Skip to content
1981
Social Justice
  • ISSN: 2045-5836
  • E-ISSN: 2045-5844

Abstract

This article seeks to identify impediments to, as well as opportunities for, change in American art museums in the face of demands for social justice and greater inclusivity. Focusing specifically on the representation of American art in well-established encyclopaedic museums, I argue that inherited collections and taxonomies, mapped onto the physical spaces of museums, limit the speed and degree to which aesthetic priorities, values and narratives may adapt in order to meet shifting demographics and visitor expectations. In effect, the challenge for many museums is to confront and navigate an institutionalized form of white supremacy baked into their intellectual and material foundations. I end by analysing several recent strategies that have aimed at dismantling conventions and complicating the canon.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/jcs_00043_1
2021-10-01
2025-12-10
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Bond, Sarah E.. ( 2018;), ‘ Can Art Museums Help to Illuminate Early American Connections to Slavery?. ’, Hyperallergic, 25 April, https://hyperallergic.com/439716/can-art-museums-help-illuminate-early-american-connections-to-slavery/. Accessed 21 November 2018.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Brooklyn Museum ( n.d.a;), ‘ Strap Dress with Red and Green Embroidery. ’, https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/63415. Accessed 20 February 2021.
  3. Brooklyn Museum ( n.d.b;), ‘ Thomas Jefferson Indian Peace Medal. ’, https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/62740. Accessed 20 February 2021.
  4. Buck, Mertice MacCrea. ( 1916;), ‘ Crafts from the Homelands. ’, The Craftsman, XXXI:2, November, pp. 18791.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Cahan, Susan E.. ( 2016), Mounting Frustration: The Art Museum in the Age of Black Power, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Carr, Dennis,, Bailey, Gauvin A.,, Brook, Timothy,, Codding, Mitchell,, Corrigan, Karina, and Pierce, Donna. ( 2015), Made in the Americas: The New World Discovers Asia, Boston:: Museum of Fine Arts;.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Cascone, Sarah. ( 2020;), ‘ Mellon Foundation President Elizabeth Alexander Tells Us Why America’s Biggest Funder of Culture Is Shifting Its Focus to Social Justice. ’, Artnet News, 2 July, https://news.artnet.com/art-world/mellon-foundation-social-justice-grants-1891607. Accessed 2 July 2020.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Casey, Emily. ( 2018;), ‘ Visual Culture of the Atlantic World. ’, Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, New York:: Metropolitan Museum of Art;.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Clifford, James. ( 1988), The Predicament of Culture, Cambridge, MA:: Harvard University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Cooks, Bridget R.. ( 2011), Exhibiting Blackness: African Americans and the American Art Museum, Amherst:: University of Massachusetts Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Copeland, Huey,, Hal Foster,, David Joselit, and Pamela M. Lee. ( 2020;), ‘ A Questionnaire on Decolonization. ’, October, 174, pp. 3125.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Corrin, Lisa G.. ( 1994), Mining the Museum: An Installation by Fred Wilson, Baltimore:: The Contemporary;.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Cortissoz, Royal. ( 1925;), ‘ The American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on New York. An Appreciation. ’, in R.T.H. Halsey, and Elizabeth Tower., The Homes of Our Ancestors as Shown in the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York:: Doubleday;, pp. viix.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Cotter, Holland. ( 2010;), ‘ Seating All the Americas at the Same Table. ’, New York Times, 11 November, p. C23.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Curran, Kathleen. ( 2016a), The Invention of the American Art Museum: From Craft to Kulturgeschichte, 1870–1930, Los Angeles:: Getty Research Institute;.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Curran, Kathleen. ( 2016b;), ‘ Period Rooms in the American Art Museum. ’, in Sandra Costa,, Dominique Poulot, and Mercedes Volait. (eds), The Period Rooms: Allestimenti storici tra arts, collezionismo e museologia, Bologna:: Bononia University Press;, pp. 6775.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Dana, John Cotton. ( 1927 [1999];), ‘ Should Museums Be Useful?. ’ in William A. Peniston. (ed.), The New Museum: Selected Writings by John Cotton Dana, Newark:: Newark Museum;, pp. 13344.