Week 12

 This week, I read A Team of Curators Designs a System for Indigenous Artists to Thrive In by Thea Tagle and He Left a Museum After Women Complained; His Next Job Was Bigger by Robin Pogrebin and Zachary Small. In the article by Thea Tagle, she reviews a new "de-colonized" exhibit called yəhaw̓. She further explains that this exhibit is not decolonization per say, but rather a way to support indigenous artists with the community. "Together the curators aimed to challenge notions about who creates Indigenous art, what that art can or should look like, and how Indigenous art is presented to the world."
(Tagle, 2019) This is interesting in how exhibits for indigenous cultures typically function. Usually, it's art from long past artists, which isn't encouraging. Showing future artists and encouraging them through programs within the community is a great way to help these creators grow in a positive way.


Adam Sings In The Timbers, “Indigenizing Colonized Spaces with Starla Thompson, Potawatomi/Chumash” (2019), photo on Kodak Metallic Paper (installation photo by mel carter)

The second article I read was He Left a Museum After Women Complained; His Next Job Was Bigger by Robin Pogrebin and Zachary Small. This piece is about a man named Joshua Helmer who worked as a museum manager, then as a director for the Eerie Art Museum. However, he would harass female employees, offering them ways to move up in positions if they went to his house or would make unwanted advances towards them. In his initial position as the manager in the Philadelphia Museum, he was let go, though the story he describes is that he was "looking for other opportunities" (Pogrebin &; Small, 2020).The multiple incidents described from multiple women who received similar treatment across various museums, all connected tot one person does not bode well. So what did the museums do? Initially nothing. The most that was done was the final straw at the The Philadelphia Museum, where security staff was told not to let him back in the building after he returned there and was let go again. This article describes an unfortunate and bleak situation where museums did not care about their female staff, only about keeping a good image and not creating a fuss with a museum manger turned director. 

Tagle, T. Q. (2019, September 25). A Team of Curators Designs a System for Indigenous Artists to Thrive In. Hyperallergic;  https://hyperallergic.com/519264/y%c9%99haw%cc%93-arts-at-king-street-station-seattle/
 
Pogrebin, R., & Small, Z. (2020, January 10). He Left a Museum After Women Complained; His Next Job Was Bigger - The New York Times. The New York Times - Breaking News, US News, World News and Videos. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/10/arts/design/joshua-helmer-philadelphia-museum-art-erie-art-museum.html
 

Comments

  1. Rachel ChapmanNovember 15, 2020 at 9:13 PM

    The idea of having a system for Indigenous artist to feel represented is super important. Since unfortunately most people only get to see past work of Native American and forget that they are many Native American making contemporary art, and museum need to pollster those works and display them.  Is Joshua Helmer still working for Erie Museum or have they done the right thing and let him go too?

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