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Harlem Museum Case Study

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Harlem Museum Case Study
The Museum as a Racist Institute Racism, particularly against those of African descent, is a very dark past for the Western world, one that still prevalently haunts and invades the future. As racism is a part of societies’ history, cultural institutions that present said history, such as museums, deal with the idea of racism every day in the exhibits within their walls. Many efforts are made to show how terrible the racism of the past was and is, but the line between the racism of the past and the racism of the present is often too fine to produce correct racial minority celebration. Instead, what starts as a museum’s effort to celebrate ethnic minorities and be inclusive, results in the continuation and resurgence of the bigotry they were …show more content…
R.(2007). Black Artists and Activism: Harlem on My Mind (1969). American Studies 48(1), 5-39. Mid-American Studies Association. Retrieved March 18, 2013, from Project MUSE database. Another case study, Harlem on my mind, was an exhibit that opened in 1969 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City that sought to explore the cultural history of Harlem, NYC, which was predominately black. With seemingly good intentions to celebrate Harlem’s culture and its progress as a community, the exhibition failed and proved racist because of a multitude of problems and issues the Met did not address, such as not including any paintings or prints by black Harlem artists. This is a great article for my paper because it really examines how important it is for the museum to reach out to the culture that their exhibit is about, to help curate for accuracy and proper celebration. As well this collaboration between the culture minority and the institutive will greatly help, if not eliminate, the racist overtones an exhibit should be trying to overcome. Also useful is the information this article provides on what caused social change and a spring of representation of minorities at museums, stating it was not the MET’s “Harlem on my Mind” but instead the people’s reaction to
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