Tina Fineberg/Associated Press
The words of our First Lady at the Studio Museum in Harlem have stirred a hornets nest among conservative bloggers and news sites in the past few days. Mrs. Obama stated the following:
“You see, there are so many kids in this country who look at places like museums and concert halls and other cultural centers and they think to themselves, well, that’s not a place for me, for someone who looks like me, for someone who comes from my neighborhood. In fact, I guarantee you that right now, there are kids living less than a mile from here who would never in a million years dream that they would be welcome in this museum.
“And growing up on the South Side of Chicago, I was one of those kids myself. So I know that feeling of not belonging in a place like this. And today, as first lady, I know how that feeling limits the horizons of far too many of our young people."
The headlines and blog posts state that Mrs. Obama thinks that because of these words, she believes that museums are only for "white people". What she said is not that museums are only for white people, she said that."many kids"(notice she did not use any race here!!!) "in this country who look at museums and concert halls and other cultural centers and they they think to themselves, well, that's not a place for me, for someone who looks like me..." She is absolutely right!!!Yes I said it, she is right! Kids, due to race, economic background, social standing and a myriad of reasons feel just that way and, frankly, so do many of their parents. Those who think otherwise need to get their heads out of their politics and look at the real problems. Blaming black culture is a simplistic and wrong-headed approach that only further proves that fact that racism is alive and well in our country today. This is not about race, it is about much more.
She said kids...and let me assure you that they are not coming in the numbers they once did. When I was in school, we took many field trips to museums. The white, mostly rural children I knew got their first exposure to museums at school. Their parents were generally NOT museum goers. Since my parents did love museums, and since I went with my friends in school, I felt perfectly comfortable in a museum setting but I knew many parents who lived near me as a child who were shocked that my parents took me to the Art Museum in St. Louis. One told me, "I would never take my kids there, they don't need their heads filled with that stuff." She was white and middle class, but no museums for her family. Those field trips are drying up. Without them we will continue to see more alienation and less comfort with the museum experience.
Many, regardless of race, see museums and concert halls as places of the rich, the cultured and the snooty. They also see many museums as boring, stodgy, stuffy places of no interest. to them. Well, many are! Some museums totally fail to engage any audience, let alone a broad one. If I look at a museum and I do not see any external signs that there is anything in there for "me", why should I go in? Is the Museum marketing to a broad audience? If not how can they expect a broad audience to come? The fact is, the old "build it and they will come" theory of museum building and attendance is simply outdated and useless in our modern world. This is not a problem with black,or any other culture, it is a problem to be laid at the feet of the museum industry.
And what about admission costs? I know well that museums need money to survive, but in some cases the cost of our institutions has been forced to rise due to losses of tac support, reduced income from endowments a few years back and increased costs of maintenance and upkeep of older buildings and staffing costs. For many, admission is a real obstacle especially for families. Despite the knowledge and love of learning that can be instilled by museums, if you can't afford to go, you are forced to be outside looking in. Not a welcoming image.
We as an industry need to do more to market and appeal to an ever broader audience. We need to make sure that we are inviting to all by offering a wide variety of programming. We need to show the public how and why we are relevant and important to society as a whole. We need to find ways to make our spaces more affordable and finally we need to see that the problem is not solely external to us, but is also with our walls and our minds.
