Books: Museums, Equality and Social Justice

“No matter what a museum’s legal structure, whether publicly funded or authorised by society to function as a charity, it is expected to contribute to the common good. If its basic values do not include solidarity with the excluded then the museum is reinforcing that exclusion.”

A bold statement and this book is full of them. The publication is a legacy of the Margins to the Core international conference held at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London in 2010. The conference aimed to explore the increasing significance of diversity and equality in museum policy and practice.

In the introduction, editors Richard Sandell and Eithne Nightingale argue that the past 20 years have seen concerns for equality and social justice issues move from the margins to the core of museum practice. But much as I would like this to be the case, I’m not sure it is universally true.

While there are some exemplary case studies from museums working in this area, it is by no means core work in a majority of museums. And, as other studies have found, funding for this work is still often project based, meaning that when times are hard, inclusion and social justice work are often the first areas to be squeezed.

The book doesn’t aim to tackle the question of why this type of work should be done (although the arguments for it are present in many of the case studies) but instead takes it as read that museums should be doing it.

This is interesting because it moves the debate on from “should we?” to “how can we?”. The book is split into three sections: Margins to the Core looks at the challenges of social justice work; Connecting/Competing Equalities explores different types of discrimination and the common ground and tensions between them; and Museums and the Good Society looks at the roles museums could play in promoting social justice and human rights.

The chapters that are grouped within these themes don’t always match them and you get the impression that bits have been shoehorned in, but there are some fascinating reads nonetheless.

Nightingale from the V&A and Chandan Mahal from the Women’s Library in London kick off the first section with a discussion about integrating equality and diversity into the policy and organisational structure of museums.

It’s interesting stuff but you can’t help wondering how much progress has been made considering the apparent retrenchment in this area of work at the V&A and the fact that the Women’s Library is currently facing closure. 

Also in this section is David Fleming’s chapter on managing organisational change. True to form he gives a frank account of the opposition to the social justice agenda that he faced at board level at National Museums Liverpool (formerly National Museums and Galleries Merseyside, NMGM) and how he went about disarming it.

“At the point where I was described sarcastically by a senior trustee as having ‘arrived on a white charger to save NMGM’ I knew I did not have the full support of the trustee body for my reform programme.”

Connecting/Competing Equalities is a less cohesive collection of musings on the nature of inequality and of representation in museums. Gary Younge is worth reading for his dismantling of the arguments against so-called political correctness and provides a societal context for the idea of the marginalisation of people and ideas. But on the whole this middle section is less useful either at a theoretical or practical level.

The final section, which deals with the question of the roles that museums might play in creating a more just society, is more coherent. One of the most useful chapters here is Sandell’s detailed analysis of the Gallery of Modern Art’s (Goma) sh[OUT] programme in Glasgow.

The programme was the fourth in a series tackling human rights and explored issues relating to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex communities. Some of this provoked controversy, including hostile press coverage and demonstrations staged outside the gallery.

Sandell draws on audience research and interviews with Goma staff and participating organisations to talk about navigating multiple moral positions, dealing with audience responses, and the complexity of public engagement on these issues. He draws the conclusion that tackling these issues and taking a position will inevitably generate conflict, and that is no bad thing.

“Controversy, although frequently painful, potentially damaging and difficult for institutions to manage, might then need to be viewed as a necessary, valuable part of the human rights work that museums can accomplish.”

This book is a provocative and engaging read with a bold message: if you’re not actively addressing inequality and injustice, you’re colluding with it.

Edited by Richard Sandell and Eithne Nightingale