art community, with the former curator of the Modern Art Museum Fort Worth, Michael Auping claiming, “The irony is that, if ever there was a poignant time to have these Guston images shown, it’s now.” Curators interpreted the show’s postponement as a critical deficit in the ability of museums to respond to possible criticism, out of fear of being questioned or called out by the public.
It is the duty of the museum to present controversial art in a manner that does not support subject content but rather educates about the past while denouncing racism, sexism, and classism.
Nevertheless, it is these engagements with the public that drive forward contemporary conversations regarding art, politics, and social identity. Museums should feel emboldened to do better when people respond or question their exhibitions, for these interactions enable us to understand our history and learn from mistakes of the past. It is the duty of the museum to present controversial art in a manner that does not support subject content but rather educates about the past while denouncing racism, sexism, and classism. Museums need to be cognizant of the social atmosphere within the country when individuals go about curating shows. By understanding the public and choosing to showcase works that can generate profound conversation about how and how not to act, the museum can retain its ability to incite positive change from established ways of thinking.
Artistic endeavors uplift communities, and art museums need to leverage our increasingly technologically-reliant world with the knowledge they can offer to educate the public, remind us of our shared humanity, and to demonstrate that we are not alone. Museums are more than physical entities; they are beacons of achievement for different artists and of knowledge for our communities across social, economic, personal, and interpersonal levels. We need to turn to these institutions in times of distress like these, to both learn from the mistakes of our past and to understand how we can build a framework for the future. In this vein, the museum must turn towards us, too, in the quest to understand what exactly the public wants and needs.
We need cultural institutions to fight for the common good of the people. A system that chooses to uplift the public rather than divide us, whether through actions or passivity. We are living in a time where the artist and curator must activate the foundations of social change together. It is the role of the museum to lead conversations and curate exhibitions that relate to our present day, to remind us that our past, although inextricably tied to the present, does not define our future.
Header photo by Aaina Sharma on Unsplash
