If the MFA is serious about reaching out to minority residents

Why does art need to be a race issue?

It's an interesting question how the MFA could better serve different populations. Third Decade apparently believes not enough is being done. How should a museum reach out?

The other day I received an email from an acquaintance inviting me to participate in the Museum of Fine Arts (new?) diversity initiative. According to my contact, the MFA is beginning a "series of events aimed at increasing the engagement of communities of color." He attached a flyer to the email with information on the first event taking place at the end of September. Basically, a corporate executive and MFA board member will be speaking about her insights on collecting. Other than the fact that the speaker is a Black woman,I can't say that's particularly engaging. ...

I know from personal experience that a large part of how the MFA reaches out to any part of the community is by talking about, and encouraging, art collection. It seems Third Decade things art collection is not interesting to the "communities of color" he feels himself to be part of.

I can't say I blame him; I'm too poor to collect art too. I sometimes get invited to listen to people talk about collection too, but it's really all vicarious for me. Collecting art is for people with more money than I (or Third Decade). But is that more of an insult somehow to "communities of color" than it is to me?

Okay, maybe that’s a fail. So if encouraging art collection among "communities of color" is out as a good way to engage such communities, what else could the MFA do? Hold events at the museum to which it specifically invites people from "communities of color," focusing on art from different ethnic traditions? Yes, it looks like the MFA plans to do that:

the series - which isn't fully developed yet - will also include art overviews of different ethnic populations, events which connect the overviews back to what is available at the Museum, and smaller events with local collectors and local artists not associated with the MFA.

And no, Third Decade thinks that's not enough. Just what should the MFA do? Third Decade's only suggestions involve doing things that aren't at the MFA.

If the MFA truly wants to engage communities of color, there should be a little more effort for the museum to conduct more of its programming in those communities and not always expect people from those communities to approach the museum.

So the mountain must come to Mohammed. Why? The mountain doesn't come to Biff and Muffy either. Does Third Decade think Mohammed is too lazy to walk to the museum, but that's all right for Biff and Muffy? And that's not all -- the mountain shouldn't even be a mountain anymore once it gets to Mohammed. TD suggests it should do non-museumy things like get involved in Open Studios in different Boston neighborhoods... or be more like the Brooklyn Museum. It should be more outreachy, like a foundation or a service...

I think Third Decade fundamentally misunderstands the mission of the MFA and other art museums. Most fundamentally, an art museum is a place where people go to see art. Here's the first paragraph of the mission statement:

The Museum of Fine Arts houses and preserves preeminent collections and aspires to serve a wide variety of people through direct encounters with works of art.

What’s the mission of the Brooklyn Museum, which Third Decade views favorably?

The mission of the Brooklyn Museum is to act as a bridge between the rich artistic heritage of world cultures, as embodied in its collections, and the unique experience of each visitor. Dedicated to the primacy of the visitor experience, committed to excellence in every aspect of its collections and programs, and drawing on both new and traditional tools of communication, interpretation, and presentation, the Museum aims to serve its diverse public as a dynamic, innovative, and welcoming center for learning through the visual arts.

Indeed, those are two very different mission statements. It seems like the Brooklyn Museum (where I have never been) is a very neighborhood-oriented, outreachy place, what with the teen advisory board and the free family parties on first Saturdays. People always tell me Brooklyn is really cool and hip and all that, and perhaps their museum reflects that, and is trying to distinguish itself from Manhattan’s museum by being really hip and cool and all that. Boston is widely considered to be square and stodgy, and, yes it’s true, our museum sometimes reflects that. Then again, the MFA is the principal art museum of the entire region, not just the second-largest museum in the same city. So it’s perhaps more fair to compare our little MFA with the Met instead. Here’s the Met mission statement:

The mission of The Metropolitan Museum of Art is to collect, preserve, study, exhibit, and stimulate appreciation for and advance knowledge of works of art that collectively represent the broadest spectrum of human achievement at the highest level of quality, all in the service of the public and in accordance with the highest professional standards

The Met isn’t “dedicated to the primacy of the visitor experience.” It’s dedicated to preserving and presenting art. So is the MFA, and maybe some of us like it that way. Personally, I don’t really like exhibits that are overwhelmed by interpretation and explanation. I’d rather just look at art.

The MFA has some art that is permanently on display, and some art that cyles through in special exhibitions. Almost all of its activities are related to, or in the service of, the mission of being a place where people go to see art.

It's one thing to say the MFA should have different kinds of art. That is relatively easily accomplished. The rotating exhibitions can be varied. I thought the recent Spanish Masters exhibit was great, and I really like the Japanese, um, drawings. If there's some particular ethnic or artistic tradition that deserves greater representation, one could surely suggest that the MFA create an exhibit -- and I'd likely go see it.

But to say that some group of people doesn't like to go to a museum to see art, and that this is somehow related to the color of their skin, and that this therefore constitutes some form of discrimination on the museum's part, and therefore the museum must change its fundamental mission, is ridiculous. It sounds too much like the entitlement generation demanding to be catered to, because going outside of one’s comfort zone is too much effort.

So you don’t hold the MFA and other Boston-area institutions with the same reverence and esteem that your parents did? Well, that’s your loss, but I’m sure those parents who took you to the museum as a child will take your kids too, with hope for the next generation. I, for one, am perfectly happy that the MFA hasn’t changed very much since I was a kid, and that my son can have the same wonderful, undisturbed first-hand artistic experience a similarly fortunate child from the previous generations could have had (and I didn’t have, which is one reason I’m happy to raise my son in Boston). I hope my grandchildren will have the same experience, and will mix and mingle happily with the grandchildren of “today’s professionals of color” – who will probably by that time realize what they’re missing.

Sheesh, the MFA sends out emails to do outreach and what happens?

MFA has a nice diverse music and film program. They give out thousands of passes to the Boston Public Schools, to Boston Community Centers and Boys' and Girls' Clubs.

I haven't been to their Friday evening functions, it's a young crowd, maybe 3rd Decade could drop by and check it out.

The suggestion to support Open Studios is a good one, though.

But I get the sense that lots of complaints like this amount to "Why aren't they kissing my personal ass?"

The MFA is in a city where Caucasians are not the majority. The MFA is in a neighborhood that has even more of a concentration of people of color than Boston as a whole. Yes, art should be for everyone. Yet, most of the people visiting the MFA are Caucasian people. So what is it that the MFA is doing that is attracting a disproportional number of Caucasians while turning away people of color? This is the question. And people who are uncomfortable with the fact that we live in a racist society are just going to say "dunno...the museum is there, so if the people of color don't visit it, that's their problem."

For you concrete thinkers out there, this doesn't mean that the MFA hates brown people. Racism isn't usually about someone making a conscious decision to exclude someone. It just means that something about their marketing and/or the culture of their events inadvertently has made a lot of people of color feel like it's not somewhere they'd like to go. Otherwise, we would see the same makeup at museum events as that of the neighborhood.

http://1smootshort.blogspot.com