Museum Culture and the Inequities of Display and Representation

Abstract

The politics of representation of art work in mu seums is a compelling subject for art educators from elementary to higher education. This paper examines how art educators, critics, and artists critique museum culture and curatorial practic es. I begin by presenting examples of activism in the arts through the work of individual artists and collaboratives. The content of these works are commentaries on how cultural images rep resented in museums suggest tacit messages about power, history, knowledge, and identity. I conclude by suggesting how art educators might use students' personal experience and memory in order to encourage multiple interpre tations of meaning in the making and viewing of art work. Students who make and view art as relevant and inseparable from the local com munity, might possibly penetrate the boundaries between looking and participating in art.