Whether you are part of the museum world or not, you have likely heard of the controversy surrounding the Parthenon marbles. This summer, newspapers have been flooded with stories about these ancient sculptures, with a renewed fervor for restitution and apparent headways in the Greek cause. Housed at the British Museum, they have been at the center of debates over restitution. Their history provides a fascinating jumping-off point for discussions on how museums handle their history, especially in cases where past practices do not reflect 21^st-century understandings of museum ethics. What, exactly, is the history of these works? How should we handle complex discussions of heritage and cultural ownership? How do societal moralities confront war and theft in “European-on-European” conflicts?

This past Sunday, comedian John Oliver covered museums in his deep dive on Last Week Tonight. He began by discussing the Parthenon Marbles, then moved on to focus on the issue of decolonization and restitution in European and American museums. This has brought renewed public attention to this issue, but over the summer months, we also saw a number of articles in museum and art publications discussing these same sculptures.

Art historian Eleni Vassilika wrote an informative article outlining her shift in perspective regarding the restitution of the marbles, while archaeologist Mario Trabucco della Torretta reiterated the right of the British Museum to retain them. The prominence of this debate can also be seen in the demonstration that took place in the British Museum on June 18, 2022, when protesters marked the anniversary of the opening of the Acropolis Museum in Athens by demanding the return of the marbles. The protesters are not without allies in the British government, as several members of Parliament have also expressed support for their cause. The British Museum’s chairman, George Osborne, instead proposed alternatives to the unequivocal return of the marbles, suggesting a temporary loan or an agreement to “…tell both stories in Athens and in London.” This debate has led to numerous solutions being put forward, including providing copies for the British Museum to display, but ultimately it seems impossible to find an agreement that will satisfy all sides. Most recently, Prime Minister Liz Truss has spoken on the return of the Parthenon Marbles, claiming that she is entirely against it, seemingly putting an end to the potential collaborations proposed by Osborne. This speaks to the complexity of the issue and reveals how recent discussions on ethics and restitution place museum studies on the cusp of a new age.

A decree from the Sultan of Turkey granted Elgin free access to the Acropolis and assures his right to “tak[e] away any pieces of stone with inscriptions or figures.” (Casey) Elgin took this language with the loosest possible interpretations, giving himself permission to remove “hundreds of tons of sculptured material from the Parthenon and its surrounding structures.” (Casey) Between 1801 and 1812, Elgin managed to place in his personal property 247 feet of the frieze that ran around the perimeter of the building, 15 metopes, and 17 sculptures from the pediment. Initially intended to decorate his house, after a costly divorce and rapidly mounting debts Lord Elgin decided to sell them (at a loss from the cost of transporting them from Greece to England) to the British Museum.

Criticism of Elgin’s removal of the reliefs and sculpture is certainly not a recent phenomenon. Elgin’s contemporaries criticized his wanton dismantling of the Greek site. The Monthly Magazine published an editorial that claimed that “many things which had been hitherto considered immovable have been torn away from the places where they had remained unmolested for thousands of years.” (Casey) Greece, an increasingly popular site for British Gran Tours during the years of Napoleon’s European conquests, was now stripped of one of its most admired monuments.

Last year, I had the opportunity to discuss some of these topics at the “Crime and Spectacle: Theft, Forgery, and Propaganda” conference through the CMSMC. I later published a paper through the CMSMC based on my talk, titled “‘Conquête Militaire’: The Ethics of Restitution of the Louvre’s Napoleonic Legacy.” In it, I examined the issue of heritage and ownership in regard to Veronese’s Wedding Feast at Cana, a Venetian work looted by Napoleon in 1797 and still housed at the Louvre today. Looting within the context of European wars is nothing new or unusual, and this makes the question of restitution and museum acquisition ethics even more complicated. While researching for this article, I reached out to the Louvre, and Chief Curator Vincent Delieuvin kindly replied, explaining:

“There are no discussions on repatriating these objects. This is part of the European history. In our countries, many places or museums have in their collection that kind of objects taken, in old times, during war. For example, in Venice, the cathedral of San Marco has many objects taken during the crusade in Constantinople.” (Delieuvin)

The Louvre is certainly not alone in maintaining this point of view, as the vast majority of European museums hold objects acquired through military conquests and plunder, or owned by a particular modern nation through the consequences of the ever-shifting borders of European territories. The question of the right of ownership and repatriation of art moved throughout Europe is thus difficult to quantify or apply a single, overarching solution to.

I finished my article by citing Dr. Lisa Yun Lee, and I want to do the same here. She wrote, “At some point, the history of your institution will disappoint you. Tell this history, and take responsibility for the past.” (Lee, 77) Often we see these discussions getting entangled in questions of legality, and we rarely stop to consider their morality. Museum professionals hold a responsibility to the objects and history they care for, and thus should consider the ethics of the provenance of their objects and act on it, without using the documentation or past, outdated principles to shackle objects taken unethically.

Sources:

Bisi, Francesca. “‘Conquête Militaire’: The Ethics of Restitution of the Louvre’s Napoleonic Legacy.” The Coalition of Master’s Scholars on Material Culture, February 25, 2022 (link).

Casey, Christopher. “‘Grecian Grandeurs and the Rude Wasting of Old Time’: Britain, the Elgin Marbles, and Post-Revolutionary Hellenism.” Foundations 3, no. 1 (2008): 32–64.

Delieuvin, Vincent. “Research Questions – Wedding Feast at Cana,” February 12, 2022.

Lee, Lisa Yun. “Hope Is Not a Metaphor: An Annotated Guide to Twenty-Five Essential Skills for Museum Leaders.” In The Inclusive Museum Leader, edited by Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko and Chris Taylor, 75–82. American Alliance of Museums. London, UK: Rowman & Littlefield, 2021.

Article by Francesca Bisi

MA Candidate in Art History and Museum Studies, Tufts University

Hello everyone, and welcome to this week’s roundup of exciting opportunities in museums! We do our best to collect the latest job openings, and please be sure to check last week’s roundup. For more opportunities, we recommend the following databases:

MuseWeekly
New England Museum Association Jobs
HireCulture – Jobs in the Humanities in Massachusetts
HistPres – Unique Historic Preservation Jobs
Museum Employment Resource Center
Job HQ – American Association of Museums
American Association of State and Local History Career Center

Northeast

• Assistant Manager of Interpretation, The Mark Twain House and Museum (Hartford, CT)
• Exhibitions Manager, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art (Hartford, CT)
• Theater Programs Manager, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art (Hartford, CT)
• Curator, Sharon Historical Society & Museum (Sharon, CT)
• Educator for Academy Engagement, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Gallery (Andover, MA)
• Temporary Educator/Collections Assistant, Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology (Andover, MA)
• Museum Director, Old Schwamb Mill (Arlington, MA)
• Senior Director of Museum Learning, Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, MA)
• Public Programs Assistant, Harvard Museums of Science & Culture (Cambridge, MA)
• Manager of Community Partnerships, Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA)
• Museum Interpreter, Concord Museum (Concord, MA)
• Executive Director, The Robbins House (Concord, MA)
• Executive Director, Duxbury Rural & Historical Society (Duxbury, MA)
• Development Associate, Cape Ann Museum (Gloucester, MA)
• Museum Educator, Buttonwoods Museum (Haverhill, MA)
• Museum Teacher, Tsongas Industrial History Center (Lowell, MA)
• Museum Education Supervisor, Tsongas Industrial History Center (Lowell, MA)
• Development Officer, Custom House Maritime Museum (Newburyport, MA)
• Marketing and Communications Manager, The House of the Seven Gables (Salem, MA)
• Lunde Fellowship, Clark Art Institute (Williamstown, MA)
• In-School Education Director, Old Stone House Museum & Historic Village (Brownington, VT)
• Director of Education, Shelburne Museum (Shelburne, VT)
• Development Associate, Grants & Endowments, Shelburne Museum (Shelburne, VT)
• Curatorial Manager, Billings Farm & Museum (Woodstock, VT)

Mid-Atlantic

• Assistant/Associate Professor of Museum Education and Director of the Museum Education Program, The George Washington University (Washington, DC)
• Supervisory Museum Specialist (Head of Exhibitions), National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC)
• Prospect Research Analyst, National Museum of the American Indian (Washington, DC)
• Director of Education, Calvert Marine Museum (Solomons, MD)
• Curatorial Director, Center for Exploratory and Perceptual Art (Buffalo, NY)
• Vice President of Finance, Genesee Country Village & Museum (Mumford, NY)
• Program and Gallery Educator, Jackie Robinson Museum (New York, NY)
• Executive Director, Frederic Remington Art Museum (Ogdensburg, NY)
• Registration Technician, NYS Bureau of Historic Sites and Park Services (Waterford, NY)
• Deputy Director of Art Education, Parrish Art Museum (Water Mill, NY)
• Deputy Director of Development, Parrish Art Museum (Water Mill, NY)
• Discovery Archivist, Avalon Free Public Library & History Center (Avalon, NJ)
• Deputy Director, Philanthropy and External Relations, Arts Consulting Group (Newark, NJ)
• Membership Manager, Mercer Museum & Fonthill Castle (Doylestown, PA)
• Curator of Indigenous History & Culture, Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation (Williamsburg, VA)

