Decolonizing Museums: Deaccession, Curation and Spatial Design in Dialogue

This project is about making museums more open, fair, and inclusive. It focuses on how museums decide to remove certain artworks from their collections or re-introduce and contextualize artworks from a decolonized, anti-racist worldview, as well as the museum architecture and the exhibition spaces. Through comprehensive research, interviews with experts, and community discussions, we aim to develop a guide to help museums make these decisions in a way that engages community conversation, respects community values and challenges biases. This work may even inspire an exhibition showcasing the application of these new ideas. The project will contribute to improving the accountability of museums to their communities, fostering more inclusive and diverse representations in their collections. It’s about giving the community a voice in shaping our shared cultural heritage.

Faculty Supervisor:

Henry Tsang

Student:

Partner:

Art Windsor-Essex

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Arts, entertainment and recreation

University:

Athabasca University

Program: