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MR. SUAREZ: For our final discussion of this day long series of discussions I'd like to
bring to the stage Claudine Brown the Assistant Secretary for Education and Access of the
Smithsonian Institution who will introduce the final panel, Claudine.
CLAUDINE BROWN: I am Claudine Brown. I'd like to say thank you to Kip, Hard act to follow.
I saw the show at the Japanese American National Museum and it was incredibly powerful. This
particular panel which is the last of the day addresses museums and the multi-dimensional
American story. I am familiar with the origins of all four
of the museums represented today, and believe that they being to help us to understand the
fight for having our stories told and having our messages be heard. I will introduce you
to those individuals who are participating on
the panel. To my far right is Lawrence Pijeaux, and he is the President and CEO of the Birmingham
Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham, Alabama. To my immediate left is Beth Takekawa. She
is the Executive Director of the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience,
which is in Seattle, Washington. To her left is Helen Samhan who
is the Senior Outreach Advisor for the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.
I hope joining us shortly will be Carlos Tortolero, President of the National Museum of Mexican
Art in Chicago, Illinois. I've asked each of them to take about 10 minutes to tell you
a little bit about their museums, and after that here's Carlos. Let
me give him a chance to join us, thank you. So each of them will tell you a little bit
about their museums, and then we will have a discussion here, and we will open that discussion
to the audience. I am going to ask Lawrence to start.
LAWRENCE PIJEAUX: Good afternoon. MULTIPLE SPEAKERS: Good afternoon.
MR. PIJEAUX: It's a good afternoon. We're all here. I have truly enjoyed today's program.
I want to thank Claudine Brown for extending an invitation for me to participate in
this program. I also thank everyone who played some role in dealing with the logistics that
brought me here from Birmingham, Alabama. I'm also happy that I have been here all day.
I've learned a lot. I'll go back home with quite a bit of information. I'll share with
you some things that really caught my attention during the program today. Listening to Joseph
Henry's comments about race. He said something about the history of the Smithsonian and how
his comments may play it out, and how this institution has evolved. I also enjoyed Dr.
Price who talked about forgetfulness and amnesia. In my part of the world we talk about selective
amnesia, Dr. Price. He also mentioned living in the shadows. He rattled off a couple of
shadows including slavery, the slave trade. I'd like to add to that list segregation.
We like to forget about that. Dr. Thomas talked about the fact that others tend to
tell the history of ethnic groups and coaches that they might not have a whole lot of information
about. As I listened to the presenters today, the underlying theme for me was inclusion.
I'm reminded that the more things change the more they remain the same. Some of these conversations
I've been involved in for the 17 years that I've been at
the Birmingham Civil Rights institute. With that said, let me just tell you a little bit
about the institute. I'll tell you about its beginning, which was a pretty tough
time in the city of Birmingham. A little about our exhibition and some of the things that
we feel pretty good about, some of our accomplishments and I'll conclude with some of the challenges
that I see. Our mission, which drives us every day is to promote civil and human rights worldwide
through education. In the mid-1970s, former mayor David Vann (the last white mayor we've
had in Birmingham) took a trip to Israel and paid a visit to several of the museums there.
He returned to Birmingham in the mid-'70s talking about the city chronicling its civil
rights history. That went to deaf ears. No one in the city was interested in bringing
that history to light. However, Dr. Richard Arrington Jr. in 1979 picked up a
baton. He too had some challenges with that project, and actually sold a building in Birmingham,
Alabama to find the seed money to put up the Birmingham Civil Rights
Institute. Behind me you're looking at the facility before it was completed. What Dr.
Arrington did was create a study group. That study group evolved into a task force that
was formed in 1986, and ultimately our facility opened in 1992. You can see that this whole
notion of a Birmingham Civil Rights Institute took about 15 to 16 years to really move from
idea to a facility. When it opened it cost approximately 14 million dollars, we think.
By now it would be three to four times that amount. One of the problems that both Mayor
Vann and Dr. Arrington ran into was that people did not want to talk about the history of
the movement. They were afraid that this institution would open old wounds. We didn't
have a track record. We were new in the arena at the time. The only other Civil Rights museum
that preceded us by one year was the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee.
There was a big concern about what we might do. Our exhibitions, they include videos,
original artifacts, replicas of artifacts, newspaper clippings, and we have an extensive
oral history project. We've interviewed over 600 individuals who were actively involved
in the movement. One of the things that many people come to see is the
original jail cell door that behind that door Dr. Martin Luther King wrote a very famous
letter from Birmingham Jail. It's become, in many ways, a wishing well. People throw
coins behind the door, and say prayers, and say things that are designed to promote world
peace, and they are hoping that they can return to their respective communities and make things
better. Some of the things that we feel pretty good about, in 2005 we were accredited by
the American Association of Museums. At the time we were the only African American
History Museum accredited by AAM. In 2007 we became an affiliate of the Smithsonian
Institution, and we're pretty proud of that. We've received two national awards, both at
the White House, one in 2006, the other in 2007. I think if you forget about the politics
of it all, it's really great to find yourself at the
White House receiving an award for some work that you've been involved in. Both of the
awards were related to our work with young people. The first was called the Coming up
Taller Award [phonetic] which was specifically designed for our work with a group of inner-city
middle school students. The other, the National Medal, that was presented to
us because of our work in the community at large. Both awards were presented by former
First Lady Laura Bush. In 2009, we were recognized as the state attraction of the year.
Let me put that in perspective, we are in Birmingham, Alabama. We promote civil and
human rights. You know what the state is going through right now with immigration and a lot
of things related to the legislation that we have in the state regarding immigration,
and we were recognized by the state for our work. In 2009, I had the pleasure of being
nominated by the 44th President, Barack Obama to serve
on the Institute of Museum and Library Services board. I was confirmed by the senate in 2010.
