Working w People in Museums

Recruit. Retain. Reflect

Monica O. Montgomery, Strategic Director

Museum Hue @museumhueMembership & Social Media Lead Organizer Museum Workers Speak @museumworkers

Including thought leadership from:Ravon Ruffin, M.A. Candidate, American Studies, The

George Washington University/Brown Girls Museum Blog

"We continue to struggle with issues of inclusion, diversity, and equity in the nonprofit arts and culture sector because

our society continues to struggle with them.“ – Carlton Turner Alternate ROOTS

Breaking Boundaries

What does collective power in museum practice mean?

Learning to build grassroots alliances and initiatives centering diverse workers and groups in critical reflection, discussion & actions.

How are internal audiences being given agency, autonomy to pursue skills and career attainment within institutions?

What are non-traditional ways diverse culture workers are inserting themselves into museum practice and shifting conversations?

How museums creating spaces for museum workers to have a voice beyond the approved channels? Is co authorship of institutional narratives possible?

Who Speaks for Whom

The Museum sector is slowly starting to share authority, inviting audiences to co-curate public programs, and

collaborate in real time.

But internally there is room for improvement1)Increase the exchange of ideas2)Take corrective action on inequities3)Gain dynamic insight into workers desire to explore the personal, political and professional on their own terms. 4) Promote diverse perspectives & experiences and people!

Radical Blogging

Students are refining their pedagogy and deepening their practice

through blogging, affording them opportunities to pilot ideas, critique policies, advocate for the arts and

advance as thought leaders.

Intersections

Dialogue to Action

Emerging Museum professionals and graduate students have birthed a

movement during a recent national AAM conference, chartering

continuing ‘rogue’ discussions around parity, equity and labor to

advance social and economic justice in the sector.

The Movement evolved into Museum Workers Speak

Museum Workers Speak#MuseumWorkersSpe

ak is a collective of activist museum

workers interrogating the relationship

between museums’ stated commitments to social value and their

internal labor practices.

It is an action-oriented platform for social

change at the intersection of  labor,

access, and inclusion.

Origin Story

Breaking Barriers: Acknowledge the Relationship between Social Justice +

Museum Labor

Museum Workers Speak Rogue Session 2015 AAM Annual Meeting

April 28, 2015, Atlanta, Georgia

Museum Hue

Museum Hue Mission & Vision

Mission MuseumHue advances the visibility

& diversity of people of color in arts, culture, creative careers &

museums.

VisionMuseum Hue, an organization that works to increase diversity in patrons, professionals, and cultural producers in the creative economy, recognizes the absence of diversity and inclusion in cultural enclaves. We use our presence and voice to counter this reality, foster agency, and write new narratives for people of color in culture.

We hold space for People of Color, inviting them into museums as patrons, professionals, stakeholders &

boards

Museum Hue Testimonials

Create Space for Challenging Conversations

The Revolution will be Tweeted

• Social media is democratizing the flow of ideas, while challenging conservatism & conventions.

• Tweetchats have emerged as a touchstone for equitable mass communication, providing a rapid feedback loop and wider audience segment that enjoys challenging hierarchical ways of knowing.

Engage Open Forums

Gaging the Divide

Remapping Community

What’s to gain In the movement to re-imagine the museums, intersectionality is often overlooked, however, community engagement, labor & careers, social media, diversity, inclusion, access and academia have become topics of importance and factors of influence in our changing field.

Create more equitable exchanges to avoid the echo chamber of ideas

Enrich community among audiences and museum professionals

Partnering at AAM - Collaboration is Key

Brown Girls Museum Blog * Museum Workers Speak * Incluseum Visitors of Color #MuseumsRespondToFerguson * Empathetic

Museum * Museum Hue

Gameplan:What are the three small things you’ll do in service of

turning the social justice lens inward within your organizations to empower people working in museums?

#MuseumWorkersSpeak #MuseumHue

Stand In Solidarity with Us