[MUSIC PLAYING]
Welcome, everybody.
Thanks for joining us at today's program,
presented as part of the Wignall Museum's
Home Edition, a series of curated artists talks,
workshops, and discussions, featuring artists
and cultural workers.
My name is Rebecca Trawick.
I'm the director and curator at the Wignall Museum.
The Wignall museum is a teaching museum
and interdisciplinary art space that introduces Chaffey College
students, faculty, staff, and community members
to innovative contemporary art objects and ideas.
By fostering critical thinking, visual literacy, discourse,
and empathy, the museum seeks to enhance
the intellectual and cultural life of our community.
We want to take a moment to recognize that we are situated
on the Rancho Cucamonga Campus of Chaffey College, which
resides on the traditional and unseated lands of the Tonga
people.
We offer our respect to the elders, both past, present,
and future.
Hi, and I'm Roman Stollenwerk.
I'm the assistant curator at the Wignall
Museum of Contemporary Art.
Please visit our website, www.chaffey.edu/wignall,
and that's W-I-G-N-A-L-L. And that's where we're going to be
posting links to view all of the videos.
That is the hub for all of our recordings,
so please do check out our website.
Andy is going to talk to you a little bit.
We're going to be doing our Q&A. We
ask that you submit any questions that you
have using the chat function.
We'll keep an eye on those, and as time allows,
we'll review the questions and have a discussion
at the end of the presentation.
Thank you very much.
And hi, everyone.
My name is Andy Hadle.
I'm the preparator at the museum.
I'm going to be assisting Roman and Rebecca today
with the program.
Just real quick breakdown of today's events
we're going to have just in a moment here--
Carolina Zataray speak for about a half an hour,
and then with the remaining time,
we'll have that available for question and answer.
Thank you.
So I'll introduce Carolina by way of sharing her bio.
So Carolina Zataray is a passionate educator and space
maker with experience in both formal and informal settings.
After working as a history teacher in the Inland Empire,
she entered the museum field and worked
for the Autry Museum of the American West,
seeking to create powerful experiences for students
and teachers.
Additionally, she worked as the curator of education
at the San Bernardino County Museum
and oversaw 17,000 students visiting
on field trips and numerous public events
for the community.
She currently serves as the president
of museum educators of Southern California, MESC,
one of the oldest and largest museum education
professional organizations in the country.
So welcome, Carolina.
Hi.
Thank you for having me here today.
I'm really excited to be here and to talk to you a little bit
about an overview of museums.
So just to kind of give a bit of context,
I'm going to first talk a little bit about MESC,
the organization that I am a part of,
and then talk a little bit about--
provide some context with a little bit
of the history of museums to discuss
some of the current events and current movements
that are happening within the field,
and then discuss some other things that
are happening within-- the museums are offering, sort of.
So things that are where they were offering
in a pre-COVID world, and then also discuss the things that
are happening within this COVID world in which we live in,
if that makes any sense.
And then we'll open it up for questions.
[INAUDIBLE] educators Southern California.
So our mission statement reads that we
are an inclusive alliance of critically aware museum
educators, who cultivate and build
strategic relationships rooted in sharing
resources and encouraging experimentation
that empowers the field.
And so as Rebecca mentioned, our organization,
it was founded in 1977.
And at the time, as museum educators,
we were trying to seek a space equal to that of curators
and collections, and collections works, which often
was at the height of that time.
At this time, we've been really working
on kind of pushing the boundaries,
and within the last couple of years as an organization,
MESC really has looked towards the work of cultural equity.
And so to talk a little bit about the work that we do now--
so we're a member-based organization.
We are made up of a variety of museum educators
at different levels, from emerging,
established, to senior leadership.
So what we do--
so we provide a series of experiences ranging
from professional development opportunities,
informal get togethers in meetups,
in happy hours to get to know one
another, to network in the field,
and then we also provide some spaces
for larger connections, larger conversations being
had in the field overall.
So I just want to reference some of the images
that I have on display here.
The first one to the left is our annual institute from about two
or three years ago, I believe.
And we partnered with--
we worked with Paulo Santos, who has our podcast, Cultura
Conscious, and had a conversation with an arts
leader, Elena Muslar, who is with Loyola Marymount
University.
