The recent Cultural Equalities Now conference, hosted by the British Museum in partnership with the Institute for the Public Understanding of the Past and Diversity and Heritage Group, took a timely look at equalities and diversity work in a new legal, policy and funding landscape.
Working on this with practitioners and policy makers made me realise it is the perfect time to interrogate participation practice.
Unlike other heritage professions, the methodologies of diversity and outreach staff are not adequately accepted or supported, and are therefore frequently misunderstood. This renders a substantial body of knowledge and practice vulnerable to political faddism.
The government’s equality strategy underlines that targeting groups for “special treatment” is “out” and treating people as 62 million individuals is “in”. Many agree that targeting groups, when used crudely, can be a deeply flawed approach.
But few would argue against engaging a new migrant community with a local museum or tailoring library sessions for older users.
Intelligently used targeting can lead to constructive engagement. The government itself targets resources to address societal imbalances and the Equality Act allows “positive action” to reach under-represented groups.
Whether or not to target is a red herring. The bigger issue is that most cultural institutions are not yet cutting the mustard when it comes to genuine community participation.
If you want to find out why many communities feel exploited and patronised after well-meaning museum projects, check out the recent research led by Bernadette Lynch for the Paul Hamlyn Foundation: Whose Cake Is It Anyway?
We cannot simply continue with “empowerment-lite” engagements, which are wasteful because they alienate then abandon the communities we seek to engage.
This refreshing acknowledgement that community participation is working well will be used by some leaders to retreat, justifying cutting access and outreach staff, declaring: “It’s all embedded now.”
They are missing the point, because successful integration poses a more fundamental challenge than managing short-term cuts. It is exciting and creative; leaders must rethink their whole organisational model to truly enable museums to become an integral part of society, and not a peripheral indulgence. We must also radically improve our practice to facilitate democratic, active and real participation.
Societal relevance is now more important than ever, and for some cultural organisations their survival may depend on it – there has never been a better time for such reflection and change.
Tracy-Ann Smith is a consultant and co-chair of the Diversity in Heritage Group.
Conference summary: www.york.ac.uk/ipup
Working on this with practitioners and policy makers made me realise it is the perfect time to interrogate participation practice.
Unlike other heritage professions, the methodologies of diversity and outreach staff are not adequately accepted or supported, and are therefore frequently misunderstood. This renders a substantial body of knowledge and practice vulnerable to political faddism.
The government’s equality strategy underlines that targeting groups for “special treatment” is “out” and treating people as 62 million individuals is “in”. Many agree that targeting groups, when used crudely, can be a deeply flawed approach.
But few would argue against engaging a new migrant community with a local museum or tailoring library sessions for older users.
Intelligently used targeting can lead to constructive engagement. The government itself targets resources to address societal imbalances and the Equality Act allows “positive action” to reach under-represented groups.
Whether or not to target is a red herring. The bigger issue is that most cultural institutions are not yet cutting the mustard when it comes to genuine community participation.
If you want to find out why many communities feel exploited and patronised after well-meaning museum projects, check out the recent research led by Bernadette Lynch for the Paul Hamlyn Foundation: Whose Cake Is It Anyway?
We cannot simply continue with “empowerment-lite” engagements, which are wasteful because they alienate then abandon the communities we seek to engage.
This refreshing acknowledgement that community participation is working well will be used by some leaders to retreat, justifying cutting access and outreach staff, declaring: “It’s all embedded now.”
They are missing the point, because successful integration poses a more fundamental challenge than managing short-term cuts. It is exciting and creative; leaders must rethink their whole organisational model to truly enable museums to become an integral part of society, and not a peripheral indulgence. We must also radically improve our practice to facilitate democratic, active and real participation.
Societal relevance is now more important than ever, and for some cultural organisations their survival may depend on it – there has never been a better time for such reflection and change.
Tracy-Ann Smith is a consultant and co-chair of the Diversity in Heritage Group.
Conference summary: www.york.ac.uk/ipup
