To add to this, I think it is important to keep in mind that what a museum or anybody else sees as a worthwhile message is very subjective. And through society’s biased lens this is often art by white cis men. Many of whom are seen as geniuses while being discriminatory or abusive to others, even in their message. But since the dominant culture is to only see these men as geniuses, their problematic behavior usually gets ignored. On the flipside, a lot of geniuses that aren’t white cis men are often completely left out and ignored. And this although their message is probably even more worthy of our attention because they actually experienced hardships that many white cis men never would have.
I don’t think it is a necessarily good idea to let museums have the choice alone what is a worthwhile message just because I don’t trust them to be reflective of the above. Museums should also be in dialogue with their community and what they deem worthwhile to present. (However this also opens the door to conservative bigots trying to prohibit anything remotely progressive.)
To add to this, I think it is important to keep in mind that what a museum or anybody else sees as a worthwhile message is very subjective. And through society’s biased lens this is often art by white cis men. Many of whom are seen as geniuses while being discriminatory or abusive to others, even in their message. But since the dominant culture is to only see these men as geniuses, their problematic behavior usually gets ignored. On the flipside, a lot of geniuses that aren’t white cis men are often completely left out and ignored. And this although their message is probably even more worthy of our attention because they actually experienced hardships that many white cis men never would have.
I don’t think it is a necessarily good idea to let museums have the choice alone what is a worthwhile message just because I don’t trust them to be reflective of the above. Museums should also be in dialogue with their community and what they deem worthwhile to present. (However this also opens the door to conservative bigots trying to prohibit anything remotely progressive.)