We were talking about creating equitable spaces
for people of color in the field of museum education.
The next image is actually an experimentational event
that we did with taking 10 museum educators to three
mystery sites, meaning they didn't
know where they were heading.
And so we provided unique experiences
that thread through each site.
And so it was really a great way to kind of get
in touch with like, the museum educator,
as museum educators were often the ones creating
these experiences, but we really wanted
to create that space for museum educators to experience that,
like a museum experience.
And then the last one--
we partnered with the LA Zoo to create a panel conversation
with different museums throughout Southern California,
to discuss the ways in which they address empathy
in their galleries.
And so we went worked with Los Angeles County
Museum of Arts, the LACMA, the Los Angeles
Museum of the Holocaust, the zoo and the Autry
Museum of the American West and so we discussed what they do.
And then we also looked at the Zoo's program
and how they evaluate empathy and the way humans
treat animals.
I just wanted to give you that context.
Currently, the work that we're doing right now
as an organization, we really shifted towards the direction
of cultural equity.
And for us, it's really creating a space
where all the work we do, from our budgeting
to the programs we provide, to the values
that we instill, are centered on creating spaces for people
who have historically and continue to be marginalized.
And so whether that's the marginalization based
on race, ethnicity, age, discrimination,
sexual orientation, gender orientation, gender identity,
socioeconomic status, or any of those things,
we really want to have our programming be
spaces that create inclusive-- and inclusive spaces.
So whether it's we're providing free and inclusive programming,
whether we're providing levels of access
to new and emerging educators, we're
really seeking to create equitable spaces in museum
education specifically.
And so I do want to highlight two of the programs
that we are leading.
And by the way, at the end of the presentation,
I'll share a couple of links to the things
I've been discussing.
But I just want to highlight two of the programs
that MESC is leading.
The first is MESCFeatures--
Alt-Text as Poetry Workshop.
So we're working with an artist Shannon Finnegan on October
26th to work with alternative text in captioning
and kind of become a little bit more familiarised with that.
And then we're also on November 5th,
I'm actually leading a resume and cover letter writing
workshop.
That's a free program to anyone.
So that we can--
you'll get a one on one access opportunity
to have your cover letter and your resume reviewed.
This is just the type of work that we
want to do as an institution.
Now I'm going to shift towards the next portion
of the conversation, which is really going to be museum work
and what museums are doing what, museums have done in the past,
and the things that we're doing to move forward.
And so if you could just write in the chat bar,
I'd really appreciate it.
What comes to mind when you think of museums?
Words you associate, feelings you associate with museums.
Just take a moment.
OK, so we have education access, new things, ideas, objects,
quiet--
you often hear, shh, you're in a museum--
history, idea, spaces of conversation.
And I'm glad I'm hearing some of these ideas.
And yes, museums are increasingly
becoming those spaces.
So museums, the way they actually started,
they were very different from what we have today.
These were originally spaces that
were collecting objects that weren't meant
to be for the public at large.
The word comes from the Greeks as a place,
a seat for the muses.
And so these are spaces of contemplation, of inspiration.
And then fast forward a couple of centuries
more, we had the Roman Empire collecting items
from different areas that they conquered
and kind of collecting-- bringing
in their spoils of war, bringing in exotic animals for viewing.
And then fast forward a couple more
centuries from that, you have people
who began to collect a series of things, which is what the image
that you have below.
These cabinets of curiosity, these little wonder rooms,
that they collected everything from specimens
found in the natural world to ancient religious artifacts,
to things that--
oddities, as they are described, of the new world.
So these were things found in the Americas
and they were collecting these items.
And ideally, this doesn't sound bad.
However, when you are combining this as the fact
that some of these places, these cabinets of curiosity
became the foundation of museums.
You often have museums that have housed objects
that were kind of founded in questionable terms, that
were collected in questionable ways,
and in ways that you didn't ask for permission.
You just took.
One image I have of the British Museum actually
was one of the first national free museums to the public.
But it's founding collection was actually from a man who--
Sloane, who used enslaved labor in Jamaica
to really collect a lot of the specimens,
a lot of things that were displayed.
A lot of the oddities that were found
were things from Native American cultures
and with disregard to any potential sacred meaning.
What's really interesting about the Natural History Museum--
sorry, the British Museum, while they address
that certain objects that they have in their collection
were collected by questionable means and that some of them
were through looting, there's not much
of their much justification for what some of the items
that are collected.
Going into Egyptian tombs, they say that those
were done in partnership.
But a lot of these histories, there's
a power dynamic of who was providing the funds
to do what type collecting.
And what are you collecting with whose permission?
In the United States, we also had this similar legacy
with a lot of these cabinets of curiosity
becoming the foundation of a lot of museums in the United
States.
And the Smithsonian Museums were actually
founded by a scientist who really
wanted to create an institution that spread knowledge.
And the justification for museums like all these Natural
History Museum that collected--
these rare specimens and sometimes sacred objects,
and other institutions like the British Museum,
was we're doing this for the collection of knowledge,
and for the diffusion of knowledge,
and for future generations to be able to share this.
While it's had its merits, a lot of museums
have been confronting these issues.
So a lot of museums have been combating
the notion of decolonisation.
Because often, these objects were
collected as a result of colonial practices.
There's this movement to decolonize.
And what the Washington Post called
this was a process that institutions undergo
to expand the perspectives they portray
beyond those of the dominant cultural group
particularly white colonizers.
The Abbe Museum, in their strategic plan,
they defined it as, at a minimum,
sharing the authority for the documentation
and interpretation of native culture.
And so there there's been this movement
to include the people whose cultures you're talking about.
In 1990, the Congress passed the National Native American
Graves and Protection and Repatriation Act,
which is NAGPRA.
So that's when they created the process
by which museums and agencies return objects
to native communities, because some of these objects
sometimes are sacred.
And so with these movements, museums
are really confronting their history.
Because whether it was your collection
was based on someone who profited from colonization,
from slavery, who are your donors, who
are your collections from.
When you track that collection, where are its origins from?
It brings up questionable issues.
And so that's why a lot of museums
have really moved towards becoming spaces
to bring in the stories of who they're talking about.
And so with-- to kind of bring it up even further--
with the rise of Black Lives Matter movement,
and seeing the rise of visual--
social media of Black lives being impacted
by police officers and whatnot, we see museums also confronting
this issue of like, we can't just
put in a statement in support.
But we are being--
we're now being challenged by our community
to say, what are we doing to really be accessible spaces?
Actually, I don't know how many of you have seen,
but when the Getty Museum put out a statement in support
of Black Lives--
in support of Black Lives, and mourning
the loss of George Floyd, and those and countless others
who'd been killed.
They actually-- they got a lot of backlash.
Because of not just their response, but also in the way--
in what they're doing in practice.
And so in light of this, museums are really
taking this internal approach to looking at how can we really be
authentic spaces of connection.
And there are spaces like the Museum of Man,
now known as the Museum of Us, that's
really doing that type of work, internal work.
Other spaces that I feel like are
doing this type of work, the Oakland museum of California.
They're doing really great work when
it comes to really telling community stories
with community input, and compensating that community
to tell their stories.
And so we're seeing this increase of communities
do that.
And so that brings us to kind of the next space of what
institutions and organizations are doing to create
more equitable spaces.
Now the museums, these two programs,
the Museums for All and the Museums for Us program,
both have been programs that have been around for some time.
The Museums for All program is a program that seeks to provide
space-- to provide access to museums to people low income--
people of low income, who have a SNAP EBT card.
And so participating museums will actually
offer free or reduced admission to visitors
who present this card.
And these are just a couple of organizations
that have it within our area.
But in their website, you can actually
check out within the radius of where you live
or where you want to visit of what museums
are eligible for this program.
And this is just one way that museums
tend to become more equitable spaces.
Another program is actually, it's
a Bank of America sponsored program.
And this is for participating museums,
the first full weekend of the month
is free for a Bank of America card holder.
And again, these are some of the participating institutions
within our area.
But again, you check out their website
and you can see which are available, which are free,
or which are free and participating in this program.
There is another program too that I didn't mention.
There's a Target program where every certain one weekend
day, they will provide free admission.
And for their website, you also--
you look up and within the radius
to see what programs are available.
All of these I'll provide at the end of the presentation
with links, if you guys want to check those out.
But those are just some spaces that outside organizations
are doing to support the work of museums.
Now what do museums themselves offer?
So obviously, COVID has impacted a lot of this,
and what museums do, and what they offer.
Because we can't-- there's only so much that they can operate
within for the public safety.
But I will talk about some programs that have in the past
existed, that right now, are on hold,
and we are waiting for some semblance of normalcy.
So I will say of those docent-guided tours
that are offered.
There's a lot a lot drop-in tours that are available.
And a lot of institutions like the Natural History
Museum of Los Angeles, they have, I think,
one of my favorite ways of interpreting--
of doing interpretation, just in the way their interpreters are
trained.
And they're really great storytellers
in the way they combine separate pieces of a collection
into one cohesive story.
So that's one group.
And again, I'll have those links for them.
And then there's other art museums like LACMA,
they'll have their drop tours where visitors
can participate in those tours.
A lot of museums target the dosage guided
tours for your school groups.
And so sometimes you won't be able-- you'll
be able to participate both in afternoons or on the weekend.
And then there are other spaces that
do provide specialized tours, if you book in advance.
Additionally, there's museums that
are trying to become more media savvy.
And so in addition to the traditional audio tours,
like you'll see with the Norton Simon, they have an audio tour.
But they also have their audio tour on their website.
So if you just--
if you have a pair of headphones and an iPhone
or a mobile phone, you can go to the website
and check out each item on display
and just have your own audio tour
that you don't have to pay.
But they do also offer those paid ones.
But then you're also seeing museums
having an increased presence in terms of app development.
There's a lot of museums that are creating those.
But it requires that extra step of downloading an app
and then looking at it.
But those are different features that
are being available-- that are being provided.
The Broad Museum offers a pretty strong one,
the Getty offers a guide one, and LACMA also offers some.
And then I have, like I said, I have a couple
of links to some of them, if you guys are
interested in what's available.
And let me see.
Yeah, so a lot of museums, because there
trying one, to modernize, two, to be
responsive to the community, they're
becoming more and more tech-friendly centers
with more access and an actual Wi-Fi.
So you can download that app if you want.
In addition, so the way museums exhibit--
museums, the experiences they provide
are also changing, in looking at whether it's
popular culture responding to social issues, social justice
issues.
While they haven't abandoned the notion of museums
as being a trusted scholarly spaces for research,
there are increasingly becoming community-centered spaces,
and spaces for conversation, spaces for play,
and spaces for visitor input.
And so these are a couple of examples that I have.
One is from the exhibit at the Autry
where they were trying to encourage
some additional conversation space.
And so you'll see an increase of post-it spaces in trying
to ask--
framing questions that help contextualize
the topic that was discussed.
This is actually from an institution
that I was in, the San Bernardino County Museum.
We hosted a Star Wars Day, which we compared it with our content
with science knowledge with using some Star Wars things,
scavenger hunts in our galleries.
But you're seeing kind of an increased connection
with popular culture and museums to really create centers
for visitors and entry points for visitors
who normally wouldn't visit the museum,
or who wouldn't see the museum as a space for them.
And so that's what museums and the experiences
that they're providing, they're trying to change that.
And then on the very far right that's
actually from an exhibit at the Museum of Us did.
They did an exhibition on cannibalism.
And what was really interesting about that,
every portion of the exhibition had a space of interaction.
And so they dealt with heavy topics,
because they're talking about cannibalism.
They're also talking about--
they also talked about interpretations of how
other cultures were viewed.
And it was really interesting exhibit.
But also they paried it with elements of play and of fun
in the exhibit.
And so you see this increase of interaction
and in trying to get input from the public to see how can
we best really meet your needs.
Because there's not just a responsibility
to share accurate and important information.
That's still very important.
But the other thing is how can we
see spaces that are welcoming and inviting
to all members of the community?
And then you also see that through exhibit.
Increasingly, like I mentioned, they're
being spaces of interaction, of play, of also discussing
difficult topics.
I had a museum leader once told me,
museums should be safe places to ask unsafe questions.
And so you're having a larger issue
being discussed in the museum.
Sometimes issues that museums have in the past
maybe shied away from, because there
is a quote claim of neutrality.