On a personal note, there's no way while growing up in New Orleans, Louisiana in the segregated
south needing special permission to visit libraries and museums, could I have ever imagined
that we'd have an African American President let alone one who was nominating
me to serve on the board that has some oversight for institutions that while growing up I had
a tough time visiting. It's a big thing, not only for me personally, but
for the institute. It also speaks to the progress that we have made in the country, and hopefully
the progress that we'll continue to make. In 2010, we received a grant from the museums
and community collaborations abroad program, which amounted to us collaborating with the
Apartheid Museum in South Africa, and the Mandela House
in South Africa. Behind me you're looking at a slide related to the expansion of the
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute where we have created a gallery that shows the relationship
between civil and human rights initiatives worldwide. I'm going to move to the next slide,
which is of some South African youngsters who we collaborated with
a few months ago. The gist of this project was an exchange program. We had 10 youngsters
from inner-city Birmingham who through Skype were able to connect with
10 high school kids who were affiliated with either the Apartheid Museum or the Mandela
House. These youngsters, over time, became friends and they shared experiences, their
high school experiences. The youngsters from Birmingham paid a visit to Johannesburg, spent
10 days there, learned about what was going on in South Africa,
and became very familiar with the Apartheid movement. The youngsters from Johannesburg
spent 10 days in Birmingham. This was one of the most impressive experiences that we've
had with high school students. The culminating activity was the first Mandela day in the
state of Alabama. This is the direction that our institution is moving toward.
We are really focusing in on the relationship between the Civil Rights Movement and the
influence it has had and continues to have on Civil Rights Movements
worldwide. Some of the challenges that I see, the effort to maintain our relevance. How
do we continue to be relevant? One of the things we have right now at the institute
is an exhibition titled Living in Limbo. It's an exhibition on the lesbian community in
Birmingham, Alabama. That was really a reach for us. We labored on whether or not
we would install this exhibition. Pleasantly we've been surprised with the positive feedback
we've received, not only from our community at large, but from the community around the
world. Sustainability, funding is a real issue, not only for us, but the museum field in general.
That's an important piece of our future. How do we sustain
this place? Last but not least, succession planning, who follows us? Those that have
been around a while, who replaces the group of leaders at the Birmingham Civil Rights
Institute? With that, I will tell you that one of the concerns I've had since I've been
in this field about 20 years is we do not have enough young people in the pipeline to
replace those individuals who are leading these museums. I think it's incumbent upon
all of us who work at museums to do what we can
to increase the pipeline for young people who see this field as a career path. Thank
you so much for inviting me here. I've enjoyed my stay, and I look forward to the question
and answer period. [Applause]
MS. BROWN: Thank you. I'm going to ask Helen to be our next speaker.
HELEN SAMHAN: Thank you very much Claudine. It's really a pleasure to be here.
Because we are an Arab American museum we are a little bit the new kids on the block.
I wanted to just spend a little bit of time just explaining who we are as an ethnic community,
and who we represent as a museum. We represent many generations, many immigrant generations
of people from Arabic speaking countries who began coming in the 1880s until the present.
We represent over 22 current nations of origin that span two continents in Africa and in
Asia. People of many different religious affiliations, and it's
a relatively new ethnic identity. It's a very American ethnic identity like Asian Pacific
Islander and Latino, it's not something that has been around as long as our immigrant population
has been around. Our organizations have promoted an Arab American identity in the best American
traditions for the last 40 years. We represent a population that
has very different experiences and very different views on their racial identity. Dr. Price
talked about the journey towards whiteness. We have a very kind of complex
experience with race in the United States. The very first pioneers who came at the turn
of the century had to fight for their white status because of the Asian exclusion laws
that were in place at the time. Because they came on Turkish passports, many judges considered
them Asian because Turkey is in Asia, and therefore they were not allowed to have
citizenship. They fought very hard to prove that they were Semites, they were Caucasian,
and that they deserved to be treated as citizens. They fought that for many decades. We have
really come full circle in our racial conscious as a community. There are many in our population
who still are very comfortably situated in the white middle class.
There are also several new waves of immigration after the '65 reforms. These are people who
came with a very different approach. They came to a different country in our United
States. We dealt with immigrant and with cultural and religious difference in a very different
way thanks to the Civil Rights Movement. There was a proliferation of cultural awareness
and of religious and ethnic assertiveness. We have many generations now, they're into
their second generation of people who feel that
they are very much part of the people of color. Our white status, our white affiliation, and
our racial ambiguity is very much a part of the people that we represent. In some ways
we have gone from invisibility, when my grandparents came in the 1890s, it was all about becoming
American. That whole theory of the melting pot was very much in vogue to the
current phase of ethnic pride and wanting to integrate but also be recognized for the
heritage and the contributions that we bring as ethnic
Americans. Our museum is in Dearborn, Michigan. It's not exactly a tourist destination, so
you might ask why did we build it there. We built it in Dearborn, Michigan, which is a
suburb of Detroit because of an amazing institution that provided the leadership for the museum.
That's the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services. ACCESS
has been serving immigrant populations in greater Detroit for over 40 years. They had
a very active cultural arts program, and it got so much in demand that they realized that
maybe it's time for us to think about a cultural center. The conception for the museum happened
around the year 2000. They began to think of how we wanted to
frame this. Is this an Arab world museum, or is it an Arab American museum? It was definitely
decided on the side of being an American museum about the experiences of our
community here. We raised over 16 million dollars privately to build this beautiful
building that you see here, which is in downtown Dearborn across from city hall. It was officially
opened in the year 2005. What we decided to do in terms of the thematics [phonetic] is
that we wanted to tell various parts of our experience in three major themes.
