AAM 2017 | VISIT #MUSEUMSandRACE: SHARE AND BE INSPIRED!

Museums & Race

Community Center and Transformation Lounge

at the American Alliance of Museums 2017 Annual Meeting

May 8 & 9 2017 – in the MuseumExpo

Museums and Race is a movement to challenge and re-imagine institutional policies and systems that perpetuate oppressions in museums. We are a group of museum professionals who are interested in effecting radical change in our field. Our work is (1) to persuade our colleagues that it is necessary to adopt a new philosophical stance on the role of the museum that is both morally and culturally responsive and grounded in empathy, respect, and inclusion and (2) to build and grow a movement toward examining and ultimately transforming institutional policies. Museums & Race joins efforts with colleagues focused on this work.

The American Alliance of Museums has provided space at the annual meeting in St. Louis this May to support this movement. There Museums and Race will host a Community Center and Transformation Lounge – a space to recharge, engage in self-reflection, connect with others and share resources about justice and transformation across our professional field. The Community Center and Transformation Lounge will be a hybrid drop in space in the MuseumExpo that includes interactive activities and pop-up presentations that encourage connecting with others involved in justice-centered work and open dialog.

The Museums & Race Community Center and Transformation Lounge will be open on Monday, May 8 from 11:45 am to 5:30 pm and on Tuesday, May 9 from 10:00 am to 5:30 pm.

We have attempted to schedule programming during times when conference activities with a similar focus are not taking place to provide a platform for continued discourse and sharing of ideas and practice across the field.

Join us for:

• Lightning Talks on Tuesday from 3-5 pm with speakers Ariana Curtis, Ranald Woodaman, Lisa Sasaki, Chris Taylor, Kai Frazier, Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko, and Nicole Ivy.

 The Lightning Talks are designed for museum professionals to speak truth to power on  intersectionality, privilege, systems of oppression, institutional legacies and other related topics. The talks will be informational, inspirational and conversational. Some of the topics that will be covered include decolonizing museums, Afro Latinx identity, community engagement and more!

•  Open Mic opportunities throughout the afternoon for attendees to give short talks (sign-up sheet at the entrance).

• Participants and visitors of the Community Center and Transformation Lounge will be able to record multimedia Testimonies as short videos or in writing.

•  The Justice Fleet mobile museum that bridges art activism, intergroup dialogue, community education, and community healing will also be onsite.

Come to inspire and be inspired! ! For more details and additional announcements, follow us on Twitter & Instagram at @MuseumsandRace; follow us on Facebook. We invite everyone to use the #MuseumsandRace and #AAM2017 hashtags on social media to share justice and transformation related discussions, sessions, and presentations among ourselves and with our broader community online!