Museums are now moving in a direction
of, if we're claiming neutrality,
we're already stating where our position lies.
And so just to highlight a couple of exhibits
that I'm highlighting here.
The Skirball Museum, they led an exhibit
on Ruth Bader Ginsburg, notorious RBG.
And within that exhibit, it was well-researched work,
which the curator talked about, important elements of her life.
But there were also elements of play and interaction
where you got to take your picture on dressed up
as RBG and that space.
There's also increasing these museum--
you see an increasing amount of museums also incorporating
play, and exploration, and trying to inspire inquiry.
The Western Science Center in Hemet, not far from here,
they are they also have incorporated
a lot of play centers, because a lot of the focus
is also how can we inspire this type of knowledge
into our younger audiences?
The other one is--
I have a picture on the far right,
Skirball also has their Noah's Ark exhibit, which
is a play center essentially.
And it was created by a series of artists.
And you see really cool interesting pieces,
but you also have elements of play
around the theme of like weathering a storm together.
And then you have art installations
that are also encouraging play.
The image on the center and bottom
is actually of the LA Municipal Art Gallery.
They had an exhibition on a called,
Loitering is Delightful.
And every art installation was something
that you could interact with and that you could relax with.
And it was really interesting art display
and a really interesting take on this idea of loitering.
And so the artist-- every piece there
was really an encouragement to interact with those pieces.
And then you also have the Natural History Museum,
as I've mentioned.
They have their nature lab in their first floor,
but they also try to make connections
with science with everyday interaction in people's
own backyards.
That's what they've-- really shifted their focus to be
looking at science in your own backyard.
And so they've switched-- they've completely
those exhibits to really be very visitor-centered, and very
with a focus on what people are doing in their communities.
And they're they tell different stories
about how a particular community was impacted.
I want to say that this one was-- the students created
a vacuum created a specific garden in their school
and they identified different types of plants.
Now all the things that I've talked about,
obviously, because of COVID and the world in which we're in,
all of them have been put on hold.
I wouldn't say that it's the end of those.
I think a lot of institutions are questioning
what are the things that we may not be able to do anymore,
at least, or may not be able to do it in a while.
But the museums, I think, they really
mobilized to come together to support the public at large.
Yeah, so these are just a couple-- some of the museums
that I wanted to highlight.
And I'll have, again, I'll have the links for everything
that I feel have done a really good job of providing
a centralized resource page.
So the Autry Museum, they have their Autry Online page,
which features everything from music, from curator talks,
to educational resources for teachers and parents.
I think they've done a phenomenal job at mobilizing.
And where a lot of places had to furlough or lay off
a lot of staff, they actually-- they mobilized their staff
to do a lot of really great work.
Another organization that I feel,
again, has a centralized page where you can find everything
that they're doing for COVID in one central page, that's
the Skirball at Home.
They're offering online classes, virtual talks, art activities,
again, resources for teachers.
And I think they've also recently just started
doing virtual tours for teachers, just
within the past-- they're starting
to schedule some of them.
And then while this is a smaller museum,
I liked the way in which they addressed this.
The Riverside Art Museum, they have a page where it's not just
their own resources, but they're sharing everyone else's
resources, arts educators resources of what you can do,
and things you can participate in response to COVID.
So we see a lot of museums that have really
been resilient within this time to not only share
their collections, but also provide the public
with what they need.
There's another museum that I also feel--
I personally, I think it's one of my favorites.
LA Plaza they've been doing--
LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes in LA--
they've been doing a series of videos for students.
So they have a culinary art program for their field trip
programming.
And they've done a virtual version of that.
But they also have had these panel conversations
in the evenings that I really like to participate in.
They've been really great.
And they've been really great leaders
who are doing a lot of really cool work.
I will say, one thing I forgot to mention.
And actually, this is kudos tot he Autry and it's also
featured on their Autry Online page,
they've actually also started collecting and actively
collecting protest signs from Black Lives Matter movement.
And so they're actively seeking to collect that
as part of their collection--
museum collection.
And so these are just a couple of the things
that museums are offering.
And I think it's a really, really exciting space
for museums to--
yeah, to respond.
