Reinterpreting Africa: Centering Diverse and Authentic Cultural Voices in a Museum Gallery

Museums decide what cultural items are important enough to collect, how to properly care for these items, and how to display and interpret them. They have historically marginalized communities by hoarding their cultural objects while holding themselves up as the arbiters of cultural greatness. Led by Monica M. Scott, the Spurlock Museum (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) is reinterpreting its Gallery of African Cultures through community evaluation. This evaluation begins a formal process of shifting the Museum’s intellectual and cultural authority. Scott will discuss the project’s history and why museums should center authentic cultural voices in their exhibit designs.