Exploring the Institutional and Archival Histories of Museums: A Case Study of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Session will present: In-PersonThis session will consider institutional histories of museums as curated through their archives. Museums have come under scrutiny for their perpetuation of colonialist, racist infrastructures, yet many of the critiques leveraged toward them, as well as solutions offered for them, are not recent phenomena. From increasing collections access through traveling exhibitions to changing opening hours to accommodate different visitors, many of the reforms enacted in museums today as a means of increasing their accessibility to audiences have been in use for at least a century. Taking a critical look at museum histories as rendered through their archives can offer context for today’s issues while also providing a basis for assessing both how critiques have changed over time and a means for devising solutions beyond established methods. Additionally, considering what is included and excluded in museum archives offers insight into how they perceive themselves as institutions, and whether they perpetuate or challenge narratives about themselves through the documents they preserve or omit. Taking the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and its archival repositories as a case study, this panel will consider the potentials and limitations of museum archives with three papers addressing the VMFA’s institutional history from administrative, collections, and archival perspectives. In addition to offering a critical examination of the VMFA’s history, this panel aims to serve as an example for researchers interested in museum histories by critically engaging the archive’s potentials and limitations from the perspective of both the archivists who manage them and the researchers who visit them.
Field(s) of Study:
Geographic Area: United States of America
Time Period: Twentieth Century
Time Period: Twenty-First Century
Museum History
Archival Studies
Chair:
Sara Woodbury
Abstract Submissions Closed