I know all of like me as a museum person,
one of the things that makes the museum really special to
me is having that physical space of interaction and connection.
But I think as you are all doing,
as the [INAUDIBLE] Museum is doing,
museums are resilient and are responding in the best way
they can for their community.
Good, so I know Andy and I have a handful of questions.
And we'd also encourage those of you who have joined us today
to also include your questions in the chat
or raise your hand if you'd like to ask it yourself.
Let's see.
I have I've got one I can start with.
So as someone who's dedicated their research and career
on the intersections of museums and education,
how do you think the pandemic will continue to shape
museum education in the future?
I think this is a conversation that's currently had.
A couple of months ago, MESC had a panel conversation
with school educators and museum professionals
using indicators as to what they're doing to respond.
And one of the things that came about,
schools are still scrambling and are still
trying to see what's next.
And while in some districts are hoping to begin--
go back to school in November, others are not ready.
And so us as institutions that support
the work of educational institutions, for us,
we're basically responding to their needs.
And so there's been an increase of institutions--
like LACMA has been doing this work.
MOCA has also been doing this work.
The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles,
they've been leading educator workshops and educator
programming.
And they have been going in on educator--
on teacher Google chats, going in and leading an arts lesson.
And so you've seen museums really
stepping up and mobilizing.
And it's been in a short time.
I have to say, so many of my museum colleagues
have really stepped up and responded in the way which
they can help people.
But because there's so much still
uncertainty with classroom education,
I think some of the educators-- we discussed this, they said,
it'll probably be like another year or two before we're
even ready to think about field trips.
So that dramatically changes what we have
to offer as museums for them.
And dramatically affects the funding models, I'm sure,
for a lot of organizations, right?
Yeah, so a lot of--
that's why a lot of museums have switched to digital platforms,
because you need to be able to offer something.
I know my colleagues at the Reagan are doing--
they are doing some game-based field trips.
In a short matter of months, they
had to switch to a completely virtual model,
because of what happened.
Thank you.
Oh, actually, I will also say, and they've
done a collection of educator resources for people,
just to see what each museum are doing all over the country.
So Carolina, I'm a little interested, actually,
in your origin story, if you will.
How did you get involved with MESC originally?
Well, so as Rebecca mentioned, I was originally
a history teacher.
And in graduate school, I was switching careers.
And I was deciding to switch a career.
And so I was like, how do I get involved?
And I just happened to Google something, museum education.
And I just came across MESC.
And it just so happened that they were
having their Annual Institute.
And I discovered a community of museum educators
who really, really cared about the work.
And slowly, I have been involved--
I've been a member of their organization
for over maybe four years, I think--
actually, no, about six years.
And then I've been involved with the organization
for about five.
And so they really created spaces for me
to volunteer and help out.
And an opportunity presented itself.
And it's just you find a community
of people who are really passionate about the work.
And it's just--
I'm really fortunate to be part of our organization like that,
because everyone really cares passionately about the field.
Thank you.
So this may be very specific, but you've
been so gracious in sharing institutions
that are doing great work in terms of cultural equity.
So I wanted to ask you, is there any cultural organizations
doing good work around ESL speakers
or bilingual populations and really embedding that
in their educational materials and outreach?
You're seeing that more with the public at large
of what they do with touring.
Audio apps, they'll provide that in different languages.
So that's one way that they're doing access.
We were just talking about this in MESC
and I'm trying to remember what organization
was what specifically ESL work.
But that's actually something that's
been lacking in the field at large.
As a Spanish speaker, I had interactions
with my Spanish learners when they were in field trips.
And I'd interact with them and discussed, translated material
and transmitted instructions for them.
But other than that, it is hard to find that.
And it was a rare thing that I was an educator who
spoke both languages--
a museum educator, I will say who spoke both languages.
Thank you.
I want to go back a little bit and talk
about the cultural objects that are found in museums.
And maybe just get your opinion or views
on how might museum visitors demand
that their cultural institutions collect
art objects in an ethical or more inclusive way?
I think right now, you're seeing it more on social media.
It's been asked for and demanded for by the public, which
is why, like I mentioned, when the Getty posted
their statement, they got a lot of pushback from the community.
And you're seeing also arts educators and educators
at large who are pushing for that themselves.
