Webinar for NEMO - Network of European Museum Organisations

1. Museums making sense:
dealing with the discomfort of a multicoloured world
Maria Vlachou
NEMO webinar, 28.10.2020

3. “Propaganda must always be
popular and adapt its mental
level to the receptive ability
of the least intelligent among
those whom it wishes to
address. (…) Effective
propaganda needs to be
limited to very few points,
which must be expressed in
the form of slogans.”

4. “We were elected with the
slogans ‘Drain the swamp’,
‘Lock Clinton up’, ‘Build a
wall on the border’. That
was pure anger. Anger and
fear are what makes people
go to the polls.”

11. “We believe that the silence of other museum
organizations sends a message that these
issues are the concern only of African
Americans and African American Museums.
We know that this is not the case.”
Museums Respond to Ferguson joint statement

14. “The reasons are
many, including the
limited demographics
of those who worked
on an exhibition that is
very much about
race, as well as the
current cultural
climate.”

15. In Flanders Fields Museum,
Ypres (Ieper)

16. Delaware Historical Society
Delaware: One State, Many Stories
Discover Delaware | Journey to Freedom

17. Worcester Art Museum

20. Museum of Homelessness,
London

22. “It is essential to resist the
depiction of history as the
work of heroic individuals
in order for people today to
recognize their potential
agency as a part of an
ever-expanding community
of struggle."
Angela Davis, Freedom is
a Constant Struggle

23. Why do we do
what we do?

25. To achieve its goals The Museum of Modern Art recognizes:
• That modern and contemporary art transcend national boundaries…
• That it is essential to affirm the importance of contemporary art and artists if the
Museum is to honor the ideals with which it was founded and to remain vital and
engaged with the present.
• That to remain at the forefront of its field, the Museum must have an outstanding
professional staff and must periodically re-evaluate itself, responding to new ideas
and initiatives with insight, imagination, and intelligence. The process of re-
evaluation is mandated by the Museum’s tradition, which encourages openness and
a willingness to evolve and change.

26. These data point to a potential conclusion that may
make some cultural organizations uncomfortable:
Perhaps the market wants us to take a stand. More
than that, the data may underscore something more
fundamental for cultural organizations: Standing up
for your mission matters.”

27. “be fitted for freedom”

28. “…to produce free
citizens, citizens who are
free not because of wealth
or birth, but because they
can call their minds their
own.”
Martha Nussbaum
“be fitted for freedom”

29. Maria Vlachou
mariavlachou.pt@gmail.com
Blog:
Musing on Culture
acessocultura.org