For the St. Louis American
Considering the stereotypes surrounding fine arts and history scholars, the idea of a weekend of activities catered to black museum professionals may have compelled some of the unenlightened uppity crowd to dust off the smoking jacket and get their pocket thesaurus handy. But anyone with their nose in the air and randomly spewing out ten dollar words would have been uncomfortably out of place at the Adams Mark last weekend because it was all about inclusion, not exclusive.
“If you don’t have the African-American community to back you up and support what you do, then you might as well prepare to look for another job,” said Samuel Black, curator for the Heinz History Center. He was among the many black museum professionals who bounced ideas and concerns among themselves in a way that gave a sense of understated, yet obvious, intelligence.
“I think that the African-American story is the American Story,” said Marquette Folley of The Smithsonian. “And we are around to remind people how the story needs to be told.”
From Seattle to Pittsburgh people interested in helping both mainstream and minority institutions who help tell the stories were on hand to talk, learn and listen about the ups, downs and in-betweens within their field.
The 2006 Association of African American Museums convention was entitled Gateway to Progress: Balancing Best Practices in Museums. And judging from the information sessions and conversations, one of the key practices for sustainability appears to be getting and keeping African-Americans as active participants in the efforts of the institutions.
The weekend was full of activities and shared success stories of minority focused installations and institutions.
In the session “Making the Arts Connection: Building Effective Cultural Collaborations with Community, Artists and Museums” artist and educator stressed the importance of partnering with Community based artists.
“These artists have the ability to rally other artists and connect other valuable resources in the community,” said Visual Artist/Poet/Author Annie Ruth.
“Museums should have a direct connection to the pulse of the community,” Ruth said. “And that connection creates community exposure to the arts.”
“As much as they are cutting visual arts, dance, gym and the arts curriculum out of our schools,” Ruth said “We need to tap into our resources within the community so that we can help our children.”
The value and power within the community was a hot topic in a candid roundtable discussion that featured issues of African-Americans in mainstream institutions and young museum professionals.
“I think that it is incumbent among young African-American professionals to actually understand your terrain,” said Folley, who was eager to offer wisdom about her 20 plus years.
“I figured out very early on that I needed to run to the community and got support outside of the institution,” Black said. He mentioned a lecture series he organized concerning the UNIA movement and teachings of Marcus Garvey.
“What it did more than anything else was to bring a community presence into the institution,” Black said.
“How they decide to market to the community is reflective of what they think we want to see,” said Toilynn O’Neal of the Cincinnati Art Museum.
“The biggest issue that I am finding is the assumption that there is one black community,” said Changa Bey, Docent and Gallery Programs Coordinator for the Missouri Historical Society.
O’Neal agreed but added her experience with selectiveness on the part of what type of diversity and community is welcome. “What I am learning is the people that I am passionate about, they don’t really want yet,” O’Neal said. “They want black educated membership people, and I have had a battle because I work with is the regular everyday black people.”
“Being African-American in mainstream museums puts you in an awkward situation because you’re always asked to represent the community,” Bey said. “But they don’t realize what or who the African-American community really is.”