Reform or Revolution: Centering Social Justice in Museums
Curator and activist La Tanya S. Autry shares her passion for creating meaningful art exhibitions and museum education programs that encourage those who are generally excluded to engage with visual culture and its histories. Inspired by historical figures and artists such as Martin Luther King Jr., Ida B Wells, and Elizabeth Catlett, Autry draws from social justice movements and artworks that have made a positive impact on the world. By incorporating direct actions toward racial justice and decolonization in her museum work, Autry hopes to start thoughtful conversations about the perceived neutrality of museums and other cultural institutions. Encouraging the public to participate directly in discussions on equity within museums (in both their content and their structure), Autry created and facilitated an education program at the Yale Museum of Art that she then took on the road as a traveling exhibition, giving members of other communities a platform to speak out and understand issues central to the relationships among racism, art history, and the politics of museum curation.
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