Aimed at museum educators, Multiculturalism in Art Museums Today seeks to marry museum and multicultural education theories. It reveals how the union of these theories yields more equitable educational practices and guides museum educators to address misrepresentation, exclusivity, accessibility, and educational inequality. This contemporary text is directive; it encourages museum educators to consider the critical multicultural education theoretical framework in their day-to-day functions in order to illuminate and combat shortcomings at the crux of museum education: *Museum Educators as Change Agents *Inclusion versus Exclusion *Collaboration with Diverse Audiences *Responsive Pedagogy This book adopts a broad definition of multiculturalism, which names not only race and ethnicity as concerns, but also gender, sexual orientation, religion, ability, age, and class. While focusing on these various facets of identity, the authors demonstrate how museums are social systems that should offer comprehensive, diverse educational experiences not only through exhibitions but through other educational activities. The authors pull from their own research and practical experiences which exemplify how museums have been and can be attentive to these areas of identity. Multiculturalism in Art Museums Today is hopeful and inspiring, as it identifies and commends the positive and effective practices that some museum educators have enacted in an effort to be inclusive. Museum educators are at the front-line interacting with the public on a daily basis. Thus, these educators can be the real vanguard of change, modeling critical multicultural behavior and practices.
List of Tables Introduction and Context Joni Boyd Acuff and Laura Evans Section 1: Museum Educators as Change Agents Chapter 1: "Stuck" is where you need to pay attention: Some barriers to creating truly inclusive art museums Marianna Adams and Judy Koke Chapter 2: Stimulating change through story-telling: Art museum educators of color share their lived experiences with multicultural issues Natasha Reid Chapter 3: Excellence and equity?: A reflection on the diversification of museums Wendy Ng and Syrus Marcus Ware Chapter 4: Unheard: Voices of women of color in the museum Flavia Zuniga-West Section 2: Inclusion versus Exclusion Chapter 5: Collaborating with communities: New conceptualizations of hybridized museum practice Traci Quinn and Marianna Pegno Chapter 6: Multiculturalism and the Supported Interpretation (SI) Model: Embracing cultural diversity through inclusive art exhibitions Pat Villeneuve and Alicia Viera Chapter 7: Enabling access at the Meadows Museum: An ongoing journey to inclusivity Allison Davidson and Maria Carmen Smith Chapter 8: Undisciplined space: Indian craft heritage sites as texts for critical practice Manisha Sharma Chapter 9: Class exclusion: Challenges of an art museum trying to connect with its blue collar community Yuha Jung Chapter 10: Code switching in the museum: Increasing access for English learners Sofia Gutierrez and Briley Rasmussen Section 3: Collaboration with Diverse Audiences Chapter 11: Feminist art and adolescents in museums: A closer look Cheri Eileen Ehrlich Chapter 12: Engaging Latino audiences: Visitor-driven change at The Denver Art Museum Veronica Betancourt and Madalena Salazar Chapter 13: "Today I Am Here": A Smithsonian heritage outreach initiative Philippa Rappoport Chapter 14: Community curation as an alternative strategy for interpreting exhibitions: myaamiaki isi meehtoseeniwiciki: How the Miami people live Cynthia Collins and Vesta Daniel Section 4: Responsive Pedagogy Chapter 15: Taking it personally: Coming to know oneself and others through interpretations of art Terry Barrett Chapter 16: Thoughtful words: Toward critically multicultural language in art museum interpretive material Andrea Severin Goins Chapter 17: Experiencing Indigenous ways of knowing as embodied in a museum Christine Ballengee-Morris and Patricia Stuhr Chapter 18: Using Multicultural Critical Reflective Practice in the art museum Melissa Crum and Keonna Hendrick Chapter 19: I cannot tell a lie: White privilege in museum education Melinda M. Mayer Closing Thoughts Joni Boyd Acuff and Laura Evans Index About the Editors and Contributors