One is the story about coming to America, whether the people who came in the 1880s or
post-2000 refugees. The story is also of living in America. What is it like to be an America
of Arab heritage living in the United States? The third permanent exhibit in our museum
is called Making an Impact. That is the one that probably has the most "ah-
ha" moments for people when they come to our museum for the first time. It really showcases
prominent Americans in all different fields who happen to be of Arab descent. It's kind
of our wall of fame. We felt that it's really important,
and we've talked a lot about telling stories and being part of the narrative. It's especially
important in our community because of this paradox of being invisible for many generations
and then all of a sudden being thrust into the political spotlight, and to in a sense
be a very politicized culture without necessarily having a way to
define ourselves in one place. Many times it was our political detractors who were defining
us, or it was people who were trying to paint us as "other" because of relationships with
people in the Arab world. It was really important that we decided to tell our own story. One
of the things about the museum I think that is the most
important feature of our museum are the things that happen away from the exhibits and also
the things that happen outside the building, and in other
states. We have a very strong commitment to national programming. Our educational outreach
is perhaps the most important in-building program where fully half of the visitors who
come are school children. This is an extremely important part of changing minds and opening
hearts about prejudices that people might bear about who Arabs
were, Muslims. We also are a forum, we talked about whether a museum is a temple or a forum.
In many ways we are a forum by hosting various segments of the Arab American community, whether
they be artists or writers. We have a program for artists called D1, which is an annual
conference that we do outside of Michigan for Arab American
performance artists, fine artists, etcetera. We have a book award for Arab American writers
where we honor Arab American authors every year. We also host conferences for Arab
American scholars. This is extremely important because Arab American scholarship is a new
field. There is no formal association of Arab American scholars. Most people who study the
Arab American community have to go to the conference MESA, for example, the Middle East
Studies Association, to be able to discuss issues of Arab American scholarship
and research, even though it really belongs in American studies. There is no separate
association yet, but the museum is providing a forum for that. Also, it has a state of
the art research library and archive. I think the archival component of our museum is extremely
important, because it provides one place. It's the largest repository for research
and writings about the Arab American experience. I think there's a picture here. I thought
there was a picture of the library, but the research library and the archive is
extremely important. It is a place where we collect oral history, where we collect dissertations,
personal artifacts, family trees, anything that is available around the country we offer
to archive it in our library. The other thing I think that's very important in our experience
as a young museum with a relatively small population is our
collaboration. We very much have depended upon other ethnic and culturally-specific
museums to help us with our concepts, with the building of the museum. The Japanese American
Museum, in particular, has been our mentor. We're very, very grateful for our collaboration
with them. In fact, we have a traveling exhibit that is going to be one of
the ways that we get the museum out to the field. I'm the outreach advisor, so my job
is to take the museum outside of Michigan. One of the great opportunities we have right
now is a traveling exhibit that is going to eight cities, and one of them is L.A. It will
go to the Japanese American Museum. It basically is an exhibition about the century of national
service on the part of Arab Americans. It's basically military service, peace corps service,
and diplomatic service. It is intended to kind of
undo some of the stereotypes about loyalty among Arab Americans, especially after 9/11.
We are very excited that this traveling exhibit is going to really take our message out to
the field. I think I want to close by saying that we also recognize that there are (and
we've talked about this in this conversation) that we do recognize
that there are problematic about ethnic-specific museums. In some ways there is always that
fear and worry about ghettoizing. Whether it's ghettoizing ourselves as Arab
Americans, or ghettoizing ourselves away from the general American public, even though we
do a lot of effort to have outreach. Also, sometimes there's a danger of letting the
larger society feel kind of off the hook. Oh, well there's an Arab American museum.
We don't have to worry about incorporating their story into other institutions. That's
always a problematic. The third problematic is an internal one in my own community. That
is that it's a very complex population. There are many people who are from Arabic speaking
countries who don't even consider themselves Arabs. Sometimes I find myself convincing
people whose family came from Lebanon or Syria four generations ago that they really
will see themselves in this exhibit if they would only come and get past that concern
about, "Oh, well we're not Arab. We're Lebanese. We're - - . We don't deal with that Arab
stuff." That's just an internal challenge that we have. I have to say that despite the
fears of ghettoizing it, I know, as a parent and as an activist, I know that when I see
young people come to this museum, especially young Arab Americans who have lived through
the last decade of assault on their ethnic and in some cases on their
religious heritage, it is a place of refuge, and it is a place to honor the true story,
the story that used to be told in their grandparents houses, but it's not what they're hearing
in popular culture. It's not what they're hearing in the political discourse. It is
a place where they can really feel proud. I know that can be a cliché, but I think
in so many of our experiences as ethnic communities
that maintaining pride in our children is a very important thing to foster. I'll just
close by saying that we are very fortunate to
the Smithsonian Institution for granting us affiliation status. It has been an enormous
boost to our institution, not only because it gives us a lot of credibility and a lot
of legitimacy. We are the only Arab American museum in the country. We are one of only
140 some recognized affiliates. To us that is a real badge of honor. It also helps
open doors even in our own community when go to do fundraising. We tell them, "You know,
we're an affiliate of the Smithsonian." They say, "Oh you are?" Then they pay attention
and it makes a huge difference in being able to leverage our future. So with that, I just
want to thank you very much for inviting me, and I look forward to our conversation.
[Applause] MS. BROWN: Thank you.
MS. BROWN: Next we'll hear from Beth. [Off MIC conversation]
BETH TAKEKAWA: Okay, thank you Claudine. I just wanted to start out with a bit of a sense
of place. The Wing Luke Museum is located in Seattle. It is a city of 600,000 people
in a metropolitan area of 4 million. The closest large city to us is Vancouver, B.C. Through
economics and culture Seattle is a location that is decidedly Pacific
Rim. It's entwined with Asia, Vancouver B.C., Alaska, Hawaii and California. With, in many
ways, more connections to the Rim than to the East Coast of the U.S. In Seattle and
our county Asian Pacific Americans comprise over 18% of the population, and are the largest
population of color in the city. This is the home of the Wing Luke
Museum back when it was constructed in 1910, and it was known as the East - - building.
