Full Description
Aimed at museum educators, Multiculturalism in Art Museums Today seeks to marry museum and multicultural education theories. It reveals how the union of these theories yields more equitable educational practices and guides museum educators to address misrepresentation, exclusivity, accessibility, and educational inequality.
This contemporary text is directive; it encourages museum educators to consider the critical multicultural education theoretical framework in their day-to-day functions in order to illuminate and combat shortcomings at the crux of museum education:
·Museum Educators as Change Agents
·Inclusion versus Exclusion
·Collaboration with Diverse Audiences
·Responsive Pedagogy
This book adopts a broad definition of multiculturalism, which names not only race and ethnicity as concerns, but also gender, sexual orientation, religion, ability, age, and class. While focusing on these various facets of identity, the authors demonstrate how museums are social systems that should offer comprehensive, diverse educational experiences not only through exhibitions but through other educational activities. The authors pull from their own research and practical experiences which exemplify how museums have been and can be attentive to these areas of identity.
Multiculturalism in Art Museums Today is hopeful and inspiring, as it identifies and commends the positive and effective practices that some museum educators have enacted in an effort to be inclusive. Museum educators are at the front-line interacting with the public on a daily basis. Thus, these educators can be the real vanguard of change, modeling critical multicultural behavior and practices.
Contents
List of Tables
Introduction and Context
Joni Boyd Acuff and Laura Evans
Section 1: Museum Educators as Change Agents
Chapter 1: "Stuck" is where you need to pay attention: Some barriers to creating truly inclusive art museums
Marianna Adams and Judy Koke
Chapter 2: Stimulating change through story-telling: Art museum educators of color share their lived experiences with multicultural issues
Natasha Reid
Chapter 3: Excellence and equity?: A reflection on the diversification of museums
Wendy Ng and Syrus Marcus Ware
Chapter 4: Unheard: Voices of women of color in the museum
Flavia Zuñiga-West
Section 2: Inclusion versus Exclusion
Chapter 5: Collaborating with communities: New conceptualizations of hybridized museum practice
Traci Quinn and Marianna Pegno
Chapter 6: Multiculturalism and the Supported Interpretation (SI) Model: Embracing cultural diversity through inclusive art exhibitions
Pat Villeneuve and Alicia Viera
Chapter 7: Enabling access at the Meadows Museum: An ongoing journey to inclusivity
Allison Davidson and Maria Carmen Smith
Chapter 8: Undisciplined space: Indian craft heritage sites as texts for critical practice
Manisha Sharma
Chapter 9: Class exclusion: Challenges of an art museum trying to connect with its blue collar community
Yuha Jung
Chapter 10: Code switching in the museum: Increasing access for English learners
Sofia Gutierrez and Briley Rasmussen
Section 3: Collaboration with Diverse Audiences
Chapter 11: Feminist art and adolescents in museums: A closer look
Cheri Eileen Ehrlich
Chapter 12: Engaging Latino audiences: Visitor-driven change at The Denver Art Museum
Verónica Betancourt and Madalena Salazar
Chapter 13: "Today I Am Here": A Smithsonian heritage outreach initiative
Philippa Rappoport
Chapter 14: Community curation as an alternative strategy for interpreting exhibitions: myaamiaki iši meehtoseeniwiciki: How the Miami people live
Cynthia Collins and Vesta Daniel
Section 4: Responsive Pedagogy
Chapter 15: Taking it personally: Coming to know oneself and others through interpretations of art
Terry Barrett
Chapter 16: Thoughtful words: Toward critically multicultural language in art museum interpretive material
Andrea Severin Goins
Chapter 17: Experiencing Indigenous ways of knowing as embodied in a museum
Christine Ballengee-Morris and Patricia Stuhr
Chapter 18: Using Multicultural Critical Reflective Practice in the art museum
Melissa Crum and Keonna Hendrick
Chapter 19: I cannot tell a lie: White privilege in museum education
Melinda M. Mayer
Closing Thoughts
Joni Boyd Acuff and Laura Evans
Index
About the Editors and Contributors
