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ABSTRACT
Recognizing the renewed national awareness of racial tensions and economic disparities, the need for solace in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, and the legacy of the events of September 11, 2001, American art museums have unique opportunities to provide safe spaces in which to encourage mutual respect through interfaith dialogue. This case study highlights the important role that museums can play in exploring diverse points of view and in inspiring empathy and religious understanding. The authors examine the mutual benefits of bringing together museum staff, academics, faith and community leaders, and docents of various faiths, with each contributing their own expertise to the process. This article considers the opportunities and criteria for selecting artworks that effectively present recurring themes of shared fundamental beliefs across history and cultures, and introduces an innovative touring model that promotes open and respectful discourse and our common humanity.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Amanda Thompson Rundahl, Director of Learning and Engagement at the Saint Louis Art Museum, whose tireless efforts, support and leadership nurtured and facilitated this sustainable and unique tour model and program, Batya Abramson-Goldstein, former Chair of Community Engagement at Arts and Faith St. Louis, who facilitated community resources and perspectives and who served as an invaluable liaison to the museum, and Shawnessey Custer, a docent at the Saint Louis Art Museum and graduate of the Aquinas Institute of Theology of St. Louis, who contributed exceptional creativity, sensitivity and insights to this initiative.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Rundahl and Abramson-Goldstein, St. Louis Nonprofit News.
2 Gokcigdem, “Five Ways Museums Can Increase Empathy in the World.”
3 Miller, “Finding Common Ground in Interfaith Marriage.”
4 Saint Louis Art Museum Board of Commissioners, Strategic Plan, Art, Experience, Community 2015–2021.
5 “Excellence and Equity: Education and the Public Dimension of Museums.”
6 Fahy and Haynes, “Introduction: Interfaith on the World Stage.”
7 Arts and Faith St. Louis.
8 Susan Lubowsky Talbott, “Museums Must Adopt New Models.”
9 “America’s Growing Interfaith Infrastructure.”
10 Dunn, “Our New Name: Learning for Justice.”
11 “Art of Interfaith Understanding.”
12 Williams, “Welcoming (and Learning from) the Stranger.”
13 MacGregor, Living with the Gods, 292.
14 Telushkin, Jewish Literacy, 200–3.
15 Spivak, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Ancient American Art.
16 van Gogh, Letter to Theo van Gogh.
17 MacGregor, Living with the Gods, 67–72.
18 Ibid., 308.
19 Robinson, “Conversations About Museums and Healing.”
20 Khalid, “Shiva as Lord of the Dance (Nataraja).”
21 Anderson, “Anecdotes of the Spirit.”
22 Interfaith Quest.
23 These training sessions included a lecture for all of our Museum’s docents on world religions, four presentations on the program, two sample tours and nine gallery group working sessions for the additional docents who joined the initiative.
24 These tours included one for university students, five for youth groups, eight for congregations of different faiths and six drop-in general public groups.
25 Interfaith Partnership of Greater St. Louis.
26 Madelyn Mayberry, president of the National Docent Symposium Council, e mail message to the authors, September 2; 2020.
27 “See Think Me We.”
28 Sacks, Ted Talk.
29 Bunch, “Conversations About Museums and Healing.”
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Ann Murphy Burroughs
Ann Murphy Burroughs is head of engagement and interpretation at the Saint Louis Art Museum. She oversees the Museum’s docent program, which consists of more than 100 active volunteers. Her team is responsible for reviewing all printed and digital interpretive materials and initiating gallery interpretive programs, providing accessible experiences for visitors of all backgrounds. From its earliest discussions, she has been deeply involved in the development of the museum’s interfaith tours initiative, coordinating the efforts of museum staff, docents and community leaders.
Bill Sitzer
Bill Sitzer is an active docent and a past chair of the docent board at the Saint Louis Art Museum. He currently serves as a Regional Director to the National Docent Symposium Council. From its inception, and in collaboration with the museum’s staff and community partners, he has participated in the development and realization of the museum’s pilot interfaith tours initiative. He has given interfaith tours to the general public and to many faith-based communities, and he has assisted in the training of other docents providing such tours.