oa Curatorial Strategies and Anti-racism in the Museum: ‘Exhibiting’ Racism, Resistance, and Empowerment

Contemporary critique of racism and decolonisation processes call for a paradigm shift within museum work. Not only the history of the European institution and ‘its’ collections is based on (colonial) racist relations of domination. Even today, when museums place racism and colonialism as an exhibition topic right at the centre of their discourse, this usually means that these debates are decisively shaped by dominant-societal perspectives and actors. This further reproduces the related structures and experiences. Only the perspectives of colleagues with the experience of discrimination and the involvement of civil society initiatives can focus on blank spaces and change the selection of showcased objects as well as the display and the language of exhibitions. Previously marginalised positions and narratives make it clear that today exhibition spaces, themes, audiences and the aims of communication must be redefined to initiate far-reaching processes of institutional development.

Keywords: anti-racism ; colonial gaze ; decolonizing the museum ; diversity and diversity management ; empowerment ; institutional change in museums ; participation and powersharing ; participatory exhibitions ; racism ; resistance