Queering U.S. History Museums: Heteronormative Histories, Digital Disruptions
by Nicole Robert
A dissertation
submitted in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
University of Washington
2016
Reading Committee:
Michelle Habell-Pallán, Chair
Sasha Su-Ling Welland
Amanda Lock Swarr
Kris Morrissey
Sonnet Retman
Program Authorized to Offer Degree:
Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies
©Copyright 2016
Nicole Robert
University of Washington
Abstract
Queering U.S. History Museums: Heteronormative Histories, Digital Disruptions
Nicole Robert
Chair of the Supervisory Committee:
Associate Professor Michelle Habell- Pallán
Gender, Women, Sexuality Studies Department
This dissertation responds to the problem of disproportionate representations in U.S.
history museums, which currently struggle to collect and narrate histories that accurately reflect
the diverse identities of our nation. Exclusions based on race, gender and sexuality have
misrepresented U.S. history as predominantly white, male and heteronormative. Drawing from
queer theory, intersectional feminist theory and museum theories, I create a conversation that
engages both theoretical and practical interventions into the important work of museum
representation. I call this framework critical feminist museology. Two main points of praxis arise
from my analysis of intersectional feminist and queer theories: 1) reflect critically on the
institutions, systems and procedures that structure our pathways and our choices and 2) draw
from this conscious perspective to identify pathways in-between the simplistic, binary
trajectories of normalcy.
With this guide, the principles of collaboration, reflection and relational responsibility
were put into practice through a multi-year community-museum collaboration in Seattle.
Exploring digital interventions, this research re-designs the process of narrative production in
digital storytelling workshops. The result is a series of evocative, affective stories which fill an
essential gap in historical archives while addressing issues of agency in representation. These
digital stories function as a new kind of artifact, one which I call the evocative object, capable of
addressing the competing needs to tell broad stories while attending to the diversity of authentic
experiences within those broad categories. This project is a unique collaboration between theory
and praxis, applying long-standing feminist and queer theories, and re-theorizing from the results
of these collaborations. The tensions between institutional and community practices, evident in
this collaboration, provide a rich framework for highlighting the social change work that occurs
even when we do not meet all of our goals. The challenge to queer what are inherently static,
codified histories is met when we utilize third-space feminist framings and queer disruptions of
temporality and linearity.
5
Acknowledgements
It takes a village to raise a scholar. I am grateful to the extensive village that has
supported my scholarly journey through obtaining an MA in Museology and now, a PhD in
Feminist Studies. My two beautiful children have spent most of their childhood as a part of the
University of Washington(UW) family. Thank you Gavin and Madeleine for walking this long
journey with me.
As a single parent, I rely heavily on my friends and family for support. Thank you to my
parents, Charlene Gorringe and Leon Robert, as well as my parents through marriage, Jim
Gorringe and Barbara Robert, for all of the ways that you have supported my education over the
years. And thank you to all of my friends, near and far, who have provided support. Special
thanks to my best friend, Johanna Rabin and to my little sister, Marie Maldonado, for supporting
me through life’s ups and downs.
I have been blessed to work with an incredible doctoral committee, who shepherded me
through years of questions, always encouraging the foundations of my curiosity and my intellect.
To be surrounded by women who are committed to social justice, who support intellectually-
engaged praxis, and who are theoretically powerful is an incredible privilege. Thank you to my
feminist studies committee members: Amanda Lock Swarr, Sasha Su-Ling Welland, and
Michelle Habell-Pallán. Thank you to Sonnet Retman for keeping me grounded and encouraged.
And thank you to Kris Morrissey for bringing a practical museum perspective to my work.
I will always remember the moment that I wandered into Prof. Habell-Pallán’s public
scholarship class in 2008. This was my first introduction to feminist studies and cultural studies,
6
and the first time I found a community asking questions about power, privilege and
representation in the arts. Shortly after, I was introduced to Chicana Feminist Theory which
opened up my world. This group of students, led by Dr. Habell-Pallán, made me believe that
doctoral research was a real possibility for me. As a white woman, it is a great privilege to be
educated by the wisdom and experience of women of color and I will always value that gift.
Thank you to my colleagues for giving me feedback on my work, encouraging me
through the years and for collaborating on the incredible events that are part of the UW Gender,
Women, Sexuality Studies Department. The Women Who Rock Project was a highlight of my
years in the doctoral program. This exciting intervention created incredible opportunities to meet
top scholars and activists. Thank you to the students and to Professors Retman and Habell-Pallán
for creating that amazing opportunity. Special thanks to Jaye Sablan for helping me name critical
feminist museology.
Thank you to Erin Bailey for having such incredible gumption and joining me in the
audacious endeavor of completing our student activist projects with the region’s largest history
museum. Your spark and energy are compelling and help create new possibilities in this world.
Gratitude to the Museum of History and Industry for taking a chance on two relative unknowns
and collaborating on our project. Queering the Museum is the result of many people’s labors and
love; thank you to all those who contributed over the years.
Angelica Macklin is a very talented and established media producer, whose feminist
foundations are driving innovations in community media. I am so grateful for your support,
friendship and for your collaboration in bringing the vision I held to reality.
7
When I first imagined a digital storytelling project as part of my research, I did not have
the skills or connections to easily manifest that vision. Thank you to Prof. Krabill for whole-
heartedly supporting the idea, and helping me connect to the practical resources I needed to bring
the concept to reality.
Graduate school is an expensive endeavor. Thank you to the many sources of financial
support that I received, including funds from The Point Foundation, the Huckabay Fellowship,
the Project for Interdisciplinary Pedagogy, University of Washington(UW) Interdisciplinary Arts
and Sciences, Gender Women and Sexuality Studies and the Top Scholar program. I am
particularly grateful to the UW for providing low-cost housing for students with families. This
community created a safe space for my kids to grow and helped us establish a home during these
transitional years. I would not have survived the bureaucracy of this institution without the
Student Parent Resource Center, particularly Diana Herrmann. Thank you for helping me
navigate the system.
I am proud to be a product of the public school system, obtaining all three of my degrees
from the UW. Ongoing support for public education is a critical investment and an important
component of social justice work. Thank you to the state and to all the funders of higher
education, as well as those who tirelessly advocate for the existence and improvement of public
education.
Table of Contents
Abstract Page 3
Acknowledgements Page 5
Initialisms Page 9
Introduction Page 10
Chapter One: Critical Feminist Methodologies Engaging
Museums
Page 26
Chapter Two: Critical Feminist Museology: Combining
Theory and Method with the Queering the Museum
Project
Page 62
Chapter Three: Digital Disruptions Page 102
Chapter Four: Codifications and Resistance in Practice Page 140
Conclusions Page 182
Bibliography Page 204
Appendix Page 212
9
Initialisms
CAC: Community Advisory Committee
DSP: Digital Storytelling Project
DSW: Digital Storytelling Workshop
LGBT: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender
LGBTQ: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer
MOHAI: Museum of History and Industry
NWGLHMP: Northwest Gay and Lesbian History Museum Project
OLOC: Old Lesbians Organizing for Change
QTM: Queering the Museum
WLMAPAE: Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience
10
Introduction
On a 2013 visit to the U.S. National Archives, I was struck by the display of cultural
norms evident in the Archive’s welcoming statues. The Archives building is flanked by two
impressive stone sculptures that urge us to not only “Study the Past” but maintain that “The
heritage of the past is the seed that brings forth the harvest of the future.” The first statue of a
man and the second one of a woman holding a baby in her arms are elevated on pedestals, gazing
at the viewers who stop to read their messages inscribed in stone beneath their feet. As the
national repository for our nation’s history, this is an institution whose cultural structures reflect
our social norms, as well as impact the perpetuation of those norms.
Statues outside the U.S. National Archives building. Photos by Nicole Robert.
These figures, elevated above the viewer, are appropriate symbols of the kinds of “past”
that are collected and preserved in the major historical institutions of the United States. The
important past that they urge us to both study and preserve is dominated by progress narratives
featuring white men and the women in their lives. In Western cultural norms, masculinity is
11
associated with achievement in public and business arenas, with making progress from a less
accomplished past to a more civilized present. James Clifford described this Western chronology
as linking time with concepts of civilization,1 a civilization grounded in “progress and
modernization,” which leaves non-Western cultures in the timeless past.2 This narrative is
centered around a particular binary gender construction of male and female, assumes a
heterosexual, reproductive pairing of man and woman and succeeds when this pairing performs
their socially appropriate roles. Thus the very foundation of the ideals that anchor our National
Archives building are also foundational in the construction of a heteronormative society.
Centering the ideals of a white, accomplished, gender binary has ensured that the materials and
narratives collected and exhibited by U.S. archives and museums have contributed to the
idealization of white heterosexuality and all that is contained in that construction. Through
selective collecting practices, classification systems and display, museums have been complicit
in constructing social ideals that center a heteronormative race, gender and sexuality.
The phrase heteronormative draws from Michael Warner’s introduction to Fear of a
Queer Planet3 which calls attention to the heterosexual foundations of Western culture,
embedding homophobia and heterosexism into a broad range of social institutions.4 The concept
of heteronormavity names the normalization of a social structure which recognizes male and
female gender categories as absolute and separate, confers specific qualities upon each gender
and grounds community life around a family that springs forth from a heterosexual marriage.5
1 James Clifford, The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth Century Ethnography, Literature and Art. (Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1988) 232.
2 Patricia Pierce Erickson. Voices of a Thousand People: The Makah Cultural and Research Center. (University of
Nebraska Press: Lincoln and London, 2002) 16.
3 Michael Warner, Fear of a Queer Planet: Queer Politics and Social Theory (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press, 1993).
4 Warner, xiii.
5 ibid.
12
All those who do not fit within these clear and distinct gender boundaries fall outside of the norm
in this system. This includes those who whose gender expression blurs the boundaries of male
and female, those whose gender identity does not match the identity assigned at birth and those
whose romantic or sexual attractions do not neatly align with heterosexuality’s opposite gender
requirements. As Warner points out, this strictly binary gender norm is intricated with many
other social systems including “racial and national fantasy,” social display and “deep cultural
norms about the bearing of the body.”6 The construction of the heteronormative patriarchal
family is built upon identities of race, gender and sexuality that implicate and uphold each other.
Cultural concepts of normal gender and sexuality have been constructed in alignment with
cultural norms of race. Our mythical norms7 of gender are constructed around white, upper class
bodies that prioritize masculinity and heterosexuality. Thus to speak of the heteronormative, is to
speak of the white, masculine, heterosexual hegemony that has been codified in the institutions
of our society. Racialized, gendered and sexualized assumptions about who is part of our
national histories form the foundations of our cultural institutions and are perpetuated by U.S.
history museums.
Archives and museums that center the artifacts and narratives of white, heterosexual
masculinity have created a problem of identity-based exclusion in U.S. museums. Museum
professionals and activists have long grappled with this problem, inspiring many theoretical and
practical responses. Considering the diversity of race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality in our
communities, including the stories of all the identities that make up our communities has proven
to be a challenge. In many large museums there have been efforts to address broader exhibit
6 Michael Warner, “Introduction: Fear of a Queer Planet” Social Text 29 (1991) 6.
7 Audre Lorde, “Age, Race, Sex and Class: Women Redefining Difference” Sister Outsider (Berkeley: Crossing
Press, 1984,2007) 116.
13
topics through the temporary installation of exhibits that focus on a particular identity—such as
women artists, for example Elles: Women Artists from the Centre Pompidou which was on
display at the Seattle Art Museum in 2012 and 20138—or tackle the topic of identities in general,
for example the 2007 exhibit, RACE: Are We So Different?9 At the same time, marginalized
groups have established their own identity-based museums; examples include the Smithsonian’s
National Museum of the American Indian,10 the GLBT11 History Museum12 and the National
Museum of Women in the Arts.13 With these interventions in historical narratives occurring in
separate or temporary spaces, visitors to large mainstream museums continue to find primarily
Euro-centric heteronormative collections and narratives. This approach to inclusion in museums
has been both additive—adding in missing information—and fractional—focusing on a single
identity. This approach fails to consider how these identity-based exclusions overlap, presenting
museum professionals with the daunting task of fitting an ever-expanding rainbow of identities
into existing museum archives, programs and exhibits. However, the idea that identities do not
operate alone but intersect with each other in dynamic and complex ways—that identities are
intersectional—presents new possibilities for solving the challenges of identity-based inclusion.
Intersectional feminist theories provide a framework for addressing the long-standing
issues of heteronormative museum practices. Working from queer theory, women of color
feminist theory, and museological theory, I argue for a critical feminist museology14 that flexibly
responds to the unique institutional frameworks of individual museums. As a public scholar
8 For more information, see http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/exhibitions/pompidou
9 For more information, see http://www.understandingrace.org/home.html
10 For more information, see http://www.nmai.si.edu/
11 GLBT stands for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender
12 For more information, see http://www.glbthistory.org/museum/
13 For more information, see http://www.nmwa.org/
14 Museology is the study and theorizing of museums.
14
working across professional and theoretical terrains, this scholarship is a work that investigates,
translates and reframes. My aim to speak to multiple audiences necessarily involves making what
is clear to one audience legible to a different audience. I am a museum professional, a
community worker, a scholar, a feminist and a teacher. I am a white cisgender15 queer16 woman.
I ground my practical labors in theory and use the experiences of practice to inform theory. I am
in conversation with activists, scholars, museum professionals, theorists and community
members. My claims must, then, be legible to multiple audiences. These are audiences that don’t
often speak to each other and who employ different strategies for both the ways in which they
speak and the means of communicating their messages. This document strives to provide
theoretical and practical responses to identity-based exclusions in museums that are meaningful
and impactful to museum professionals, activists and scholars alike.
Occupying this multi-sited position comes with unique challenges and dangers. The
language spoken within critical feminist theories and queer theories calls upon a vast archive of
scholarly conversations. Yet, these are conversations largely unknown to practicing museum
professionals. Likewise, very few queer or critical feminist theorists have experience with the
practical challenges of museum operations. While there are many museum professional training
programs in the form of master’s programs, there are currently no doctoral museum programs in
the United States. The depth of theoretical investigation that doctoral research allows is
necessary for thoughtful, long-term changes to be effective in museum work. Still, this is a
luxury granted to very few museum professionals. As a museum professional myself, I approach
my doctoral research with a true love for, and commitment to, the work of museums. I have
15 Cisgender is used in this dissertation to name people whose gender identity aligns comfortably with the sex-
gender assignment they received at birth.
16 I use the word queer for my own identity to claim sexual and romantic attractions that fall outside of
heteronormative binaries and resist easy labelling.
15
personally struggled with the daily practical challenges of museum work, and recognize that our
efforts to address inclusion must account for these day-to-day choices. At the same time, I
believe there is much to be learned by applying queer and intersectional feminist theories to the
practices of museum work. The resulting praxis is a rich source of theoretical interventions that
can deepen and expand our scholarly endeavors. As such, I strive to make these practice-based
discoveries legible within the university systems of scholarly production, through relevant
scholarly conversations and peer-reviewed productions. Similarly, my work brings relevant
theory to the practical tasks of museum professionals. The danger lies in the fact that these
audiences require very different languages of production. For example, the theory of queer
failure, which I utilize in Chapter Four, offers a useful framework for understanding both the
accomplishments and the shortcomings of our practical museum endeavors. This is a theory with
which feminist and queer scholars will be familiar, and a framework of analysis that will be
comprehensible and useful to that audience. However, the word failure stands out, writ large as
an indicator of deficiency, to museums professionals who must frame museum projects within
the language of funders as successful and worth the risk. I use this theory for a complex analysis
of things that went well and areas of improvement, but the risk of museum professionals latching
onto the term failure as the entire codicil of a complex and dynamic project is significant. As
such, both this activist project and this scholarly investigation risk being dismissed as not
scholarly enough and as not practical enough, depending on the audience. Yet, I embrace these
risks as I strive to bring together the practices of museum professionals and the theories offered
by feminist and queer scholars.
This research is a multi-site and interdisciplinary engagement that unites theory and
praxis in a public scholarship project. Beginning from a theoretical framework that is inspired by
16
scholars and activists, this project moves to an application of critical feminist museology. A
collaboration between Queering the Museum project (QTM) and the Museum of History and
Industry (MOHAI) in Seattle, Washington is the context of this application. In 2012, Erin Bailey
was an M.A. student at the University of Washington who saw an opportunity to engage
discussion about queer cultural production in art museums when the Tacoma Art Museum hosted
Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture.17 Having completed my M.A. thesis
on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender18 (LGBT) representations in Seattle-area history
museums, Bailey and I connected over our common interests. Together, we dreamt of a multi-
part project that would continue the discussion about queer culture, shifting our attention to
history museums. I drafted a proposal of our vision that included a history symposium, a digital
storytelling project and a queer history exhibit. Bailey brought the proposal to the Museum of
History and Industry. Operating under the moniker Queering the Museum project, Bailey and I
negotiated a multi-year collaboration with the region’s largest history museum, the Museum of
History and Industry (MOHAI).
We committed to a truly collaborative model of project management, working with a
Community Advisory Committee (CAC) populated with representatives of local LGBT
organizations. The CAC met monthly and oversaw all major elements of the QTM—MOHAI
collaboration. As full-time students, we divided the responsibilities for this volunteer project.
Throughout, we consulted with each other on major decisions and, even when we were not
taking the lead in that moment, were accountable to each other for all work accomplished
through QTM. Below is a graphic detailing the division of responsibilities:
17 For more information, see http://www.tacomaartmuseum.org/explore/past-exhibitions/hideseek/
18 I use the term transgender broadly to encompass all those who identify differently than the sex-gender they were
assigned at birth.
17
Baily and I co-managed the QTM project as a whole, and worked together to recruit and
manage the CAC. We co-facilitated each monthly advisory meeting, bringing in our different
areas of leadership as appropriate. We both worked with MOHAI to plan the national history
symposium, which was hosted at MOHAI on June 8, 2013. This symposium featured Hugh Ryan
of the Pop Up Museum of Queer History in New York as our Key Note speaker.19 Throughout
the day, participants attended sessions led by the Old Lesbians Organizing for Change, Social
Outreach Seattle, the GLBT History Museum of San Francisco, the Pride Foundation and
MOHAI staff.20 The day ended in celebration featuring the Seattle Men’s Chorus performance
group Captain Smartypants.
We divided labors between the Digital Storytelling Project, held on April 6-7 and 13-14,
2013 and the queer history exhibit, Revealing Queer, on display from February 14-July 6, 2014.
Bailey took on the role of curator for the exhibit, in collaboration with the CAC. This meant that
19 For more information, see http://www.queermuseum.com/
20 For a complete program, see https://queeringthemuseum.org/2013/05/14/symposium-program/
18
all major decisions were approved by the CAC, with the CAC weighing in on details ranging
from major themes, sub-topics, artifacts and exhibit labels. For this section, I contributed as a
member of the CAC, in addition to co-managing the CAC meetings. I led the Digital Storytelling
Project in consultation with the CAC. This meant that the CAC supervised development of the
application to participate, helped recruit applicants, and selected participants based on those
applications. For this section, Bailey contributed as a member of the CAC, in addition to co-
managing the CAC meetings. The lines in the graphic above denote some of the overlapping
connections between the digital stories and the other elements of the project: the completed films
were first screened publicly at the Queering History Museum Symposium. Three of the films
were on display in the Revealing Queer exhibit, and all eight of the films were screened
throughout the opening night celebrations on February 14, 2014.
As a Co-Producer of the QTM collaboration, I worked in conjunction with colleagues and
community members to redesign practices of history collection and display that are capable of
addressing historical exclusions through ethical representations. Reflecting on the results of these
collaborations, my research brings practice back into theory—proposing the evocative object as
an interventionary tool.
The struggle that I encounter as a publicly engaged scholar to present my work in a
meaningful way to different audiences is not unlike the struggles of activists to build alliances
across difference. This is a struggle that has been well documented amongst feminist activists as
well as activism within LGBT communities. Even when individuals share a common identity,
such as race, they may experience differences in how they express gender, their economic status,
who they are attracted to and what resources they have access to. Bridging these differences is an
essential step in creating strong alliances that can effectively work towards social change.
19
The eight queer-identified individuals who participated in the digital storytelling
workshop which I produced, as part of the larger QTM project, engaged this struggle on a
smaller scale during the 4-day workshop. Brought together for an intensive experience of self-
-reflection and story production, the only common factor was that they all identified as queer in
some way. In the first day, individuals encountered misconceptions about gender, age, pronoun
use, racial stereotypes and even sexuality. Through their labors, in pairs and as a group, they
found common experiences and by the second day had begun to construct meaningful alliances
despite their differences. The first time that their stories were screened together at the Queering
the History Museum Symposium in 2013, the filmmakers and audience alike felt the palpable
connections between, not just the stories, but the storytellers themselves. Though each video has
a unique style, pace and message, the threads of connection that developed during the workshop
are clear between the films. In fact, several of the filmmakers have expressed the desire for their
short film to be shown with the other short films in order for audiences to understand not only
the context of the video creation but also the connections across differences that these films
display.