The BRIC Brooklyn, the Brooklyn art museum,
they recently, their leadership wrote--
they're middle management wrote a letter to their leadership
demanding certain things.
And so you see, you're starting to see it.
But I would say with increased critiques on social media,
it's also like where you fund, where
you decide to go also matters.
But you are, overall, starting to see
that conversation of museums of where they
are in that conversation differs as to why some people want
to become open spaces.
Some aren't ready to fund or pay for that work, though.
They can say, oh, you can come and display this,
but we're not going to pay you.
And so you're starting to see a varying spectrum of where
institutions are.
But I think the change is coming.
It's just slowly coming.
So I wanted to ask you if--
oh, I think we have one in the chat, actually.
Let me ask that.
So Virginia asks, how can artists
connect with museum educators to be
part of institutional change?
So where is the role for artists in that?
On the basic level, I'm just thinking
of throughout my career, I've worked with artists,
with teaching artists to whenever
we're facilitating a project.
I would say in demanding that work
when working with institutions.
So a colleague of mine had mentioned some work of what
they were doing with an artist.
But the artist brought up payment for the display
of their art upright.
And which is something that the institution wasn't used to.
Whereas you have other institutions that are like,
no, this is what we're going to offer.
But I think asking for that, which
is it's always been told that it's like a taboo.
But I think the important thing to do.
With MESC, we've recently--
we committed 25% of our budget goes to cultural equity work.
And so we had to budget that work.
And based on our cultural equity statement,
we're aligning if meet certain criteria that it can come out
of our budget.
But a lot of our work is moving toward that direction.
We've even discussed that we want
to be transparent with what we pay people
and how we come up with that.
And so we're having those conversations,
because those are issues that have impacted us as educators,
and the artist, and teaching artist that we work with.
I don't know if that answers your question, Virginia.
[? I can ?] [? relate. ?] That also makes me think of the work
that WAGE is doing.
I'm forgetting what that stands for.
But they're an organization that's
really fighting for artists' ability
to be paid appropriately and ethically.
Yes, so Michelle Millar Fisher, she is--
I want to say--
her institution-- she was a panelist
for our panel for our Annual Institute.
And we hadn't include that.
But I have her--
the Annual Institute-- the video is on our website
on our YouTube page.
But we discussed, she's the one who
started this like pay transparency Google Sheet that
went around to different museums to share
what they're being paid.
And so a lot of institutions are talking about mobilizing.
The other person-- I mentioned her--
Paula Santos, she started the Museum Workers Relief
Fund to help those who were impacted by COVID.
And if you can, by all means.
I can't recommend her work enough.
They're doing really great work.
And they also have a lot of great resources.
And I think I shared Museum Workers Speak
resources on the link page.
A lot of places are talking also about unionizing.
MOCA, right before all this happened,
had announced their efforts to unionize.
But then there's a conversation of unionization
doesn't necessarily equal protection
from work, from being laid off, because a lot of people
have been.
You're having these conversations
about how can we mobilize and how can we at least call
for better transparency.
Well, in considering the fact that, I think you mentioned,
it maybe a year or two before things change to a new normal,
and so these questions aren't going to go away.
No.
No, they'll still continue to affect the field.
And I think museums will just get
creative on the way we respond.
But it's going to come.
We'll see how.
Wait, do we have one in the chat here?
Open to mental health?
Well, actually, it's kind of all been discussed.
So the question was, are museums working
on opening the conversations about mental health?
I think museum workers are discussing that.
It is something that came up with in our conversation
of our Annual Institute, because museum educators love
so much of what they do.
But often, there are these models in which we work in
and structures in which we work in,
which sometimes ask more of us than they should.
And so as museum educators, we've discussed this.
I actually-- I shared one of the resources
on the resource page on Museums 2.0.
There was a blog originally started by Nina Simon.
Now it's taken over by Seema Rao.
But they discuss a lot of the issues impacting museums
that they're discussing.
And so I really recommend if you have haven't checked
that out, to check that out.
But they're starting to have those conversations.
Overall, institutions of addressing to the public,
I'm not sure.
I haven't seen much of that yet.
You've given us loads of information,
lots of institutions to look up, some educators in the field.
So thank you for that.
