Becoming a Service Provider through Partnerships and Sustained Engagement: Developing Programs with Immigrant and Refugee Audiences in Art Museums

ABSTRACT

When working with immigrant and refugee audiences, art museums can be unique sites of engagement, healing, and language acquisition through art-making experiences and in-gallery activities. Furthermore, museums can close the gap between service provider and cultural institution by building sustaining relationships rooted in long-term collaboration among organizations, audiences, and community-based programs. The Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block (TMA) began working with refugees in 2010 through partnerships with local organizations serving refugees affected by trauma, torture, and traumatic dislocation. In the fall of 2016, with the support of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, TMA began to expand programs with immigrant and refugee audiences through a multifaceted initiative called Network Connections. With examples from this initiative, this article will explore how art museums can position themselves as service providers, supporting how immigrants and refugees acquire skills necessary to thrive in their new community.

KEYWORDS:

• Immigrant
• refugees
• collaboration
• partnerships
• sustained engagement
• museums

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

About the author

Marianna Pegno is the Curator of Community Engagement at the Tucson Museum of Art where she has worked to position the museum as an interactive, community-centered space through lectures, programs, exhibitions, and strategic partnerships. Pegno holds a Ph.D. in art and visual culture education and a M.A. in art history from the University of Arizona and a B.A. from New York University. Her dissertation, Narratives of Elsewhere and In-Between: Refugee Audiences, Edu-Curators, and the Boundary Event in Art Museums, was awarded the 2018 Elliot Eisner Doctoral Research Award in Art Education from the National Art Education Association.

ORCID

Marianna Pegno http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0119-4930

Notes

1 Silverman, The Social Work of Museums, 12.

2 For more information on how museums are becoming spaces for diverse audiences see: Hirzy, Excellence and Equity and Hirzy, New Forums; Kendig-Lawrence, “In Our Own Image Stories of Refugee Youth,” 128–45; Nashashibi, “Visitor Voices in Art Museums,” 21–5; Onciul, “Community Engagement, Curatorial Practice, and Museum Ethos in Alberta, Canada,” 79–97; Onciul, Museums, Heritage and Indigenous Voice; Stein, Garibay, and Wilson, “Engaging Immigrant Audiences in Museums,” 179–96.

3 For more on museums as spaces of contemplation see: Cuno, Museums Matter; Duncan, Civilizing Rituals, and O’Doherty and McEvilley, Inside the White Cube.

4 For more on museums as activated engagement see: Bourriaud, Relational Aesthetics; Hubard, Art Museum Education, Hooper-Greenhill, The Educational Role of the Museum and Hooper-Greenhill, Museums and the Interpretation of Visual Culture.

5 Each year, armed conflict and persecution cause individuals to flee their families, communities, and countries, resulting in a large number of refugees. Displaced populations and those seeking refuge are constantly increasing, by the end of 2017 “68.5 million individuals were forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of persecution, conflict, or generalized violence” (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, “UNHCR Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2017”). In the United States, the Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration notes that between 1975 and 31 August 2018, over 3.4 million refugees have been resettled in the United States (The Refugee Processing Center, “Historical Arrivals Broken Down by Region (1975–Present)”). Refugee status is not easy to obtain, individuals receiving this legal status and accompanying working papers (in the United States an I-94 card is given) go through extensive background checks and legal questioning to prove a “well-founded fear of being persecuted” (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, “UNHCR Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2017”).

6 An immigrant is defined by the International Rescue Committee as “a person who makes a conscious decision to leave his or her home and move to a foreign country with the intention of settling there” (International Rescue Committee, “Migrants, asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants: What’s the difference?”). For more information on the difference between migrant, refugee, asylum seeker, and immigrant see: https://www.rescue.org/article/migrants-asylum-seekers-refugees-and-immigrants-whats-difference.

7 Service providers are organizations that support becoming situated within one’s new home environment ranging from readying apartments, school enrollment, language learning, access to healthcare, and workforce development.

8 Since the 1980s Tucson, Arizona has played a part in the Sanctuary Movement, for more information see: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/05/us/sanctuary-cities-movement-1980s-political-asylum.html.

9 Upon resettlement many refugees continue experiences trauma and stress that may include isolation, depression, and continued financial hardships; for more information on resettlement and associated traumas see: https://www.nctsn.org/what-is-child-trauma/trauma-types/refugee-trauma.

10 U.S. Census Bureau, “QuickFacts: Tucson city, Arizona.” For more information on the demographic of Tucson, Arizona see: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/tucsoncityarizona/PST045217.

11 Network Connections involved multiple components ranging from strategic prartnerships, professional development workshops, public programs, curriculum development, and community-based exhibitions. However, in this article, I describe one element of this initiative focusing on a strategic partnership with schools and literacy-based organizations.

12 Gutierrez and Rasmussen, “Code-switching in the art museum: Increasing access for English Language Learners,” 157.

13 Ibid.

14 Black, “Developing New Audiences,” 47.

15 Stein, Garibay, and Wilson, “Engaging Immigrant Audiences in Museums,” 180.

16 Ibid., 184.

17 Karp, “Introduction: Museums and Communities,” 12.

18 TUSD educator, e-mail message to author, January 19, 2018.

19 Interviews were conducted with participants during summer 2017, this reflection is in response to the question: “How was this class different than other English classes you have taken?”

20 Interviews were conducted with participants during summer 2017, this reflection is in response to the question: “Did taking this class help you become a more confident speaker (in English or just expressing your thoughts?)”

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services [grant number MA-20-16-0268].