With no financial backing from a bank, 170 early Chinese immigrants pooled their money
to fund the construction of the East and West - - buildings. These two buildings served
as the anchor for the new Chinatown, providing rooms for rent and commercial spaces for early
businesses like the first taxi service for Chinese residents, wholesale food providers
and job assigners to work in the Alaska salmon canneries. Seattle's
Chinatown International district is a neighborhood on the south end of downtown. It's probably
the only area in the continental U.S. where Chinese, Japanese, Pilipino, African Americans,
Vietnamese, Koreans, and Cambodians settled together and built one neighborhood. The Wing
Luke Museum has been located in Seattle's Chinatown International District for
all of its 45 years. Today it's a neighborhood of small businesses and rental residences
that is culturally rich and economically depressed. It's the lowest income census tract
in the city with the highest inventory of vacant buildings. The Wing is dedicated to
the continued economic improvement of its neighborhood. Since opening our expansion
in this historic building in 2008 the wing's recognized as a neighborhoods second biggest
economic engine next to the Asian supermarket - - . The Wing has a unique origin
for a museum. It's the legacy of a community hero named Wing Luke. Wing was an immigrant
from China who grew up above his families laundry business in Seattle. He joined the
U.S. Army. He was awarded the bronze star, and then Wing had the audacity to run for
city council in the early 1960s. Despite a smear campaign, he made history by being elected
in 1962. He was the first Asian American elected
to public office in the Pacific Northwest and the first person of color on the council.
He didn't play it safe. He championed the 1963 open housing ordinance and other
issues such as Indian fishing rights and preservation of the historic Pike Place Market. Tragically,
Wing died in a plane crash at the age of 40. His family and friends started the Wing Luke
museum, which was one of Wing's dreams. 45 years ago it was started as his legacy. The
museums first home was a rented storefront a block away
from the historic building you saw in the earlier photo. The first fundraising consisted
of chow Mein dinners in a local restaurant, and an auction of art by local Asian American
artists who at that time had neither funds nor public profile. I've seen in our archives
the handwritten budgets for that early fundraising, and since the food was donated
it seemed to me that 50% of those tiny expenditures was for *** to encourage the bidding. Over
the years the museum changed as the community changed, broadening from being Chinese
American to an Asian Pacific American museum. Changing its presentations from art from Asia
to the stories and art of Asian Americans. Over the past 20 years, the wing has developed
a community directed approach to all of our work, including all exhibitions and projects.
Community advisory committees comprising volunteer participants
meet for a year or more. Our staff facilitates their decisions on exhibit themes, storyline,
and design. This results in a high level of community ownership and empowerment, which
sometimes it is a more complex experience for the visitor, as there are multiple voices
rather than a single curator voice. In 2002 the wing had the opportunity to purchase
the historic East - - building. Over the years it had become largely vacant and was much
the same as it was when it was first built. The building had never been sold, and
was now owned by hundreds of descendants of the first 170 immigrants who built it. The
prospect of honoring an immigrant legacy and bringing a cherished home into its future
led to the buildings first change of ownership in almost a century. It took the Wing Luke
museum 40 years to go one block, and to the first home that we owned. There was
the matter of a museum with a 1 million dollar budget raising over 23 million dollars to
turn the vacant historic building into a community museum with greatly expanded business operations.
We took the same community development approach to programing the building as we do to developing
our exhibitions. We formed four community advisory
committees involving 65 community volunteers from 12 different ethnic groups ranging in
age from 20 to 80, and spanning first to fourth generations from
immigrant and refugee communities. Each committee had expertise and examined a building use.
There were educators and community historians, neighborhood business owners, and community
activists, exhibitions and civic engagement folks, and events and arts presenting people.
There was the matter of raising the money, and we took the
same approach. Our board members started the fundraising each giving the largest philanthropic
gift of their lives. Our staff, who is watching this webcast right now on the big screen back
at the Wing. Our modestly compensated staff did their own campaign led by line staff members.
With three-year payroll deductions based off and on one less latte
per week, and with family gifts, they raised 100,000, which was twice their goal. After
five years, the 23 million dollars was raised with significant private and public support.
Also a new market tax credit deal and three-year pledges from over 1,500 community members.
We opened our expanded home in 2008 and are now debt-free.
[Applause] MS. TAKEKAWA: Thank you. The Wing Luke Museum
today includes intact historic spaces to immerse visitors
in the lives of early immigrants from Asia. It also includes 13 exhibition galleries with
a wide range of topics. Right now our shows include one on Asian American food, another
on the art of Asian American videogame artists, and a new show coming up exploring why young
women of Asian descent have the highest suicide rate in their age
demographic. We provide guided tours of our historic building as well as guided walking
tours that bring people into neighborhood businesses and historic buildings. We welcome
the public to interact with our personal stories, and to explore our historic neighborhood,
and to share their own stories and legacies along with ours. Thank you for including the
Wing in this symposium, and please come by and visit.
[Applause] MS. BROWN: Thank you. Our next but definitely
not last speaker is Carlos Tortolero.
CARLOS TORTOLERO: Thank you. You know, a very funny thing happened to me as I was coming
to the podium. I got a text from my assistant and she's very calm. I'm very hyper. The text
said, "Urgent, urgent, urgent. Call the museum." I'm thinking oh my God, what's happening?
In 25 years as my assistant she's never sent me a message. I'm thinking oh my
God, what has happened? I run out. She says, "Carlos, Carlos, the White Sox called, they
want you to throw out the first pitch at a game next week." I'm
a baseball freak. I'm like, "Alright that's great! That's great!" Then she goes, "So how's
the conference going?" "The conference? Conference!" [Laughter]
MR. TORTOLERO: So I apologize, okay? I'm throwing out the first pitch!
MR. TORTOLERO: For a moment I forgot where I was at, it doesn't happen very often. Okay,
now back to - - . First of all, I wanted - - these are great institutions, great people. These
are the people - - to the field, that's great. Also to have Claudine Brown, I'm so happy
that the Smithsonian has positions like hers, and she's in that position. Education is very
key to her institution. In fact, when Mr. Bunch spoke earlier and Lonnie was talking
about how education is so important to institutions, it is. I began the museum
30 years ago with a group of my friends. All of us were teachers. None of us knew what
we were doing. I always speak to the school groups, especially people who are in the museum
classes and I tell them, "Man, if I can do it, you can do it, because we didn't know
what we were doing." I never thought I was going
to run the museum. I was a long-haired blue jeaned guy. I still have the blue jeans. The
hair is having a problem now, so I'll talk to God about that later. But anyway… It
just turned out that I enjoyed what I was doing. I was good at it, and next thing you
know I'm running the museum. What's kind of interesting is from the very beginning, people
in the art world in Chicago, in the museum field,
they were so skeptical about what we were doing. It was incredible. They all said there's
no way you can do a museum in a working- class neighborhood. There's no way that you
can do an art museum in a working-class neighborhood, and there's no way that you can be free in
a working-class neighborhood. Well, okay. The museum's been open 25 years. They were
wrong, wrong, wrong. What's very interesting, if you go to Chicago and ask those people
they would tell you, "Oh I knew from the very beginning that it was going
to happen." [Laughter]
MR. TORTOLERO: I'm like Santa Claus, I keep my list. So I know who was naughty and who
was nice, okay? [Laughter]
MR. TORTOLERO: They can write their books I can write my books. In the go-ahead from
the very beginning it was to build a world-class museum in a working-class
neighborhood. I thought that was key to our community. The fact that there was such a
large population, people from my community, and there was no place to see
our art I thought was absurd and obscene. We had to change that. We are the only Latino
museum that is accredited by the American Association of Museums, which means that we
can take care of art as well as anybody can. In fact, our collection manager, if God came
to see the artwork, God's going to have to wear gloves, trust me. She's that thorough.
She's scary. That's what you want in that position. At the same time we wanted to make
sure our museum was accessible to everybody. Museums are not for everybody. We have to
change that. The way you change that is by admitting you have that problem. We need to
make museums accessible for everybody. The high cost of museums freak me out. I just
went to New York to see the Diego Rivera show, $25. Not one person from my community was
in that place. That isn’t right folks. That is our culture, our history, we should have
access to it. It's interesting that by the time there's more people of color than ever
before in this country, there's no money. I don't think that's an accident folks. I
really don't. Things have to change. I mentioned before how schools and education is the key
to our institution. 1/3rd of our staff, 1/3rd of our budget goes to education. 1/3rd.
We have this huge education department. We're in so many schools in Chicago. We did 300
school tours last year. We're at about 80 schools in Chicago and advanced programs.
We are everywhere. It's very important for the people in education. The future is always
about the young people. The thing about institutions is that we do a lot of things that major museums
will never do. We are very different. For example, we do a lot of health things in our
institution. At one event we had about 200 women, they were all 55 and older,
not one had ever had a mammogram in their life. We had a Nurse Practitioner showing
them how to do a breast examination. Obviously I was not in the room, but it wasn't a performance
piece, it was health. We do things like that, because we think it's important for us to
be part of the community. We do an annual high school - - prom where kids
from throughout the Midwest, from all backgrounds come to the institution. It's the most fun
event we do every year. It's amazing. It's such a real nice event. We sign people up
to vote at our institution. We do a lot of things that other museums don't do. In fact,
I should tell you an event that happened to me. I grew up in the tough
part of Chicago, so I've been attacked a lot of times, physically. It's not fun, but probably
the worst attack I ever got was I was at museum conference, AM conference
where the four guys were standing around and were whispering to each other. I knew they
wanted to say something but nobody had the guts to say it. Finally somebody says, "You
don't act like a regular museum boss. You don't. You don't."
[Laughter] MR. TORTOLERO: I told them, "I know
you're trying to insult me, but thank you. I don’t want to be like you." Our goal has
always been how do we take care of the earth as well as everybody, but change the mindset
of what a museum can be. Why can't museums be accessible? Why can't they be free? Why
can't we do a lot of things? Why can't we be a part of the community instead of a part
from the community. It's been very key for us,
that whole mindset. I have the board whose allowed me to do a lot of crazy things, so
I'm very grateful to that. Boards can be very interesting places.
[Laughter] MR. TORTOLERO: The other thing too that I
think is important is that as part of the comments I'm making I'm not against the large
museums. I love all museums. We're not in a situation, none of us - - we want to create
and either/or situation. We want all museums to thrive. We want
to create an and situation. There is problems, for example, just this situation about fundraising.
I can't tell you how many times I hear a large museum get this huge grant to do something
about my culture and they are clueless. They call us and we have to help them. If I applied
for the same grant there's no way that - - money. That unfairness is
something that really concerns us a lot. We have done a lot of shows of travel. Probably
the most famous show we did was a show called The African Presence in Mexico. That's a
show that traveled to 11 cities across the United States. It is the only exhibition to
ever go to an African American museum, a Latino museum, a mainstream museum, and also travel
south of the border. No other museum's ever done that. Also the word mainstream, we do
have to change that term, because we are the mainstream in some of these cities,
so that term needs to change as well. We have to find a better word for that. What was very
interesting about that show, it was the challenge of doing something like that. This was a topic
that for a lot of people in my community was very hard for them to deal with. It was very
uncomfortable for many people to deal with. Probably the greatest
compliment was during the last four months of the show, 2/3rds of our audience was African
American. I love Chicago, I'm a big Chicago booster. We travel all over the
world but we don't travel across the city of Chicago. To be able to accomplish that
was really a great honor for us. The other thing too that our institutions are always
attacked about is the work we're doing of quality nature. I have never heard that - - from
a large museum. Why is the quality issue always being asked of us but not of
them? It's always - - the second layer, those minor league kind of museums. It comes from
the powers that be, so that's a bit disturbing that it happens. The other thing, too, is
that we're always accused of having an agenda. Folks, that's true. We do have an agenda.
We care about our community and we're going to fight for our community. Four
years ago we had a show on the crisis about immigration. We were very tough on both political
parties. The fact that they'd allow the - - border. These are shows that we can
do that the large institutions cannot do. It's very important - - agenda. When the large
museums say they don't have an agenda it isn't true. They do have an agenda. When these large
art museums give over their prime space, to European artists or white artists, that's
not an agenda? Give me a break. It is an agenda. We're just honest about our agenda. All
museums have an agenda. - - institution there are three things we have to worry about. One
is autonomy, more of the institution we have for people of color are not grassroots institutions.
They are institutions that are controlled by cities, or counties, or state, and the
autonomy isn't there to do a lot of things. That's very scary,
because you need that autonomy. We have to face tough issues. The other thing is, of
course, funding. That's never going to go away. We're always raising money. I throw
people up, I drop them. Whatever falls on the floor is
mine. We're always trying to raise money, that never ends. The third thing is we are
living in very scary times in this country. I am so scared of what's going on in this
country. To spend time out West and south of Arizona and see how cuckoo those people
are, how crazy those people, it is unbelievable. I mean,
the fact that they have outlawed in all high schools, the teaching of my culture is absurd.
You know, John Wayne was not the first cowboy okay? It was probably Juan Wayne, Jose Wayne,
Philippe Wayne, but it wasn't John Wayne, okay? We were the first cowboys, and we did
a lot of things in this country. So the fact that our history is not being taught is
really scary, so I do worry about the future of our institutions in terms of foundations
may one day, your funders may one day say, you know what? - - place but now the big boys
and girls can do what you were doing, which isn't accurate. What we do is very vital and
very key. I'm very passionate about this, but thank you for giving me the opportunity.
[Applause] MS. BROWN: Thank you. I'm going to pose a
few questions and then we will open the Q&A up to the audience. These are four museums
that I have admired for a long time. I believe that museums
that sit in the heart of their communities and that listen to their constituents are
what I call, call and response museums. Yes, they do have the ability to do great research
and great scholarship, but one of the things that distinguishes them is that they listen
to their constituents, they know what their needs are, and having been on the board of
a small community-based museum, your constituents hold you accountable. They will walk in, and
if something is not right they will tell you that it's not right, and they will
expect you to do something about it. It's a kind of accountability that large museums
don't have. So the first question that I would raise for this group has to do with who your
audience is. We know that most of these institutions were created because you represent communities
that were underrepresented and under served in what
are called mainstream museums. My question is what's your goal for your immediate constituency
and what do you want the world to know when they come to your museums? Anyone can start.
MR. PIJEAUX: I'll jump right in. We are in the civil rights district in Birmingham, Alabama.
We are across the street from 16th Street Baptist Church
where four girls were killed approximately five years ago, 2013. Across the street from
Kelly Ingram Park where many of the demonstrations took place. We're in the heart of downtown
Birmingham. We will celebrate our 20th anniversary this year. That's on the heels of 20 years
ago when no one wanted to support our institution. Our audience has evolved to a very broad based
audience. We attract people not only from Birmingham and the state of Alabama, but literally
from around the world. If you remember the slide
that you saw with the jail cell, and there was a lady looking into the jail cell, she
was from Sydney, Australia. That gives you some idea about the audience that we have.
What do we want people to learn about Birmingham and the Civil Rights Movement? Very simply
that what happened in Birmingham, Alabama nearly 50 years ago continues to have a profound
impact on race relations around the world as we speak. Approximately six to eight months
ago, and we had what I will refer to as the unrest in Egypt, we actually saw a
youngster with a card that said we shall overcome. Where did that come from with the exception
of Birmingham, Alabama. That's basically the message. The city and what happened has a
positive impact on race relations around the world even today.
MR. TORTOLERO: One of our challenges is that we have to deal with so many of the
different kind of people come to our museum. Half our audience is from outside the community,
and so it's very important for us to make sure that they have a great experience. In
fact, we see ourselves as kind of cultural ambassadors to the outside world, from outside
the community. I think that's very important for us. At the same
time too, we also deal with many Mexicans who are coming to a museum for the first time
in their life. You see them walk in sometimes and
you can see they are like, "Okay, one step more forward, that's it." I mean, it's a new
experience for them. I know that sounds strange. I've been living in the United States practically
all my life, but when I go to a public building or any new building for the first time I'm
scared, believe it or not, because I expect something bad could happen. I
0:52:44.1 know that sounds weird, but I think they feel the same way. Even though we're
Mexican, it says Mexican out there, there's still that thing about do they want me in
here? Is this place really for me? I think we've done a very good job in this country
of telling some people these places are not for them. They feel it, and it's there. Whenever
we see somebody we just go to them quick and say, "Come on
in. It's free. Walk around." It's very important for us to be good hosts because they're coming
into their house, in a sense. We want to make sure they feel as comfortable
as possible. MS. BROWN: Thank you.
MS. TAKEKAWA: I think for the Wing we have sort of a two-fold. Everything we do we also
feel a responsibility to increase neighborhood economy which is a challenge and which is
why we're there. We stayed there. We do reach out to other people in the city. We try to
welcome people to our neighborhood. There are some challenges. It's urban. I think since
we've expanded that it's been a big help. If we can be successful at our museum, we
are programmed so that all the other neighborhood businesses will see an increase in business.
I do want to say something about some of the challenges that people have spoken
to today that they're actually challenges that are universal for the museum industry.
Talking about whether or not your exhibits are
depressing, and will people come, because that's not what they go to museums for. Ethnic
history is not the only American history that's depressing. There are other topics too. I
think it's more of an artistic question, but when it's looked at for us, it's looked at
as an ethnic question. If there's a balance thing, and what is the story
you want to tell, how do you want to tell it. Museums, I think, do a lot with a penny.
I have business background, and I have seen so many museums in America with little funds.
They really produce. I do see that a lot of the challenges we talked to today are important
for museums across the board including the building of your audiences. What
Konrad Ng talked about, the digital age, and that people are no longer content with just
spectating. They are now feeling like they are creating culture. That's something
that is a challenge for all museums. It's exciting.
MS. SAMHAN: I think that our goal to increase our audiences is in a couple of different
directions. One is we estimate that about half of our visitors are not of Arab descent.
Those usually come from two sectors, one is the school children because educational tours
from around Michigan is the largest source of our children's
population who come, and the second one is hosting multi-cultural events at the museum
because we have a state of the art theater, and an auditorium, and we do art programs,
and things like that, that we attract a multi-cultural audience. It's still from the Southeast Detroit
area. Our biggest challenge is taking a museum in Detroit outside of Michigan,
which our traveling exhibits are going to be hopefully our best route to do that. By
taking our exhibits to universities, libraries, and other museums like this patriots
and peace makers exhibit. We're hoping to reach a much broader audience of people would
who never set foot in Dearborn. Our last outreach effort is going to be appealing to professional
associations and other social and political organizations in our own ethnic community
to have them think of the museum as a destination for their annual
meetings and to do conferences there, etcetera. MS. BROWN: Great, thank you. If people have
questions, why don't you come to the microphones. Why don't we start over here? Oh she can't
see me. Hello? You, yes introduce yourself please and ask your question.
FEMALE VOICE 1: I was asked from the man next to me to ask the question since he's deaf.
So that's why I'll just read the questions. Do you support the idea of deaf museums?
Deaf people are already seen as cultural and-- MR. PIJEAUX: I can't hear what you just said.
MS. BROWN: She's asking if we support the idea of deaf museums or museums for deaf audiences?
FEMALE VOICE 1: Yes, deaf museums. Deaf people are already seen as cultural and linguistic
groups. He also asks why not do a deaf exhibition in
each museum, like deaf Indian or deaf black museums? He's not asking one specific person,
so whoever wants to answer that's awesome. MS. BROWN: What I will say is that I think
this year if not next year is the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities act. All
of our museums are supposed to be as completely accessible
as possible. I do think that this is a nation with a short memory, and that there was a
time when people were very actively making sure that there were films with subtitles
and that everything that we did was as accessible as possible. I think that we kind of fall
behind. There was also a time when I heard about lawsuits a lot too, and I think that
kept us vigilant. I think that is a reminder that we can do better across the board. Anybody
else want to respond to that?
MR. TORTOLERO: I think you said it very well. Mandula [phonetic]?
MANDULA KUMAR [phonetic]: Yes, thank you Claudine. Mandula Kumar from the Smithsonian Center
for Education and Museum Studies. I'd like to thank the panel for sharing their ideas
on very critically important issues to museums and especially specific
cultural museums. We heard about community responses, involvement. We heard about attracting
audiences. My question, and I think especially to Beth from the Arab American museum,
how honest, how truthful are these stories that you're telling, and how difficult has
it been to engage the average public about getting to know the truth about the content
and more contemporary burning issues that must be facing communities and in the Arab
American world? MS. SAMHAN: Thank you for that question. It's
always difficult to assess whether your content is being presented
in a truthful way. We certainly try to present our permanent exhibits in a way that covers
as many possible bases about the various immigrant experiences and what these people brought,
and what their concerns are. In terms of the more contemporary controversial issues, the
museum doesn't shy away from those issues, but it is also very aware
that it is a forum for a very diverse community. For example. After 9/11 it just hosted a retrospective
ten years after 9/11 about the impact of 9/11 on various communities
in the state of Michigan. It was done with the support of a Michigan Foundation. People
from various cities in Michigan came to support this conference and present data as well as
research and personal stories about how various communities in Michigan responded to the impact
of 9/11. It was done in a thoughtful way, in a scholarly as possible, but also
in a way that not everybody agrees with some of the opinions, I'm sure, that were expressed
in that conference. It was an open forum. It's a very good question and it's very hard
to know if the stories that we're telling will resonate with everybody that walks in
the museum. Probably not, like I explained. There are people, some of my own grandparents
would not consider themselves Arab, and they maybe wouldn't even come if they were alive
today to that museum, because, "No, no, no, Arabs are those other people, not
us." It's so hard to say. I have embraced it. I have come as an activist and as someone
who has studied this region. I have come to embrace that this general story resonates
with me. It is a large, tense story. It is a story that embraces as many possible narratives
as we can accept. It tells the story about Muslims. It tells the story about Christians.
It tells the story about people who have no religious affiliation. Minorities within the
Arab world. A lot of different aspects of these experiences and I don't know if we'll
ever be sure if the story is true for everybody. MS. BROWN: You know, Mandula, when you ask
about truth, in my head the question I asked was whose truth? At some
point in the history of our nation there were stories told about my community that I absolutely
disagreed with from the perspective of living in that community, and in some instances
even knowing the people who were being spoken about. I do think that the image that comes
to mind for me all the time is a person who went to art school. If you're in a figure-drawing
class, there's a person sitting in the middle of the room. Everybody's sitting around that
person in a circle drawing, but every drawing is different.
Every perspective is just a bit different. Your truth from the north and your truth from
the south may not always be the same. I think that what you try to do is marshal the facts
to the best of your ability. Then you can reflect how other people are affected by those
facts. Eduardo? MR. DIAZ: I'm Eduardo Diaz from the Latino
Center here at the Smithsonian. This question really is either for Helen, Beth, and Carlos
primarily. I think, Helen, during your comments you were talking about the differentiation
between Arabs and Arab Americans. I think one of the things that we struggle with at
the Latino Center is this whole issue of country of origin and community of residence. The
Latino Center is about the U.S. Latino experience primarily, not about Latin America, or Mexico,
or Puerto Rico per se. It is about those people who are from those countries
who now live in this United States for however long. Who were here before it became the United
States and the Salvadorian immigrant who got here two weeks ago to join family here in
D.C. for example. How do your museums address that issue of the country of origin where
it meets the community of residence? MR. TOROLERO: Well, ours is kind of easy.