The idea that the films convey additional meanings simply by their co-presentation is an
embodiment of feminist theory, museum practice and social change work—in a form that was
unanticipated. This is a proposal that objects can be juxtaposed in a meaningful way, a way that
collaboratively communicates a message which one object alone could not render. These films,
produced collaboratively, reframe significant social categories, such as race, gender and
sexuality—a reframing that is visible in a single film, powerful in the combination of films, and
dynamic when the relatable content of the films collaborates with viewers to expand the
meanings.
20
Together, their cohesive meaning communicates information which is difficult to speak.
The compilation of individual experiences in these movies allows viewers to see several different
ways of embodying race, gender and sexuality, to understand how these embodiments impact
lived experience, and to see how those experiences are related to institutionalized codifications
of identity—codifications that privilege some and marginalize others. These videos play with
existing identity categories while communicating the complexity of identities. The use of
reframing, of highlighting connections and communicating within the gaps, operates in this
compilation in powerful ways. The productive use of gaps, time lags and third spaces—evident
in these films—is not new. Emma Pérez,21 Chela Sandoval,22 José Esteban Muñoz 23 and
Elizabeth Freeman24 all explore these interstitial spaces as resources for change, a concept that I
develop in Chapter One. This chapter provides the theoretical grounding for my research,
connecting intersectional feminist theories, queer theories and museological investigations to
propose a critical feminist museology. Through an analysis of museum exhibits and policies, I
demonstrate the flexibility of this critically conscious approach to museum work, specifically
investigating its power to respond to identity-based exclusions in museums. Two main points of
praxis arise from analysis of intersectional feminist and queer theories: 1) reflect critically on the
institutions, systems and procedures that structure our pathways and our choices and 2) draw
from this conscious perspective to identify pathways in-between the simplistic, binary
trajectories of normalcy. The digital filmmakers collaborated in production of their individual
stories, through a workshop that facilitated critical reflection. Working collaboratively, across
21 Emma Pérez, The Decolonial Imaginary: Writing Chicanas into History (Bloomington: Indiana University Press,
1999), Kindle Edition.
22 Chela Sandoval, Methodology of the Oppressed (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000).
23 José Esteban Muñoz, Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity (New York: New York University
Press, 2009).
24 Elizabeth Freeman, Time Binds: Queer Temporalities, Queer Histories (Durham, NC: Duke University Press,
2010).
21
differences, highlights the meanings which are hard to name and illuminates the structural
connections which we have learned not to see.
The participants of the QTM digital storytelling workshop translated their lives into
visual and emotional narratives. They did this together, supporting each other across barriers.
Drawing from theoretical analysis, the QTM digital storytelling project is an intervention that
prioritized critical consciousness, relational responsibility and collaboration. Practices were
designed around these values, and theoretical discoveries highlight the impact of these tools.
Chapter Two explores the application of these theories through the QTM project. I introduce the
ways that these values—critical consciousness, relational responsibility and collaboration—were
implemented in the QTM-MOHAI collaboration generally, and our queer digital storytelling
workshop specifically. Implementation is considered as praxis, connecting practical workshop
choices with the theories that informed our work. Utilizing critical reflection in a collaborative
digital storytelling workshop, queer storytellers author their own representations, consciously
moving between subject and narrator, presenting individual histories that speak to the structural
norms of heteronormativity. Historical artifacts were created with digital tools that supported
these values. If the heteronormative is linear, progressive, static, simplistic, binary and
hierarchical, then digital tools can be a potent resource of disruption. Digital narratives are
capable of crossing boundaries—physical and geographical, of containing complexity, invoking
affect and building resonance across identity-based differences.
In Chapter Three, I analyze the product of the digital storytelling workshop—a series of
individual, personal narratives in a digital audio-visual format. These films exploit the in-
between spaces named by queer and intersectional theorists, disrupting simplistic, binary
representations that support heteronormative narratives. The affective resonance of the personal
22
histories creates opportunities for audience-subject connections across differences. This affective
connection draws the viewer into narratives that disrupt static notions of identity and highlight
connections between personal experiences and the social institutions of religion, family,
immigration and education. These films function as historical artifacts that exceed the boundaries
of the archive; recording a collaborative experience of film production in its creation and inviting
audience collaboration in the impact of the completed film. In between the archive and the
repertoire,25 the films function as evocative objects.
Drawing application and theory back together, Chapter Four creates a conversation
between the application of critical feminist museology and the theories that guided the work.
Specifically considering the goal of queering a museum, I explore the tension between the queer
impulse to resist codification and QTM's efforts to expand museum representations of queer
lives. Analysis of the methods and impact of queering MOHAI considers the institutional failures
of the QTM-MOHAI collaboration, as well as the spaces for queer resistance that those failures
contained. Collaborations create potential for shared authority and increased inclusion, but
critical consciousness must ground those relationships. We cannot develop interpersonal
partnerships outside of the existing normalizing structures of our worlds. We cannot build trust
and maintain relational accountability with our collaborators if we blindly recreate processes of
exclusion. The processes and histories of the institution absolutely shape the possible impacts of
efforts to queer historical representation. Expanding identity-based representation in museums
requires that we approach all areas of our work with knowledge of past failures as well as
accountable commitments to the relationships that we are building. Working intersectionally
25 Diana Taylor, The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas (Durham: Duke
University Press, 2003).
23
means working on the systems that shape the work and thinking across functional boundaries.
When grounded in critical consciousness, respectful, equitable collaboration is a powerful tool
for expanding representation without creating new hierarchies of belonging.
The results of my research hold rich theoretical and practical possibilities for queer,
feminist, digital and museological scholars within the academy. There is discovery in the
practice, a creation in the process that we would not find in theories alone. Practices can become
more powerful when consciously guided by well-constructed theory. The problems of difference
are encountered in a multitude of ways both inside and outside of the museum. In this enactment
of intersectional scholarship, difference becomes the opening of new possibilities. Digital tools,
grounded in collaborative, critically conscious work, can produce the kind of artifacts that are
needed to both address and redress the disparities of historical representation that result from
heteronormative social and institutional values.
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Chapter 1: Critical Feminist Methodologies Engaging Museums
In this chapter, I explore the methods of critical feminist museology, which are applicable
to the work of museum professionals in a variety of capacities. I begin by exploring the feminist
formulations of method and how a critical feminist approach, in particular, differs from a
feminist approach. Working from Chela Sandoval’s Methodology of the Oppressed, I outline the
theoretical foundation of this methodology and demonstrate its application in museums. Critical
self-reflection is a foundational practice in critical feminist museology; I apply this reflection to
myself an individual researcher, locating myself within this research and the development of
critical feminist museology. These reflections ground the connections of research to practice,
drawing strategies of resistance from queer theorists and intersectional feminists. Finally, I
explore the opportunities presented by mapping this critical intersectional approach onto
museum spaces.
Feminist Methods
What makes critical feminist museology feminist? Sandra Harding explored the question
of a feminist method in 1987, engaging a larger conversation that sought to define a feminist
method of research.26 Harding defined a method as a “technique for gathering evidence.”27 She
concluded that there is nothing inherently feminist about a particular technique, but rather that
the theoretical foundation is what determines both the methods employed and whether the
research is a feminist project. This theoretical foundation forms the methodology, which Harding
defines as “a theory and analysis of the ‘the special ways in which the general structure of theory
26 Sandra Harding, “The Method Question,” Hapatia Vol. 2 No. 3 (Autumn 1987): 19.
27 Harding, 23.
25
finds its application.’”28 Thus the theory selected to ground the research is critical in determining
the direction of the research, including the methods applied.29 A feminist project, then, is
grounded in feminist theory. Part of what makes feminist thinking unique, according to Harding,
is the recognition of epistemologies unacknowledged in other academic fields. She points out
that the knowledge systems upon which research is grounded have deep political and moral
implications.30 For Harding, feminist research acknowledges the political and moral implications
of relying upon one set of knowledge practices over another. In addition, Harding believes
feminist research directs a critical gaze at all genders, is grounded in the lived experiences of
women, and demands a process of reflexivity on the part of the researcher.31 It is this theoretical
foundation that directs the feminist researcher towards a particular method. Rather than claiming
one method or even one methodology as feminist, Harding concludes that framing a research
project with feminist theory will guide the researcher towards the methodology and the methods
appropriate for that particular project.32
To build the methodology for my project, I turn to Chela Sandoval’s Methodology of the
Oppressed33 which is grounded in the epistemologies of U.S. third world feminism developed by
women of color in the 1970s and 1980s.34 Similar to what Harding describes above,
methodology of the oppressed resists attachment to any one method, and also resists a single
ideology. Sandoval explains:
28 Harding, 24.
29 Harding, 24.
30 Harding, 32.
31 Harding, 32.
32 Harding, 19 and 32.
33 Chela Sandoval 2000.
34 Sandoval 2000, 10.
26
The 1970’s-80’s social movement called U.S. third world feminism shattered the
construction of any one ideology as the single most correct site where truth can be
represented. Indeed, without making this kind of metamove, any ‘liberation’ or social
movement eventually becomes destined to repeat the oppressive authoritarianism from
which it is attempting to free itself.35
Methodology of the oppressed is explicit about its political intention towards the liberation of the
oppressed, an objective that is consistent with my desire to intervene in the marginalization of
non-normative bodies through current museum practices. This goal is also in harmony with the
project of critical feminist museology, which seeks to provide training and technologies to
museum practitioners for this same purpose. Acknowledging these political and moral aims,
while consistent with Harding’s conceptualization of feminist methodologies, aligns my work
more closely with critical feminism. Like critical studies, I am committed not just to liberation,
but also to grounding that liberatory goal in the deconstruction of cultural knowledge. The term
‘critical’ also acknowledges this project’s scope, which reaches beyond a singular attention to
gender and instead advances an approach that operates at intersections of identities.36
Sandoval also sees her methodology of the oppressed as working beyond the limits of
feminism's hegemonic model. What Sandoval refers to as ‘1980s hegemonic feminism’
attempted to construct new historical narratives and theoretical bases for the liberation of
women.37 But these constructions failed to integrate discussions of racism into feminist theory,
and even went so far as to describe the writings of women of color as “mainly at the level of
35 Sandoval 2000, 59
36 This intersectional approach attends to the ways that lived experiences are disciplined through social institutions
that regulate power and shape identities. This understanding permits an analysis that sees the formations of race,
gender and sexuality as co-constituted and thus responses to exclusions based on identity must begin at this point of
systemic constitution.
37 Sandoval 2000, 46-52.
27
description”38 and dismiss them as failing to make any theoretical contributions towards
women's liberation.39 The typologies of feminist thought and action that were named and
recognized under this hegemonic feminism created rigid categories which excluded women of
color and created oppositions. “Movement activists became trapped within the rationality of its
structure, which sublimated and dispersed the specificity of a differential U.S. third world
feminist theory, method and practice.”40 Sandoval turned to U.S. third world feminists for an
“alternative typology” influenced by “struggles against gender domination [and] race, sex,
national, economic, cultural and social hierarchies that marked the twentieth century.”41 In these
struggles, subjects that operate on the margins of our social structures developed what Sandoval
calls ‘oppositional consciousness.’42 In the self-conscious recognition of their position within
marginalized spaces, subordinated subjects can transform those very spaces into “effective sites
of resistance to an oppressive ordering of power relations.”43 Grounded in this knowledge,
Sandoval developed both a “theory and method of consciousness-in-opposition.”44
The application of hegemonic feminist theories in museums has similarly failed to
effectively move beyond the category of gender alone. Marjorie Schwarzer, for example, applies
a feminist approach to museums by reflecting on the kinds of positions in which females are
employed.45 Hilde Hein, in contrast, uses feminist theories to deconstruct the epistemological
38 Sandoval 2000, 50.
39 Sandoval 2000, 52.
40 Sandoval 2000, 53.
41 Sandoval 2000, 54.
42 Sandoval 2000, 54
43 Sandoval 2000, 55.
44 Sandoval 2000, 55.
45 Marjorie Schwarzer, “Women in the Temple: Gender and Leadership in Museums” in Gender, Sexuality and
Museums ed. Amy K. Levin (New York: Routledge Press, 2010) 16-27.
28
foundations of Western museums.46 While Hein acknowledges that feminism “makes common
cause with various minority, postcolonial, racialized, gendered and multicultural analyses,” her
analysis is a deep engagement with issues around gender, and does not consider the ways that
gender interacts with race, class, or sexuality.47 Barbara Clark-Smith’s application of feminist
theory to her work as a curator centers women,48 but hegemonic feminist theory falls short of
providing Smith with the tools to complicate the concept of women. She wants to imagine her
audience as “women of color, lesbian women, women with disabilities, working-class women,
and poor women,” but struggles with how to include so many identities.49 The application of
hegemonic feminist theory in museum spaces has failed to yield the kinds of radical changes that
would allow a coalitional framework across marginalized populations and address the
intersectional deployments of museum exclusions. Conversations about feminist interventions
that are applied to race, gender, and sexuality are extremely rare. Even in the context of writings
about feminism in museums, texts tend to be focused on gender, or on sexuality, or on race.50
One of my reasons for selecting Sandoval’s methodology of the oppressed for critical feminist
museology is that it attends to the goals of feminism, but also creates a foundation for this kind
of coalitional work that hegemonic feminism has struggled with. Critical feminist museologists
can create opportunities for coalition across difference, and locate methods for change in
critically reflexive practices of structural recognition, deconstruction, and reformulation.
46 Hilde Hein, “Looking at Museums from a Feminist Perspective” in Gender, Sexuality and Museums ed. Amy K.
Levin (New York: Routledge Press, 2010) 53-64.
47 Hein, 56.
48 Barbara Clark Smith, “A Woman’s Audience: Applied Feminist Theories” in Gender, Sexuality and Museums ed.
Amy K. Levin (New York: Routledge Press, 2010) 65-70.
49 Smith, 66-67.
50 See, for example, the chapters in the book Gender, Sexuality and Museums ed. Amy K. Levin (New York:
Routledge Press, 2010) as well as the themed editions of the journal Museums and Social Issues published by Left
Coast Press, Inc. A brief review of art journals reveals this same separation.
29
Methodology of the oppressed is built upon the “combined insistence” of U.S. third
world feminist activists on “a structured theory and method of consciousness-in-opposition to
U.S. social hierarchy that is capable . . . of aligning a variety of oppositional social activists with
one another across gender, sex, race, culture, class or national localities.” 51 As Catherine A.
MacKinnon explains, “Intersectionality as a method does not simply add variables. It adopts a
distinctive stance.”52 This stance focuses on people and experiences, eschewing homogenous
categories of identity for specificity of experience.53 Systems are no longer viewed as objective,
static forms, but understood in relation to the dynamic lived experiences of the people who
operate within those systems.54 This critical intersectional approach to research requires constant
evaluation of the both the systems and the experiences of the people impacted by our research.
Differential Consciousness
As this project is centered upon this evaluation of systems and experiences, it can also be
thought of as being founded upon consciousness. It is the conscious recognition of the structures
of power and the practitioner's place within these structures that enables the practitioner of the
methodology of the oppressed to self-consciously “choos[e] and [adopt] the ideological stand
best suited to push through its configurations, a survival skill well known to oppressed
peoples.”55 This practice of critical reflection is essential for, first, being able to recognize the
power structures at work and, second, identifying spaces within these structures to resist and
51 Chela Sandoval, “Dissident Globalization, Emancipatory Methods, Social Erotics” in Queer Globalizations:
Citizenship and the Afterlife of Colonialism ed. Arnaldo Cruz-Malave et al (New York: New York University Press,
2002), 23-24.
52 Catherine A. MacKinnon. “Intersectionality as Method: A Note.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society
38:4 (2013) 1020.
53 MacKinnon, 1020.
54 MacKinnon, 1023.
55 Sandoval 2000, 60.
30
redefine. Sandoval terms this “activity of consciousness” the “differential,”56 “in so far as it
enables movement ‘between and among’ ideological positionings . . . In this sense, the
differential mode of consciousness functions like the clutch of an automobile, the mechanism
that permits the driver to select, engage, and disengage gears in a system for the transmission of
power.”57 It is this ability to move within the margins that makes the resistance methods of the
oppressed such a powerful resource. In order to freely to utilize the best tools for that particular
situation and moment in time, we cannot adopt a limited number of possible methods for change.
Rather, the conscious deployment of the method which best fits that moment, as determined by
the critically reflexive change agent, is essential.
Similarly, critical feminist museology is constructed around the conscious deployment of
the methods which best serve the context. Practitioners of critical feminist museology must first
critically reflect upon the social structures and cultural assumptions that are at work in our
chosen space of service: museums. Creating solutions without first understanding the systemic
nature of the problems inevitably means that any methods museum professionals employ will, in
some way, recreate the very problems we intend to address. Grounding our practices in
consciousness opens up the space of the differential that Sandoval describes. The museum
professional, like the driver of the automobile, becomes aware of the structures at work in the
“transmission of power” and can choose to “select, engage or disengage gears” in that system.58
Without this consciousness, museum professionals may be engaging the transmission of power
without realizing it, and in a way that is contrary to their intentions. With an underlying
56 Sandoval 2000, 58.
57 Sandoval 2000, 58.
58 Sandoval 2000, 58.
31
commitment to “egalitarian social relations . . . [and] seeking the basis for a shared vision, an
oppositional and coalitional politics” using this critically reflexive approach creates a space for
museum work that doesn’t simply replicate existing hierarchies of power.59
Sandoval’s methodology of the oppressed also creates an effective means of recognizing
the experiences that people have of living within identities and moving differentially between
these identities, allowing coalition across differences. She acknowledges that there are “manifold
positions for truth: these positions are ideological stands that are viewed as potential tactics
drawn from a never-ending interventionary fund, the contents of which remobilizes power.”60
Therefore, the deployment of differential consciousness requires practitioners to “stake out and
hold solid identity and political positions in the social world” even as they move between and
amongst these identities.61 This approach allows the range of identities experienced in our
worlds—and discussed in museums—to be acknowledged and included. At the same time, this
approach acknowledges the socially constructed nature of identities and the hierarchies of power
that act through and upon identity. Exceptional in its ability to respect difference and avoid
codification, oppositional consciousness creates unique opportunities for coalition building.
Successful practice of differential consciousness permits “affinities inside difference.”62
Sandoval cites Audre Lorde and Gloria Anzaldúa to make an even stronger affirmation of
coalition across difference. Anzaldúa recognized that marginalized peoples, though they may
have different ideologies, need not function in opposition to each other.63 Rather, we can
recognize our mutual opposition to hegemonic social norms as a commonality which we share.
59 Sandoval 2000, 72.
60 Sandoval 2000, 60.
61 Sandoval 2000, 60.
62 Sandoval 2002, 26. Original emphasis.
63 Sandoval 2002, 24.
32
Within this common experience, our varied identities and experiences of those identities can,
according to Lorde, provide the creative spark for generating new ways of being in the world, in
which each ideological position is “acknowledged and equal.”64
Lorde, Anzaldúa, and Sandoval are highlighting the liberatory possibilities of imagined
spaces. Being able to imagine experiences and ideologies outside of oppression opens new
possibilities for resistance to that oppression. The emphasis of methodology of the oppressed on
consciousness and the movement of psychic energy locates its work in the space of the
imagination. The imagination as an initial and essential site of resistance is similarly discussed
by José Esteban Muñoz in his 2009 book Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer
Futurity. Muñoz asserts that the liberatory possibilities of queerness are only accessible when
we look beyond the “prison house” of the “here and now” and reach for the as yet only imagined
potentiality of the “then and there,” the possibility for another, better world. 65 This is the place
that Native American theorist Paula Gunn Allen references in her statement that “the place we
live now is an idea,” an idea that imagines new forms of “identity, theory, practice and
community.” 66 Emma Pérez does just that, applying Sandoval’s differential consciousness to the
imagined space of untold histories, utilizing the imaginary as a theoretical tool of historical
liberation.67 Pérez recognizes that the past, as dominantly narrated, constructs normative
classifications that necessarily privilege one truth over others, excluding the experiences of non-
dominant voices.68 This truth she names ‘the colonial imaginary.’69 In naming the centrality of
64 Sandoval 2002, 24.
65 Muñoz 2009, Kindle Location 115 to 126.
66 Paula Gunn Allen, as cited and described by Sandoval 2000, 60.
67 Pérez, Kindle Location 97-103.
68 Pérez, Kindle Location 189.
69 Pérez, Kindle Location 189.
33
the colonial imaginary, we can also recognize that which is not centered, nor even narrated—
what Pérez calls the decolonial imaginary.70 This imaginary space, which often does not exist in
textual, artifactual formats, is the opening needed to explore the very real, yet intangible,
histories of the marginalized. Similarly, the methods of critical feminist museology draw upon
the imagined, often intangible, narratives and possibilities in pursuit of socially-just means of
transforming museum practices.
Accessing the imagination as a resource allows individuals and communities alike to
“[function] within, yet beyond, the demands of dominant ideology.”71 These spaces within the
consciousness become the source for liberatory practices which acknowledge difference while
drawing strength from coalition.
The Researcher in Coalition
While critical feminist museology asks museum professionals to practice differential
consciousness, I, as a researcher and theorist, also conceive of my own role as that of the
differential activist. Harding asserts that feminist research requires a certain reflexivity from its
practitioners, assuring that the researcher does not appear as an “invisible, anonymous,
disembodied voice of authority, but as a real, historical individual with concrete, specific desires
and interests.”72 Therefore, it is important for me as the designer of my research to acknowledge
my own positions as a white, middle class, queer female museum professional deeply committed
to an egalitarian world. While my PhD work has allowed me to immerse myself in the theories of
queer and women of color feminist activists, my foundations in museum practice influence my
70 Pérez, Kindle Location 202-209
71 Sandoval 2000, 63.
72 Harding, 32.
34
perspective as I approach the project of critical feminist museology from a loving and reflexive
stance. Indeed, my love of museums may even function as an entry into a differential mode of
consciousness around museum work. Sandoval, drawing from the work of Roland Barthes,
describes a revolutionary love that permits one to see outside of ideology.73 This is love, not in a
“Western narrative sense,” but another kind of love— “a love that punctures through traditional,
older narratives of love [and] that ruptures everyday being.”74 What both Barthes and Sandoval
are asserting is that the very feeling of love is so great as to be able to push one outside of
ideology and reveal new visibilities and possibilities for change. In my own life, the experience
of queer love allowed me to step outside of the restrictive heteronormative expectations of my
communities. Once outside of ideology, new possibilities for the formations of family and
community become possible. Similarly, by grounding my work in my love for museums, I will
practice the reflective critical consciousness that creates space for recognizing ideologies and
imagining new possibilities.
I am aware that my critiques of museum practice may appear to place me in opposition
with museum practitioners, but I, like Sandoval, seek coalition across difference. In museums,
this difference may be present in a variety of ways. Museum professionals work in museums
focused on science, children, culture, and histories, and each type of museum has its own set of
practices and challenges. In addition, the individual people who work in museums bring not only
their own personal backgrounds and trainings to this range of museums contexts, but also their
own identity location. I align myself with museum practitioners who are committed to making
museums more accessible, more inclusive, and more responsive to the needs of our communities.
73 Sandoval 2000, 142.
74 Sandoval 2000, 142.
35
Rather than come to practitioners with a prescription for change, my methodology guides them
through a choice of methods appropriate to each context. In addition, I approach my research as a
member of the larger queer community, and all the identities and communities that may
encompass.
A critical feminist approach to research requires that I create space for, and critical
consciousness of, all those that may be impacted by or choose to participate in my research.
Indeed, the goals of moving museums toward truly inclusive practices cannot be achieved
without the mutually respected involvement of museum professionals, community members, and
researchers alike. As Shawn Wilson explains in his book Research is Ceremony: Indigenous
Research Methods, relationships shape our realities.75 Holding ourselves accountable to those we
create and maintain relationships with is an essential practice for research that holds inclusion
and social justice as its goals.76
Research in Practice
Oppositional differential consciousness is both a theory and a method,77 and thus
effective deployment requires conscious reflection and application. I have chosen a project that
allows both the theorization of new forms of museology as well as the application of those
theories to a particular project. This dissertation is grounded in a specific community-museum
collaboration formed through an organization that I co-founded, Queering the Museum (QTM).
QTM’s multi-year collaboration with the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) forms the
specific context of the practical applications both theorized and explored in this collection of
75 Shawn Wilson. Research is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods (Fernwood Publishing, 2008) 7.
76 Wilson, 7.
77 Sandoval 2000, 71.
36
essays.
As a participant researcher, the specific methods I deployed—explored in detail in the
following chapters—grew from a self-reflective consciousness that responded to the situation,
context, and goals of the project in its various phases. For example, digital tools were adopted
for their unique abilities to address lost narratives and ownership of representation, but the use of
a digital tool alone does not ensure that it suits the methodology. The deployment of the tool
must be shaped in such a way that it attends to the goals of equality and liberation, a concept that
will be detailed in the following chapters. This flexible approach to the selection of methods,
though grounded in the methodology of the oppressed, is also in alignment with Harding’s
interpretation of feminist research. She asserts that remaining open to a wide array of possible
methods engages the researcher in “the difficult and sometimes painful--if always exciting--
processes of learning how to see and create ourselves and the world in the radically new forms
demanded by our feminist theories and practices.78
Up to this point, I have proposed a critical feminist museology that draws upon
Sandoval’s methodology of the oppressed for its methodological framework. The differential
consciousness that Sandoval details in her book creates ideational resources for social change.79
As a researcher, I employ differential consciousness in both the selection and use of specific
methods for research, maintaining respectful and reflexive relationships through the research
process. In addition, I propose critical feminist museology as a theoretical and practical
intervention that museum professionals can apply to their work.
Critical Feminist Museology: Relating to Queer
78 Harding, 32.
79 Sandoval 2000, 130.
37
As this dissertation specifically addresses queer representation in museums, it is
necessary to consider how queerness operates within the proposed critical feminist museology. I
approach the concept of queer as both an identity and as an idea. Throughout the course of my
research, I frequently encountered those for whom the term ‘queer’ was wholly derogatory, often
deployed preceding an act of violence towards those who appeared gender non-conforming in
ways that have been coded to mean not heterosexual. Yet many, including myself, have
reclaimed ‘queer’ as a broad category that can encompass all those who fall outside of normative
ideas of gender and sexuality, while at the same time calling into question those same normative
categories. ‘Queer’ also functions as a body of theory that seeks to disrupt static notions of
definition around identity, language, and law.80
In addressing the lack of representation around queer identities, museologists have turned
to queer theory with both hesitation and delight. In “Theorizing the Queer Museum,” Robert
Mills reflects that if queer theory refuses meaning, then “a ‘queer museum’ would constitute an
impossibility, or at least a paradox.”81 Yet Mills is unsatisfied with accepting the institutional
strategy which “has been to silence, ignore or even eradicate sexual and gender difference.”82
Interestingly, Mills finds parallels to this problem of representation between Fred Wilson’s
“Mining the Museum,” a response to racial exclusions, and Jo Darbyshire’s installation at the
Western Australian Museum in Perth called “The Gay Museum,”83 which was a response to
exclusions based on sexuality. While Mills recognizes that these two exhibits respond to similar
exclusions in similar ways, the identities based on race are seen as separate from identities based
on sexuality. The separation of identities in this way recodifies systemic exclusions and prevents
80 Robert Mills, “Theorizing the Queer Museum,” Museums and Social Issues 3:1 (Spring 2008): 46.
81 Mills, 45.
82 Mills, 48.
83 Mills, 49.
38
us from seeing the possibilities for change that comes when the overlapping and intersectional
nature of identities is acknowledged.
Even with the application of queer theory, the struggle to resist re-codifying exclusions
continues. Paul Gabriel sorts through the challenges of embracing queerness in museums due to
its position as visibly non-normative in his article, “Embracing our Erotic Intelligence.”84 Gabriel
concludes that museum approaches to queerness are shaped by assumptions such as: queer is
about them, with them being a small minority—not us; queer is best explored by institutions
devoted to queerness in their mission, not by mainstream institutions; queer is just about personal
lifestyle and not really relevant to the population at large; and queerness must be desexualized to
be seen.85 Gabriel advocates a “necessary re-orienting of how we think, feel, and act publicly as
a profession when it comes to sexual orientation, human sexuality, and pleasure-seeking bodies
of any kind.”86 Gabriel’s approach mirrors that of critical feminist methods; he advocates
critically reflecting on the ways that human sexuality has operated when putting together exhibits
and archives.87 In fact, Gabriel believes that accessing the power of pleasure, the erotic
intelligence, can only enhance learning of all kinds in museums.88
Many more authors have written about the important work being done all across the
country to increase the representation of LGBT and queer narratives in museums. A recent issue
of QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking89 highlighted many of these examples, and several
more can be found in the Routledge Reader on Gender, Sexuality and Museums.90 While
84 Paul Gabriel, “Embracing our Erotic Intelligence,” Museums and Social Issues 3:1 (Spring 2008) 53-66.
85 Gabriel, 58.
86 Gabriel, 62.
87 Gabriel, 63.
88 Gabriel, 63-65.
89 A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking Vol. 1 No. 2 Summer 2014.
90 Amy K. Levin, Editor, Gender, Sexuality and Museums: A Routledge Reader (New York: Routledge Press, 2010).
39
utilizing queer theories in museum practice is still relatively new, queer theorists have provided
significant works that address some of the challenges of representation in museums.
Analyzing Temporality
Many queer theorists have analyzed the dearth of queer representations in popular
culture generally, but the specific focus on queering chronological representation is particularly
useful to the work of history museums. Multiple queer and feminist theorists have named
normative temporality as a system of exclusion that contributes to the erasure of minorities from
U.S. history museums. History stands as one of the normalizing structures at work in our worlds,
and specifically in museums. Pérez explains that the organization of history is the “way in which
people understand themselves through a collective, common past,” creating historical
consciousness as a “system of thought that leads to a normative understanding of past events.”91
Muñoz understands the past as performative; he is critical of producing history that merely “culls
selectively from the past while striking a pose of positivist undertaking or empirical knowledge
retrieval.”92 In effect, both Pérez and Muñoz recognize the self-reinforcing nature of what has
been selected for inclusion in historical archives and records.
Looking beyond the construction of historical narratives, J. Halberstam discusses the
deceptive nature of time itself, functioning as a largely unquestioned structure that upholds
cultural standards of “respectability and notions of the normal.”93 Our conceptions of time are
organized around the functions of work and birth which “become the logics of those bourgeois
91 Pérez, Kindle location 223-224.
92 Muñoz, 27.
93 J. Halberstam, In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives,
(New York: New York University Press, 2005) 4.
40
and reproductive life narratives that seem to unfold naturally but are actually pushed along by
eager families and friends and strategies of accumulation and investment.”94 It is these functions
that reinforce “straight time” in the form of heterosexual gender pairings, feminized domesticity
and the male achievement of capitol success. Halberstam discusses queer subjects as those that
live outside these models of temporality and embrace “nonnormative logics and organizations of
community, sexual identity, embodiment, and activity in space and time.”95 For Halberstam,
queer subjects are those living in queer time, rejecting the “temporal frames of bourgeois
reproduction, longevity, risk/safety and inheritance.”96
Like Halberstam, Elizabeth Freeman identifies the normalizing strategies of time, what
she calls “chrononormativity.”97 She recognizes state and representational institutions’ ability to
construct teleological narratives that connect “properly temporalized bodies” through “strategies
for living such as marriage, accumulation of health and wealth for the future, reproduction.”98
Freeman builds on Butler’s theory of performativity in Gender Trouble. Butler discusses a
present day performance that “cites” the past, thereby drawing from the past to create present-
day meaning.99 Freeman respects Butler’s theory, but critiques the way that Butler reads a
citation of the past as a “consolidat[tion of] the authority of a fantasized original.”100 This
presumed codification, Freeman asserts, disregards references to the past that “signal the
presence of life lived otherwise than in the present.”101 Freeman highlights the possibility of
94 J. Halberstam, “Keeping Time with Lesbians on Ecstasy,” Women and Music 11 (2007) 53.
95 Halberstam, 2005, 6.
96 Halberstam 2005, 6.
97 Freeman, 3.
98 Freeman, 4.
99 Freeman, 63.
100 Ibid.
101 Ibid.
41
multiple “historically contingent events, social movements or collective pleasures” being present
at the same time, even upon the same body.102
As an example, Freeman discusses Sharon Hayes’ 2005 performance of In the Near
Future in which Hayes stands in public locations in New York City with signs that display multi-
temporally sited political meanings.103 One sign labeled “I am a man” referenced the 1968
Memphis sanitation strike,104 but held in 2005 by Hayes while wearing drab pants, standing with
feet wide apart with an androgynous hairstyle105 connected this strike of the past to
“contemporary lesbian and transgender activism.”106 This “temporal drag”107 demonstrates the
embodiment of multiple temporally situated events on one body, allowing an individual like
Hayes to draw from the past in order to disrupt present realities, in the process pointing to a
hoped-for future.
Hayes’ performance, cited by Freeman, seems an apt embodiment of both Freeman’s and
Muñoz’s theories of how the past and the future can act as resources to illuminate each other and
intervene in the present. This non-linear space that is created becomes a resource for resisting
present-day codifications of normality and imagining a future where the very systems we use are
reshaped. For Muñoz, living in time as it is constructed in this moment—the present—is an
“impoverished and toxic” environment for “queers and other people who do not feel the privilege
of marjoritarian belonging.”108 He refers to the past as the “no-longer-conscious” and the future
as the “not-quite-conscious . . . realm of potientiality.”109 Living in the here and now codifies the
102 Ibid.
103 Freeman, 59.
104 Freeman, 60.
105 Freeman, 61.
106 Freeman, 60.
107 Freeman, 61.
108 Muñoz, 27.
109 Muñoz, 21.
42
systems within which we live, systems that privilege and oppress, while foreclosing the
possibilities dreamt of in the past (the no-longer-conscious) and hoped for in the future (the not-
quite-conscious). Muñoz believes that accepting the here and now naturalizes a version of reality
which includes such “cultural logics as capitalism and heteronormativity.”110 This version of
reality both Muñoz and Halberstam call “straight time.”111
Similarly, Pérez’s focus on the decolonial imaginary specifically points out the racialized
and gendered exclusions that occur in normative historical constructions. She asserts that
existing historical analyses recreate the colonial and exclude women generally, and women of
color specifically--chicanas .112 As an example, Pérez points to the work of writing women into
the field of Chicano history; “[w]here women are conceptualized as merely a backdrop to men’s
social and political activities, they are in fact intervening interstitially . . . In other words,
activities are unseen, unthought, merely a shadow in the background of the colonial mind.”113
Pérez builds on the differential consciousness discussed by Sandoval114 and proposes exploiting
the time lag between the colonial and the post-colonial for re-imagining hegemonic narratives of
history.115 She sees possibilities for responding to historical exclusions by exploiting the
interstitial spaces of time and history. While Pérez advocates a kind of third space that opens
temporal space for creating new imaginaries, Muñoz proposes a new relationship between past,
present, and future. Building on this idea of queering time, Muñoz believes that we can draw
from a queer futurity to open up the possibilities of the past that we do not see in normative
110 Muñoz, 12.
111 Muñoz, 22.
112 Pérez, Kindle Location 187.
113 Pérez, Kindle location 210-219.
114 Pérez, Kindle location 101.
115 Pérez, Kindle location 200-209.
43
historical timelines. The hoped-for, imagined utopian future helps us reclaim the dreams of the
past. Similarly, rediscovering the “no-longer-conscious” illuminates greater possibilities for the
future, despite the toxic nature of the here and now.116 By displacing linear time, Muñoz queers
the very nature of temporality and uses this as a resource for facing the structural challenges of
the present.
Deconstructing temporality is an intervention into what is possible for those marginalized
by dominant society. The ability to imagine and believe in a future that resists hegemonic
structures is a critical act of resistance and change. As Halberstam states, “[q]ueer subcultures
produce alternative temporalities by allowing their participants to believe that their futures can
be imagined according to logics that lie outside of those paradigmatic markers of life
experience.”117 By recognizing systems—like time—as cultural structures, we can step outside
of their limits and begin to identify other ways of representing histories. Drawing from queer
theorists to enact critical consciousness leads to the analysis of these normalizing structures.
Structural analyses open up new possibilities for integrating artifacts, experiences, perspectives,
and narratives that have been marginalized in current museum practices. In addition to expanding
representation of those left out of museum narratives, critical feminist and queer theories offer
methodological tools that help us to re-think the very nature of accepted museum practices.
Critical Feminist Museology: Conclusions
The authors cited here propose and practice dynamic intersectional coalition-building
across marginalized and allied identities. They advocate a model of inclusion that does not
116 Muñoz, 27-28.
117 Halberstam, 2005, 2.
44
function on the simple math of adding missing histories or dividing identities into separate
spheres. Truly inclusive change must reconsider our most basic museological calculations and be
grounded in critical analysis of the systems that museums use. By deconstructing structural
assumptions, we can create spaces for the integration of those that have been excluded. Sandoval
advocates for interstitial space for counter-hegemonic readings of the kinds of representations
that museums create. These readings are sourced from the margins, the imagined spaces that
Pérez and Muñoz discuss. In these non-linear spaces of the possible, we can rupture dominant
norms and “experience the meanings that lie in the zero degree of power.”118 Turning to the
marginalized spaces for both the vision and the tools of change, we can reimagine museum
practices that integrate those we seek to include.
Queer theorists have modeled this for us in their analysis of an often unrecognized system
of organization—time. Through their deconstructions, we can see that time itself contains
specific cultural assumptions, functioning as a temporal progression towards the achievement of
capitalistic and heteronormative life goals. From all of these authors, we gain a new perspective
on the challenges of creating inclusive museum spaces as well as new tools for doing so.
Drawing from critical feminist theories generally, and intersectional feminism and queer theories
specifically, we can engage museological praxis in new ways—through critical feminist
museology. By practicing critical reflection of the organizing systems of our institutions, we
have the opportunity to find resources and potentials where before we saw only gaps. It is
through this kind of critical reflection that museum professionals become aware of existing
power dynamics within our daily choices and accepted practices. This act of reflection permits
118 Sandoval 2000, 147.
45
recognition of the ideologies at work within our chosen systems. By developing the
deconstructive skills to decode and re-think those systems, museum professionals can respond
intersectionally and effectively to marginalization within museums.119 But how does one actually
do this in museums?
In the following paragraphs, I will apply critical feminist museology to existing museum
practices, reflecting critically on the systems employed in order to invoke consciousness of the
values that are embedded in those systems. Reflection on the practices of museum work will
begin with systems that recreate exclusions and move to examples of critical consciousness at
work in museums. By reviewing existing practices, museum professionals can bring theory into
action and explore the praxis of intersectional theory in museum work.
Practicing Critical Feminist Museology in Museums
This section considers how critical feminist practices might function in museum spaces.
The application of an intersectional critical analysis relies on recognition of the structures we use
in museums —structures that both organize our institutions and regulate social identities such as
race, class, and gender. The following reflections make us conscious of these organizing
structures and how they operate.
Organizing Structures: Temporality
As discussed above, the way that museums conceive of time, or temporality, is an
organizing structure grounded in cultural assumptions about race, gender, and sexuality. Many
exhibits rely upon a temporal chronology that begins in the past and moves progressively to the
present. By exploring one such presentation at the Experience Music Project (EMP) in Seattle,
119 Sandoval 2000, 55.
46
we can unravel the ways that narrative chronology upholds exclusions based on race, gender, and
sexuality.
The Northwest Passage exhibit, which told the story of popular music in the Northwest,
was on display at the EMP for over a decade from 2000 to 2011. The narrative device of
chronological temporal progression used to organize Northwest Passage successfully reinforced
several cultural ideas that themselves structure dominant exclusions. As Halberstam reminded us
above, temporality is deceptive. “Because we experience time as some form of natural
progression, we fail to realize or notice its construction.”120 In fact, Halberstam particularly
highlights the connections between Western chronological timeline of life and the goals of
“capital accumulation and investment.”121 James Clifford similarly described Western
temporality as linking time with concepts of civilization.122 This Western temporality constructs
time as “progress and modernization,” leaving non-Western cultures in the timeless past.123
Framing the Northwest Passage exhibit narrative in Western concepts of chronology
similarly grounds it in Western conceits of progress and financial success. The exhibit
description outlines this teleological directive, tracing the development of the Northwest music
scene “from its beginnings as a small isolated community to its status during the grunge years as
the center of the rock universe.”124 This narrow chronology focuses on the development of a
singular musical expression—“the scene”—that incorporates cultural notions of success, from
120 Halberstam 2005, 7.
121 Halberstam 2007, 53.
122 James Clifford, The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth Century Ethnography, Literature and Art (Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1988) 232.
123 Patricia Pierce Erickson. Voices of a Thousand People: The Makah Cultural and Research Center (University of
Nebraska Press: Lincoln and London, 2002) 16.
124 Experience Music Project website: Exhibitions/Permanent Exhibitions/ Northwest Passage:
http://www.empsfm.org/exhibitions/index.asp?categoryID=19&ccID=52
47
“its beginnings as a small” scene to its perceived pinnacle as “the center of the rock universe.”
Building the narrative on commercially accomplished musicians recreates the marginalizations
that occur within economic power systems, privileging the stories of white men over other
Northwest musicians.
Of the 441 non-video images of musicians and fans that I counted in the exhibit, 92%
represented men and 8% represented women. Of those 441 images, 75% of them represented
white people. The remaining 25% were images of Black musicians and fans. Like the
economically-motivated music industry,125 Northwest Passage renders Native Americans
invisible in current music productions, placing them in the “timeless past.”126 Black musicians
were included exclusively in the music genres of jazz and rap, genres that have become racially
naturalized as African-American music scenes despite their containment of multi-racial musical
influences.127 Also reflective of the commercial music industry, women are included in
Northwest Passage in very small numbers. The dearth of female musicians is not representative
of the facts of local music history generally, or even the grunge scene in particular.128 The
resulting narrative of the exhibit portrays a musical history of the Northwest which features
white, male, commercially successful musicians. The uncritical selection of temporal chronology
as the organizing structure of Northwest Passage led to the reinforcement of Western cultural
values of progress and financial success.
125 For an excellent discussion of the racial and gender ideologies at work in commercial music in the U.S. see
Maureen Mahon, Right to Rock: The Black Rock Coalition and the Cultural Politics of Race (Durham: Duke
University Press, 2004).
126 Erickson, 16.
127Gilbert B. Rodman. “Race . . . and other Four Letter Words: Eminem and the Cultural Politics of Authenticity”
Popular Communication 4 (2) 2006, 13.
128 Clark Humphrey, Loser: the Real Seattle Music Story (Seattle: Misc. Media, 1999) 233.
48
Through critical reflection on the organizing structure of temporality, we become aware
of unconscious exclusionary choices. Aware of the cultural values embedded in temporal
progression, we can see how such a deceptively simple structure—in this case, temporality—
reproduces specific and exclusionary cultural values in the content of the exhibit.
Organizing Structures: How Do We Define Success?
As seen in Northwest Passage, the way we define success or achievement has a huge
impact on who or what is included in museum work. Cultural norms around hallmarks of success
within our institutions impact the very process of exhibit development. Many museums evaluate
the success of exhibit development by the quality of the display that is presented on the opening
date. Major museums have opening dates for exhibits scheduled years in advance. The necessity
of having completed images, text labels, and displays in the exhibit space drives a focus on
creating an end product, leaving little time for critical reflection on the process of exhibit
making.
One institution that flips this paradigm is the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific
American Experience (WLMAPAE), an institution where I spent over 18 months volunteering
with the Exhibits Development department under Michelle Kumata. The WLMAPAE uses a
community advisory board to design the content and visual elements of their exhibits. This
process requires a significant release of control by the institution, as the final display depends
upon community members showing up to meetings with some regularity and bringing their
personal objects or images to the museum for display. At the grand opening of the new museum
space in May of 2008, the culmination of significant fundraising and building efforts, the
49
WLMAPAE opened with an incomplete permanent exhibit and several empty exhibit spaces.
These empty exhibit spaces were designated as community galleries intended to rotate displays
that focused on different groups within the larger Asian Pacific Islander communities, but for
this most significant of days the space was empty.
Success in this museum was not judged by the product on display on opening day, but
rather by the process of community engagement that is the priority for the WLMAPAE. This
process was developed consciously with the goal of “fostering broad-based participation in the
development of exhibitions and programs.”129 Aware that the curatorial model of exhibit
development—with a focus on exhibit product—did not meet the goal of community
engagement, the WLMAPAE intentionally created a new system that focused on exhibit process
instead. This choice to be more inclusive in their practices could only be made with recognition,
or consciousness, of existing practices that worked against inclusion. Critical awareness like this
creates the possibility for systemic changes that prioritize inclusion.
Organizing Structures: Exhibit Labels
Unexamined cultural values are at work in another common museum practice: the
application of a text label. Labels frequently identify the artist, the donor, the collections number,
and sometimes additional information such as the materials used to make the object. The kinds of
information included in the label reflect cultural assumptions about what is valuable. Fred
Wilson, conscious of this practice, called the visitor’s attention to the structuring power of the
museum exhibit label in his exhibit Mining the Museum, shown from 1992-1993 at the Maryland
129 Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience, “Community Process Model”
http://wingluke.org/process.htm
50
Historical Society.130 “’Où est mon visage?’ reads Wilson's label accompanying nineteenth
century painter Joshua Johnson's portrait of a white family. An artist of African-American and
Carib Indian ancestry, Wilson identified with Johnson, who was Black, and of whom there are no
known portraits.”131 In another section of the exhibit, Wilson created labels that “provided
identities for hitherto anonymous black figures. For example, a Benjamin H. Latrobe watercolor
previously titled ‘View of Welch Point and the Mouth of Backcreek’ (1806) is here called ‘Jack
Alexander in a canoe.’”132 This re-naming calls visitor attention to the Black man in the canoe,
focusing on the representation of a Black person rather than the representation of a natural scene
that happened to have a black person in it. This re-naming and re-centering brings awareness to
the rarity of historical representations of Black experiences and simultaneously exposes the
power of the exhibit label.
Another way that Wilson called visitor attention to museum labeling practices was by
naming a case of arrowheads “Collection of numbers 76.1.25 3-76.1.67.11; white drawing ink,
black India ink and lacquer, c.1976.”’ As Stein says, “in these small details Wilson [kept]
reminding [visitors] that the content of the installation is not merely the meaning of objects, but
includes how the museum deals with them.”133 This label shows the value placed on the date an
object is collected, and how it is tracked within a museum specific numbering system. The
seemingly innocuous practice of following collections naming conventions on museum labels in
fact holds larger consequences. The names applied indicate assumptions about who is important
130 Stein, Judith E. “Sins of Omission: Fred Wilson’s Mining the Museum,” Art in America 81 (October 1993) 112.
131 Stein, 112.
132 Stein, 114.
133 Stein, 113.
51
and who is excluded, reflecting larger cultural biases that normalize certain kinds of raced,
gendered, and sexualized bodies.
Organizing Structure: Authority and Transparency
The naming practices employed in museum labels reflect the uncriticized assumption of
authority that is frequently conferred upon museums. In contrast to the academic conventions
that require that I and all other authors provide citations for our source materials, museum exhibit
texts rarely indicate where they are getting their information. Even beyond citing source
materials, museums rarely provide viewers with context for the exhibit formation process.
Understanding who curated the materials and the knowledge system in which these curators are
grounded provides valuable information to the viewer. The knowledge systems upon which
research and exhibitions are grounded have deeply political and moral implications.134 For
example, viewing Native American artifacts at a Native American museum is a very different
context than viewing those same artifacts in a museum memorializing colonial settlement. As a
viewer, understanding the context of the presentation provides valuable information for
understanding the content itself. It is for this reason that feminist methodologies have moved
away from an “invisible, anonymous, disembodied voice of authority”135 and called for a self-
reflexive consciousness on the part of the researcher, or in this case, curator.
The lack of authorial transparency can even obfuscate innovations in museum
exhibitionary authority. The innovative community exhibit development process employed by
the WLMAPAE and discussed above invites community members to participate in a several
month process of reflecting upon a community narrative and collaboratively deciding the details
134 Harding, 32.
135 Harding, 32.
52
and representations of that narrative. However, a visitor to one of the WLMAPAE’s exhibit
galleries would not know that its exhibits are community-curated. The exhibits, presented with
texts, objects, and images, appear so similar in form to other museum exhibits that this important
distinction in authorship is invisible. The context that would be provided by this information, and
which is important for understanding the particular narrative presented, is lost to the viewer. As a
gallery volunteer during the museum’s 2008 re-opening event, I received multiple questions
from visitors who sought to understand the particular details included in the exhibit. All of their
questions were seeking context for the important narratives presented that day.
This lack of transparency makes it difficult for the museum visitor to contextualize
information received in exhibits. Few visitors will launch an investigation into the validity of a
museum’s claims, leaving most visitors to rely upon the information presented when determining
whether to accept the authority of the museum. In laying claim to the authors and organizing
systems that we utilize, museums will offer visitors more opportunities to engage museum
displays with depth and consciousness.
Consciousness Creates New Possibilities
The following section draws from the examples discussed to consider the practical
possibilities of addressing identity-based inclusion in museums. Through critical analysis of just
a few organizing structures of museum practice, we can see that cultural assumptions guide
many of these systems. Assumptions of racial and gender superiority form the foundation of
practices like temporal chronologies, definitions of success, institutional authority, and
transparency. Because of these foundational assumptions, utilizing these practices unconsciously
reproduces the exclusion of the very same raced, gendered, and sexualized peoples that the
museum profession seeks to include. Becoming conscious of these assumptions is an important
53
first step to making sustainable changes that truly create inclusion. With this awareness, new
possibilities become visible.
An example of this re-framing process discussed earlier in the article is Fred Wilson’s
Mining the Museum exhibit at the Maryland Historical Society—an exhibit which many readers
will find familiar. Wilson used a collection that valued the objects and narratives of white men to
a double purpose. He not only highlighted this value, exposing the degree to which narratives of
African Americans had been excluded, but Wilson also created an exhibit that centered African
American experiences. He did this not by adding objects to the collection, but by reframing the
objects already there. In one gallery, Wilson arranged portrait busts of Henry Clay, Napoleon
Bonaparte, and Andrew Jackson—none of whom had ever lived in Maryland—alongside empty
pedestals “that bore only small plaques proclaiming the names of celebrated African Americans
who were Marylanders: Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and Benjamin Banneker.”136 The
juxtaposition of the busts of white men who were not part of Maryland history next to the
missing busts of African American individuals who were significant parts of that history reveals
the biases at work in this collection. This revelation brings a level of consciousness to the
museum visitor and creates space to include those that have been excluded while addressing the
significant gaps in the museum’s collection.
Another example of reframing is found in Chicana artist Yolanda M. Lopez’s installation
The Nanny. The Nanny is a physical display that conveys the experience of Chicanas through
what is present—the uniform, the cleaning supplies—and what is absent—the person. The
experience and frequent representation of Mexican Americans as the invisible domestic help is
136 Stein, 113.
54
portrayed by an empty maid’s uniform, hanging on a partition screen above cleaning supplies
and a basket of laundry.137 The relationship between “Indigenous Latina women and European-
identified and Euroamerican women” is further illuminated by two large re-prints of
advertisements that portray barely-seen women of color next to European women that are the
focus of the advertisement. The European women look happy and excited while wearing clothing
that references Latin culture.”138 In both cases, “the women of color are vendors, as the domestic
worker is of her labor, and are made to represent racialized relations of subservience.”139 Lopez
drew on media images found in print publications at different time periods to illustrate the
historical continuity of the symbol of Chicanas as servants. Using both images and objects to
create a physical environment that calls attention to the missing person, Lopez highlighted the
invisibility of domestic laborers as people. This juxtaposition creates consciousness in the visitor
about a system that values some bodies more than others, based on class and ethnicity. Again,
the artist is consciously reframing existing objects, exploiting the gaps to illuminate hidden
ideologies.
These artists engaged in a process of critical reflection that allowed them first to be aware
of what was missing—in these cases, the inclusion of material that reflected the experiences of
Mexican-Americans or African-Americans. They used this awareness of what was missing to re-
frame what was not. Museum professionals in all areas can engage in a similar process of critical
reflection. What standards of practice are utilized in the daily work of a particular museum area?
What cultural assumptions underpin those practices? How might those practices be re-creating
137Laura E. Pérez, Chicana Art: the Politics of Spiritual and Aesthetic Altarities (Durham and London: Duke
University of Press, 2007) 53.
138 Pérez 2007, 54.
139 Pérez 2007, 54.
55
the exclusions that museum professionals seek to change? Responding to these questions based
on each museum’s goals and practices allows each museum professional to be an active
participant in the process of addressing identity-based exclusions. With the awareness of how
museum practices create exclusion, museum professionals can apply the same re-framing process
as these artists to our existing standards. When we realize how exclusion is created in our daily
choices, we can effectively strategize new choices that move our work towards inclusion.
Critical Feminist Museology as Methodology
An intersectional approach to museology is grounded in critical consciousness. Museum
professionals must first recognize the structures of power that shape our personal, professional,
and institutional lives. This critically-reflective approach to museology can be utilized to re-
imagine every level of professional museum work, including the organizational structure of
museums, the naming conventions used in collections management, the processes of curation and
exhibition, the physical structures of museum spaces, and even the educational preparation of
museum professionals.
The examples discussed above model an application of critical feminist museology that is
applicable to the range of spaces and processes utilized in museum work. By reflecting critically
and intersectionally on the variety of systems museum professionals employ, we develop
conscious understanding of the organizing structures that create marginalization and exclusion.
Opening these spaces for change allows us to access ideational resources: ideas previously
unseen, opportunities within gaps, reframings that expose exclusions, dissonance that highlights
ideological formation, and partnerships previously unimagined. Long term systemic changes
may not happen immediately or even address all those who are marginalized. Rather,
consciousness brings new awareness, allowing museum professionals to acknowledge our roles
56
within power structures and to acknowledge the repercussions and limitations of our
deployments. Based on this understanding, we can re-imagine intersectional and egalitarian
approaches to museum work.
As demonstrated above, critical feminist museology is effective as a methodological
framework for social justice work in museums. Using these tools, we can begin to identify
exclusionary practices and rethink practical approaches to the work of historical preservation and
representation in museums. The principles of critical consciousness and relational accountability
that drive these analyses also underpin all of the choices made for this dissertation. In the
following chapters, I will explore the application of these methods to a community-museum
collaboration, considering the potentials and challenges of critical feminist praxis within a
particular museum project.
57
Chapter 2:
Critical Feminist Museology: Combining Theory and Method with the Queering the
Museum Project
This chapter looks at a specific application of critical feminist museology to a
collaboration between the Queering the Museum project (QTM)140 and the Museum of History
and Industry (MOHAI)141 in Seattle, Washington. It is important to understand the context and
methods that shaped the QTM-MOHAI collaboration more generally. The joint efforts of QTM
and MOHAI were driven by a collaborative model of leadership and content development. The
principals of critical consciousness were utilized to support relational accountabilities between
all of our collaborators. Our project worked to share authority for cultural knowledge, including
personal and community organization histories. All of these principals—relational
accountability, critical awareness, and shared authority—were integral to the digital storytelling
project that was part of the QTM-MOHAI collaboration. The following text introduces the
framework of our combined efforts and briefly considers the general impact of our collaboration.
This framing provides the necessary background to explore the possibilities and impact of our
critical feminist approach to the queer histories that became QTM’s digital storytelling project.
The tensions between institutional and community practices, evident in QTM-MOHAI
collaborations, provide a rich framework for highlighting the social change work that occurs
even when we do not meet all of our goals.
“It’s about love.”142
140 For more information on this project, visit our website www.queeringthemuseum.org
141 For more information on MOHAI, visit www.mohai.org
142 This is a quote from an anonymous museum visitor, overhead in the Revealing Queer exhibit, speaking to the two
children with whom the visitor had come. When asked by the children what the queer exhibit was about, the adult
visitor responded, “It’s about love.” Overhead in June 2014, Revealing Queer, Museum of History and Industry,
Seattle, WA.
58
Event: Opening Night of the Revealing Queer exhibit.
Date: February 14, 2014.
Location: The Museum of History and Industry in Seattle, Washington.
Cost: $10.
As you enter, picture a large museum with a big open atrium. Queering the Museum is
projected up on the big screen hanging at one end of the open space. On the schedule are
burlesque performances by the queer women of Lily Divine Productions;143 bingo led by
Seattle’s popular drag queens, The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence;144 eight queer digital stories
play all night in the theater; and upstairs, in the 1,000 square foot community gallery, is the long-
awaited exhibit, Revealing Queer. What does it mean to have the word queer, a word that has
been used to oppress gender non-conformers often in violent ways, plastered all over an
institution? As the night progresses, the scores of people who have supported the project in some
way come through the doors. Mini-reunions are happening in every corner. Many others are
present who simply saw the ads in the local paper or heard about the opening from their friends.
On Valentine’s Day 2014, we transformed a museum through the sheer power of queer
love. The feeling of celebration and awe was palpable. The museum was packed, with over 700
people in attendance and many more turned away at the door. People were overheard
recognizing friends or even themselves in the exhibits’ photos. Several attendees had tears in
their eyes, sharing that they never believed queer narratives would find acceptance in such a
mainstream institution as the Museum of History and Industry. Attendees came from all walks of
143 http://www.lilydivine.com/
144 http://thesisters.org/
59
life, representing a range of sexualities, genders, races and ethnicities. What drew us together
that night was a celebration of queer love.
In its common usage, queer often identifies those whose love marks us as ‘other’: loving
someone of the same gender; loving someone who does not fit social gender norms; self-love
when your body or your identity places you outside the norms dictated by heteronormativity. If
love is what marked us for exclusion from the history records, love is also what disrupted those
same exclusions at the public exhibit opening of Revealing Queer. That night our radical act was
an act of love—self-love, even in the face of social norms that often mark us as unlovable; love
of each other; love for our city and our region; love for our histories.
This love and celebration was notable not just on the opening night, but in the exhibit
itself. During its 6-month display, Revealing Queer was the subject of local and national
attention. Art Critic Jen Graves described the exhibit in Seattle newspaper The Stranger,
“Through artifacts, photographs, and documents—many never seen in public before—Revealing
Queer relates the very varied stories of the lives, loves, and fights for justice of Northwestern
Ls, Gs, Bs, Ts, and straight-up Q145s, from the emergence of a local underground before the
Stonewall Riots of 1969 through the legalization of gay marriage in 2012 (original emphasis).”146
The Seattle Lesbian similarly noted Revealing Queer as part of a trajectory of progress that
reflected recent national successes of legalizing gay marriage, “Revealing Queer is encouraging
future progress via a celebration and recognition of the past.”147 The article led with a quote from
145 L is an initial for lesbian, G is an initial for gay, B is an initial for bisexual, T is an initial for transgender and Q is
an initial for queer.
146 Jen Graves, “Revealing Queer,” The Stranger, February 18, 2014.
http://www.thestranger.com/suggests/18801446/revealing-queer
147 Deanna Duff, “Interview with the Cofounder of Revealing Queer at MOHAI,” The Seattle Lesbian, May 27,
2014. http://theseattlelesbian.com/interview-with-the-cofounder-of-revealing-queer-at-mohai/
60
Bailey, “One of the main goals is for people to fall back in love with this city because of the
LGBTQ148 communities who’ve lived here over the past 40 years.”149 The emphasis on love did
not go un-noticed. When asked what the queer exhibit was about, one museum visitor was
overheard explaining to the two children accompanying her, “It’s about love.”150
The focus on historical queerness, a relative rarity as a featured museum topic, led to
publications lauding Revealing Queer’s originality. Revealing Queer was described as “a
landmark exhibit”151 in tourist-focused media, as “ground-breaking”152 by The Seattle Gay News,
and as “a dynamic classroom about people, politics, culture, sexuality, individuality, and art”153
in the online arts publication Plinth. QTM’s work and the exhibit, then in development, was
valued as “an astonishing and brave project”154 by participants of the British University of
Leicester's doctoral program museum conference, “Museum Metamorphosis” held in England in
2013.
Museum-focused publications declared Revealing Queer “a model of how museums can
serve as sites of social justice”155 with particular enthusiasm for the Community Advisory
148 LGBTQ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer.
149 Deanna Duff, “Interview with the Cofounder of Revealing Queer at MOHAI,” The Seattle Lesbian, May 27,
2014. http://theseattlelesbian.com/interview-with-the-cofounder-of-revealing-queer-at-mohai/
150 This is a quote from an anonymous museum visitor, overhead in the Revealing Queer exhibit, speaking to the two
children with whom the visitor had come. When asked by the children what the queer exhibit was about, the adult
visitor responded, “It’s about love.” Overhead in June 2014, Revealing Queer, Museum of History and Industry,
Seattle, WA. The pronoun she is applied based on perceived gender.
151 Downtown Seattle, “Downtown Lowdown—Week of February 24-March 2,” February 24, 2014.
http://www.downtownseattle.com/blog/2014/02/24/downtown-lowdown-week-of-february-24-march-2/
152 Tim Moffett, “Revealing Queer-MOHAI’s groundbreaking LGBTQ history exhibit opens February 2014,”
Seattle Gay News, January, 10, 2014. http://www.sgn.org/sgnnews42_02/page3.cfm
153 Nalini Jasmine Elias, “Queering the Museum at the Museum of History and Industry,” Plinth, April 13, 2014.
http://www.plinth.co/april-museum-history-industry/
154 University of Leicester’s Museum Studies Doctoral Program, “Transmutation #20-Revealing Queer: an
exhibition and symposium at the Museum of History and Industry,” Museum Metamorphisis 2013, November 6,
2013. http://msphdconf.blogspot.com/2013/11/transmutation-20-revealing-queer.html
155 Nalini Jasmine Elias, “Queering the Museum at the Museum of History and Industry,” Plinth, April 13, 2014.
http://www.plinth.co/april-museum-history-industry/
61
Committee structure, which gave oversight to a group of stakeholders. The collaborative model
is likewise celebrated in The Incluseum’s two-part post about Revealing Queer: “The Incluseum
is particularly excited about the way the Community Advisory Committee structure was applied
for the first time at MOHAI through this exhibit.” 156 Interestingly, despite the excitement for
collaboration, Bailey is the only one interviewed here and in other exhibit-focused publications.
Erin’s commitment to the CAC model and her desire to share leadership
and agency over the exhibit with LGBTQ identifying community
members invested in issues, work and advocacy for LGBTQ communities
in Seattle is one of the defining aspects of the exhibit. As Erin has stated,
when there is so much diversity within the grouped identities of LGBTQ
identifying individuals, it is so important that at least some of that
diversity can be represented at the table to add accountability to the exhibit
process.157
Bailey and I acknowledge the diverse communities that may claim belonging as LGBTQ,
and the fact that we cannot represent them all ourselves. It is with love for our diverse
communities that we set out to increase representation of all that is queer in mainstream
museums. Similarly, it is with a strong love of museums, grounded in our practical experiences
of museum work and held up by a vision of the power that museums have to impact
communities, that QTM embarked on our collaborations with MOHAI.
QTM-MOHAI Collaboration
As described earlier, QTM started as a collaboration between myself and museum
colleague Erin Bailey. At one of our meetings, often held in the Café of the Burke Museum of
Natural History and Culture, we sat surrounded by the dark wood paneling on the walls and the
ambient buzz of conversation. We dreamt of bringing queer cultures and histories into the
156 Jana Greenslit, “The Road to Revealing Queer” Part II The Incluseum March 14, 2014.
https://incluseum.com/2014/03/14/the-road-to-revealing-queer-an-interview-with-curator-erin-bailey-part-ii/
157 Ibid.
62
hallowed halls of mainstream museums, where queer cultures and issues could be featured and
accessible to large audiences, and at the same museum professionals could see the work of
inclusion being modelled. Wrapping up a project with local art museums,158 we turned our
attention to history museums. What if we could work with the largest local history museum, the
Museum of History and Industry? What would the impact be? This seemed like an audacious but
important possibility.
Together, we sought multiple means of intervening in LGBT and queer representations in
museum spaces. Bailey and I drafted a proposal for a multi-year collaboration159 between QTM
and MOHAI that included a digital storytelling project, a queer history symposium and a
temporary exhibit featuring local queer histories. When we began this collaboration, we were
both students at the University of Washington. Though QTM was primarily a project motivated
by our passions, we wove aspects of our QTM work into our respective academic endeavors. We
divided the responsibilities to align with our academic projects: Bailey and I shared recruitment
and management of the Community Advisory Committee (CAC) as well as the Queer History
Symposium, Bailey led curation of the exhibit and I led the digital storytelling project. For
Bailey, curation of a queer-themed history exhibit formed the body of her M.A. thesis. I saw this
project as an opportunity to apply the principals of critical consciousness and relational
accountability outlined in the previous chapter. While I attempted to do this within our larger
project, I found the most freedom to utilize these principles within the digital storytelling project.
Below, a graph visualizes how these labors were divided in the various aspects of QTM-MOHAI
158 Baily led the development of a symposium called Queering the Art Museum, grounded in the exhibition of
Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture that was on display at the Tacoma art Museum. The
symposium collaborated with the Henry Art Gallery and included exhibit tours, speaker panels and a local art show.
Bailey’s work on this project led to our introduction. As such, we began to collaborate as a team, forming the
ongoing project Queering the Museum.
159 The collaboration, outlined in a 2011 Memorandum of Understanding, ran from 2012 to 2014.
63
project:
QTM’s vision of community collaboration and shared authority was to engage an
advisory committee populated by representatives of local LGBTQ organizations. These advisors
were invited to meet monthly throughout the MOHAI-QTM collaboration and shape the content
and format of our programs. We came to an agreement with MOHAI that Bailey and I would
provide our services free-of-charge, coordinate with the advisory committee which we would
recruit and manage, and work with MOHAI to produce the digital storytelling workshop, the
queer history symposium and a queer-themed history exhibit on display for 6 months, ultimately
titled Revealing Queer.
Both Bailey and I draw from our experiences as white, queer, cisgender women in our
activist and professional work. We are also committed to including multiple queer perspectives
beyond our experiences. In order to share authority and promote collaboration, we formed a
CAC made up of representatives from a variety of LGBTQ community organizations. Our goal
64
was to act as intermediaries between the institution of the museum and the CAC, facilitating a
community-led development process.160 Our hope was that the CAC members would represent a
broad range of identities and experiences, increasing inclusion of non-white, transgender, non-
binary, female and rural narratives within the MOHAI archives and expand MOHAI’s
connections to queer communities. In order to support this goal and reach as wide a circle as
possible, we invited local LGBTQ organizations to join our CAC. The organizations agreed to
send one person to our meetings who would share information back and forth between QTM and
their own organizational constituents. In theory, this CAC model takes the pressure of the long-
term commitment off of an individual, and allows shared responsibility and multiple perspectives
to contribute to the process. In practice, most organizations were consistently represented by the
same one to three individuals. We also found that the membership of the CAC evolved over
time, with some participants leaving and others joining throughout the years.161
As trained museum professionals and queer community members we occupied a liminal
space between the institution of MOHAI and our communities, including the community that
advised us. MOHAI does not have a history of working with community advisory groups, and is
structured in a more hierarchical organizational model, common amongst mainstream museums
in the U.S. Responsibilities for tasks such as fundraising, exhibit production and program
planning are assigned to professional work groups that report up to the Museum Director, who
himself reports to the non-profit board which oversees MOHAI. Throughout our collaboration,
Bailey and I were the bridge or link that attempted to insert a community-led model onto a
160 Our use of the Community Advisory Committee model was greatly influenced by our respective experiences with
the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience who pioneered a unique process of exhibit
development led by community members. Read more about this process here:
http://www.wingluke.org/community-process/
161 For a list of CAC members, visit https://queeringthemuseum.org/previous-projects/community-advisory-
committee/ or check the appendix.
65
hierarchical institution. We brought community connections, experience, passion and knowledge
to the project. We assisted MOHAI in obtaining funding for all elements of the project, raising
funds from Humanities Washington for the symposium, from the Pride Foundation for the
exhibit and from Lily Divine for the digital storytelling workshop. MOHAI took several
institutional risks in working with us. We were students at the time and did not bring a large
funding package. In addition, we utilized a model of community collaboration that was new to
MOHAI and thus brought the risk of working outside of their usual frameworks. Finally,
MOHAI took the risk of embracing a topic that many still see as controversial: the stories of
those who operate outside of heteronormativity.
The QTM-MOHAI collaboration centered QTM’s activity around a large, well-known
institution in the Seattle area. As such, all of our decisions were made in relationship to the
existing parameters already established in MOHAI. This approach, unlike the more grass-roots
approach of organizations like the Queer Pop Up Museum of New York162, sought to introduce
community-driven feminist principles into the hierarchies and structures of an institution that
brought its own long history with it. Bailey and I functioned as the connecting point between the
institution of MOHAI and the collaborations of the CAC. In this role, we presented the CAC
with opportunities to influence processes and content. At the same time, we presented MOHAI
with specific feedback, decisions and content provided by CAC members. In between, we
translated institutional requirements for CAC members and advocated for important community
decisions with the institution. Our role included relational-tending, collaborative content
162 Hugh Ryan, “Notes on the Pop Up Museum of Queer History,” QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking 1:2
(2014), 79-82.
66
development, and facilitating critical reflection on the choices being made. In this way, the entire
project was an experiment of feminist collaborations operating within institutional hierarchies.
The feminist methods introduced in Chapter One were foundational to the choices that
QTM made throughout the project. Primarily, we built our project around principles of
collaboration and shared authority, with critical awareness of the oppressive histories of
museums generally, and MOHAI specifically. The efficacy of such an application of critical
feminist museology is contingent upon consciousness of the structures in which we operate,
structures designed to promote heteronormative ideals. As such, I begin my investigation with
reflections about the history of the dominant institution that shaped this project—the Museum of
History and Industry.
The Institutional Framework of MOHAI
Establishing critical consciousness of existing systems—the core of critical feminist
museology—requires that we understand the historical structure and values of the institutions
within which we work. To that end, it is important to include MOHAI’s history which
establishes the context of our work. MOHAI began as the Seattle Historical Society in 1914 with
membership limited to white settlers and their descendants.163 Over time, the museum evolved
“from a private club to a more broadly-based civic organization”164 but its collections are still
predominantly artifacts of white colonialists. MOHAI became a publicly accessible museum in
the Montlake neighborhood of Seattle in 1952.165 The early exhibits continued a focus on the
163 Alan J. Stein, “Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) Historylink.org essay 3682,” Historylink.org The Free
Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History.
http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=3682 Accessed 1/28/15. The link to this
history is provided by MOHAI at their own site, on the “About” page: http://www.mohai.org/about
164 Ibid.
165 Ibid.
67
white colonizers of the region, including the Alki landing and the founding and growth of the
city of Seattle.166 This focus on white colonizer society effectively centered the heteronormative
values of Euro-American culture. Normative conceptions of gender and sexuality were so
dominant in the MOHAI culture that the museum’s first Directors were selected or even fired
based on their conformity (or lack thereof) to these norms. Jerome Irving Smith, who had spent
18 years at the Museum of the City of New York was recruited to be MOHAI’s first Director,
but shortly let go when it was discovered that he had sex with men.167 Elizabeth Gustison was
ultimately chosen to replace him, championed by a member of the Board of Directors, Horace
W. McCurdy. McCurdy claimed to have chosen Gustison because she was “a woman who
looked like a woman,”168 establishing her gender conformity as one of her primary
qualifications. These foundational years of MOHAI’s development began from and perpetuated
the centrality of white, heterosexual, gender-conformity in content and staffing. MOHAI’s stated
mission is to “collect and preserve the diverse history of Seattle, the Puget Sound region and
beyond.”169 However, these historical roots grounded the museum’s norms around a
heteronormative ideal.
This past continues to present challenges to MOHAI’s more recent efforts at increasing
inclusive representations of the diverse identities that have, and do, occupy the Puget Sound
region. It wasn’t until the 1970’s that MOHAI began to collect contemporary artifacts, creating
opportunities to expand its archive and include materials that more accurately represent the
166 Ibid.
167 Ibid.
168 Ibid.
169 Museum of History and Industry Staff, “About” section of the website http://www.mohai.org/about.
68
diversity of identities and experiences in the Pacific Northwest.170 This focus on collecting
artifacts that related to under-represented groups, however, is not named in the current board-
approved collections policy. 171 This leaves the acquisition of artifacts largely up to the individual
Collections Managers, Curators or Historians involved in object acquisition at MOHAI over the
years. This informal approach to collecting has succeeded in adding some under-represented
narratives to the archive. Indeed, MOHAI is unique in the region in utilizing a specific code,
“LGBT,” in their archive database to track LGBT materials.172 This ad-hoc approach has
expanded inclusion of under-represented artifacts, but it has failed to create the kind of critical
consciousness that is necessary for the large-scale and enduring changes needed in order to
effectively address identity-based exclusion.
Despite the lack of an institutional mandate supporting systemic changes in the service of
inclusion, many individuals at MOHAI are committed to a more inclusive museum, as
demonstrated by the efforts of individuals to broaden collections. Significantly, MOHAI has
adopted a museum overview and mission which includes the preservation of the diverse histories
of Seattle.173 In 2012, MOHAI took advantage of a major move to create a new gallery space
specifically designed to include community-focused exhibits,174 collaborating with community
organizations and expanding under-represented collections. Bailey175 and I both believe that this
170 Nicole Robert, “Invisible Artifacts: LGBT Inclusion in Seattle History Museums” M.A. Thesis, University of
Washington, 2009, 26. References to conversations with MOHAI Registrar and Librarian as well as 2015 email
communication regarding the current collecting policy.
171 Ibid.
172 Ibid.
173 MOHAI’s mission statement is: “By collecting and preserving artifacts and stories of our diverse history,
MOHAI highlights our regional tradition of innovation and imagination. Through compelling exhibits, scholarship,
education, public programs, and community engagement, MOHAI bridges the past, present, and future.”
http://www.mohai.org/about#sthash.uK18SYwP.dpuf
174 Chris Sullivan, “Seattle’s MOHAI Reopens in Prime South Lake Union location” on MyNorthwest.com
12/28/2012 http://mynorthwest.com/11/2162772/Seattles-MOHAI-reopens-in-prime-South-Lake-Union-location
175 Personal communication with Erin Bailey May 2015.
69
move enabled MOHAI to embrace the opportunity of our collaboration, and gave a specific site
for the exhibit that would develop out of our participation.176
Museum exhibits are the most visible product of the varieties of labor that go on behind
the scenes. As discussed in Chapter One, in a product-focused system, like that at MOHAI and
most major museums, the appearance and content of the exhibit as well as its timely completion
are of paramount importance. Consistent with this focus, the development of the Revealing
Queer exhibit became a driving focus for QTM. The preparations for this exhibit gave some
institutional legitimacy to the community collaborations that we embarked upon the in the time
leading up to its opening on February 14, 2014. This legitimacy was important for developing
relationships and obtaining access to funds and other resources. While a large part of QTM’s
intervention was process-based, the focus on the end-product of the exhibit was a priority for the
institution itself.177 Ultimately, the work developing the exhibit over-shadowed the other aspects
of our project and now, years after its closing, the exhibit is the artifact most discussed by
museum professionals and most visible to museum community members.
The collaborative exhibit development model that QTM adapted was pioneered and
promoted at the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience (WLMAPAE)
where the entire system is constructed to support this process. As discussed in Chapter One, for
example, their exhibit process does not utilize curators and all members of the community
advisory committee are named on exhibit labels. In contrast, QTM interjected a collaborative
model into a system designed around presenting a completed product on a predictable timeline—
176 “MOHAI Explores LGBTQ History in Locally-Developed Exhibit, Revealing Queer” MOHAI Press Releases
http://www.mohai.org/press-media/press-releases/item/2636-mohai-explores-lgbtq-history-in-locally-developed-
exhibit-revealing-queer
177 Personal communication with Erin Bailey May 2015.
70
in short, a place where product is prioritized. Interjection is very different than building a process
into the entire system; in a temporary and additive move, we interjected a collaborative system
within the confines of a traditional hierarchical system. The larger hierarchy did not change, and
was not necessarily involved in the collaborative work that we produced. In addition, the existing
hierarchical systems were not part of QTM’s critical reflections and process conversations.
In practice, a system that functions hierarchically and emphasizes product over process
meant that Bailey’s role as exhibit content curator took priority in interactions with museum staff
who saw her as the primary content developer, rather than the CAC. In MOHAI’s organizational
system—and in most mainstream museums—the curator is the subject-matter expert who
develops the content and the exhibits team on staff designs the shape and appearance of the
exhibit as well as over-seeing the installation.178 In our model, Bailey performed archival
research, tracked down artifacts outside of the archives, selected the initial themes and framing,
collected historical research when needed and functioned as the intermediary between the CAC
and MOHAI staff on exhibit-related materials. MOHAI staff handled installation, construction
and production of exhibit labels. The CAC brought in our own experiences and expertise,
personal artifacts and knowledge of local histories. CAC members helped decide what would be
talked about in the exhibit, what would be on display, the content and format of exhibit labels
and the events surrounding the exhibit. As Bailey describes, our community model of exhibit
development was different than traditional curation models as it allowed community members to
“develop the content, write the text, ensure that the narrative reflects the experiences that they
178 Personal communication with Erin Bailey May 2015.
71
experienced, as well as the experiences of those that they love and know, as well as connecting
us with objects that are not in archives or housed by institutions like MOHAI.”179
Yet, in the final display of Revealing Queer, Bailey’s name is the only one on the label,
with a nod to the un-named members of the advisory committee who are simply listed as
“Community Advisory Committee.” Despite QTM’s embrace of a collaborative model, focus on
shared authority and efforts to engage critically with existing structures, the normative
hierarchies of curator-led content development often prevailed. In this example, collaboration is
erased and individual authority is centered; processes are hidden behind the end-product of the
exhibit. Comparing the two graphs below of the processes and people involved in the QTM-
MOHAI collaboration, it is apparent that focusing on the exhibit as the most important aspect of
museum work erases many people and processes that shape the work of museums. In this case,
the work of myself, the CAC and of MOHAI staff is erased when the ultimate product of the
QTM-MOHAI collaboration is seen only as the Revealing Queer exhibit, curated individually by
one person. It is important to note the emphasis on product over process, as invisibilizing the
process means we lose access to the primary areas in which we can make productive changes to
museum work. The process must be the focus of our interventions, as the process is what shapes
production.
179 Erin Bailey, “History Café: Seattle’s LGBTQ Community,” video, KCTS 9, February 20, 2014.
http://kcts9.org/education/history-cafe/seattle-LGBTQ-community
72
The graph above represents the multiple collaborations present in the QTM-MOHAI projects.
The graph above shows how much is erased when we focus exclusively on the product of
the exhibit. The multiple collaborations that functioned with the exhibit, from MOHAI staff, CAC
members and other QTM partners, are all erased.
Institutional Influences
73
This level of institutional engagement in the exhibit, and relative dis-engagement in the
digital storytelling workshop, impacted the process, participants and end-product. While QTM
benefited in many ways from our institutional alliance with MOHAI, the heteronormative history
of this institution was an obstacle for establishing trust and effective partnerships with the most
under-represented LGBTQ communities in the Seattle area. To form the CAC, Bailey and I spent
over 6 months showing up at local LGBTQ events, contacting organizations and inviting
individuals to coffee to discuss our project and our invitation. Few people had heard of QTM, so
the institution that was recognizable was MOHAI. While having MOHAI’s support lent us some
credibility, it also lent us their institutional history. MOHAI does not have a strong history of
including the materials of local communities of color, gender non-conformers or gays and
lesbians. This history alone was cause for some suspicion about the trust-worthiness and
relational responsibilities that our project could produce. In addition, neither Bailey nor I have
long histories working with local organizations that support LGBTQ communities of color or
transgender communities. We found that those who were most responsive to our invitations were
individuals and organizations that had expressed interest in local LGBTQ histories or who had
some personal relationship to people involved in our project. For example, both the Northwest
Gay and Lesbian History Museum Project (NWGLHMP)180 and the Pacific Northwest Chapter
of the Old Lesbians Organizing for Change (OLOC)181 are organizations focused on lesbian and
gay history that signed on to the QTM-MOHAI CAC early and consistently participated on the
CAC throughout the entire multi-year project. NWGLHMP had a prior relationship with
MOHAI, established when MOHAI agreed to take objects NWGLHMP had acquired related to
180 NWGLMP is a grass-roots primarily gay and lesbian collective of individuals committed to preserving local
LGBT histories. For more information, visit http://home.earthlink.net/~ruthpett/lgbthistorynw/
181 Find out more about the national organization of OLOC here: http://www.oloc.org/index.php
74
LGBT histories into the MOHAI archives in the mid 1990’s. Similarly, OLOC’s representative
on the CAC was a former museum director who was deeply committed to both museum practice
and the preservation of local lesbian histories. Bailey’s connection to the leadership at Lily
Divine Productions182 helped us establish a relationship with them early in the project, as well as
gain the support of Imani Sims,183 a poet who developed some local gay history performances.
As QTM became more known through our history symposium and the digital storytelling
workshop, Ingersoll’s Marsha Botzer contacted us and provided extensive support for the
development of the Revealing Queer exhibit. Similarly, Entre Hermanos184 provided virtual
participation in the CAC early on, but did not have a representative attend the monthly meetings
until a new staff member had a personal interest in the project. As these examples demonstrate,
our most successful CAC relationships developed due to either personal connections or the
institutional credibility of MOHAI, and largely depended on the organization or individual
representative having a commitment to preserving local histories. In this way, our CAC looked
very similar to the Wing Luke model that we had adapted. The people who attended meetings
were consistently the same people who developed a stake in the project. Despite our idea of
bringing in organizations rather than individuals, what we found was that organizations
participated because the same one or two individuals were invested.
While our goal was to ensure that our CAC did not re-create the primarily white and cis-
gender representations of lesbian and gay histories that dominate existing archives, our strategies
for including non-dominant voices on the CAC were limited in their success. There are several
reasons I believe this occurred: lack of existing relational networks, MOHAI’s history of
182 For more information, visit http://www.lilydivine.com/
183 More information about Imani Sims can be found here http://imani.splitsix.com/
184 Find out more here: http://entrehermanos.org/
75
exclusions and the fact that historical preservation is not a priority for communities focusing on
survival strategies. Our personal networks did not give us deep credibility with local
communities of color or transgender communities. This was compounded by MOHAI’s lack of
historical support for LGBTQ communities in general, and communities of color and gender
non-conformers more specifically. In addition, many individuals who are multiply marginalized
have reasons to invest their resources into organizations that are addressing other elements of
structural inequality, such as employment, housing, incarceration and freedom from
discrimination. When issues of survival are paramount, investing precious resources into
historical preservation is less of a priority. Similarly, LGBTQ organizations that focused on
history preservation were predominantly populated by white gender-conforming individuals.
Through a combination of organizational and personal networks, as well as the existing structural
barriers in our society, we constructed a community advisory committee that re-created many of
the representational exclusions that we sought to address.
Despite these issues, we did have some degree of CAC participation from a variety of
LGBTQ identities. It was important to us to include perspectives from the entire region, not just
urban Seattle. The Rainbow Center of Tacoma185 signed on early and participated frequently.
Oasis Youth Center of Pierce County186 also supported our project from early stages. OLOC187
participants were from Kitsap and Island counties. We sought perspectives from younger
LGBTQ individuals through the engagement of Oasis Youth Center as well as Seattle’s Queer
185 For more information, see http://www.rainbowcntr.org/
186 For more information, see http://www.oasisyouthcenter.org/
187 For more information, see http://psoloc.org/
76
Youth Space188 and #1 Must Have.189 In practice, our young CAC members participated
primarily through email and weighed in inconsistently. Lily Divine Productions190 and Queer
Social Club,191 both LGBTQ performance producers, participated heavily in early stages, while
moving to more virtual support as the project progressed. API Chaya represented perspectives of
Asian Pacific Islanders and Entre Hermanos192 represented LGBTQ Latin@ narratives in our
process. Gender Alliance of the South Sound193 signed on early, while Ingersoll Gender
Center194 joined us for the exhibit content phase of the project. Despite our emphasis on
organizations participating in the CAC, we discovered that consistent meeting attendance and
email responses depended largely on the interest-level of the individuals tasked with supporting
our work. In this way, the CAC did function much like the traditional CAC model made up of
interested individuals, rather than representatives of organizations.
Results of the Collaboration
All of the QTM-MOHAI collaborations did yield results that we are proud of. On the day
of the exhibit opening, February 14, 2014, King County Executive Dow Constantine declared
February 14th King County’s Official LGBTQ History Day. The opening night was extremely
popular with over 700 people in attendance and many more turned away for lack of room.195 The
simple presence of the exhibit, tucked in between floors of Seattle history, provoked a range of
188 For more information, see https://www.facebook.com/qysseattle/ and
http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2014/01/queer-youth-space-closing-doors-on-e-pike/
189 For more information, see http://number1musthave.com/
190 For more information, see http://www.lilydivine.com/
191 For more information, see https://www.facebook.com/qscseattle/
192 For more information, see http://entrehermanos.org/
193 For more information, see http://www.southsoundgender.com/
194 For more information, see http://ingersollgendercenter.org/
195 Numbers reported by MOHAI staff through personal electronic communication. Credit to Erin Bailey for
collecting these together for the Dec. 29, 2014 post “2014 Has Come and Gone, now what?” on
queeringthemuseum.org https://queeringthemuseum.org/2014/12/29/2014-has-come-and-gone-now-what/
77
responses all of which created opportunities to discuss non-dominant gender and sexual
identities.
These conversations continued outside of the museum, as evidenced in MOHAI’s digital
communication channels which saw a 17% growth during Revealing Queer’s six month run,
including 2,405 new followers between Facebook and Twitter.196 On MOHAI’s Instagram there
was an increase of 384 followers or 139%, including 48 posts using #RevealingQueer.197
To support a more long-term engagement with LGBTQ content, MOHAI launched a
collections initiative alongside Revealing Queer, focused on adding LGBTQ materials to their
permanent collection. This specific collecting focus yielded an increase of LGBTQ-identified
three-dimensional objects from 284 to 345 objects. All of the exhibition information went into
the object records to record the research of Northwest LGBTQ histories. As a result of the
MOHAI-QTM collaboration, MOHAI continues to look for LGBTQ related objects as they grow
their collection.
During the exhibit, public programs that included LGBTQ topics were incorporated into
MOHAI’s educational offerings, serving over 1,000 people.198 These included Member Preview
and Opening Night Celebrations, an LGBTQ History Café, a free Safe Spaces Training for
educators, a workshop held for the American Alliance of Museums: “An Insider’s Look at the
Queering the Museum Project,” Revealing Queer Walking Tours of Seattle neighborhoods that
have rich LGBTQ histories and Pride Family Day. LGBTQ topics continue to be one of the
196 Ibid.
197 Ibid.
198 Ibid.
78
topics on MOHAI’s menu of public offerings, as evidenced by Queer-themed History Café
programs and occasional LGBTQ walking tours.
MOHAI took a risk and made a major investment in working with QTM. Likewise,
Bailey and I, as QTM, donated extensive hours, expertise and connections to MOHAI through
our collaboration. While QTM’s collaboration with MOHAI did not induce any significant
visible structural changes, the first steps of critical consciousness have been initiated through the
kinds of conversations that our presence there created. Volunteers and several staff members
have been trained to address basic conversations about gender and sexuality in spaces such as
volunteer trainings, exhibit tours and public programs, collections staff have created new
contacts for acquiring LGBTQ artifacts, and wider consciousness of the gaps that exist in
representations of queer communities of color and trans narratives is evident in the responses of
audience members to the Revealing Queer content.
Digital Storytelling Project
While still part of the QTM-MOHAI collaboration, the digital storytelling project (DSP)
operated largely without MOHAI institutional intervention, allowing its own unique application
of critical feminist methods. The DSP handed authorship to community members, utilizing
collaboration, critical reflection and relationship-building as foundational elements of content-
production. The films created there were not considered as part of the content requiring MOHAI
review. Freed from many institutional constraints, the workshop and films were able to deepen
our incorporation of critical feminist methods.
The following section focuses on the DSP as a feminist intervention into LGBTQ
representations, and as a model for changing how the problems of representational inclusion are
79
addressed. Critical feminist museology points us to two main pathways of development for our
intervention: 1) critical consciousness that attends to the impact of structural and institutional
inequalities and 2) the utilization of this awareness to facilitate modes of resistance that move in-
between these codified systems. Our DSP model draws on the core tenets of critical reflection,
relational responsibility and community collaboration that spring from this critical feminist
framework. The QTM team, including our CAC members, approached the DSP as an
opportunity to include the stories of individuals whose lives are not well-represented within
existing archives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer materials, due to race,
ethnicity, gender and disability.
Digital storytelling invites individuals to participate in multi-day workshops which teach
them the necessary steps for constructing a short video about themselves. Participants actively
create the script, imagery and audio and assemble all the elements in the workshop itself.
Through the DSP, I saw an opportunity to not only add more queer stories to the historical record
but also to explore a method of expanding inclusion that was community-led and attentive to the
hierarchies of exclusion that exist in all of our worlds. I embraced the potential of the videos
created in the DSP to address several representational issues. While we wanted to add to the
existing LGBTQ archives, we also wanted to make sure that individuals could keep control over
how their stories were represented. Oral histories contain a lot of valuable information in a
format that is not suitable for exhibition, unless the history is edited. This leaves decisions about
how an individual gets represented up to a curator or video editor. In contrast, a digital story is a
short narrative video that is designed for exhibition and functions as a complete audio-visual
representation created by the subject of the video. By choosing this method, we handed
representational control to the storytellers.
80
The digital form of these representations also allows our storytellers to create complex
narratives, that avoid narrowing their lives to a single-identity focus. The complexity of content
and the audio-visual nature of the artifact creates space for storytellers to consider the hierarchies
of their lives with their own critical lens. The dynamic nature of the digital artifact also presents
opportunities to avoid codification. Storytellers can make claims about themselves and disrupt
simplistic narratives around those claims all in the same digital artifact.
This foundation informed the goal of creating a replicable model for expanding
representations of queer which acknowledge intersectional oppressions, are self-reflective and
attend to the institutionalized natures of privilege and power. I found guidance towards these
goals in Chandra Mohanty’s call for feminist work that can “reveal how the particular is often
universally significant—without using the universal to erase the particular or positing an
unbridgeable gulf between the two terms.”199 Mohanty’s framework attends to both the
individual, micropolitics, and the structural, macropolitics, illuminating the connections between
the two. I recognized the possibility of individual personal stories—the context of lived
experience— to create opportunities for audiences to make this micro-macro connection. With
relatable stories the potential for connection across perceived difference exists. And the
possibility for people to see how these individual lives are impacted by larger social structures—
like family laws, gender norms, religious institutions and more—creates a space for critical
reflection on the very institutions that regulate our lives in so many unmarked ways. The digital
films present viewers with opportunities for affective connection, building relationships between
audience and artifact that highlight and disrupt cultural norms.
199 Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Feminism without borders: decolonizing theory, practicing solidarity (Durham: Duke
University Press, 2003) 501.
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I selected the participatory model of the digital storytelling workshop as a pathway to
these possibilities for digital artifacts capable of filling historical gaps while disrupting
heteronormative histories. This model also allowed us to be conscious of the perils and
possibilities inherent in representations. Particularly when engaging people whose identities have
been both mis- and under-represented, it is critical to be thoughtful about the impact of each
representational decision that we make. The digital storytelling model creates a unique
opportunity for each person being represented to create that representation. While oral histories
have the advantage of collecting a great deal of cohesive historical information about an
individual, the resulting narratives have to go through significant editing before reaching a length
and format appropriate for audience viewing, either in an exhibit or online. Ultimately, the
person featured does not determine how their story is represented to the public. The digital
storytelling model, in contrast, allows participants to literally narrate their own representation. It
is with all of this in mind that I sought to create a workshop model where each moment reflected
the values of egalitarian, supportive and thoughtful engagement in the creation of a uniquely
individual queer representation.
While I held this specific vision for the DSP, I was fortunate to collaborate with Angelica
Macklin in the development and production of the workshop. Macklin is a local media-producer
and fellow doctoral student in the Gender, Women, Sexuality Studies program at the University
of Washington. Our common feminist training coupled with our mutual commitment to social
justice and shared authority helped Macklin and I to develop specific practices that guided our
DSP. In the following paragraphs, I will detail some of the more significant choices that we
made. Each choice supported the values named earlier of collaboration, critical consciousness
and relational responsibility.
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Collaboration
The DSP was designed to create a collaborative community space. Not only did the
individual storytellers collaborate with the larger project of historical narrative production, they
worked together with each other throughout the workshop. They supported and facilitated each
other’s’ narrative development, which impacted the final product. Following are choices Macklin
and I made to support the collaborative space.
Let Go of Outcome
When leading a collaborative process, we bring in our commitments and hopes for the
outcome of the process. However, investing in collaboration requires freedom for the product to
be impacted by all those present. To support this, we must be willing to release our personal
vision of the outcome. Despite all of our ideas about what these videos could be and do, once we
were in the room with our workshop participants we handed the outcome over whole-heartedly
to them. This means that if the participant created a video that they ultimately decided was too
personal and no one should ever see it, we supported that. If the participant felt it was really
important to make a video about their favorite meatloaf recipe—a topic which does not appear to
relate to LGBT or queer identities—we supported that. We communicated this repeatedly
throughout the workshop. This, on first hearing, seems unlikely to be true. Why would a group
invest all this time and resources into making a workshop happen and then not expect a particular
product at the end? As the workshop progressed, and participants were reminded of this truth,
they began to believe it more. Of course, we had to support this statement with our actions, not
just our words, which meant it was essential to be transparent about our goals.
Participant-Led Adaptations
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A truly collaborative model makes room for the contributions of all those participating.
While a lot of work must be accomplished during these four days, we did build in time for
incorporating participant suggestions. Several of these suggestions came up during our
discussion of guidelines. Some of these were simple additions to our agreements while working
together, and some of these were suggestions of different activities to get to know each other.
Having the ability to act responsively to suggestions modeled a collaborative working space and
demonstrated our commitment to the values that we had discussed.
Embrace challenges
Collaboration requires a flexible support of the challenges each individual may bring. Not
everything went smoothly during the 4 days we spent together. Adapting to the challenges
presented was important for gaining the support and trust of our participants. While it is common
to face challenges when enacting a project, I call attention to this principle as a way of
recognizing the context or lived experiences of the participants. Demonstrating flexibility to
adaptively respond to the individual challenges faced by our participants was an important way
to model our awareness of the connections between the systems that structure our lives and the
individual impacts. For example, despite the fact that all participants committed to attend all four
days of the workshop, one participant had to miss the third day of the workshop due to personal
challenges that were unforeseen. Rather than excluding this individual, we worked with them
over the phone and email to ensure that they could complete the process. Another individual was
struggling to use the software that we selected, which required a PC, when she was used to using
a Macintosh. After some attempts to assist, Macklin quickly taught her to use a similar program
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available on her personal Macintosh computer. This flexibility increased the participant’s
comfort level with the project and helped bring them closer to completion.
Relational Responsibility
Effective collaboration can only occur when the people involved trust and respect each
other. Therefore, building relationships that are accountable to each other is an essential step in
supporting true collaboration. The following are choices that Macklin and I made in the
workshop to support these relationships.
Transparency
Trust and accountability in relationship-based productions requires that all involved
understand the commitments of the participants and particularly of the leaders—that there is
transparency. Macklin and I both introduced ourselves along with our personal and professional
investments in the workshop. I also spoke about the goals of QTM and how this DSP fit with that
larger project. We laid out the possible outcomes for their completed videos, which ranged from
inclusion in a queer history exhibit, online access, showings at live screenings, inclusion in an
historical archive, to locking away for their own private viewings. We explained why we cared
about queer histories and what we hoped to change about historical representations. We
explained our beliefs about the importance of telling queer stories and why we chose the digital
storytelling format. And at the end of all that, we affirmed again that we are also committed to
their individual process, wherever that led them. This foundation was essential for establishing
trust and open communication with the participants. We also explicitly communicated our intent
that the workshop itself be easily replicable, and how this influenced all of the choices we made
including the technological tools they would use. Communicating our investments and goals
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established the foundation for being able to truly release the outcome of the workshop to the
participants in an authentic and effective manner.
Ownership
Honoring our commitments to collaboration, Macklin and I determined that the best way
to give full control and accountability to our storytellers was to give them complete ownership
over the final product. We designed the workshop to ensure that the full ownership of the
completed films belonged to the video creators, a highly unusual step in museum narrative
production. We helped storytellers to determine what kind of licensing they wanted to apply to
their videos and advised them that they retained all rights and decision making control over their
finished products. At the end of the workshop, we asked participants to allow QTM to use the
videos for our work with MOHAI. All of them agreed to share their completed products at that
point. We also provided information about local historical archives, including MOHAI’s, to
whom storytellers may choose to donate a copy of their video. We invited all film makers to
participate in a special screening at the Queering the History Museum Symposium, where the
videos were received with great emotion and admiration. While we are excited that all the film
makers chose to share their videos with QTM, we accepted that this decision was fully theirs.
Giving film makers full ownership rights to their videos is important for honoring our
commitment to the storytellers’ representational control.
Establish Guidelines
Our transparency and release of control were first steps in establishing the kind of
working space we wished to create at the workshop. Equally important was taking time to
establish clear guidelines for the kinds of interactions that would occur. Though all participants
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identified as LGBT or queer, they had very few apparent commonalities beyond this. We spent
some time talking about guidelines for a safer space,200 and opened that conversation to the
participants to add or adapt the proposed guidelines we brought. This was very helpful and gave
us time to discuss the range of personal identities present in the room and do some educating
about gender pronouns. We also discussed the fact that we would make mistakes in language and
approach during our time together, and how we might deal with those mistakes. It was absolutely
essential to invest this time early in the workshop, in order to create the kind of space in which
participants felt supported in revealing intimate details of their lives.
In addition to discussing how we may impact each other during our time together, we
also discussed how the film makers may impact people in their representational choices. To truly
model our commitments to representational integrity and intersectional equality, Macklin and I
agreed to uphold higher ethical standards than are legally required. As we encouraged
storytellers to select images for their video, we also encouraged them to consider the
implications of their choices. Did they have permission to include that image? How would the
individual included in the image be impacted by inclusion in this video? Who created the graphic
that they liked online? Would the selected images perpetuate any larger cultural stereotypes?
The ethical questions we posed were just as important as the legal standards we adhered to in
helping storytellers determine what to include in their videos. This sparked some great
200 We used the concept of safer space here in acknowledgement that what feels safe for one person may not feel
safe for another. Rather, we strive to create a safer space and to acknowledge the discomforts and failures that will
likely occur any time a group is convened. Thanks to the Thanks to the Coalition for Safer Spaces and the Trans and
Womyn’s Action Camp for sharing their Safer Space materials which inspired ours.
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discussions amongst the participants, several of whom shared that they had never considered the
impact of these choices in this way.
We also considered the significance of access to the digital tools utilized when designing
the workshop, a design guideline that shaped the outcome. Transparency and ownership of the
final product extends beyond the workshop itself. Rather than holding exclusive the significant
intellectual labor of designing the workshop, we explicitly invited our storytellers to use what
they learned that weekend in their own lives. Given our commitment to creating a replicable
workshop, we chose software that would be easily accessible to a wide public. In this case, we
chose to use the free PC software, Photo Story and Audacity. PhotoStory is a relatively simple
program that participants could download onto their home computers and easily use with some
basic training. Audacity is also free and easily allows people to edit audio recordings. Selecting
PhotoStory meant that we were limited to still images in the videos, but this limitation did not
stymie the creativity of the storytellers.
Critical Consciousness
Grounding the workshop design in our own practices of critical consciousness building,
Macklin and I committed to ongoing, deliberate self-reflection.
Build in Reflection
Creating time for reflection is essential for several reasons. Given our goal of helping
individuals connect their lived experiences to larger social structures, we looked for ways to
facilitate that process during the workshop itself. For example, on the morning of the second day
we asked participants to share a short summary of the narrative that they were developing, based
on the work of the first day. One person began the exercise at the center of our collective circle.
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After they completed their sharing, someone else in the group named one thing in the story that
resonated with their own. They then placed themselves next to the first storyteller and repeated
the process. At the end of the sharing, storytellers had created a human chain of connections
between them. Many of them were visibly crying as they responded profoundly to the wounds
that they shared in common, and the successes that they had carved out of mutual challenges.
While participants initially believed they had little in common, this process illuminated shared
experiences and struggles. Not only did this exercise illustrate these connections, it also was
identified by the participants as a cathartic and compelling experience of group bonding.
Creating times for reflection is also essential to the process of individual story
development for the participants. We asked them to reflect upon their most significant life
moments, including great challenges. Working together to draw out the specific narrative that
they wanted to share in their videos was laborious and emotional work. All were surprised by the
degree of emotional involvement they experienced that weekend. This kind of work can be
overwhelming and stagnating if individuals are not supported through this process. Giving
participants time to process these experiences both individually and collectively was essential to
this process. In addition, giving participants time to reflect validated the significance of the work
that they were accomplishing. In workshop feedback, this practice was recognized repeatedly as
important to helping the participants feel supported and move through the process.
Narrative Structure
Self-reflection is an important practice for building critical awareness. Audiences have
been trained to receive narrative structure in standard ways, often in linear progress narratives
that feature a standard array of common characters. For narrative producers, critical awareness of
these standard expectations can help producers determine the audience-impact of their tale. As
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part of our commitment to representational integrity, we offered participants multiple examples
of how to construct a cohesive narrative for their videos. We took this opportunity to explain the
typical narrative arc, including its specific linear elements and characters, commonly found in
media in the U.S. This simple act of education exposed one of the very structures that organizes
our cultural norms about how events unfold. While presenting participants with this information,
we offered them choices for constructing a narrative arc in their story that felt most true to them.
This included tools, such as collage, photo montages, an organizing theme—for example, an
object or a color—and abstracted images. This significant moment in the workshop opened
storytellers to a variety of approaches for constructing their videos resulted in some very creative
works.
DSP Workshop Results
The workshop was held over two intense weekends in April 2013. While the CAC
required a significant long-term commitment, participation in the digital storytelling workshop
format required a two-week investment and promised each participant that they would gain a
personal video out of that investment. This lower threshold of involvement contributed to more
success in meeting our goals of prioritizing the inclusion of those marginalized within existing
LGBT collections due to gender, race and ethnicity.201 Thanks in part to relationships established
during my past work with the local Women Who Rock project, the invitation to apply for
participation in the DSP reached more networks that included queer communities of color. Thus
we received many applications from individuals who identified as a racial or ethnic minority. As
201 For details on the participant selection process for the DSP, see Chapter Four.
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a result, the films produced provided greater representation of queer communities of color than
we were able to achieve in the object display in Revealing Queer.
Pictured are our Digital Storytellers: Isis Asare, Mian Carvin, Margaret Elisabeth, Jacque
Larrainzar, Fia Gibbs, Petra Davis, Caleb Hernandez and Jourdan Keith. Photo by Macklin
Macklin.
Our eight participants each used their own language to self-identify, so the specific
terminology selected varies from person to person, but we can still utilize this information to
construct a demographic composite of the film makers. All the QTM storytellers described their
race and ethnicity in different terminology, with three identifying as mixed-race, two identifying
as black, three as white, and two including Mexican heritage in their identities. One of our
participants identifies as Trans/Queer and another as Genderqueer. Two of our participants
identify as bisexual; three as lesbian; three as queer and one as gay. One participant identifies as
disabled. Three storytellers were geographically located outside of Seattle. The one unifying
factor is that all participants identified as queer in some way. While the shorter time-commitment
may have made this opportunity more accessible, there were some obstacles to participation.
Some of the applicants selected were unable to attend due to work conflicts on the designated
days, health concerns, or transportation challenges getting to Bothell.
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The DSP produced eight videos which are designed to be viewed individually, but are
also available as a 35 -minute composite film. As individual narratives, several of the short films
have been included in regional film festivals and events around the United States. Three of the
individual films were selected for inclusion in Revealing Queer, based on how their content fit
the exhibit narrative constructed by the CAC. Ultimately, Macklin and I were impressed with the
intimacy and creativity of the videos that developed in the DSP. Many of the filmmakers did not
have access to historical photos of themselves and responded to that challenge in inspiring ways.
Viewers have found the films relatable and impactful, even as the films play with the ways in
which we think about gender and sexuality. However, the narrative structure can make it difficult
to understand the larger context of the stories that were shared. The ways in which the
storytellers have impacted local history is not always apparent from the videos, so their use for
historical research is more inspirational than factual—inspiring people to find out more. Macklin
and I emphasized the process of making these films, over the product, and several of the
filmmakers have repeatedly commented on the transformative nature of that process.202 The
workshop participants reported finding community, feeling strength in the collective as well as
viewing the significance of their own lives in new and positive ways.203
Digital tools, like the digital storytelling workshop model, offer museums and
communities new ways to archive and represent histories, with the opportunity to bridge
geographical, physical and knowledge boundaries. As pointed out by multiple authors, digital
modalities offer to destabilize that which is familiar204 and inspire “liberatory fantasies” that
202 Angelica Macklin, Personal Communication, April 2013.
203 Participant feedback forms completed April 2013.
204 Tara McPherson, “Introduction: Media Studies and the Digital Humanities,” Cinema Journal 48:2 (Winter 2009)
123.
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offer a “powerful and persuasive means of social agency.”205 Yet, as Tara McPherson reminds
us, we must apply the same critical consciousness to digital resources as we do to other fields
and tools.206 Not only is access to digital spaces regulated by many social structures (internet
service; device capabilities; search vocabularies; program norms) but digital platforms can
inherently codify the very static notions of identity and exclusion that critical feminist work
seeks to address. Thus it is imperative that even digital interventions are subject to critical
interrogations and reflective construction of practices that support integrity, collaboration and
equality.
Engaging digital tools with critical consciousness, a commitment to relational
accountability and an embrace of collaboration, opens up new opportunities to share historical
authority, add to the existing archive and disrupt heteronormative histories. The films produced
in the DSP continue to travel, after the physical museum exhibit at MOHAI has closed; they are
still being screened in classrooms, online and at film showings. The space for creative
representation that the digital films manifested was essential for participants who no longer have
access to the material memorabilia which would typically populate a museum display. Through
collage and creative photography, filmmakers constructed a personal history where no historical
representation existed. The online accessibility of the films as individual and collective artifacts
continues to create opportunities to explore additional worthy research questions of access, key
word tagging and online representational management.
205 Chela Sandoval and Guisela Latorre, “Chicana/o Artivism: Judy Baca’s Digital Work with Youth of Color” in
Learning Race and Ethnicity: Youth and Digital Media, edited by Anna Everett, The John D. and Catherine T.
MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008) 81–82. Also,
Tara McPherson, “Why are the Digital Humanities so White? Or thinking the histories of race and computation” in
Debates in the Digital Humanities edited by Matthew K. Gold (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012).
206 Tara McPherson, “Designing for Difference,” Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 25:1 (2014)
181.
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Conclusions
Applying critical feminist methods to the QTM-MOHAI collaboration centered in critical
consciousness. Awareness of the exclusionary roots of our institutional partner deepened QTM’s
commitments to shared authority and community collaborations. While our collaboration
resulted in many successes, QTM’s interventions into the museum processes utilized by MOHAI
were shaped and limited by the existing institutional structures. In contrast, the DSP had more
freedom to operate outside of MOHAI’s structures. The resulting workshop model centered
relational accountability, ongoing critical reflection and representational awareness. The
properties of digital artifacts created unique opportunities to embrace complexity, highlight
structural norms and build affective connections between the subject and the viewer.
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Chapter 3: Digital Disruptions
Over the course of two weekends, with homework during the intervening week, eight
queer participants learned how to use digital tools to capture their personal stories. These stories
became representations of the histories of individual queers, and also stood in for the dearth of
queer narratives currently present in museum archives. These digital tools combined with the
creative vulnerability of the participants produced artifacts that address many of the challenges
museums struggle with when responding to calls for more diverse representations in our archives
and exhibits. The films were made despite a lack of material artifacts that could supplement the
stories told. The films tackled complex topics of identity, presenting shifting identity labels,
complicating binary notions of gender and calling into question normative ideas of family,
sexuality and belonging. While each film speaks to issues of queer experience generally, it is
clear that the individual narrative is not speaking for an essentialist notion of what it means to be
queer. With little money but a lot of support, these filmmakers created digital artifacts that
challenge the perceived limits of historical representation in museums.
As discussed in the preceding chapters, heteronormativity in museums is perpetuated
through linear, dominant progress narratives, static and simplistic representations that are both
binary and hierarchical. A commitment to disrupting the present state of identity-based exclusion
in museums must, then, consider narrative production that has the potential to contain
complexity, move in non-standard chronologies of time, exceed binaries and resist hierarchical
commitments—in short, we need tools that have the potential for dynamic, intersectional
representations. Digital tools have the potential to functionally meet these goals. When deployed
in a framework of critical conscious and relationally-responsible collaboration, digital tools can
help us disrupt heteronormative histories.
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Grounded in the tools of critical feminist museology, the digital storytelling workshop
was designed as an interventionary process in the hopes of creating historical artifacts that could
both add to and unsettle museum representations of queer. In this chapter, I analyze the results of
that workshop: the individual narrative films created by our digital storytellers. Building off the
critical feminist foundations of the workshop and tools, I consider the films produced in the
workshop as both products of our intervention and as tools for queering museology generally,
and history museums specifically. These films are artifacts that bring together theory and
application. They are visual representations of both the critical feminist process of narrative
production and the product: a short personal story documenting the experiences of a queer
individual. These films, I argue, exceed the limits of traditional historical artifacts in their ability
to build affective resonance with viewers. This resonance creates unique opportunities to inspire
recognition and critical questions in audiences. The digital stories, occupying a functional space
between traditional artifact and performative repertoire,207 function as evocative objects that
transgress traditional boundaries of historical representation.
The Workshop
Imagine eight strangers gathered into a small room for four intense days, two consecutive
weekends. The only thing that we know we have in common is that all storytellers, and one
facilitator, identity as queer in some way. But what does a queer identity really designate? All we
truly know is that we see ourselves as outside of normative boundaries of gender and sexuality,
in some way, in any way. Having read all the applications that brought them to the workshop that
day, I also knew that their own self descriptions of identity were unique and distinct from each
207Diana Taylor, The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas (Durham: Duke
University Press, 2003).
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other. Would we be able to build a trusted space of community and collaboration? Macklin and I
agreed on the significance of facilitating a gathering in which each participant felt supported, felt
understood and, as much as possible, felt safe.208 These are foundational for the relational
responsibility that we held as a core feminist commitment. For this reason, we invested several
hours into the tasks of getting to know each other and establishing community norms.
We opened the session with as much transparency as possible about our personal and
institutional stakes in the workshop, what the participants could expect from their time with us
and the variety of possible outcomes that our work together might result in. This action
supported our commitments to accountability—a central tenet in building trusting, collaborative
relationships. As the workshop was sponsored as part of the larger QTM project, storytellers
knew that there was a possibility of some of the completed videos being selected for inclusion in
the exhibit, Revealing Queer, which was under development at the time of the workshop. We
also let them know that all participants would have a chance to screen their film at the Queering
the History Museum Symposium which was held at MOHAI two months after the workshop.
We used this screening as a deadline allowing filmmakers the intervening months to make sure
that they were happy with their completed films, and to make adjustments if they so desired.
This deadline also gave filmmakers the opportunity to reflect on their final product and decide if
this was something that they wished to share publicly, or hold for personal viewing.209
208 Our approach acknowledges that one space very rarely can feel safe for all of the people in it at the same time,
due to the varied and intersectional identities and experiences that we all bring to that space. Our goal was to support
safety as much as possible.
209 Kimberly Christen-Withey reminds us that the choice to hide cultural and personal artifacts is as important as the
practice of collecting in general. The mandate to make all materials accessible to the public is a Western cultural
tradition that requires critical examination. “Digital Dialogue: On Not Looking: Ethics and Access in the Digital
Humanities” presentation at the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities, March 25, 2014.
http://mith.umd.edu/dialogues/dd-spring-2014-kimberly-withey-christen/. Christen-Withey’s work echoes the work
of indigenous scholars and activists who have long advocated for the privacy of indigenous artifacts and human
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Throughout the workshop, storytellers worked both individually and collaboratively. They
helped each other reflect on story ideas and story structures. They gave each other visual ideas
and suggested details to enhance the final videos. There were challenging moments of
interaction, particularly around pronoun use and racial differences,210 and it was clear that the
range of identities present at the workshop presented a relational challenge to connection. What
we all discovered during those intense hours together was how much queerness had marked each
person, bridging some of these gaps through shared experiences of structural violence. These
connections were most vivid during an exercise that Macklin led, as we returned to our workshop
on that first Sunday. Each participant shared a general story idea that they hoped to develop that
day. As we stood in a circle, listening to the individual storyteller share a small, important life
moment, another storyteller would step forward when they recognized an aspect of the story that
connected to their own personal experiences, physically joining the speaker and building a web
of human connections, as each participant shared the connecting point, and then told their own
narration. Tears of empathy and awe sprang forth throughout this exercise. Issues of visibility, of
the loss of home and family of origin, and questions of belonging were central themes that arose
again and again in this early stage of story development. This moment physically mapped a path
of cohesion that helped each storyteller deepen their risk-taking and supported their
vulnerabilities. In this moment, and in other collaborative moments built into the workshop,
participants helped each other to access and narrate a personal story that went beyond the basic
remains held in museum collections. The 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which
requires museums to return funerary objects and human remains to tribes, is evidence of this advocacy.
210 One moment that I observed due to racial differences involved a white participant reaching out to touch the hair
of a participant of color. This invasion of personal space disrespects the body of the participant of color at the same
time casting this individual’s hair as a novelty, an “other,” unimaginable and fascinating within dominant norms of
appearance that feature the qualities associated with whiteness. In workshop feedback, one participant who
identifies outside of the cis-normative gender binary stated that the most challenging parts of the workshop for zir
were other participant’s inability to use correct pronouns when speaking to and about zir.
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telling of life events. These mutual supports of collective development facilitated stories that are
rich with emotion, complexity and vulnerability. The power of the collective greatly impacted
what was produced in that moment.
This focus on the collective was also ethically tied to the consciousness of power that
Macklin and I brought to the workshop. As facilitators who both occupy spaces within the
University, we held a position of authority and control over the space and the experiences of the
filmmakers. Drawing from our feminist training, we sought both transparency around our
positions as well as collaboration with the filmmakers in the workshop. Collaboration is a means
of sharing authority and power, in the final product as well as in the process of product-
development. Documentary filmmaker Calvin Pryluck discusses the challenge of considering all
of the possible ways in which participation in a public film may impact those who are featured in
it, acknowledging that we put people at risk when we use them in films and it is impossible to
account for every possible outcome.211 Pryluck advocates for collaboration between filmmakers
and subjects as a move towards more ethical filmmaking, including the recognition that all
people involved in the process of filmmaking are impacting each other.212 While Pryluck is
addressing a more traditional model of film production in which the subject and producer
function separately in the filmmaking process, his call for collaboration is a relevant intervention
in the kinds of documentary representations that our digital storytelling workshop sought to
produce.
211 Calvin Pryluck, “Ultimately We Are All Outsiders: The Ethics of Documentary Filming,” New Challenges for
Documentary edited by Alan Rosenthal and John Corner (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press,
2005) 197.
212 Pryluck, 206-207.
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In some ways, the very model of digital storytelling is attending to subject participation,
as the subject of the film is also the designer of the film. Yet, Macklin and I maintained
awareness of the ways in which our actions would inevitably impact the final product.
Thoughtful attention to the ways that we impact each other in the production process is an issue
also raised by feminist oral historian Katherine Borland. She recognizes that the person
collecting, or in our case facilitating, the story production is in fact the first audience for the
narrative.213 Our very presence as viewers of these films-in-development shaped the content that
was created during the workshop. With this awareness, Macklin and I supported collaboration, of
the participants with each other, as well as between the participants and ourselves as leaders.
This showed up in several ways. We designed aspects of the workshop to be responsive to
participant suggestions, and adapted group activities to accommodate concerns about getting to
know each other, use of technology, creativity and processing the feelings that were invoked by
the process itself. Critical reflection, built into workshop activities, functioned as an essential
support for collaboration, transparency and shared authority.
Digital Tools
Approaching narrative production from a critical feminist framework requires tools of
production that are highly flexible. The tools selected for creation will absolutely impact the
form and meaning of the final product. We sought tools that would facilitate narrative of many
forms: linear, non-linear, abstract, complex, simplistic, evocative, visual. In short, we needed
tools that were malleable enough to respond to the visions and needs of the storytellers. Digital
tools have the flexibility to encompass the varied requirements of the filmmakers. By selecting
213 Katharine Borland, “’That’s Not What I Said’: Interpretive Conflict in Oral Narrative Research” in Women’s
Words: The Feminist Practice of Oral History edited by Sherna Berger Gluck and Daphne Patai (New York:
Routledge Press, 1991) 63.
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digital media, we freed our storytellers from the limitations imposed by textual or three-
dimensional artifacts. In selecting digital tools, we embraced the potential that digital media
offers in multiple ways. Specifically, digital tools of narrative production transcend geographical
and physical boundaries. This format creates space for creative re-tellings that do not fit neatly
into chronological productions of time. Because of the accessibility of these tools, the digital
medium is freed from institutional requirements for production and transmission. The digital
medium captures the results of collaboration while inviting viewers into a new, affective
collaboration. This format creates space for complexities of narrative and self-identification. The
digital format facilitates representations that move beyond binary and hierarchical conventions.
While I am advocating for the use of digital tools to re-think the collection and
representation of the historical archive, I do not find their power to be in their essential digital
nature. Rather, I agree with other digital scholars that we must apply our critical lens to tools we
use, considering the unconscious biases that can be literally encoded into operating systems that
guide and shape our digital tools. Tara McPherson calls attention to the ways that modular
thinking shapes information systems, decreasing complexity and removing context in ways that
are similar to the management of information in museum archives and exhibits.214 In fact, queer
and feminist information studies scholars have, like McPherson, analyzed the inherently binary,
modular thinking present in the databases and information tagging systems that libraries,
archives and museums use to organize and access historical materials.215 Binary logics do not
allow complexity and force hierarchy within over-lapping identities. Within a binary system, a
person cannot identify as both male and female in any way. Within a hierarchical system, a
214 McPherson 2014, 181.
215 Ibid.
101
person must identify first with, for example, a gender identity and only within that larger
category of gender will additional identities be included, for instance race and sexuality.216 This
hierarchical binary thinking is inherent in heteronormativity. Processes of organization like this
perpetuate the hierarchical, single-identity focus that intersectional feminists advocate against.
These systems of logic, rife with unconscious bias, underpin the digital tools that we may choose
to use. Therefore, digital tools must be subject to the same processes of critical reflection that I
advocate for in critical feminist museology as a whole.
Rather than adding critical discourse of identities onto an existing system, “as things that
can simply be added to our analyses (or to our metadata),” McPherson argues that “[g]ender,
race, sexuality, class and disability might then be understood . . . as operating principles of a
different order, always already coursing through discourse and matter.”217 We cannot separate
the identity-based structures that operate in our social worlds from any aspect of the work that
we produce, despite our desire to do so. Critical consciousness urges us to acknowledge the
social structures that shape our work, including our museum exhibits and artifacts. At the same
time, McPherson acknowledges the challenge of studying “all discourse and all matter at once,”
a challenge that museum professionals have struggled with as much as those in information
systems.218 Our response to the vast amount of information that we collect, manage and represent
is to categorize.
McPherson calls attention to the power in information management. Drawing from a
theory introduced by Karen Barad, McPherson connects power to what museum professionals
216 Hope A. Olsen, “How we Construct Subjects: A Feminist Analysis,” Feminist and Queer Information Studies
Reader edited by Rebecca Dean and Patrick Keilty (California: Litwin Books, 2013).
217 McPherson 2014, 181.
218 Ibid.
102
may call the curatorial perspective, but which Barad calls the “agential cut.”219 The agential cut
is an acknowledgement that the choices we make in collection, curation and presentation shape
the meaning of materials which we utilize. The agency of the curator is inherent in the very name
“agential cut,” calling attention to the power inherent in selection. The cut creates difference and
meaning by what is selected for focus. The arrangement of materials in proximity to one another,
the process of determining what is included and what is not may simply be intended to reflect
cultural narratives, but in fact this process also helps construct those same narratives.220 The
collection of artifacts becomes representative of meaning, even as it makes meaning, an idea that
is also found in the writings of Stuart Hall and Sandoval.221 While this concept of
representational authority is not new, McPherson reminds us that the agential cut operates at
multiple levels, including in the digital tools that we use, and in the materials that are organized
by or even created by those tools. For those designing digital tools McPherson advocates
working in a “mode that explicitly engages power and difference from the get-go, laying bare our
theoretical allegiances and exploring the intra-actions of culture and matter.”222 To this I would
add, those utilizing digital tools have a responsibility to make the same commitments. Without
the technical expertise to create new tools, how can we consciously utilize the tools available to
us?
These commitments were explicitly engaged in the selection of digital tools and the
design of the digital storytelling workshop, as outlined in Chapter Two. In the videos that were
produced, we can see the results of that commitment to a critically conscious process. In the
219 McPherson 2014, 179-181 referencing Karen Barad, “Posthuman Performativity: Toward an Understanding of
How Matter Comes to Matter,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 28, 3 (2003) 801-831.
220 Ibid.
221 Stuart Hall, “Encoding/decoding,” Culture, Media, Language: Working Papers in Cultural Studies 1972-79
(New York: Routledge Press, 2003) 129-130. Sandoval (2000), Kindle Location 1127-1157.
222 McPherson 2014, 182.
103
resulting digital stories, we are given an opportunity to see what happens when the power to
differentiate—to make the agential cut—is given to the subject.
Digital Artifacts as Evocative Objects
The heteronormative society in which we live does not support those that deviate from
expected gender roles, either in gender presentation or in romantic partner selection. This can
have significant consequences for people who identify as LGBTQ. Of our digital storytellers,
many had experienced exclusions in their lives, from family members, homes or nations, leaving
them little access to the photos or memorabilia that might help tell their stories. Muñoz discusses
this fact of queer life, recognizing that queerness often travels covertly which has “everything to
do with the fact that leaving too much of a trace has often meant that the queer subject has left
herself open to attack.”223 This leads Muñoz to the ephemeral evidence that is necessary to
assemble when documenting queerness. He defines queerness as “a possibility, a sense of self-
knowing, a mode of sociality and relationality.”224 Queer as identity, queer as way-of-being,
queer as a marker as other—how do you capture the multi-valiant and the ephemeral that is queer
in an artifact?
