Museum Musing

This morning we met with Tasha from the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures for a truly unique tour. The tour’s focus was decolonization, and Tasha spent much of her time calling out the ISAC’s past and present connections to colonialism. She was brutally honest about the ISAC’s past in a way that was almost jarring. She quoted colleagues who told her not to publicize Nazi connections, she pointed out poor signage and word choices, and discussed issues with collecting and displaying objects acquired under shady circumstances. I have to say I really appreciated her candor and even asked her about the institutional support she had to talk so frankly. She said no one has stopped her, but also that no one has really supported her and if she didn’t do this tour no one else would. She also said that the director when on one of her tours and said “oh, that wasn’t that bad!”

I really related to Tasha. My own institution hasn’t told me to back down about the topics I interpret but I don’t always feel the rest of the museum’s interpretation style is as, shall I say, transparent as I am. Tasha’s comments about “if I don’t do this who will?” along with her commitment to truth and justice are things I would like to keep with me as I move through my museum career. To be honest, they were things I was already thinking about, but seeing another museum professional operate like this is heartening. If she can persist, then so can I.

After a quick lunch in the most gorgeous campus dining hall I have ever been to (pictured above), we met Galina and Chris as the Smart Museum of Art. Both the Smart and ISAC are operated by the University of Chicago and are embedded within their campus, so the perspective of an academic museum was a much needed one among all the other private organizations. Their commitment to being a resource to the university is a core way they create community. Their exhibitions, collections, and study rooms are all in service to the faculty and students of the University of Chicago. I’ve really never seen anything like it! Their services are in such high demand that they created a Collections Hub to be able to display things that classes might want to work with. This Hub is set up to house just a handful of items for classes to come and see, but a staff member doesn’t need to be present to monitor the items like in the study spaces. This is a really creative and unique way of solving several problems at once without decreasing their offerings. This creativity and commitment to their University community is another thing I want to take with me. When the community asks for something, find a way to provide it.