The Baltimore Museum of Art is trailblazing in museum diversity and equity! Its new show opening this weekend, “Guarding the Art,” was created by their security staff. This makes me really happy because guards are everywhere in museums but are rarely seen as people doing important (crucial!) jobs. Making them visible and appreciated should be top priority.
(The Metropolitan Museum of Art gestured in this direction with their 2008 book Museum: Behind the Scenes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in which some chapters were written by security, gastronomy and cleaning staff – but most of the chapters are still by the usual bigwigs. They make the other contributions seem a bit like a cheap sprinkling of stories to appear equality-minded…)
The Baltimore guards chose and researched the exhibition objects, worked on the installation, and wrote the catalog. They were involved in all the steps of the process. And they got paid for their work! What an important step for recognizing and valuing ALL the people who make museums possible, not just the curators and directors. Making sure this work is paid is also fundamental to supporting diversity and equality in all levels of the museum profession.
With projects like this, the Baltimore Museum of Art is well on its way to being “the most relevant publicly engaged museum in the United States,” as set out in its mission statement. Bravo!!
This all inspired my new 1-minute video. It’s part of my new series of YouTube Shorts – take a look!