Museum as Site for Social Action

MASS Action

Elisabeth Callihan

@bttyanne

#MassActionMia

MASS Action

Museum as Site for Social Action

A collaborative project to advance social equity in

museums by creating more transparency and

inclusion in internal institutional practices, providing

a venue for public discussion and learning around

issues affecting our communities, locally and

globally, and supporting community efforts to

organize for change.

Should Museums Respond?

But How?

Project Advisors

Adrianne Russell

Aletheia Wittman

Chris Taylor

Joanne Rizzi-Jones

Monica O. Montgomery

nikhil trivedi

Porchia Moore

Rose Paquet Kinsley

What is the role and responsibility of the museum in

reflecting and responding to issues affecting our

communities locally and globally?

MASS Action

Museum as Site for Social Action

How do museums’ internal practices need to change

in order to align with, and better inform, their public

practice?

What would it look like if museums were radically

transformed from the inside out – and are they

capable of such change?

MASS Action

Year 1

50 practitioners

convened in 2016 to

discuss most urgent

topics of equity and

justice within the

museum field and

work collaboratively to

aggregate resources

and develop a toolkit.

Year 2

Staff teams from

museums who intend

to use the toolkit and

are committed to

embedding strategies

of inclusion into their

institutions gather for

2017 Convening.

Year 3

Participating museums

will build on strategies

to create more

inclusive practices in

their own institutions

and the field at large.

Participants meet to

share project learning

at 2018 Convening.

Contributors

50 radical practitioners from

museums across the country

Convening 2016

What is Our Role & Responsibility?

Do Museums Need to Change?

Tools for how Museums Can Change

What is a Museum?

What is a Museum?

What is Our Role & Responsibility?

Do Museums Need to Change?

The

Toolkit

Convening October 11-13, 2017

Museum practitioners from around the country are invited to come together to discuss

how we can build our capacity to create more equity in our institutions, and to respond

to issues affecting our global and local communities.

For this work to take root and be effective, it is important that it be embedded across the

institution in every department, and at all levels of staff. It must also move beyond

discussion towards an actionable practice. We are therefore suggesting the following

criteria to maximize your time at the 2017 convening:

1. Send a cross-departmental team of two (or more) staff, with at least one of the team

members representing your museum's senior leadership.

2. Come with a specific project or challenge in mind (related to inclusion, equity, etc.) as

well as topic(s) you are interested in exploring further.

Participating MuseumsAdler Planetarium

American Alliance of Museums

Better World Museum

Carnegie Museum of Art

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Denver Art Museum

Detroit Institute of Art

Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site

High Museum of Art

HistoryMiami Museum

Institute for Contemporary Art

at Virginia Commonwealth University

Michigan History Center

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Minnesota Museum of American Art

Museum of the City of New York

Newark Museum

Portland Art Museum

Science Museum of Minnesota

Smith College Museum of Art

Smithsonian Institution

Traveling Exhibition Service

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Spencer Museum of Art

at University of Kansas

Spurlock Museum

at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne

Tacoma Art Museum

The Andy Warhol Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

The Phillips Collection

The Studio Museum in Harlem

Walker Art Center

The Walters Art Museum

West Chicago City Museum

Whitney Plantation

Fractal

The tiniest most

mundane act reflects

the biggest creations

we can imagine.

-Kat Aaron

Radical Hope

Patience &

Persistence

Find &

Cultivate

Champions

October 14:

Join the Community of Practice

www.museumaction.org

Take the Readiness Assessment

Use the Toolkit

Attend the 2018 Convening

How to get involved

#MassActionMia

ecallihan@artsmia.org

www.museumaction.org

Thank you