A Decolonizing Approach to Exhibit Development with Indigenous Communities
NHMU's team shares their collaborative approach to creating an exhibit on Indigenous basketry. This process, guided by co-curators nominated by their tribes, has strengthened NHMU's decolonization efforts and created a model for exhibit development, building on NHMU's history of relationship-building with Indigenous communities. We have witnessed strengthened relationships within and between co-curators, NHMU, and tribes. The group has a shared resolve to preserve and communicate Indigenous knowledge and share this model with the museum community.
Transformación Cultural: Community Representation of Past, Present, Future
For three years, the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Artes de México en Utah, and a community work group endeavored ot change the so-called "Mesoamerican" gallery. Through reciprocal learning and shared purpose, museum staff and community members-artists, advocates, educators, historians, and others connected to Mexico, Central & South America-created a dramatic reinstallation called "Transformación Cultural: Nuestro Pasado es Presente." This collaboration illuminates important possibilities for how an organization and community can work together.