What Has Gender Based Violence Got To Do With Museums?

I got some potentially exciting news this week when I received a call for papers for the academic journal 'Museums and Social Issues'. Blog followers may remember I did my Masters dissertation on museums, non-formal education and social justice, focusing specifically on gender based violence. I approached this journal in the autumn asking if they were interested in my work, and they've come back this week saying they'd like me to submit it for an upcoming student research issue.

Now I have a little over a month to rework my dissertation into something half as long, and try to address the gaps that were pointed out when it was assessed in the process. My aim with this blog post is to summarise the entire document in about 1/10 for you. So here goes...

Support for social justice is growing worldwide, fuelled by greater recognition of human rights. Action against gender based violence is a key part of this with increasing focus everywhere from UN level summits to grassroots community projects. It is being approached through the media, popular culture, law and policy debates, and academic study across a range a disciplines. Museums have also started to raise awareness and advocate on the issue through exhibitions and education programmes and, sometimes unwittingly, document and display related objects in their galleries.

Ideas about the museum as an “instrument for positive social change” have formed part of their complex history since the 19th Century, but it was the UK’s Labour Party government from 1997 that re-initiated the idea of utilising museums for social policy. Museums tackle gender based violence, amongst other social isses, at a micro level through collaborative projects with learning outcomes for individuals, and work for broad social change at the macro level using advocacy, events and exhibition programmes.

Museums are influenced by, and in turn contribute to, our collective values and norms as a society. They are “sites of persuasion”, shaping norms and values at local and global levels, though to date the majority haven’t fully realised their potential to direct this. All museums are already agents – some consciously work for justice whilst others unknowingly support the unjust phenomena.

It is the museum's role as provider of non-formal education that lead to further research into learning in this context and its economic and social benefits. Adressing any issue through just formal education (e.g. schools) will only reach those currently enrolled – using non-formal education environments can reach a wider age range, at least, and perhaps deliver it in a more engaging way. Exhibitions provide unique learning experiences with a meaningful impact as they are packed with stimuli - the message is the experience as well as in the text and has a social element with visitors exchanging information. As free-choice environments, it suggests high internal motivation about when, what and where to learn in museums - a motivation missing in formal education context.

So where does gender based violence come in? It became defined as a human rights issue in the 1990s and gender inequality (including traditional gender roles and expectations), reinforced and maintained in institutions like museums, lies behind gender based violence. The influence of the media can shape perceptions, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours that link power, sexuality, and violence against women – museums are part of this same phenomemnon.

My case studies are a variety of different museum programmes based around some kind of gender based violence. These include:

• Art Works For Change - "Off The Beaten Path: Violence, Women and Art" Exhibition and Programmes
• Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow - "Rule of Thumb: Art and Human Rights" Exhibition and Programmes
• MoMA, New York - Sanja Ivekovic's retrospective "Sweet Violence"
• Against Violence and Abuse - "Pandora's Box" Exhibition

I compared the methods used in these different projects and came up with a number of best practice conclusions. 

Engaging with social justice issues, especially gender based violence, in a museum requires flexibility, a great deal of planning and a willingness to take some calculated risks. It needs to be embedded through an organisation’s structure, mission, vision and strategic plan in order to be effective and the scope of outcomes are reduced when the issues are restricted to just add-on projects or temporary exhibitions with no connection drawn to the core purpose of the institution.

Work on gender based violence and other social justice issues most probably meets the criteria of statutory, non-profit or grant making bodies thus enabling access to various pots of potential funding. Free admission is a key feature of the social justice programmes offered by GoMA and other museums and this needs funding from elsewhere. Support from trained professionals is needed to assist gallery staff, artists and educators when working on potentially sensitive topics such as gender based violence. Support from other organisation staff during outreach work is also needed to ensure that artists and educators don’t become therapists. Time is needed to allow for adequate training and preparation of staff members and also for debrief during and after the programme. 

Programmes need objectives from the outset and it is important to evaluate the qualitative impact of any social justice programme – recording the numbers of visitors and participants is not enough. Evaluation is also important for understanding the communities around the museum and informing any future advocacy work.

The design of exhibitions to allow personalisation and ownership of information will increase engagement with the subject. It is important to use the interpretation offered to make it accessible to certain audiences, whilst not being seen as ‘dumbed down’ to others. The advocacy function of content and interpretation is greatest if it is politically explicit – leaving some areas as open questions but reinforcing the view being advocated for throughout. Content also needs to be changed and renewed regularly and in light of current events to have the greatest impact with social justice issues. Relating gender based violence to permanent collections and leaving it unchanged is not effective.

Space for reflection on the issues at hand, especially for sensitive topics like gender based violence, is extremely important. At GoMA, their ‘dwell space’ was used extensively for the sharing of feelings, comments and reactions. Elsewhere, the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool has introduced a ‘campaign zone’ to mobilize visitors around human rights causes. All areas of the museum can be utilised as part of the learning experience – few currently make use of spaces such as the cafe and the toilets for their learning objectives. This goes beyond the physical space too – a museum’s website often has a far greater audience than the building itself so should be programmed like other spaces for social justice programmes – Art Works for Change, for example, make their exhibitions available as virtual walkthroughs online. Expanding the experience before and after the visit, through marketing material and installations such as the Barbara Kruger billboard in Glasgow Central Station for ‘Rule of Thumb’, adds to the impact of a museum’s social justice programme. Taking the project beyond the walls of the museum is needed to really engage with diverse communities.

Working on social justice issues in the context of museums is never going to be completely straight-forward. Previous projects have focused on the issue of violence against women (and within that domestic violence) – perhaps as its more widespread in those locales or easily tackled without challenging a culture that sees women as victims. A future approach could approach violence against men and transphobic violence in a more comprehensive programme on gender based violence. These forms of violence all stem from the same complex mix of ideas of power and social values. Programmes mostly taken place in art museums and galleries. The potential for other types of institutions to explore the issue of gender based violence is there, and encouragement is needed for such institutions to utilise experiences from engagement projects, such as with women in refuges, for wider public facing programmes.

I, personally, think it is important for all organisations considered museums, and indeed all those providing with education, to actively pursue a social justice agenda. If an institution is not actively working for social justice, they are letting the socially unjust status quo stand unquestioned.  

“Ignoring violence against girls, or pretending it’s not there, is the same as accepting it.”

- WAGGGS, Stop The Violence Video, 2011