The American Alliance of Museums in partnership with ICOM-US invite you to participate in a series of global conversations that will reassess the purpose, identity and definition of museums as civic spaces, public assets, prisms of identity, and repositories of tangible and intangible cultural heritage during an era of radical change. These conversations will ultimately inform the content of the November/December 2021 issue of Museum magazine on the theme of museum disruption.
Museums praise themselves as civic and inclusive spaces, while the broader public perception persists of museums as outmoded, elitist and racist. Questions therefore linger: How can museums make real their shared ownership missions? How can they uphold their reputations as trusted sources of knowledge when they speak the language of just a few to just a few? How can museums be accountable to their communities? How can museums hear the multitude of voices necessary for their radical change? Museums need to commit to true inspiration, inclusion and involvement for all to ensure their relevancy. How does Tate approach this through the work of Tate Exchange?
Featured Speakers: Cara Courage, Co-Head, Learning and Research Division, and Head of Tate Exchange, Tate, London, UK
Placemaker, artist, activism and museums academic and practitioner, Dr. Cara Courage is Head of Tate Exchange, Tate’s platform dedicated to socially engaged art. Cara speaks internationally on topics covering the C21st museum, the civic and activist museum, socially engaged art in community and museum settings and arts and urban design, placemaking and planning and has published widely on these topics. Cara is author of Arts in Place: The Arts, the Urban and Social Practice (Routledge, 2017), and the co-editor of Creative Placemaking and Beyond (Routledge, 2018), and editor of The Routledge Handbook of Placemaking (Routledge, 2021).
Conversants: Lisa Lee, Executive Director, National Public Housing Museum, Chicago, IL; Claudia Bestor, Director of Public Programs, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California; Milena Micić, Senior Curator of the Art Collection, The Homeland Museum of Knjaževac, Serbia; German Paley, External Advisor on Accessibility, University Museum of Contemporary Art (MUAC), Mexico
The statements and opinions expressed by panelists, hosts, attendees, or other participants of this event are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of, nor are endorsed by, the American Alliance of Museums.
