June 2021
According to Umolu, “we cannot just seek to change the individuals and the art histories represented in museums. We have to rethink the entire model and be open to the myriad forms that they might take. This would seem like a far-reaching task—but at a time when many civic institutions are being exposed for negligence of duty, museums must recognize their shortcomings and develop new ways of thinking and doing.” I feel that museums have the responsibility to meet the needs of the community and represent their histories fairly and accurately. Community must be invited into museums to co-create. “For far too long, museums have instrumentalized the radical thinking of artists and other creative practitioners to advance their work. The time is now to decolonize from within” (Umolu). Responding to the Black Lives Matter Movement is necessary for museums to create spaces to discuss topics of race. In order to end racism, museums must include community at every level.
What is the role of heritage studies in contemporary times? There has been a shift in thinking about heritage as objects/monuments to a much deeper understanding of the role of cultural products that are a part of our daily lives. The exploration of the role of the past in the present allows for the discovery of new connections and relationships. “Heritage in its many forms is deeply entwined with other aspects of our lives whether at an individual or a group level” and there are “new areas emerging which reflect a concern with understanding the potentials and roles of heritage in terms of some of the pressing problems the world is encountering” (Carman and Sorenson). For example, the National Museum of African American History and Culture has programming and resources for the community to facilitate discussions around issues of race. The museum is responding the racial division that is happening in our country due to the murder of George Floyd and countless other Black people. The need to heal the community is real and the museum is using heritage as a tool to reconnect people.
Who are the artists traditionally left out of the canon of art history? According to Bashara, the study says the four largest groups represented across all 18 museums in terms of gender and ethnicity are white men (75.7%), white women (10.8%), Asian men (7.5%), and Hispanic/Latinx men (2.6%). All other groups are represented in proportions of less than 1%. According to Bashara, a recent study shows that American museums still have a long way to go in diversifying their collections, as they remain overwhelmingly white and male. The study found that 85.4% of the works in the collections of all major US museums belong to white artists, and 87.4% are by men. African American artists have the lowest share with just 1.2% of the works. Black artists are virtually invisible in these spaces, provoking them to start their own spaces.
What is intangible cultural heritage? According to UNESCO, the "importance of intangible cultural heritage is not the cultural manifestation itself but rather the wealth of knowledge and skills that is transmitted through it from one generation to the next. The social and economic value of this transmission of knowledge is relevant for minority groups and for mainstream social groups within a State, and is as important for developing States as for developed ones.”
Community-based: intangible cultural heritage can only be heritage when it is recognized as such by the communities, groups or individuals that create, maintain and transmit it – without their recognition, nobody else can decide for them that a given expression or practice is their heritage.
UNESCO points out that many expressions and manifestations of intangible cultural heritage are under threat, endangered by globalization and cultural homogenisation, and also by a lack of support, appreciation and understanding. If intangible cultural heritage is not nurtured, it could possibly be lost forever. Preserving this heritage and passing it on to future generations strengthens it, and keeps it alive while allowing for it to change and adapt. For intangible cultural heritage to be kept alive, it must remain relevant to a culture and be regularly practiced and learned within communities and between generations. In addition, communities and groups who practice these traditions and customs everywhere in the world have their own systems for transmitting their knowledge and skills, usually dependent on word of mouth rather than written texts. Safeguarding activities must therefore always involve the communities, groups and, where appropriate, individuals that bear such heritage.
How do we excite Black youth about art while affirming their identities?
The best way museums can dismantle structural injustice is by training the youth with authentic arts experiences. Museums must create arts programming:
Rooted and grounded in Black Art History.
Utilizes Design Thinking as a method for youth to solve real life social justice issues.
Implements Arts Activism by creative place making with youth that engages their communities around issues of social justice.
Preserves intangible cultural heritage (oral tradition).
Resources
John Carman and Marie Louise Stig Sorensen, “Heritage Studies: An Outline,”Actions in Heritage Studies: Methods and Approaches (Routledge, 2009), pp. 11-28.
Kim Dabbs, “Engagement and Impact: Design Thinking and the Arts”, Edutopia, June 2021
Yesomi Umolu, “On the Limits of Care and Knowledge: 15 Points Museums Must Understand to Dismantle Structural Injustice,”Artnet, June 25, 2020.
UNESCO, https://ich.unesco.org/doc/src/01852-EN.pdf, June 2021
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