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ABSTRACT
Building anti-ableist museum education practices into our toolboxes of educational skills is an important way to ensure that museum educators are dismantling the ableism at work in museum interpretation. This paper offers practical strategies for building anti-ableist museum education practices, which we model using one artwork, Enrique Martínez Celaya’s sculpture The Gambler. These strategies include self-reflective practices for educators and facilitation strategies for use with program participants. We suggest these practices in a series of concrete activities based on self-reflection, dialogue and group experimentation with multiple points of view. These activities serve as tools to consider multiple points of view from disabled people and strategies for developing understandings of disability that counter ableist assumptions about disabled people’s happiness, personal fulfillment, and quality of life – conversations that invariably arise when discussing the artistic representations of disabled people in museum collections.
Acknowledgements
We thank Elee Wood, Brandi Shawn-Chaparro and Louise Hindle for their invaluable support in the writing of this article. We would also like to thank Victoria Perera and Kim Tulipana for their insight and guidance as well.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 We are grateful for the work of Wendy Ng, Syrus Marcus Ware, and Alyssa Greenberg whose paper “Activating Diversity and Inclusion: A Blueprint for Museum Educators as Allies and Changemakers” provided an invaluable framework for this paper.
2 Kon: I reflected for a long time on whether I should “out” myself as Autistic in this paper. I asked multiple people whether they think this is a career-killing move on my part. We all settled on the same takeaway: I need to embody the future I hope to see in museum education. So yes, I am Autistic.
3 Some people capitalize Autistic as an identity and community marker and some people choose not to capitalize autistic. We use a/Autistic as a recognition of personal preference.
4 Mingus, “Reflecting on Frida Kahlo's Birthday.”
5 En.wikipedia.org, “San Marino, California – Wikipedia.”
6 For more information see: The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, “A Collections-Based Research and Educational Institution.”
7 For more on this facet, we recommend Smith’s “The Beauty of Spaced Created for and by Disabled People” in Wong, Disability Visibility, 2020.
8 Martínez Celaya, “Biography – Enrique Martínez Celaya.” Enrique Martínez Celaya is an “artist, author and former scientist whose work has been exhibited and collected by major museums worldwide. His monumental and multifaceted body of work connects art to literature, philosophy, and science.” Martínez Celaya sees art as an “ethical effort that turns thinking into action.” The Gambler is a sculpture that Martínez Celaya has installed in numerous locations, including indoor and outdoor spaces.
9 Lewis, “A Working Definition by Talila ‘TL’ Lewis in conversation with Disabled Black and other negatively racialized folk, especially Dustin Gibson; updated January 2020” from “Ableism 2020: An Updated Definition.”
10 Lewis, from Withers et al., “Radical Disability Politics – Wordpress.com,” 187.
11 There are many educational techniques that use open-ended questions, such as discovery-based learning, conversational learning, and so on. Visual Thinking Strategies is another popular participant-centered facilitation method in galleries that depends on visual engagement with an object. For more information see: https://vtshome.org.
12 hooks, Teaching to Transgress.
13 See for example, “Objects in Museum Handled by Blind: Visitors Handle Stone Age Objects While Lecturer Explains Uses.” The Boston Globe, 8. Some of the first disabled audience experiences, the “war-wounded” white male veterans returning after World War I, were framed as acts of charity, because museum directors “waived the rules” and “sightless charges” were “permitted to handle the various objects.”
14 Withers, “The Charity Model.
15 Ibid.
16 Burke, “Why I hate Being Called ‘Differently Abled’.”
17 Elainey, “What Does It Mean to ‘Overcome Disability’?”
18 Young, “Inspiration Porn and the Objectification of Disability.”
19 The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, “Audio for Stop 535: The Gambler.”
20 Keierleber, “Immigration Fears in California Schools.”
21 Los Angeles Times, “Opinion: LAUSD vs. Undocumented participants.”
22 The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, “Audio for Stop 535: The Gambler.”
23 Ibid.
24 Ibid.
25 Nielsen, A Disability History of the United States.
26 Piepzna-Samarasinha, Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice.
27 Brown, Emergent Strategy.
28 Berne, “Disability Justice.”
29 Martínez Celaya, On Art and Mindfulness, 99.
30 George Dock papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
31 While a trauma-aware practice is being developed in the context of art museums (see: https://artmuseumteaching.com/2020/06/29/trauma-aware-art-museum-education-principles-practices/), we have yet to find museum educators who are working with eugenics medical collections in a trauma-informed way.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Rebecca Kon
Rebecca Kon (she/her/hers) is a museum education practitioner and curriculum developer. She is experienced in identifying objects with the capacity to illuminate diverse pasts and presents, and in contextualizing these objects with learners. As an Autistic museum educator, she advocates for inclusive practice within educational programming. She received her M.A. in Education Studies with a certificate in Museum Studies from the University of Michigan. Rebecca currently serves as the Curriculum Development Specialist at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. In her role as Curriculum Development Specialist, Rebecca crafts programming and resources designed to activate the collections for K-12 students and their teachers.
Kate Zankowicz
Kate Zankowicz (she/her/hers) is a museum education practitioner who has created community-driven, inclusive programming in museums in Canada and the U.S. for almost twenty years. Her practice has centered around creating collaborative programming with, not for, communities. As a museum educator with a disability, Zankowicz’s museum education pedagogy and philosophy are grounded in her lived experience. She has served as an accessibility consultant for various arts organizations, and she has been part of multiple accessibility projects within museums, including creating accessible exhibits and displays, writing verbal description audio tours, and developing multisensory tours. She has also developed and implemented training programs for museum staff about disability, accessibility, and inclusion. Zankowicz holds a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Toronto (OISE). Zankowicz currently serves as the Manager of Youth, Family and Community Engagement at The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens.