ART MUSEUM IDEA TOOL KIT TM
PROGRAMS
This section includes a range of offerings to visitors of all ages, whether they are on-site, off-site through outreach efforts, or online.
ReFrame:
Harvard Art Museums,
Cambridge, MA
This brilliant approach to interpretation enables visitors to learn more about underrepresented artists and new narratives through labels accompanying works of art that are highlighted on the wall with orange corners. The simplicity of this approach leverages significant intellectual capital, is easily-adapted, and cost-effective to implement. A project like ReFrame could become part of the museum website for digital access. Currently you can find various programs inspired by ReFrame on the website of the Harvard Art Museums.
LINKS:
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2022/2/28/reframe-initiative-makes-progress/
Luce Foundation American Art Program Pilot Exhibitions
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Boston, MA
At the invitation of Teresa A. Carbone, Director of the Henry Luce Foundation American Art Program, I led the Art of the Americas team in developing a grant to support three, one-year exhibitions drawn from understudied areas of the permanent collections that would be engaging and innovative for our visitors. Initially we conceived these pilot exhibitions spanning the period from the opening of the MFA, Boston on July 4, 1876 through the second half of the twentieth century.
For an overview of the Luce Pilot Exhibitions, the link is: https://www.mfa.org/collections/art-americas/collecting-stories
The three exhibitions were as follows:
Collecting Stories: Native American Art; https://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/collecting-stories-native-american-art
Collecting Stories: A Mid-Century Experiment; https://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/collecting-stories-a-mid-century-experiment
Collecting Stories: The Invention of Folk Art. https://www.mfa.org/exhibition/collecting-stories-the-invention-of-folk-art
At the outset, we planned to incorporate metrics for measuring visitor experience in terms of their responses to the exhibitions. This was achieved largely for the first of the three exhibitions, Collecting Stories: Native American Art.
The results of that work will be published by Oxford University Press in the Visual Arts Volume edited by Selma Holo for the Humanities and Human Flourishing Project, Directed by James Pawelski at the University of Pennsylvania. My essay included in that volume is posted in the attached PDF.
“Art Museums as Catalysts for Human Flourishing: Creating New Metrics of Success,”
by Elliot Bostwick Davis, 2022 Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellow.
Co-Creating Content in the Museum Through Student Engagement: Shifting the Paradigm for Intern and Ambassador Programs
Bowdoin College Museum of Art,
Brunswick, ME
Co-Directors Anne Collins Goodyear and Frank Goodyear, at the Bowdoin College Art Museum (BCAM), recently described the significance of many of their recent IDEA initiatives that began with their Anti-Racist Action Plan, Task Force, Strategic Plan, and continued self-education, reporting and reflection.
A new endowment formed in honor of David Driskell, H ’89, offers support for key Diversity Initiatives.
https://www.bowdoin.edu/art-museum/news/2021/david-driskell-fund.html
One of the most significant programs creates a paradigm shift at the Bowdoin College Art Museum. Student Interns and Ambassadors now take the lead in suggesting programs, exhibitions and acquisitions to museum staff. Key audiences of the Bowdoin College Art Museum represented by these student Interns and Ambassadors are also responsible for developing strategies to get their peers involved. The Bowdoin Intern and Ambassador program effectively reverses the direction of influence from a museum professional guiding student input on an exhibition or program to the museum professional and empowers students to lead the charge. All of the Bowdoin Interns and Ambassadors in this program are paid for their work.
https://www.bowdoin.edu/art-museum/news/2022/museum-student-ambassadors.html
Co-Director Frank Goodyear also stressed the vital importance of partnerships to the future of art museums, especially when resources at smaller museums make it impossible to allow an exhibition to travel to communities near and far. He cited the recent partnership with Art Bridges to send the exhibition, “There is a Woman in Every Color: Black Women in Art” to the El Paso Museum, with the support of other sponsors, including The Mellon Foundation, The Texas Commission on the Arts, The El Paso Museum of Art Foundation, and the El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department.
https://epma.art/art/exhibitions/there-is-a-woman-in-every-color-black-women-in-art
Art Bridges and the Terra Foundation for American Art: Collections Sharing Partnership
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Boston, MA
Funded by a generous grant initially from Art Bridges and the Terra Foundation for American Art, the Art of the Americas Department piloted a Collection Sharing Partnership in collaboration with four institutions New England and New York State.
Throughout this multi-year grant, the four initial partners in this program shared resources, collections, staff, expertise as they developed a series of exhibitions for each institution designed to meet the needs of their underserved audiences. The Pilot Program anticipated a series of three exhibitions. Progress on the first two phases is described below. The program is now solely funded by Art Bridges.
https://www.mfa.org/collections/art-americas/art-bridges-initiative
Details about the initial launch is described in the links below. https://www.mfa.org/news/terra-art-bridges-grant
Center of Art and Public Engagement (CAPE):
Tool Kit
Mississippi Museum of Art,
Jackson, MS
Monique Davis, Director of Cape and Chief Inclusion and Diversity Officer at the Mississippi Museum of Art, offers this excellent open-source Tool Kit for setting up a Center for Art and Public Engagement Lab and artists in residence and programming guides. To date, 177 institutions and individuals have downloaded the CAPE Tool Kit, and Monique Davis is conducting an extensive listening tour to collect feedback on how it has been used to date.
From the link below, you are also able to download the book about the history of CAPE, from its inception through 2021.
Hi! app:
Hirshhorn Museum of Art and Sculpture Garden,
Washington, D.C
The Hirshhorn EYE or Hi! enables visitors to select works from the collection and hear short videos from artists and experts, who can offer new perspectives.
Director Melissa Chiu described the collaborative and inclusive process used by the Hirshhorn Museum of Art and Sculpture Garden team to create a smart phone app that could be customized by other museums during her presentation at the Norton Museum of Art in January 2020.
In November 2020, I learned through an interview with Dr. Chiu that the Hi! app also helps visitors develop a greater sense of well-being and empathy through human connections to the individuals speaking to them about the collections on the video clips.
LINKS
https://www.norton.org/events/celebrating-womens-leadership-01-31-2020, to hear a presentation by Director Melissa Chiu on the process and use of the Hi! App.
Artists in Residence Program for Gender and Racial Parity
Norton Museum of Art,
West Palm Beach, FL
With the generous support of the Davis/Dauray Foundation, I was pleased to be part of the selection and launch of the Nortons' inaugural artist-in-residence ("AIR") program.
At the time of the launch in September 2019, the Norton’s AIR program was one of only three in the nation devoted to addressing gender and racial parity by selecting artists identifying as women and BIPOC. (The other two were based at the Studio Museum of Harlem, although then without studio space, and in Alaska for artists identifying as Inuit.)
It was an honor during my time at the Norton there to meet and work with the artists in this inaugural program: Addoley Dzegede; Jaye Rhee; Lavar Munroe; and Jessica Ingram.
NATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD
Norman Rockwell Museum,
Stockbridge, MA
National Advisory Board leveraging museum staff within the building to present exhibitions and accompanying programs co-created with members of a National Advisory Board.
Director Laurie Norton Moffatt recently spoke with me about her success in developing a National Advisory Board of experts with a range of perspectives to augment the expertise and lived experience represented by the museum staff. The National Advisory Board members enable communities to co-create exhibitions and programs with the Norman Rockwell Museum, one of the key recommendations of the 2022 CultureTrack Report referenced earlier.
https://www.nrm.org/2022/04/imprinted-illustrating-race/
