In these conversations on intersectionality and the continued reign of the white male voice in the museum institution, I am met with a wave of deep, personal reflection on what my role is as someone intending on entering into this industry. In my particular case, as someone hoping to work in historical art museums, the core of my  interest and future research is in the recovery of underrepresented groups. Specifically as a woman in the industry, I wish to normalize the historical significance of suppressed women in history and bring awareness to the reasons why there lacks “great” women artists. In a word, I hope to put into practice revisionism when I enter into the curatorial field.

As mentioned in the Reilly reading, revisionism has flaws in it of itself. There are of course benefits in recovering suppressed art and opening discussion about the history behind art that has been ignored or edited out, but revisionism still does not address the continued practice of the dominating representation of the white male. There remains a dominance of women entering in the art and art historical fields yet men still hold the directorial positions in museum institutions and women artists remain sparsely represented in the contemporary art museum. This lack of appropriate representation in present day museums is shocking. Historical revisionism is an incredible step for museums but the work will remain drowned out if contemporary art museums maintain a divisive and exclusionary method to exhibits.

There is much work to be done for the museum to evolve out of its current institutional biases. I am optimistic that gender and racial equality will soon be seen in museum leadership. Once that is achieved then historical and contemporary curators can work together to display art and history with a better lens on accurate diversity in the art world.

 

Reading Sources:

Bishop, Claire. Radical Museology. Koenig Books, 2014.

Petresin-Bachelez, Natasa. Transforming Whiteness in Art Institutions.

Reilly, Maura, and Lucy R. Lippard. Curatorial Activism: towards an Ethics of Curating. Thames & Hudson., 2018.

Robert, Nicole. “Getting Intersectional in Museums.” Museums & Social Issues, vol. 9, no. 1, 2014, pp. 24–33

Featured Image Source:

“The Queen Who Would Be King.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 1 Sept. 2006, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-queen-who-would-be-king-130328511/.