Museums as Systems
The two-day, annual Museums as Systems symposium gathers together arts workers to discuss alternative approaches to museum structures.
Museums as Systems asks, “How are museums systems of artistry, archives, education, labor, care, communication, and community?”
Each year the panel discussions explore various theoretical and practical aspects of museum work, with established arts and cultural workers in dialogue with the next generation of thinkers and workers.
The symposium creates a space of multivocal, multigenerational, circular learning that meditates on how museums are functioning now, what never was, and what could come next.
2023
Museums as Systems: Resources | Day One
DEV 101: Thinking Outside the Bag, 5:30–6:45 pm EDT
Access and Accessibility as an Act(ion) of Radical Hospitality, 7:00–8:15 pm EDT
Museums as Systems: Resources | Day Two
For Future Generations, 5:30–6:45 pm EDT
The Question of Love and Community Care, 7:00–8:15 pm EDT
2022
Museums as Systems | Day One
Safeguarding Our History, 5 – 6:15 PM EST
How Museums Speak to People, 6:30 – 7:45 PM EST
Museums as Systems | Day Two
The Role of Care & Wellness Within Institutions, 5 – 6:15 PM EST
Intersections: Educational & Curatorial Practices, 6:30 – 7:45 PM EST
Safeguarding Our History
Articles
Records of Relation
Yume Murphy
Amateur archivists have thus been able to repair historically neglected archives while simultaneously co-creating a future in which they no longer exist at the margins.
Amateur archivists have thus been able to repair historically neglected archives while simultaneously co-creating a future in which they no longer exist at the margins.
Grandmother’s House: The Black Radical Tradition of Collecting
Museum Professionals Seminar
Together, we engage in a study of the vitality of Black space-making and the Black radical tradition of collecting as a vital dialectic in Black resistance. We traverse the worlds where walls talk
Together, we engage in a study of the vitality of Black space-making and the Black radical tradition of collecting as a vital dialectic in Black resistance. We traverse the worlds where walls talk Black and adornment is liberating.
Labors of Love: Proposing Participatory Archival and Para-Archival Practices
Kareal Amenumey, Christian Bryant, Veronica Careton, Amber Edmond, and Shanell Kitt
Engaging with archives as Black people—whether to recover buried histories or to go beyond them and memorialize material and digital future histories— necessitates the disruption of their harmful
Engaging with archives as Black people—whether to recover buried histories or to go beyond them and memorialize material and digital future histories— necessitates the disruption of their harmful narratives, practices, and structures.
From the Archive c. 1970
Kayla Coleman
As I continue with my fellowship in the Studio Museum archive, I have come to fully appreciate the role the Museum plays as an influencer of Black culture across the world.
As I continue with my fellowship in the Studio Museum archive, I have come to fully appreciate the role the Museum plays as an influencer of Black culture across the world.
Archive Spotlight
Mimi Lester
Arranging and describing an archival collection is called processing, and processing is ruled by a foundational principle called respect des fonds.
Arranging and describing an archival collection is called processing, and processing is ruled by a foundational principle called respect des fonds.