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In an age of protest, culture and museums have come under fire.
Protests of museum funding (for example, the Metropolitan Museum
accepting Sackler family money) and boards (for example, the
Whitney appointing tear gas manufacturer Warren Kanders)--to say
nothing of demonstrations over exhibitions and artworks--have
roiled cultural institutions across the world, from the Guggenheim
Abu Dhabi to the Akron Art Museum. At the same time, never have
there been more calls for museums to work for social change, calls
for the emergence of a new role for culture. As director of the
Queens Museum, Laura Raicovich helped turn that New York municipal
institution into a public commons for art and activism, organizing
high-powered exhibitions that were also political protests. Then in
January, 2018, she resigned, after a dispute with the Queens Museum
board and city officials became a public controversy--she had
objected to the Israeli government using the museum for an event
featuring vice president Mike Pence. In this book, Raicovich
explains some of the key museum flashpoints, and she also provides
historical context for the current controversies. She shows how art
museums arose as colonial institutions bearing an ideology of
neutrality that masks their role in upholding capitalist values.
And she suggests how museums can be reinvented to serve better,
public ends.
In an age of protest, culture and museums have come under fire.
Protests of museum funding (for example, the Metropolitan Museum
accepting Sackler family money) and boards (for example, the
Whitney appointing tear gas manufacturer Warren Kanders)--to say
nothing of demonstrations over exhibitions and artworks--have
roiled cultural institutions across the world, from the Guggenheim
Abu Dhabi to the Akron Art Museum. At the same time, never have
there been more calls for museums to work for social change, calls
for the emergence of a new role for culture. As director of the
Queens Museum, Laura Raicovich helped turn that New York municipal
institution into a public commons for art and activism, organizing
high-powered exhibitions that were also political protests. Then in
January, 2018, she resigned, after a dispute with the Queens Museum
board and city officials became a public controversy--she had
objected to the Israeli government using the museum for an event
featuring vice president Mike Pence. In this book, Raicovich
explains some of the key museum flashpoints, and she also provides
historical context for the current controversies. She shows how art
museums arose as colonial institutions bearing an ideology of
neutrality that masks their role in upholding capitalist values.
And she suggests how museums can be reinvented to serve better,
public ends.
Street protests are one side of a worldwide citizens' movement.
Another side is the increasing use of boycotts, one of the most
powerful weapons in the organizer’s arsenal: it is an effective
and moral lever for civil rights, most notably today in its
adoption by the BDS movement. Since the days of the 19th century
Irish land wars, when Irish tenant farmers defied the actions of
Captain Charles Boycott and English landlords, “boycott” has
been a method that’s had an impact time and again. In the 20th
century, it notably played central roles in the liberation of India
and South Africa and the struggle for civil rights in the U.S.: the
1955 Montgomery bus boycott is generally seen as a turning point in
the movement against segregation. Assuming Boycott is the essential
reader for today’s creative leaders and cultural practitioners,
including original contributions by artists, scholars, activists,
critics, curators and writers who examine the historical precedent
of South Africa; the current cultural boycott of Israel; freedom of
speech and self-censorship; and long-distance activism. It is about
consequences and causes of cultural boycott. Far from withdrawal or
cynicism, boycott emerges as a productive tool of creative and
productive engagement.
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