What participants learned that was most valuable
- That professional practice, scholarship, and museums of color are largely notknown by our colleagues. It is important to acknowledge and build on that.
- There is an urgent need for white museum professionals to address their privilege and role in oppressive systems. People of color bear a large burden when their white colleagues expect them to raise their awareness of racism and oppression.
- The potential impact of addressing privilege and oppression in spaces where museum professionals assemble (such as association meetings) is great. It can also be a strategic way to effect awareness-raising in our white/largely white institutions.
- Becoming connected with strong, leading thinkers and practitioners in the field. It was reinforcing to know people are doing active work to raise consciousness in matters of racial and intersectional issues and also to see their action to change the way museums think, act, and behave.
- It is critical to meet people where they are in their process. Most valuable was the honesty from which people spoke and that people were very generous. Although some of the conversations were hard, it felt like a safe space for all.
What participants considered the most effective part of the convening
- Small group discussions with report backs to big group. These were fruitful and we were able to work through our ideas and differences of opinion swiftly and with what felt like a lot of compassion. It also gave us more time to get to know one another.
- Getting the tough stuff out and moving through it while also taking time and space to process.
- Everyone was participating with the understanding that they were expecting to continue and be assigned roles in these actions post-convening. There was a great deal of ownership. Concrete action began even before everyone left on Wednesday.
- The wonderful range of experiences and professional settings, age, gender, race and points of view which were expressed with tact and humility and supported by real listening.
- Meeting others who care about the same issue.
- The ice-breaker round robin. It was a great way to get to know something more deeply significant about our colleagues. We had one-on-one short conversations with one another, changing conversation partners for each prompt. The prompts were:
- A person I admire and why
- An experience in my life that had a profound effect on me was…
- A quality I look for in a friend and why
- If you knew me well, you’d know that I….
- What I would need from this group to feel that I could be honest with you is…
The value of the convening to the participants
- It clarified what my institution should prioritize in capacity building, professional development and leadership at all levels.
- To see generational differences in how people approach the topics, hurts that needed to be expressed, limited views that remain and make moving on difficult, etc.
- To meet with others who had a collective expectation that we were present in order to move anti-racist work forward in the field.
- To feel a strong sense of community with people I had never met before.
- The amount of planning we were able to accomplish in such a short amount of time was incredible. I was reminded of the power of collective action and also the ways we are held back when we work in silos.
- Realistic understanding that the enormity of the work still exists -we are a small group who is willing – the proof will remain in how well we do at sustaining the energy and translating it to action.
- We do need to get white colleagues in the museum world to recognize the systems of discrimination and racial inequity in museums.
- Some of the major ideas and plans center on the power of our white colleagues to destabilize their own power, and this is great. TMG is amazing for pulling this all together.
- There has to be some real, visible shift to lift non-white voices and centerstage their actions as pertinent, necessary, and valuable to white people.
- It is critical to show how nuanced the impact of polycultural engagements can be. Otherwise, we’re missing the important message that structural racism and inequality harm all of us.
- I wish there was more time to process some of the findings and come to a more straightforward set of achievable outcomes with strategies and tactics in place.
Additional comments to the convening committees
- We need to be as organized as possible and hold each group accountable by breaking the steps towards impact into bite-sized chunks. If we are to hold museums to metrics of accountability and high outcomes we must first start by holding our own work to the same standards.
- For TMG—thanks for having the courage to name the issues and to collaborate with emerging thinkers and professionals concerned that previous/current strategies haven’t work/aren’t working/need revision, etc.
- I hope we can mend fences in real, substantive ways with those who felt left out and make space for many, many more people who are ready with skills and tools already sharpened for the work.
Museums & Race 