A man protects himself from the rain with an umbrella as he walks past the Baltimore Museum of Art on April 21, 2020. An upcoming exhibition at the museum is being curated by security forces. Julio Cortez / AP hide caption
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Julio Cortez / AP
A man protects himself from the rain with an umbrella as he walks past the Baltimore Museum of Art on April 21, 2020. An upcoming exhibition at the museum is being curated by security forces.
Julio Cortez / AP
It is you who keep a close eye on all art exhibitions. But now a team of museum attendants has the chance to become guest curators.
A new exhibit at the Baltimore Museum of Art, slated to open in March 2022, is being entirely curated by security officers working at the museum.
The new exhibition “Guarding the Art” will be fully curated by 17 members of the museum’s security team and will draw on current works of art in the BMA’s collection, with each work being selected by one of the participating officers.
As guest curators, the 17 officers will work with both the management and staff of the museum to select and reinterpret works from a variety of eras, genres, cultures and media.
“On the one hand, I feel honored and humble. It’s exciting to be able to move beyond my usual role – even if it also has its advantages,” guest curator and security guard Dereck Mangus told NPR. “I enjoy being in contact with the public and talking about the different works of art. It’s very educational and it opens your eyes to learn more about this whole process.”
In addition to curating, the officers will work with art historian Lowery Stokes Sims, who mentors and trains the officers.
“I am honored to work with security staff as curators of this innovative and groundbreaking exhibition. It sends a strong message to the art world at large about the BMA’s commitment to showcasing diverse voices adding to our experience with well-known works of art in the collection, “Sims said in a press release.
Each guest curator is compensated for their time through a grant from the Pearlstone Family Foundation.
The exhibition is an attempt to bring inclusivity to the museum
The original idea for the exhibition came from Asma Naeem, the BMA’s chief curator, as museum officials tried to make the museum more inclusive and representative of the Baltimore community.
In 2022 @artbma will present an exhibition curated by 17 of its security guards. The guest curators work with other departments on installation, programming, catalog and more. Read about this inspiring collaboration via @baltfishbowl: https://t.co/Wz0Ik4NY8M
– American Alliance of Museums (@AAMers) July 16, 2021
“Our security guards spend more time in our galleries and live in our collection than any other staff member at the institution,” said Christopher Bedford, director of the Baltimore Museum of Art, in a statement to NPR. “It is their perspectives, their insights and their relationships to art and the daily exchange with our visitors that make the stage for Guarding the Art an extraordinary experience.”
Dereck Mangus is one of 17 BMA officials selected as guest curator to participate in the March 2022 curation of Guarding the Art. Christopher Myers / Baltimore Museum of Art hide caption
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Christopher Myers / Baltimore Museum of Art
Dereck Mangus is one of 17 BMA officials selected as guest curator to participate in the March 2022 curation of Guarding the Art.
Christopher Myers / Baltimore Museum of Art
While the exhibition is still in its early stages of development, the curators have begun reviewing key works of art based on their personal feedback and direct engagement in the galleries – with issues such as social justice, resilience, the environment, and underrepresented artists in the collection.
Some critics say museums need to do more
When it comes to representation and social justice in the museum world, however, some critics say that this move by the BMA is simply not enough.
“It’s fantastic to find a bunch of blacks and browns giving them a show, whether they work in a museum or not,” says Amin Husain, chief organizer of Decolonize This Place – a New York City-based movement that does grew out of protests in several New York museums. “Probably long overdue, but does not address the structural problems that are on the table.”
These industry-wide problems include things like poor treatment of workers and gentrification in museums, and for Husain the solution is “not to get the work of people who are already poor or underprivileged and get them involved in something that does consumed by a white look. “
Museums “play a very special role in maintaining the status quo and telling our own story,” adds Husain. “It’s not so much a push back as a failure of a museum’s opportunity in the moment to actually deal with what was going on.”
The Baltimore Museum of Art issued a statement on the problems of undervalued work in museums, saying that it recognizes “that much more needs to be done to improve diversity, equity, inclusion and access in museums”.
To this end, the museum declared that it had made social justice an important part of its mission statement; additional paid scholarships and internships; Wage increases for hourly workers and wage increases for underpaid employees. It noted that it also pays the guards who will be curating the new exhibit for their extra time.
“We recognize and agree that there is still much to be done and look forward to continuing and expanding our efforts,” said the museum.
