The following is an in-process compilation of resources and writing that demonstrate why understanding institutional legacies and institutional memory practices are critical to the future of museums, the cultural heritage sector, and beyond. Many of these pieces call for accountability to histories entwined with colonialism and racism. Many pieces included here also propose how organizations might fight forgetting and start taking action on legacies of inequity.
Ackerson, Anne W., Anderson, Gail, and Dina A. Bailey. The Resilience Playbook. 2020. “The resilience strategies require rethinking institutional assumptions, and tackling embedded exclusionary and outmoded ideologies and practices in order to establish more flexible, inclusive, and responsive approaches that better align with external realities.” (Learn more here.)
Alabama Department of Archives & History. “Statement of Recommitment.” Originally published on the ADAH website, and delves into the complex origins of the ADAH. (Read it here). Featured in the Fall 2020 issue of Present & Past, the agency’s quarterly magazine. This compelling and reflective article about the agency’s own journey to examine and act on its history states, “If history is to serve the present, it must offer an honest assessment of the past.” (For a pdf of pages 12-17, download here.)
Bebinger, Martha. “The Forbes mansion was built with opium money. Now, an exhibit reckons with Boston's lesser known history.” WBUR, April 27, 2022. (Read it here).
Baldwin, Joan. “In the Rotunda: A Provocative Exhibit Poses Questions About Our Past.” Hotchkiss Blog, The Hotchkiss School’s blog, February 3, 2022. (Read it here)
Boyd, Alexis. “Considerations on the Institutional History Project.” Experiment Station, The Phillip’s Collection’s blog, 2022. highlights three guiding principles applied in their work on the museum's Institutional History Project, considerations for any organization just starting out with their own "DEAI-led, self-critical, and community engaged Institutional History project." (Read here.)
Callihan, Elisabeth. “Accountability in Practice: Creating a Framework for Institutional Genealogy”. Elisabeth Callihan’s post on the MASS Action blog about a session I designed with the Anti-Racist Community of Practice Learning Series about the Institutional Genealogy Framework. (Read it here.)
Edens, Jocelyn. “Introducing A Frame of Mind: A New Podcast Takes a Hard Look at Race in America Through the Lens of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.” (Read it here).
Erickson, Doug. “New center will build on work of university’s Public History Project.” University of Wisconsin-Madison News, 2023. Staff will be devoted to educating the campus community about the university’s past in ways that will enrich the curriculum, inform administrative decisions and bolster efforts to achieve a more equitable university. (Read about it here.)
Harrell, Ashley. “Muir Woods park staff annotates own signs with historical corrections for racism, misogyny.” SFGate, August 26, 2021. (Read it here.)
History Cambridge. “Anti-Racism.” (Read it here)
Kerr, Houston. “How Mining the Museum Changed the Art World.” BmoreArt, May 3, 2017. (Read it here)
Machida, Alyssa. The Dreamspace Project. “The Dreamspace Workbook is written to examine, interrogate, and act against the oppressive, racist, hierarchical foundations of the American art museum.” Machida’s work was featured in “The Dreamspace Project: A Workbook and Toolkit for Critical Praxis in the American Art Museum” in 2016 on The Incluseum. (Read it here.)
The MASS Action Toolkit. “Chapter 1 Getting Started: What We Need to Change and Why,” specifically the section “What is a museum?”, “Chapter 2 Moving Toward Internal Transformation: Awareness, Acceptance, Action,” specifically sections “Examining Historical Legacies”, “The Legacy of Colonialism”, “The Legacy of Racism”, and “The Legacy of White Privilege”, and “Chapter 7 Collections: How We Hold the Stuff We Hold in Trust.” The Toolkit was first published in September 2017. (Read it here.)
The MASS Action Readiness Assessment poses questions about institutional awareness of patterns of (institutional) resistance & histories of (community) exclusion. 2018.
The MASS Action Museums and Anti-Racism Statements Workgroup, evaluated Museum Solidarity Statements along the lines of multiple criteria, one of which was “Acknowledgement” of the past and institutional legacies.
Paquet, Rose and Aletheia Wittman. “Bringing Self-Examination to the Center of Social Justice Work in Museums,” an article co-written with Dr. Rose Paquet and published in Museum Magazine’s Jan/Feb 2016 issue. (Read it here).
Rosenzweig, Shawna. “Facing our History. Shaping our Future.” 2023. Campfire, an organization that connects young people to the outdoors, to others, and to themselves, is engaging in a multi-year change process to end cultural appropriation of Indigenous cultures. (Read about it here).
Sharp, Camille-Mary. “From Collection to Sponsorship: Notes on the Extractive Museum”. The Incluseum. (Read it here.)
Taylor, Chris. “Announcing the Department of Inclusion and Community Engagement at the Minnesota Historical Society: Part II”. In this piece featured on The Incluseum, April 22, 2015, Chris Taylor connects looking into the museum’s history to public trust and accountability, “As a museum and an institution older than our state, we have a long history. Our relationships with diverse communities are often hindered by mistrust or negative perceptions. As most museums do, we have episodes in our past where we understand that we have not acted in the best interests of these communities. Recognizing our past, but even more than recognizing, acknowledging our past begins the healing process for some individuals in these communities.” (Read it here.)
trivedi, nikhil and Porchia Moore’s guide to examining the legacies of slavery in museums first featured in “How Has Your Institution Benefitted From Slavery? Guide” featured on the Visitors of Color website in 2016. (Read it here.)
UMMA, Unsettling Histories: Legacies of Slavery and Colonialism, online exhibit curated by Ozi Uduma. “Unsettling Histories rejects the simple narratives of our collection’s past and forces us to examine whose history we prioritize and why.” Click through their “Explore updated object labels” and the “Reveal edits” option to read how they annotated labels to make visible the colonial past and histories of enslavement represented by work in the colleciton. (Read more here.)
The Walters. “The Walter’s History, Goals, and Future.” (Read it here.)
Yoder, Kate. “The Art of Oil”. Grist. (Read it here.)
Contact me to propose additions!
“Historical and social context informs the conditions under which museums, historic sites and houses are created and within which their roles and purposes are defined. These sites cannot separate themselves from the collective memories that link their development with white supremacy, hetero-patriarchy, abuse of labor, colonization, imperialist theft of art and artifacts, destruction or absencing of alternative ways of interpreting and representing art and artifacts, structural racism and other oppressions.” - Guillotte, G.; Phillips, C.; Patterson, A.; Russell, A.; Quinn, T.; Wittman, A; Bivens, J. (2017). “Ch. 1 Getting Started: What We Need to Change and Why,” MASS Action Toolkit. (link here)