Southeast

• Processing Archivist, Alabama Department of Archives & History (Montgomery, AL)
• Executive Director, Alabama African American Civil Rights Heritage Sites Consortium (Birmingham, AL)
• Traveling Exhibitions Coordinator, Art Bridges Foundation (Bentonville, AR)
• Assistant Curator, Art Bridges Foundation (Bentonville, AR)
• Director, UA Little Rock Downtown (Little Rock, AR)
• Executive Director, Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice (Durham, NC)
• Executive Director, Hickory Landmarks Society (Hickory, NC)
• Director of Outreach and Engagement, Historic Columbia (Columbia, SC)
• Chief Curator, Tennessee State Museum (Nashville, TN)

Midwest

• College Archivist and Curator of Special Collections, Illinois College (Jacksonville, IL)
• Executive Director, Ellwood House Museum (DeKalb, IL)
• President and CEO, Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art (Indianapolis, IN)
• Chair of Education, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University (Indianapolis, IN)
• Curator of Cultural History, Indiana State Museum and Historic Site (Indianapolis, IN)
• Development Coordinator, Museum of Danish America (Elk Horn, IA)
• Director, McPherson Museum (McPherson, KS)
• Executive Director, The Heritage Museum and Cultural Center (Saint Joseph, MI)
• Education Coordinator, History Center of Olmsted County (Rochester, MN)
• Managing Director of Public History, Missouri Historical Society (Saint Louis, MO)

Southwest

• Assistant Curator of Photography, Center for Creative Photography and Phoenix Art Museum (Tucson/Phoenix, AZ)
• Chief Curator, Berkley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive (Berkley, CA)
• The Phyllis C. Wattis Curator, Berkley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive (Berkley, CA)
• Curator, Berkley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive (Berkley, CA)
• Curator of Collections, Los Altos History Museum (Los Altos, CA)
• Communications Coordinator, The Getty (Los Angeles, CA)
• De Young Open Coordinator, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (San Francisco, CA)
• Executive Director, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado College (Colorado Springs, CO)
• Assistant Project Manager/Assistant Registrar, Denver Art Museum (Denver, CO)
• Exhibits Manager, Nevada State Museum (Carson City, NV)
• Education Curator, Churchill County (Fallon, NV)
• Associate Curator of Exhibition Content, Bullock Texas State History Museum (Austin, TX)
• Mellon Curatorial Fellow & CSA Curatorial Fellow, Meadows Museum (Dallas, TX)
• Curator, Crow Museum of Asian Art, University of Texas at Dallas (Richardson, TX)
• Museum Director, Utah Division of State History (Salt Lake City, UT)

Northwest

• Curator of Collections and Exhibitions, Idaho State Historical Society (Boise, ID)
• Chief of Exhibits and Interpretive Services, Museum of History and Industry (Seattle, WA)

Remote

• Social Media Posting Coordinator, The Filipino Veterans Recognition and Education Project
• Education Outreach Coordinator, The Filipino Veterans Recognition and Education Project

Article by: Jackson Rhodes                                                                         

MA Candidate: Museum Education, Tufts University

I interned this summer at a small historic house museum. A combination of factors, namely the museum’s isolated location and a lack of resources, placed it in a precarious position. Multiple staff were hired in the month prior to my arrival, and during my final days in July, I learned of a few staff who were going to quit in the weeks following my departure. Addressing all the reasons for that is worth the dedication of a paper much longer than this. Rather, I’m going to focus on one of my biggest takeaways from the internship, and how I believe it can speak to museums regardless of field or scope. 

Although it was somewhat audacious, this summer I had hoped to institute something actionable that addressed core institutional problems and affected my museum positively. I eventually realized that organizing internal communication, an overlooked concept at the museum, satisfied my hopes. Unfortunately, the best I could do was to leave a list of recommendations on how to organize better communication strategies, even just turning attention to internal communication was monumental. Where bi-weekly staff meetings were the only guaranteed means for cross-departmental dialogue, consolidating communication efficiently can lead to innumerable benefits that benefit the staff professionally and personally.

That realization came from reading “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg. Besides exacerbating my fear of corporations and reinvigorating my self-confidence (I’m not sure how better to recommend this book), Duhigg introduced me to the concept of a keystone habit. These habits are the catalysts of chain reactions that, through discipline and willpower, dislodge and reshape existing habits. Crucial to that is isolating what can reasonably be accomplished. A popular example of what can’t be reasonably accomplished is all of our New Year’s Resolutions: If your goal is too high, the threshold of willpower to maintain that motivation often becomes impossibly high. 

