Care-ful participation in museums : a review of The Museum as a Space of Social Care by Nuala Morse

Zwart, Inge and Boersma, Susanne and Mucha, Franziska and Kist, Cassandra (2021) Care-ful participation in museums : a review of The Museum as a Space of Social Care by Nuala Morse. [Review] (https://doi.org/10.3167/armw.2021.090115)

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Abstract

A review of The Museum as a Space of Social Care by Nuala Morse. The activist, radical, or socially just museum:1 the discipline of museum studies has a tradition of aiming to push (the idea of) a conservative institution into a progressive, just, and relevant mold that stands in close connection to society. As the world grapples with multiple crises, the museum's relevance depends on multiple perspectives and internal change. Climate crises and their global and local impacts have brought forward ideas of how museums might positively contribute to change in society, all the while working to decrease their own environmental footprint.2 Healthcare crises, brought about by neoliberal and austerity politics, have fostered new connections among cultural and health institutions.3 Racial justice crises have provided new urgency for museums to critically examine their contribution to historical and current injustices.4 In the meantime, museum practitioners in Northern America have successfully begun to organize themselves into unions, fighting injustices as they find themselves in exploitative positions.5 As the COVID-19 pandemic further changed the world drastically over the last one and half years, discussions on the museum institution's relevance will take new directions.

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