A Museology of Conscience?
Conscience: the ability to distinguishes whether one’s actions are right or wrong. Leading to feelings of remorse when a human does things that go against his/her moral values, and to feelings of rectitude or integrity when actions conform to such norms
I was recently reading an article in the archives of In These Times that I’d like to share, entitled: ‘History We Can Use’ by Alexander Gourse. The article introduces an institution, and an international coalition, that are practicing the sort of critically engaged museology that I enjoy and hope that this blog helps to promote, the sort of museology that meets Elaine Heumann Gurian’s challenge that a museum should be a “safe place for unsafe ideas”.
This is an excellent article about the Tenement Museum in New York City, and their role in the founding of the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience. This is a heritage coalition that I had not previously been aware of, but, that I want to find out more about having read this article and briefly looked over their website. The museological approach engendered by the coalition, and the Tenement Museum, mixes excellent historical information and remembering, with contemporary social activism, the mix seems well balanced and carefully considered. Speaking volumes about the worth of a critically engaged museology that is both fascinating and inspirational.
In this post I have included (see above) a video introduction from the coalition website and below some quotes from the article in ‘In These Times’ to introduce the coalition to those who are not already aware its ideas.
“The Tenement Museum was founded by scholar-activist Ruth Abrams in the late ’80s. From its inception, Abrams wanted the Tenement Museum to be more than a place of passive reflection. Today, the museum attempts to create a discussion about the past and present not only during tours, but also through programs including ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) classes, after-hours community workshops that address contemporary immigration issues and public art exhibitions featuring works by neighborhood residents.” – (Alexander Gourse)
“In 1999, Abrams and Liz Sevcenko, the museum’s vice president of programs, sent out a message in a bottle, asking museums around the world whether they felt their own work had ‘a fundamental social mission’. The eight museums that responded became the founding members of the International Coalition of Historic Sites of Conscience, an organization that, as Sevcenko explains, serves as ‘a kind of a support group for misfit museums’.” – (Alexander Gourse)
“United by a belief that ’stimulating dialogue on pressing social issues and promoting humanitarian and democratic values’ should be the primary function of historic sites, the member institutions of the Coalition are gradually carving out a niche in the museum world.” – (Alexander Gourse)
Links:
* Alexander Gourse. 2006. History We Can Use. In These Times. (Octover 20, 2006) http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2838/history_we_can_use/
* Tenement Museum (New York City): http://www.tenement.org/
* International Coalition of Sites of Conscience: http://www.sitesofconscience.org/en/