We're kind of focused on one culture, one country of Mexico. What we do is that we showcase
the beauty and richness of the Mexican culture wherever it has manifested itself. We show
the artwork of Mexicans on both sides of the border. The way I like to - - if E.T. came
back and got married to a girl who was Mexican, had children, the children grew up to be an
artist, they're half Mexican, their artwork would be shown at the museum. We're very inclusive
with what we see as Mexican, but we see it both sides of the border, not just one side.
MS. BROWN: I'm going to repeat the question because I don't think everyone heard it up
here. Eduardo I think that you were asking about the fact that some of these museums
deal with, and your example was the Latino Center is concerned with the Latino American
experience. Some of them deal with the experiences of people from their
places of origin. You wanted to know how these institutions, and I think maybe Wing Luke
would be a good example, deal with that.
MR. DIAZ: Yeah, how do you negotiate that space between being from let's say Korea but
perhaps growing up all your life in Korea Town in Los Angeles for example. How do these
culturally-specific museums negotiate that relationship, the one between the country
of origin and the community that they now call L.A.,
Seattle, Dearborn, Chicago, whatever? MS. TAKEKAWA: That's a good question. I think
the answer to that has been changing over the period of time. Especially for Asians
in this country. Globalization has changed a lot. Before, it used to be that for instance
if you were a Vietnamese American you didn't necessarily go back to the home country, or
your kids that were born here didn't really have
an opportunity to go back. Now going back and forth and political relations between
the countries, all those things have changed. I think from our point of view, we're
a community-driven institution. We're very oral-history based, which is how we hope that
people who are not Asian in background would find that they could relate to the story and
find some relevance to themselves. Because we're community driven, we allow the committees
to determine how relevant the experience or the history in Asia is.
We did an exhibit on the refugee community, and it was very important for people from
that background. They felt that they're representing not just themselves and their family that
came over, but they represent the people who didn't make it over. Those were much more
global in nature. I think for us, we take the
cue from what it is, how people want their stories to be told.
MS. BROWN: I'd like to circle back to the original question about deaf museums. I wondered
if the person who raised the question would let us know
whether or not he feels that there should be deaf museums. The question that I raised,
yes, was do you think there should be deaf museums?
FEMALE VOICE 1: Well, to be honest, I've never thought about this. I don't know. I'm sorry,
I don't know this man, so he just wrote this question on a paper and I read it. To think
about it, I don't know. I don't come from America so I can't just speak about my experience
in another country. In Germany there are some blind museums where blind people guide other
visitors through the museum and help to figure out the experience of being blind. I don't
know if stuff like this could exist for a deaf person as well. I'm curious right
now, so I don't know. Let's see what he wrote. I'm sorry I just don't know right now. It
seems like it's fine, I don't know. MS. BROWN: Okay, great. I just don't want
to leave any loose ends. I think it's important to kind of think through all of the possibilities.
From my own perspective I think I could learn something from a museum that was about deaf
audiences and for deaf audiences. I'm open. If there's a particular advocacy point of
view I want to know about that as well. Are there
any other questions? MR. PIJEAUX: Claudine, I'd like to go back
to the question about truth in museums. When I arrived at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute,
one of the concerns that I heard from the community centered around stories that had
not been told. Gaps in the history that we portrayed at the
institute. One of the things that we did to address those stories was collect oral histories.
When we renovated the facility in 2009, we included those oral histories in the
renovation of the institute. So that we did a better job of telling the entire story.
I think all of us that work at institutions that chronicle recent history, this concern
about why are you not telling my story. Fortunately for us at the institute, we had the benefit
of Reverend Freddy - - who lead the movement, he was still around. To some extent he
could help us fashion the story of the movement that we portray in the institute.
FEMALE VOICE 2: Hi. Just going back to the idea of the deaf museum. I wonder about having
interpreters in museums. Museums offer many different ways of looking at history and art.
A lot of it's reading, but there are also educational programs.
There are also the audio tours. There could be interpreters in museums to open it up to
all different people. You could get into issues of American sign language
versus all the other types of sign language, but that could be an option. That could be
something that would be really interesting and very cool also from a hearing perspective
to see interpreters in museums. MS. BROWN: One of the things that's in development
right now here at the Smithsonian is an app for an exhibition for blind people. What
they're looking for are average people who have gone through an exhibition who talk about
what they've seen, what they perceive, and how they responded to the work. What that
has let us know is that a family could go through a single exhibition and each family
member could have a different app that begins to introduce them to a different aspect
of the same exhibition so that they can hear it and experience it from their own point
of view. The technology really will allow us to begin to help people to see,
understand, and use our facilities in ways that they were never able to before. Yes?
LOUISE SCOTT: Yes, I'm Louise Scott from the National Museum of African Art. Concerning
the deaf person and a tour, I recently gave a tour to a group of people who are deaf.
I think it's called the American Association of Translators came and
signed my tour. So that's a possibility. MS. BROWN: Well that's an excellent idea.
I think that what our issue is, is that we're just not consistent. If someone calls us and
lets us know that the group is deaf, then we will have an interpreter. There's rarely
somebody on staff who can be called if a family shows up
and has that need. It's an issue that we're going to have to address with a lot more empathy
and consistency. Thank you. If there are no more questions I am going to
conclude this panel. What I would say to you is I have the privilege of inviting these
wonderful people to be on this panel because I had a fabulous experience at each of these
museums. In the case of the Wing Luke Museum in the early 1990s I went to an American Association
of Museums meeting, and it was one of their larger meetings. There were more
than 3,000 people who came. There were receptions at museums all over Seattle, and I decided
to go to the reception at the Wing Luke Museum. That was before it moved into the larger facility.
Two things that I really loved about that reception were the fact that local people
told me about the exhibition. The entire exhibition was full of people who
lived in the immediate community who owned that exhibition with a kind of personal passion
that I have not seen in many places. The other thing is that they kept running out of food,
and people kept showing up with new pots of food.
[Laughter] MS. BROWN: The food just got better and better.
I love the fact that a community cared so much about its guests that there was a pot
of plenty happening at this museum. It let me know that this was a place that a community
loved, owned, and believed in. They actually--
[Audio ends abruptly]