I had this idea almost three years ago. Yep, this precise post was first created and just sat here. But now… I’m annoyed. I have stuff to say about how the art world doesn’t seem to really care about diversity– shocker. In this post, I’m going to express my opinions on what’s going on today as well as summarizing my senior thesis for my Bachelor’s in Art History. The entire thesis will be coming out in a separate post.
*this is a collection of my personal experiences from my art history classes, internships, papers, and research for my senior thesis*
Small Parts, Thick Books
Ok so mayhaps I fake stumbled into art history just because I knew the AP art history class at my high school was going on a trip to Europe after the semester was over. But the stumble turned into an actual real fall, and here I sit typing on this computer with two more months left of college before I get my Bachelor’s in Art History. I remember vaguely the cover of my art history book in eleventh grade. Something that I’ll never forget is the weight of the book. I never could fit it in my bookbag. It was always something I had to carry in my arms. Within this thick, heavy book was centuries of art history– at least that’s what it was advertised as. If I may correct them, it was centuries of European art history. Then, of course, as the chapters progressed it became more of American art history. You know, settler colonialism, “from sea to shining sea”, Atlantic slave trade, etc. Did you know the land I live on right now appeared through dramatic fog and manifest destiny in 1492? It’s a weird world map. Where is… everything else? You may wonder. Ah hah, I found it. If you flip through slowly enough, you will find four very short chapters back-to-back and in the middle of the book (clearly not related to the white timeline, so they just put them somewhere): African art, Oceanic art, Indigenous art, and Islamic art… Asian art, MIA. A surprise to literally no one, my college textbook freshman year was not much different, although I do remember the cover having happier colors. In this episode of “Art History 101, but it’s Western Art History 101”, they actually featured a small section of Asian art. I remember because I did a presentation on one of the only Asian artworks that both the book and the professor thought meant literally anything. Similarly, I also had to present on a region of people of color in my high school AP art history class. In both instances, the teacher/professor left it to the students to either form groups or make individual presentation on the slivers of “other” art chapters. Let me stress that I am aware that cramming all of art history into one semester makes no sense, is stupid, and also impossible, but acknowledging the faults of the institution is the least you can do. At least teach us the small material rather than leaving it to the students using Wikipedia and book abstracts to teach other students. Or completely forgetting to teach us African art until the very last day of class. That actually happened. Not just to me, but to Titus Kaphar, a famous contemporary artist who mentioned it in his Ted Talk, years before myself.
Hide & Don’t Seek
I always hated Hide and Go Seek. Either they would find you immediately and the fun is lost, or you find a really good spot and you gotta reveal yourself because it’s been too long and you have to pee. Can you believe this game has to be played with visitors of museums globally? You probably can believe it. For a grade in my Art History 101 class my freshman year of college, we had to go to another museum and write about it. I brought my friend, so we could have a “cultured” day out. Great for the ‘gram. We roamed the museum and took lots of pictures, then we bounced. A year later, in another art history course, we visited the same museum. This time we had a tour leader, the curator of African art (a white lady). She showed us galleries I never knew existed when I went with my friend. Including, the African art space. Some may call it an attic, others could argue a fucking storage closet, either one… I would agree with. They made it look nice though. Probably a eight foot by fifteen foot space. It was painted a pretty purple color, and they just recently installed iPads to show the other work that was in storage. Cool! When I studied abroad, I went to the British museum to view the African art collection and write about it after. Luckily, the collections were in the basement, so I didn’t have to walk up a one way, narrow stairwell to reach a closet. This space was way bigger and offered great information via videos and labels. However, it was still a basement, and there I was observing my severed cultures in the bottom of the museum, away from everything else. Similar to the museum that I interned for in 2017. I had an amazing time and worked with funny and intelligent people. This museum also had the African art in the basement (although after fighting for it, the African art curator (another white woman) recently attained galleries on the higher level floors with more foot traffic), and me and the other interns discussed this during our lunch hours (they were all literally so smart and I learned so much from them). One of them said something that struck me and I still have not forgotten, “Why would you want to give money to people who put your culture in a basement?”.
Actions are Louder
Museums these days say that they care about diversity. It falls perfectly in line with advertisers using rainbow flags or a random black child in their content. It is supposed to show that they too are on the diversity train. But do they actually care? The promotion of diversity in museums has been targeted mainly at the visitor demographic. It is true that mostly white people attend museums, even in cities where there are a variety of cultures and backgrounds. Trying to show that museums are for “you” too is what seems to be the trend. Those weekly emails about what is going on at the museum near you with a giant picture of two brown people cheesing… quality photo. It has as much depth as the term “diversity” does. Jonathan Katz, an American art historian, explains the emptiness of the term in his talk titled “Why I Hate Diversity“, in which he basically says diversity means nothing because it is not built on top of stable ground. “Progress” is being stacked on top of centuries of oppressive acts that specifically worked to keep people of color out of museums and making art. These things have not been unpacked enough or at all to even try to move onward and upward. Yes, getting more people of color out to museums is important, and it is way easier than altering the mere 28% of people of color in museum staff and even less in higher level positions. However, I believe that working top down gets to the root of the problem and has longer lasting affects. Who is to say that people of color will continue to come to the museum as much as they did last year? That can fluctuate. Having people of color in the museum is more manageable. Well, I guess that’s why there aren’t any. Taking money from people of color is better than giving them money. Right?
Change
This last section is so blah, and that is because stats are tangible, and change may not be. After all I’ve said, that does not mean that change is not happening. At the Chicago museum of Contemporary Art, Naomi Beckwith, a Black women (with beautiful natural hair out in the featured image of the article), was recently announced as senior curator after working their for seven years. The day before, Larry Ossei-Mensah was appointed as senior curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (a museum with a largely black audience and staff). So is slow change coming (maybe, hopefully)? There are also organizations like the Mellon Foundation Fellowship for select museums in America being created just so people of color can get their chance and experience what it takes to be in the museum field. Although… it may lend to the idea of building on top of unacknowledged history, does it not? Hopefully the art world will be waiting (im)patiently to see the changes this method will make. This speaks to the fact that it was so difficult for me to find research for my senior thesis because change can barely be seen on the horizon, it is frankly being talked about as of three years ago, so no one has written (that I have found) entire books on the issue. It has now become clear to me that as gross as it sounds, I can’t find the change because I am a part of it *literally projectile vomits*.
After this brief rant, I can’t seem to understand why I would even want to subject myself to a field that has so much work to do. But as an Aquarius rising, I’m up for the challenge.
Your future curator (maybe if anyone hires me and takes me serious enough as a hard working black women and also if/when I get there I don’t leave because of the overwhelming feeling of tokenism and depressing loneliness with the high probability that I will be the only one that looks like me) and potential world changer,
Kennedy 
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