How are museums & cultural organizations working to bridge divides?
I want to hear from you -- what are some exhibitions, programs, pop-ups or projects you've worked on that help bridge social or political divides and bring people together?
With everything happening right now in the world and in the United States, we seem to be in another moment of deepening divides, both socially and politically. If we simply scroll through social media or the news for a bit, we find ourselves in the middle of lots of yelling, disagreement, and misunderstanding.
Insert into this moment the age-old question: What role can museums play to help bridge divides, foster productive dialogue, and foster understanding and empathy?
But rather than dive into this much bigger question here on Agents of Change, I’m interested in hearing from you about what museums and cultural organizations are doing to help bridge divides.
I want to hear from you
What are some exhibitions, programs, pop-ups, or projects you've worked on that help bridge social or political divides and bring people together?
What are some examples of museums and cultural organizations working to promote dialogue and understanding across challenging issues?
What are you working on right now that might be helping to bridge the growing divides in society?
Please respond in the Comments section below.
I’m interested in see what people are working on right now, or what projects you’ve done in the past. This can be a moment for us to recognize and celebrate the work being done, and a way to share examples so that others can look to as they begin similar projects.
Check out the latest Agents of Change podcast episode
In this week’s podcast episode, I dig deeper into this idea of bridging divides both in terms of institutional actions and personal actions. I also share some great resources and links on this important topic, including a downloadable worksheet on “Bridging Conversations.”
The Agents of Change podcast is available only to paid subscribers and supporters (huge thanks to that growing community of rockstars!), so I hope you’ll consider joining that group and supporting my work here.
I work with you on a variety of projects that cross over between cultural, place based, and ecological (through our artnatureplace.com work) - and two kinds of projects came to mind when I saw this post.
The first is the work we have done over the years with Monument Lab -
The Museum Field Trip Guide: https://artnatureplace.com/projects/monument-lab-museum-guide
And the Monument Field Trip Guide: https://artnatureplace.com/projects/monument-lab-field-trip-guide
In both cases one of the biggest goals we had was to create the kinds of questions and prompts that provided space for folks who entering these issues from all kinds of different perspectives to have ways to reflect in meaningful ways. I especially remember having conversations in connection to the Museum Guide about providing entry points for those who have either never been to a museum or are uncomfortable in one. We've since used these (especially the Monument themed one) with younger students in class workshops to explore public monuments and work towards the co-created murals/monuments for their own schools.
The other projects I think of in terms of bridging is the educational work we've done in partnership with Confluence on the series of public monuments to the land and Indigenous cultures, ecologies, and histories along the Columbia River. These works (mostly by Maya Linn) are themselves bridging works, providing reflection spaces for these significant sites (for local tribes, but also within the context of Lewis and Clark). These educational guides were a lot about creating accessible entry points for reflecting on these spaces, including simply slowing down and observing more closely. Here are some examples:
- https://artnatureplace.com/projects/confluence-vancouver-land-bridge
- https://artnatureplace.com/projects/confluence-story-circles
- https://artnatureplace.com/projects/confluence-sandy-river-field-guide
( There has been some amazing bridging work within our school partnerships too! Incredible teachers who have been working with elementary students to center marginalized stories, better understand their place and community, and continue to grow with curiosity).
I’d say a pop up exhibition that we hosted at The Australian National Maritime Museum as part of Festival of Sydney. It was from the Museum of Empathy in London and was called “A mile in my Shoes”. Visitors borrowed a pair of shoes belonging to a person and listened to their recorded story about being a migrant or refugee to Australia. Many visitors came back and back to hear more stories - all quite moving really. It made you think through someone else’s eyes (or shoes).