Black Lives Matter and Museums
This essay was part of the May 23rd Curator Notes Newsletter.
Photo Credit: Shane Aldendorff
Almost a year ago today, on May 26th 2020, 46-year-old George Floyd, a black man, was murdered by Derek Chauvin, a white police officer on duty in the city of Minneapolis. The murder, filmed by bystanders, caused outrage and set off a series of protests in support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, starting in the city and spreading quickly across America and throughout the world. The protests are now considered the largest in U.S. history and have led to significant changes throughout companies, culture and legislature, not just in the U.S. but worldwide. Monuments and statues which had connections to slavery were pulled down or vandalised, various episodes of television shows were removed from streaming services if they included racial slurs or the use of blackface, and companies released statements in support of the BLM movement and how they could improve inclusion of minorities in their employment opportunities. The movement did not exclude museums and art galleries. Many issued their own statements of support, but disapproval was quick to follow the majority of them. Some were criticised for not including George Floyds name, while others didn’t reference the BLM movement at all in their statements.
For example the National Gallery of London, which was the site of the London protests held in Trafalgar Square, wrote on June 5th: “Given our location in London and our role as a global institution, we must take this moment to listen, pose important questions and reflect on how our museum can play a role in making our society more just, tolerant and inclusive.” The British Museum, whose own collection was founded by Sir Hans Sloane, a man whose wealth came from a slave plantation in the West Indies, had their own statement which did include the name of George Floyd and mentioned BLM. Director of the museum, Hartwig Fischer wrote, “The British Museum stands in solidarity with the British Black community, with the African American community, with the Black community throughout the world. We are aligned with the spirit and soul of Black Lives Matter everywhere.” He continued, “I hope that we will find the right ways to allow the museum to better reflect our societies and our complex, contentious and blended histories, and become more than ever a theater of human connection.”
In a piece in Vanity Fair in August, Kimberly Drew, an American art curator and writer (known as museummammy on her social media platforms) wrote that seeing museums all sharing the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag and posting the work of Black artists was underwhelming. It comes across as performative when action is not being taken in the staff rooms or the boardroom. There must be action taken. Many statements follow the same pattern and for those that have included promises of future change, it will be interesting to review in the coming years whether they actually made good on their promises during this time. Will they stick to their word? Will they go further? Or continue with the status quo? But also, why do so many museums talk of future change when there are quick changes that can be made easily? They can start with highlighting artists of colour on their website’s homepage. They can hang more art made by non-white artists, and display them in prominent places in the gallery. These changes can be made with little effort.
Bigger changes may take some time, but it doesn’t have to be the far off future most directors are alluding to. Hiring changes need to happen at every level, including the boardroom. There have been improvements, with American museums reporting an increase of POC hired from 35 percent in 2018 from 26 percent in 2015, according to a study done of art galleries across America by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, in partnership with the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD), the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) and Ithaka S+R. However, these changes were mainly across security, facilities and human resources sectors and need to be widespread across the gallery. Hire non-white curators, pay them well, and recruit non-white trustees.
Personally, it seems to me to be a generational shift and museums and galleries will no longer be allowed to continue down this path of least resistance and ignorance. There is now a whole generation of people who see museums as outdated, unless they begin to make serious and dramatic changes quickly. The biggest change needed is repatriation. I can’t see museums moving forward into the future without returning the objects they had stolen and plundered. Museums need to realise that soon there won’t be a choice whether or not to give back the objects unless they want to become obsolete, so it would be wise to begin now by making its own plans. This is slowly beginning to take shape in Europe. In April, Berlin’s Enthnologies Museum said it would return hundreds of artefacts stolen from Nigeria when it was the Kingdom of Benin. Scotland’s University of Aberdeen said it would return a bronze that depicts the ruler of Benin, known as Oba. In 2020, France took steps to say it would return all artefacts taken from West Africa. It currently holds approximately 90,000 artefacts from the area. However, in England the government is actually taking measures to prevent museums and other national institutions from returning the looted items, although it was the country responsible for the 1897 raid on Benin city.
For many years Western culture has patronisingly used the excuse that the countries that wanted their looted cultural artefacts returned couldn’t look after them properly, this is true for both Athens and returning the Parthenon marbles, but also Nigeria’s Benin City. They are now building a new museum to house the repatriated objects which should be completed by 2023, leaving Western countries with no excuses. As Karen Attiah wrote in her Washington Post op-ed, “if Black Lives Matter to American museums then restoring the dignity of the Black empires and their descendants need to matter, too.” There is no point for museums to make grandiose statements about standing in solidarity to the movement and its people if it’s not going to follow through.
I have only touched on a few issues in this newsletter, there is so much more to discuss, listen to and unpack. I’m only learning as well, but we need to do better and put our learnings into action now, because it’s already too late. This goes for individuals as well as museums and galleries across the world.
Sources:
US Museums and Returning Africas Stolen Art (Washington Post)
Reflections on what Museums Can Do Next (Culture And)
Museums and the Protests (New York Times)
Art Museums Address Racism (Hype Beast)
What a Museum Should Look Like in 2020 (Vanity Fair)
How Have Museums Responded to the BLM Protests (Museum Next)