But I wanted to ask, is there an artist or artists
whose work you'd like to amplify and recommend to us today?
Because I know you're also working with artists
and looking at a lot of art as well.
Although, she's a thought leader,
the person that I'm thinking of--
two people-- Nina Simon, just because of the way
she's revolutionizing museums and really these models,
and her book, The Art of Relevance, which is amazing.
I will also say Monica Montgomery,
she's really been someone who has
been in the middle of that intersection between Museum
Workers Speak, Black Lives Matter,
and amplifying the voice of artists.
Oh, actually, I just remembered someone else.
Brown Art Link, they're originally the two--
oh, what are the names?
Two artists who really amplify the work of other artists
of color, two brown girls.
Brown Girl Museum Blog, that's the resource.
And I completely forgot about them.
But they are Amanda Figueroa and Raven,
I want to say is her name.
They're doing amazing work to amplify and create space
for artists of color.
And really they're doing great work.
You had mentioned earlier that MESC has an Annual conference.
I just want to know maybe a little bit more about that
and if students or anyone is able to attend
this, people that might be a museum studies,
or any other kind of related program.
Yeah, it's open to the public.
In the past, and we've offered it at a low cost to our members
and an increased cost to non-members.
This year we actually launched it to be a first free event.
And we did it all online and we're still
unsure about what the next event's going to hold.
I'm happy to share a link to our YouTube page that
features our Annual Institute, because it's also available
online now.
But for that event, we usually like to have panels--
put in conversation, people, thought
leaders that are impacting the field.
And so this past year, we were fortunate enough
to have Paula Santos, Michele Millar Fisher, and Keonna
Hendrick, who are doing amazing work in really creating
space in the museum field and talking
about these topics of labor.
And so that was our theme this past year, museums and labor.
And so we also brought in people from the Marziano Art
Foundation, who had talked about his unionization efforts, who
talked about what museum leaders are doing.
And so it's a really great event to bring in together people
this past year.
Like I said, it was a little bit different,
because it was online.
Typically, it falls within our spring
year, which is May or June, is typically our Annual Institute.
Like I said, right now, it's still up in the air.
I think it's probably still going to be a digital event.
We are not sure, because we don't know what
the future holds right now.
And so I will say that the opportunity that it provided,
offering it an online event, is that we reached
our first international audience, doing it
on an online event.
So it was great.
And because it was free, really created a really accessible
space.
Great.
But if you want also want to check more
about what we do have an organization,
feel free to check out-- our page
is going to have our links to resources, past events.
We've been populating more of our YouTube page.
So this past spring, in response to COVID,
we actually led a series of community-led content
that we provided honorariums to artists
to lead any type of workshop that they wanted to lead.
And we promoted it on a page.
And we were doing weekly content and then
we posted that on our [INAUDIBLE] page.
It's on our YouTube page.
What are you watching reading, listening to, et cetera?
Is there something that's giving you life right now?
A book, or band, fiction, or whatever?
I went back to looking at The Art of Relevance, Nina Simon.
By far, if you're looking if you are
in an arts organization, in the museum field,
in that intersection in between, it is a great, great read.
It's also available free online, which I added on the link too.
I would say that.
I'm reading that.
Excellent.
Thank you.
So we can't thank you enough.
We were honored to spend time with you today.
And the wealth of information that you shared is incredible.
So I've got all kinds of scribblings here
I'm going to have to sort through later.
So we appreciate your time.
And I think Roman's going to close us out here.
So to close us out, we wanted to share a few--
revisit some information for you.
So please do visit us at our website, which is chaffey--
that's C-H-A-F-F-E-Y-- edu/wignall to access
the recordings when they've been released.
And also, if you haven't had a chance to visit the site,
it's also where we have our full schedule of programs,
as well as links to register for the programs that are still
coming up, an online survey that will help us
as we evaluate our online programming
and we plan our future programs.
And that's the tiny URL that's on the screen there.
Its tinyurl.com/wignallfall20.
And it's a quick online survey that would be very helpful
and appreciated.
So thank you very much.
Also if you wanted to learn more about Native land
acknowledgment, there are a couple
of websites that are on the screen
right now where you can find more information about that.
Thank you very much for joining us and participating.