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Davis, Elliot Bostwick. ( 2010;), ‘ The Art of the Americas Wing, Museum of Fine Arts Boston. ’, American Art, 24:2, pp. 911.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Duncan, Carol G.. ( 2009), A Matter of Class: John Cotton Dana, Progressive Reform and the Newark Museum, Pittsburgh:: Periscope;.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. The Economist ( 2010;), ‘ Art of the Americas – Expansion. ’, 397:8709, 20 November, https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2010/11/18/expansion. Accessed 13 January 2021.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Forest, Robert de. ( 2004;), ‘ Addresses on the Occasion of the Opening of the American Wing. ’, in Bettina Carbonell. (ed.), Museum Studies: An Anthology of Contexts, Malden, MA:: Blackwell;, pp. 29095.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Fry, Roger. ( 1906;), ‘ The Purpose and Policy of National Museums. ’, Burlington Magazine, April, pp. 36.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Gomez, Edward M.. ( 2001;), ‘ Telling the Story of America With Masterworks. ’, New York Times, 2 September.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Grant, Catherine, and Price, Dorothy. ( 2020;), ‘ Decolonizing Art History. ’, Art History, 43:1, pp. 866.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Halsey, R.T.H, and Cornelius, Charles O.. ( 1925), A Handbook of the American Wing, , 2nd ed.., New York:: Metropolitan Museum of Art;.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Halsey, R.T.H., and Tower, Elizabeth. ( 1925), The Homes of Our Ancestors as Shown in the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York:: Doubleday;.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Heckscher, Morrison H.. ( 1996;), ‘ The American Wing Rooms in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. ’, Winterthur Portfolio, 46:2/3, pp. 16178.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. High, Rachel. ( 2018;), ‘ Art on Its Own Terms: Author Amelia Peck on Gee’s Bend Quilts in My Soul Has Grown Deep. ’, https://www.metmuseum.org/blogs/now-at-the-met/2018/amelia-peck-rachel-high-gees-bend-quilts-interview. Accessed 25 November 2018.
  29. Ingram, Debra, and Madrid, Romina. ( 2017), Minneapolis Institute of Art: Evaluation of the Period Rooms Reinstallation, Minneapolis:: Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement, College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota;, https://staging.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Mia_Living-Rooms_Final-Report_2017.pdf. Accessed 15 January 2021.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Kaplan, Wendy. ( 1982;), ‘ R.T.H. Halsey: An Ideology of Collecting American Decorative Arts. ’, Winterthur Portfolio, 17:1, pp. 4353.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Karp, Ivan, and Wilson, Fred. ( [1992] 2009;), ‘ Constructing the Spectacle of Culture in Museums. ’, in Alexander Alberro, and Blake Stimson. (eds), Institutional Critique: An Anthology of Artists’ Writings, Cambridge, MA:: MIT Press;, pp. 33049.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Kenny, Peter M.. ( 2000;), ‘ R.T.H. Halsey: American Wing Founder and Champion of Duncan Phyfe. ’, The Magazine Antiques, 157:1, pp. 18691.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Levitt, Peggy. ( 2015), Artifacts and Allegiances: How Museums Put the Nation and the World on Display, Berkeley:: University of California Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Lowe, Lisa. ( 2016;), ‘ New Worlds “Discover” Asia. ’, American Quarterly, 68:2, pp. 41327.
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Maffei, Nicolas. ( 2009;), ‘ John Cotton Dana and the Politics of Exhibiting Industrial Art in the US, 1909–1929. ’, Journal of Design History, 13:4, pp. 30117.
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Marshall, Alex. ( 2020;), ‘ What Is a Museum? A Dispute Erupts Over a New Definition. ’, New York Times, 6 August, p. C6.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Metropolitan Museum of Art ( 2017;), ‘ A Portrait. ’, https://thememorypalace.us/tag/prince-demah-barnes/. Accessed 25 November 2018.
  38. Minneapolis Institute of Art ( n.d.a;), ‘ Coffeepot c.1755. ’, https://collections.artsmia.org/art/2231/coffeepot-alexander-petrie. Accessed 20 February 2021.
  39. Minneapolis Institute of Art ( n.d.b;), ‘ Decolonizing the Collection. ’, https://new.artsmia.org/art-artists/managing-mias-collection/decolonizing-the-collection. Accessed 20 February 2021.