Internal communication as a keystone habit was specific to where I worked; The practice of identifying those habits and routines is what can strengthen museums universally. It’s crucial to note that there are pitfalls to this practice and that the task is complex and sometimes self-contradictory. Whittling down to an issue’s core with “why” statements while retaining awareness of the museum’s entirety of perspectives, and then building around an identified keystone habit was my method of impromptu evaluation. I tried to be as methodical and patient as I could in arriving at my conclusions, which of course I would encourage whenever possible.

Cultural and political reckonings have forced museums to question their good to their communities and, indeed, to themselves. Despite never taking a formal evaluation course, I’ve learned over the past year that organized, impactful evaluation is a theme consistently present in thriving museums. My museum this summer was particularly victimized by uncontrollable factors, but evaluation is within our control and ability. By evaluating with awareness and compassion, museums provide themselves clarity on how best to evolve, serving for the good of themselves and their communities. 

Word choice matters. Words can include or exclude. Words can prescribe power or take it away. The language that museums use to communicate with their audience can create an inclusive environment and promote diverse stories, or not. Living history museums have a reputation for promoting a nostalgic version of the past and focusing on the stories of the white nuclear family, but this is beginning to change. Conversations about diversity and inclusion within all types of museums have increased in the last decade. On August 24, 2022, ICOM approved a new museum definition that includes, for the first time, phrases like “inclusivity”, “accessibility”, “diversity”, and “ethics.”  In the 21st century, museums are striving to become welcoming spaces for all visitors regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, and physical ability. A significant step in this process has been the formation of internal DEAI (diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion) committees or workgroups.

This summer, I interned in the education department at Strawbery Banke Museum, where I increased my understanding of what inclusion can look like when working with young audiences at a living history museum. Strawbery Banke Museum is extremely forward-thinking compared to other living history museums I have visited. In 2020, the staff formed a DEAI task force and created a DEAI mission statement to guide work culture, interpretation, and audience interaction. In 2021, Strawbery Banke Museum introduced optional “she/her”, “he/him”, “they/them”, and “please ask” pronoun pins for staff to wear alongside their museum name tags. The pronoun pins are an actionable step that the museum is taking following its DEAI Task Force mission statement.

Wearing a “she/her” pronoun pin every day, as part of my Strawbery Banke Museum uniform, was a simple yet impactful way that I chose to affirm that everyone’s identity should be valued. Wearing the pin was also a way I could invite campers into conversations about gender identity. As a general rule, we also greeted/addressed our groups as “campers” or “friends”, to avoid the greeting “boys and girls,” which assumes the group’s gender identities. In addition to the education staff wearing pronoun pins, we made them available to the summer campers. In the Victorian Jr. Roleplayers camp (12-17-year-olds) I helped implement, the pronoun pins were greatly appreciated, as several of the campers identified as non-binary. In Victorian Jr. Roleplayers, the campers engaged in historical research methods to learn about a specific “Puddle Dock” community member from the Victorian period to portray on the museum grounds. Like many living history sites, Strawbery Banke Museum’s records lack information about LGBTQIA+ community members. While there are historical primary source documents that tell these stories, traditionally they have been overlooked or buried by archives and researchers. This meant that the education team had to get creative. Without compromising historical accuracy (clothing, historical events, etc.), we created composite characters for our Jr. Roleplayers who identified as non-binary. In addition to this, we gave campers the choice of wearing female or male presenting historical clothing.

My goal for leading summer camps was not only to engage campers (6-17-year-olds) in Portsmouth community history through fun crafts and activities but to make sure all campers felt welcomed and respected while at the museum. I experienced first-hand how language choice has a huge impact on transgender or gender-non-conforming summer campers. Whether you are an emerging museum professional or a current professional, I believe we should all be striving to make diverse audiences feel welcomed, respected, and empowered in our museum spaces. 

There are so many great resources out there to guide museum staff and organizations in integrating inclusive language and practices into their spaces. In 2014, Margaret Middleton, a Boston-based exhibit designer, developed a Family-Inclusive Language guide to be used as a tool for museum educators and exhibit developers. The guide provides inclusive language alternatives for problematic phrases. For example, the guide suggests using the phrase “guardians” instead of “parents”, and “children” instead of “son or daughter.” The guide prompts museum professionals to think about the bias that can be embedded in interpersonal interactions or exhibit text, such as assumed gender identity or familial relationships.  The LGBTQ Alliance professional network of the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) offers an LGBTQ Welcoming Guidelines for Museums resource. The guidelines establish standards of professional practice to help museums be more inclusive of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer staff and visitors.

Here are the links to those two recourses, to help you start thinking about how to integrate inclusive practices into your work, department, and museum:

• Family-Inclusive Language Guide

• LGBTQ Welcoming Guidelines for Museums

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Post by Savannah Kruguer

MA Candidate: Museum Education, Tufts University