Flexin on Art History and Museums
How much do you know about Star Wars? If the answer is very little, do you have any desire to know more? Probably not? Do you find yourself cornered by people who want to explain to you WHY YOU SHOULD? Does that make you want to know more about it? No? Yeah. Now, substitute “Star…
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Nearly every time I speak about art to adults, at least one individual in the group makes this comment. Notably, not so much from kids. If I tell kids that Hudson River School painters wanted to preserve the environment but they also edited out indigenous people, kids are like, yas bitch, let me go draw…
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Would you prefer to live in a community with or without public art? (And no lol I don’t mean monuments to mediocre white men.) What impression does a town leave on you when you come across bright and colorful murals? Architectural features designed by artists instead of solely for function? How do you think about…
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My intention for my next post was to write about why the arts and their repositories are worth defending. However, I believe my audience largely lies outside of the museum field and that some folks might want a crash course in why people want to burn museums down in the first place. I think we…
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In June of 2020, in the weeks following the murder of George Floyd and the spark of unrest against police violence and brutality against marginalized American citizens, I felt bolstered and energized, living through a classic regime-changing scene: the toppling of statues that represented the old world order throughout the country. It was such a…
Read MoreMuseum Drip was dripping along in my head for years, but as I’ve previously acknowledged, it was the urgency to say something in response to @ChangeTheMuseum that got me to finally hit “publish.” The stories on this account call attention to racial microaggressions (and aggressive-aggressions) and top-down governance that seeks to please super-wealthy board members.…
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It only took me four posts to title a post after Michelle Obama. No one who knows me is surprised. Now, I understand that Michelle Obama is not an arts professional, and likewise it is misleading to title this post about her and community building when it’s not really about her and her community building.…
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I recently read an article about how companies are scrambling to find token Black creatives. The article concerns artist Shantell Martin. Martin is a rising contemporary darling thanks to her bold, dynamic murals and the potential of her work to be used in collaboration across different sectors, from corporations to the performing arts. Martin was…
Read MoreI described my intentions for this blog to a friend as “another white voice screaming into the void,” which is true. I had a lot to say about museums before this year, but who could resist from adding their voice to the din now? Museums are a hot topic (and a hot mess) right now.…
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Art History and museums still have a lot to offer us. I had a lot to say about museums and their potential for both good and evil before May of 2020, but the past 6 weeks of protests and calls to revise the way we tell and sell humanity’s stories have made it clear that…
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