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.
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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’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).
In terms of actual bridging work, I am not sure how much people are doing. In terms of working in that direction, there are quite a few people working towards it. I've been learning a lot about bridging work from orgs that are doing this full time, so my standards may be higher. One of the things that I have been advocating for is that museums can see doing bridging work as another way to approach civic engagement that (or in addition to) advocacy and direct action. The idea of doing bridging work - and the term of bridging - seems to be new to most museums. Groups like the Bridge Alliance are the kinds of things I'm trying to introduce to museum folks. So. There is lots to discuss, but I'm not sure how far most museums are down this path.