  40. Minneapolis Institute of Art ( n.d.c;), ‘ The Many Voices of Colonial America. ’, https://new.artsmia.org/period-rooms/the-many-voices-of-colonial-america. Accessed 20 February 2021.
  41. Minneapolis Institute of Art ( 2017;), ‘ Who Is an American? Here’s One Way Museums Can Ask – and Answer. ’, https://new.artsmia.org/stories/who-is-an-american-heres-one-way-museums-can-ask-and-answer. Accessed 27 April 2019.
  42. Molesworth, Charles. ( 2016), The Capitalist and the Critic: J. P. Morgan, Roger Fry and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Austin:: University of Texas Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Moskow, Shirley B.. ( 2011;), ‘ A New Wing for Art of the Americas. ’, Americas, 63, pp. 5861.
    [Google Scholar]
  44. New York Times ( 1924;), ‘ Open American Wing at Museum of Art. ’, 11 November, p. 25.
    [Google Scholar]
  45. Peck, Amelia. ( 2013), Interwoven Globe: The Worldwide Textile Trade, 1500–1800, New York:: Metropolitan Museum of Art;.
    [Google Scholar]
  46. Peck, Amelia, and Bagger, Paula M.. ( 2015;), ‘ Prince Demah Barnes: Portraitist and Slave in Colonial Boston. ’, The Magazine Antiques, 13 February, https://www.themagazineantiques.com/article/prince-demah-barnes-1/. Accessed 13 January 2021.
    [Google Scholar]
  47. Pogrebin, Robin. ( 2021;), ‘ For Diversity Leaders in the Arts, Getting Hired Is Just the First Step. ’, New York Times, 17 January, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/17/arts/design/diversity-directors-arts-hiring.html?searchResultPosition=1. Accessed 19 January 2021.
    [Google Scholar]
  48. Rodney, Seph. ( 2020;), ‘ Representation Alone Will Not Save Us. ’, Hyperallergic, 30 December.
    [Google Scholar]
  49. Shales, Ezra. ( 2010), Made in Newark: Cultivating Industrial Arts and Civic Identity in the Progressive Era, New Brunswick, NJ:: Rutgers University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  50. Shea, Andrea. ( 2015;), ‘ MFA Acquires Rare, Resplendent 18th-Century Desk and Bookcase Crafted in Mexico. ’, WBUR The Artery, 29 December, http://www.wbur.org/artery/2015/12/29/mfa-desk-bookcase-mexico. Accessed 18 October 2018.
    [Google Scholar]
  51. Thiemeyer, Thomas. ( 2015;), ‘ Work, Specimen, Witness: How Different Perspectives on Museum Objects Alter the Way They Are Perceived and the Values Attributed to Them. ’, Museum and Society, 13:3, pp. 396415.
    [Google Scholar]
  52. Tietze, Hans. ( 1913), Die Methode der Kunstgeschichte, Leipzig:: E.A. Seeman;.
    [Google Scholar]
  53. Tomkins, Calvin. ( 1970), Merchants and Masterpieces: The Story of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York:: Dutton;.
    [Google Scholar]
  54. Trask, Jeffrey. ( 2012), Things American: Art Museums and Civic Culture in the Progressive Era, Philadelphia:: University of Pennsylvania Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  55. Ward, Gerald. ( 2016), Paul Revere: Sons of Liberty Bowl, Boston:: Museum of Fine Arts;.
    [Google Scholar]
  56. Weil, Stephen E.. ( 1999;), ‘ From Being about Something to Being for Somebody: The Ongoing Transformation of the American Museum. ’, Daedalus, 128:3, pp. 22958.
    [Google Scholar]
  57. Wilson, Fred, and Appiah, K. Anthony. ( 2011;), ‘ Fragments of a Conversation. ’, in Doro Globus. (ed.), Fred Wilson: A Critical Reader, London:: Ridinghouse;, pp. 272302.
    [Google Scholar]
  58. McClellan, Andrew. ( 2021;), ‘ Decolonizing the Colony: Challenges to Systemic Change in the American Art Museum. ’, Journal of Curatorial Studies, 10:2, pp. 20029, https://doi.org/10.1386/jcs_00043_1
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/jcs_00043_1
Loading
/content/journals/10.1386/jcs_00043_1
Loading

Data & Media loading...

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test