Digital Disruptions: Escaping Institutionality, Embracing Complexity
The format of the digital story allowed QTM storytellers freedom to eschew traditional
institutional frameworks for the creation and transmission of a narrative. Without access to
childhood artifacts, visualizing a personal story requires creativity; this requirement is welcomed
in the digital tools that were utilized. Because the artifact being produced stood on its own
223 Jose Esteban Muñoz, “Ephemera as Evidence: Introductory Notes to Queer Acts” Women & Performance: A
Journal of Feminist Theory 8:2 (1996) 6.
224 Muñoz 1996, 5.
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outside of any exhibit context, the narrative was also free from adopting traditional exhibition
requirements. This freedom from dominant institutional frameworks releases the storyteller to
narrate complexity, feature the ephemeral and creatively utilize a variety of manufactured or
symbolic imagery to communicate their personal stories. Filmmaker Jacque Larrainzar created
compelling abstract images around geographical landmarks that were customized with refracted
light; these images effectively connected the storytellers’ childhood in Mexico with the
storyteller’s current life in Washington State, despite the fact that there were no images of
Larrainzar’s childhood.225
The freedom to be creative about visual imagery opened up the possibility of telling
difficult stories—experiences of trauma or interpersonal relationships that may not be captured in
a photograph or artifact. Storyteller Petra Davis included the experiences of sexual assault and
suicide with a visual of red paint splattered blood-like on a plain background.226 Similarly, Davis
used a clay figure squeezing into a too-small box to visualize the traumatic impacts of confining
oneself within the limits of heteronormativity. Visual freedom also created space to represent
difficult family relationships, without having to make public the identity of these family
members. For example, storyteller Jourdan Imani Keith utilized a photo of a raven that became
the visual focus when she was describing her difficult relationship with her mother.227 This not
only symbolized a challenging relationship, but allowed Keith to give her mother
representational respect; by not using her image, Keith avoided associating the visual of her
mother with harmful interpersonal moments in their relationship. Rather than constructing a
225 Jacque Larrainzar’s film is called Omecihuatl and is currently available to view online at
https://queeringthemuseum.org/previous-projects/narrating-our-own-stories-a-queer-digital-storytelling-project/
226 Petra Davis’s film is called Love Petra and is currently available to view online at
https://queeringthemuseum.org/previous-projects/narrating-our-own-stories-a-queer-digital-storytelling-project/
227 Jourdan Imani Keith’s film is called Every Woman, Ever More and is available to view online at
https://queeringthemuseum.org/previous-projects/narrating-our-own-stories-a-queer-digital-storytelling-project/
105
narrative based solely on available objects, the digital storytelling process allows individuals to
creatively construct visual imagery which supports their personal narrative. This freedom
allowed personal stories to be told despite unequal representation in museum archives, even
when individuals lost access to their own memorabilia because their identities forced family and
geographic disconnections.
The freedom to operate outside of dominant modes of display creates create opportunities
for digital stories to represent identities in dynamic and complex ways. The digital stories create
a unique representational space that embraces complexities, allowing for inclusion and disruption
at the same time. Effectively representing intersectional identities requires an embrace of
complexity and ambiguity. Karen Mary Davalos, in her call for museums to reject a single-
identity focus, encourages museums to embrace the complexities that result from overlapping
forms of social oppression. 228 Producing a representation of complexity creates opportunities to
recognize socially-constructed categories of identity, while also resisting simplistic
categorizations—the very attributes advocated by intersectional feminists and queer theorists.
Yet, museum exhibits frequently represent identities as static—literally unchanging and often
unquestioned within exhibit spaces. Storyteller Elisabeth Margaret constructed a gender journey
that included movement from he/him pronouns, to she/her to ze/zir229 pronouns.230 This
storyteller literally presented zir body for analysis, even as ze narrated zir own unfolding
understanding of gender and the possibilities for zir personal gender identity and life. This
228 Karen Mary Davalos, Exhibiting Mestizaje: Mexican (American) Museums in the Diaspora (Albuquerque:
University of New Mexico Press, 2001) 160.
229 Ze and Zir are gender neutral pronouns utilized by many non-binary individuals. Throughout this writing, I
utilize the pronouns requested by each individual, as indicated through personal conversation and their workshop
applications.
230 Margaret Elisabeth’s film is called A Story of Margaret: Continually Coming Out.
106
complex tale reflected critically on the normative institution of gender identity, claiming a
unique gender identity at the same time that gender itself is disrupted.
Keith’s narrative wove individual identity-struggles with national activism, focusing on a
transformative experience of community and visibility at the April 25, 1993 March on
Washington D.C. Identities of race, gender, sexuality and religion were woven together through
her narration, communicating one moment of the unique and intersectional experiences of her
life. That one multi-layered moment effectively communicates the multiplicity of lived
experience. The digital story as a representational tool has the capacity to communicate
complexity effectively, through visual, voice and movement—a feat that the static imagery of the
exhibit struggles to accomplish. In a totally different time and geographical location, Caleb
Hernandez narrated his own unique experience that weaves and un-weaves layers of gender,
sexuality, ethnicity and religion. His story centers on his tattoo—pink and purple triangles—and
the meaning of the symbols on his chest in order to narrate his expulsion from a religious family
upon the revelation of his gay identity.231 Hernandez’s story unsettles common conceptions of
religious families, even as he processes his own questioning of religion, gender and sexuality.
Digital Disruptions: Resisting Hegemony
This complexity within digital stories ensures that each individual narrative does not
easily disappear into the dominant, hegemonic voice—of society, or even of the larger
exhibition. Representations of LGBTQ experiences are so rare in museums, that when displays
do occur they are often tasked with representing the idea of LGBTQ identities in a monolithic
form, rather than representing the particular lives and identities of those who participated. There
231 Caleb Hernandez’s film is called Identity and is available to view online at
https://queeringthemuseum.org/2016/04/16/queer-digital-stories-identity/
107
is, of course, no monolithic experience of being
LGBTQ. People who identify as LGBTQ are present
across all strata of society. But it is the very rarity of
representation that creates a pressure for a single
display to speak to the entire range of diverse
experiences and identities of those who are LGBTQ.
No single, or even series of displays, can accomplish
this. In consequence, the display that is given prime museum space must choose which narratives
are told, and which are left for a different day. This narrative format tends to shape a hegemonic
representation—a grand narrative—through which even text and imagery designed to challenge
the dominant narrative is subsumed. For example, despite explicit exhibit labels acknowledging
both the limitations of the representations in Revealing Queer and the diversity of experiences
that make up LGBTQ lives,232 multiple audience members expressed their disappointment at not
seeing their own narratives included within the exhibit. In addition, the preponderance of
imagery featured white men and women, which seemed to swallow the smaller numbers of
images and artifacts from men and women of color in the exhibit. This experience was
articulated by members of the museum audience through comment cards, visitor’s log comments
and in conversations with the Revealing Queer team. It was relatively easy to overlook, for
example, Larrainzar’s shirt, rattles and flute displayed in a case with a short narrative label, as
visitors walked toward a wall constructing a display corner featuring “Lived Experiences.”
232 The label reads as follows: “Curator’s Note: Revealing Queer is not an all-encompassing narrative of the last 40
years of queer history in the Puget Sound region; it only scratches the surface of the rich and diverse stories here. A
community advisory committee comprised of LGBTQ organizations, activists and scholars, shaped and refined the
content in this exhibition to include as many voices as possible. The community’s goal is to create an exhibit that
inspires more research, exhibitions and collecting around LGBTQ histories. Erin Bailey and the Community
Advisory Committee.”
108
Pictured: Jacque Larrainzar’s shirt and rattles in
display case along with Revealing Queer exhibit
label. Photos by Nicole Robert.
In contrast, once a visitor sat down to watch
Larrainzar’s short video, even if they left half way
through the video, viewers were given a sense of
the complexity of Larrainzar’s life. The video
does not directly address the experience of being
forced out of Mexico because of Larrainzar’s233 sexuality—a narrative which is displayed in the
exhibit—but rather conveys the transnational influences on Larrainzar’s personal identity,
making it clear that both Larrainzar’s childhood
experiences in Mexico and Larrainzar’s present reality in
Seattle combine to create a unique identity. This reality is
not easily subsumed into a larger narrative of whiteness or
gender non/conformity.
Pictured: Two museum visitors sitting in the video nook
with headphones one, watching one of the digital stories.
Photo by Nicole Robert.
Another narrative that resisted folding into the
dominant cultural scripts was Davis’s film, exploring
complexities of sexual identity that don’t fit easily into hegemonic norms. Occupying a queer
bisexual identity, Davis reveals her experience of feeling like both an insider and an outsider of
queer cultures. The explicit experience of bisexuality was easy to overlook within the exhibit, as
the dominant representations focused on gay and lesbian experiences, but Davis’s video engaged
233 Larrainzar does not use pronouns. Rather, all references to Larrainzar use Larrainzar’s name.
109
the life experiences of someone moving between heteronormative and hetero-resistant worlds.
The explicit identity of bisexuality is addressed through reference to biphobia, and the
complexities of life as a bi-sexual are woven into the narrative presented, such that if a viewer
came away understanding the narrative of Davis’s digital story, the viewer would inherently have
a deeper understanding of the experiences of bisexuality.
Just as these videos resisted melting into the dominant narrative of the exhibit, the
representational style of digital stories supports resistance to the hegemonic social scripts of
heteronormativity. All information, including digital and artifactual representations, are created
and received within structures designed to reproduce normativity and codification—museum
institution, social institutions of gender, sexuality, family and law, to name just a few. Judith
Butler reminds us that the knowledge we use to decode and understand social representations is
knowledge already bound within the norms of our society.234 Whatever signs we use, we
interpret those signs with pre-existing cultural knowledge that is laden with specific values.235
This cultural knowledge leads to tendencies to esssentialize identity—to assume that once we
know one thing about a person—say, their gender identity—then we know many other things
that are believed to correlate with that identity. With the complex and personal narratives
presented in the digital stories, it becomes much more challenging to map common
understandings of identity onto the people who are represented. Just when a viewer is getting
comfortable with the gender portrayed visually in Larrainzar’s film, the audio interjects, “Gender
had been put upon me when I was born a girl; I dreamed myself a boy; I dreamed myself a girl;
like Omecihautl I was both.”236 Similarly, Mian Carvin’s film disrupts normative ideas of
234 Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (New York and London: Routledge,
1990) Kindle Location 2447.
235 Ibid.
236 Audio from Larrainzer’s film Omecihuatl.
110
familial relations. Carvin explains that she did not give birth to her child, Lily, but claims the act
of creation all the same: “You did not come from me, yet you are my child. All those years I
dreamed you, until that Sunday morning in August, when the universe came together.”237 Part of
the challenge viewers have had in interpreting Carvin’s story is that her narrative of birth and
loss does not fit into pre-existing paradigms of motherhood and family structures. While
touching on ideas and experiences that are familiar to viewers, the digital stories have the power
to disrupt and complicate the very symbols that they invoke. The complexity and creativity
permissible outside institutional norms and within the digital space engenders a narrative form
that resists folding into hegemonic narratives.
Digital Disruptions: Diffusing Historical Chronology
In conversations with filmmakers after the workshop, several indicated an awareness of
the significance of this digital storytelling workshop as necessary context for the finished film.
This awareness presented in a few filmmakers as anxiety over the dissemination of an individual
film without the context provided by the other workshop participants films, nor the context of the
process we followed. Could the film stand on its own? Would the testimony be understood?
This is a fair question for filmmakers to grapple with, as the films they produced are not easily
categorized by the casual viewer. Without context, the viewer must pay close attention to follow
non-traditional narrative structures that jump through time and topic. Several filmmakers
incorporate significant historical events that impacted them, without explaining those events.
They rely upon the viewers to educate themselves, filling in any narrative gaps. As such, the
value of the individual films as historical artifacts must be considered.
237 Mian Carvin’s film is called De Facto and is currently available to view online
https://queeringthemuseum.org/previous-projects/narrating-our-own-stories-a-queer-digital-storytelling-project/
111
If we expect an historical artifact to provide linear facts about historical events, then these
films will fail to meet those expectations. Diana Taylor reminds us that the archive is a powerful
repository of writing and the verbal, a written form that is privileged in Western culture as a
legitimate source of historical knowledge.238 The existence of these films—which rely heavily on
the intelligence of experience—as archival artifacts pushes on these boundaries of legitimate
knowledge. Viewers are tasked with connecting the personal stories delivered to larger historical
events themselves. For example, Larrainzar’s film, narrates the storyteller’s experiences of living
in and between Mexican and U.S. cultures, as well as binary gender categories. Asking, “How do
you tell history when you have no history?” The narrative alludes to the forced immigration
experienced because Larrainzar identified as a lesbian. But viewers of the film would not know
that Larrainzar was the first lesbian in the state of Washington granted immigration asylum
because of Larrainzar’s sexual identity. Similarly, Carvin’s film introduces the viewer to a birth,
a blurry image of a child, and the visual metaphor of rock cliffs documenting the fact that
Carvin’s child, Lily, was, like the rocks, “cleaved” from her foundational parent, Carvin, and
“made to believe [Carvin] was no more than a babysitter.”239 The narrative is compelling but the
reference to a public historical event is fleeting. Audience members often ask who the child was
and why she was take from Carvin when I share this film in research presentations and classes.
At the end of the film, a text image communicates some of the significant facts: “As a result of
the legal battle to assert myself as my daughter’s parent, a law was created in Washington State
to benefit and protect relationships between non-biological parents and their children. It is called
the de facto parenting law.”240 While this helps connect the personal narrative to historical
238 Taylor, Kindle Location 440.
239 Narration from Carvin’s film, De Facto.
240 Text from Mian Carvin’s film De Facto
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events, it leaves much of the factual research to the viewer to complete or to guess. In fact, as the
non-biological parent of Lily, Carvin had her parental rights severed when she and her partner
split. She spent years in court fighting to keep those rights and ultimately failed within the
existing legal framework at that time. Based on her experiences of loss, Carvin succeeded in
working to pass the De Facto parenting law in Washington State which recognizes the parental
rights of non-biological parents. Traditional notions of historical fact, authority and truth become
diffuse in these digital realm narratives, disrupting expected practices that center historical
accuracy and expertise over personal experience and affect. Maintaining oblique or vague
connections to fact-based historical narratives, these digital artifacts function to disrupt the static
and simplistic view of history that is maintained by many textual artifacts. Hegemonic notions of
authenticity and accuracy become diffuse, when the focus in on the individual experience of
events rather than the chronology of events. The films, which offer a flexible medium, are able to
represent these complexities in ways that the physical exhibit which accompanied the films could
not. In this way, while conforming to the archive, these films convey more than the archive can
contain—they reference the repertoire of human experience.241
The films succeed in referencing more than the expected facts of historical narrative
because they include the emotions and personal challenges of the filmmakers. In many cases, the
films speak to traumatic personal experiences that are unique to those whose gender and sexual
identities fall outside of the binary possibilities which are held to be the only possibilities in
heteronormative society. Elisabeth recounts the multiple times that ze considered suicide in zir
own journey to understand zir personal gender as fitting outside of the male/female binary, now
241 This is a reference to Diana Taylor’s ideas of the archive and the repertoire, Kindle Location 388.
113
identifying zirself as the androgene.242 Elisabeth was not accepted by others or settled within
zirself until ze accepted a non-binary gender identity. The theme of being rejected by family or
the societies of youth ran through many of the films. Larrainzar was rejected by both the family
and nation of Larrainzar’s birth because of what was perceived to be deviant sexuality, a theme
Larrainzar’s film works through referentially.243 Hernandez recounts a story of rejection from his
family of origin, influenced by their strong religious beliefs, when he accepted his personal
identity as a gay man.244 Keith’s story grapples with a self-acceptance that was challenged by a
religious mother who taught Keith that gays and lesbians were to be avoided.245 Davis recounts
social traumas of violence and rejection in her film.246 Story after story is influenced by, and thus
carries the weight of, the trauma of social non-normativity.
In her book, An Archive of Feelings, Ann Cvetkovich connects the history of trauma with
emotional memory, a concept Cvetkovich borrows from Toni Morrison.247 The emotion of
trauma becomes embedded in memory in “affective, sensory, often highly specific, and
personal” ways, producing “an unusual archive, one that frequently resists the coherence of
narrative.”248 This comes through clearly in the form and shape of the films that were produced.
Rather than a linear, coherent time-line, many of the filmmakers produced narratives that played
with tools like coherence, narrative arc, and temporality. The narratives jump from past to
present to a temporally-divorced state of self-reflection. Larrainzar moves through time and
242 Elisabeth, Continually Coming Out: A Story of Margaret.
243 Larrainzar, Omecihuatl.
244 Hernandez, Identity.
245 Keith, Every Woman, Ever More.
246 Davis, Love Petra.
247 Ann Cvetkovich, An Archive of Feelings: Trauma, Sexuality and Lesbian Public Cultures (Durham and London:
Duke University Press, 2003) 241-242.
248 Ibid.
114
space to visit childhood moments in Mexico, leading to the story of Omecihautl, to the present
adult moment here and now, to Larrainzar’s own gender story and personal connection to a two-
spirit identity.249 Davis eschewed time-line even more by adopting a poetic progression through
her experiences of teaching critical race and gender to college students. Instead, Davis focused
on the uniting experiences of structural heteronormativity that bind many humans together,
whether they sit in a classroom or stand in front of that class.250 Keith’s film hearkens back to a
pivotal moment of her life that intersects with the 1993 March on Washington. Featuring this
nationally historical moment in gay and lesbian history, Keith narrates the personal pleasures of
belonging by calling upon the sensory experiences of “warehouse beats,” “lipstick-on-lipstick”
and holding hands in public.251 Invoking these feelings as she stands up to her mother, Keith
weaves a nationally significant historical event with her own personally significant history,
attributing the “strength to rally for [her] own life” to the organizers of the April 25, 1993 March
on Washington.252 In this film, Keith produces an artifact that is “affective, sensory and highly
personal,”253 evoking the feminist idea that the personal is political in ways that go beyond any
button, t-shirt or poster. All of the filmmakers “emotional memories” transgress the limits of the
traditional archive, that source of historical facts from which historians construct legitimate
narratives of what we have been, and thus, who we are.254
Digital Disruptions: Contentious Authority
249 Larrainzar, Omecihuatl.
250 Davis, Love, Petra.
251 Keith, Every Woman, Every More.
252 Ibid.
253 Cvetkovich, 241.
254 My notion of an archive is influenced by Harriet Bradley’s nuanced explorations in “The Seductions of the
Archive: Voices Lost and Found” History of the Human Sciences 12:2 (1999) 107-122.
115
The truth of personal experience—like that truth which is narrated in both oral histories
and digital stories—offers a powerful transgressive tool. Feminist oral historians have long used
this tool to address historical gaps in representation, adapting traditional oral history techniques
to include the “notion that the personal is political and the conviction that women’s experiences
[are] inherently valuable and needed to be recorded.”255 Similarly, many oppressed groups have
utilized oral history techniques to construct historical archives which address identity-based
exclusions found in institutional archives. These personal narratives are adding to the collective
archival memories that constitute the foundations of historical research and the foundations of
history museums.
But that same personal truth is highly contestable. As Cvetkovich reminds us, emotional
memory is often viewed as “fragmented and ostensibly arbitrary.”256 Similarly, Sean Curran
asserts that “[e]ven the staunchest supporters will agree that oral histories may often be less
about truth and fact, and more about memory, the unconscious and fantasy.” 257 This
fragmentation and even factual malleability has been the basis of dismissing personal memories
out of historical archives which dismisses the histories of those who are already most missing
from our archives. In fact, oral narratives are a first-person account not unlike other archival
texts, such as letters, newspaper accounts and memoirs. All of these are based in memories. Only
some memories have been imagined as reality, and that limited version of reality has become
naturalized in museums. 258 Approaching the construction of artifacts and archives from a critical
255 Sherna Berger Gluck and Daphne Patai, editors, Women’s Words: The Feminist Practice of Oral History (New
York: Routledge Press, 1991) 1.
256 Cvetkovich, 241-242.
257 Sean Curran, “Let’s Talk About Sexuality: Exhibiting LGBTQ Voices,” On Sexuality: Collecting Everybody’s
Experience, A Collection of Essays (Cambridge, MA: Museums, Etc, 2015), 13.
258 Susan A. Crane, “Curious Cabinets and Imaginary Museums,” Museums and Memory, edited by Susan A. Crane
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000) 80.
116
feminist view requires that we begin with awareness of our human tendencies to construct and
naturalize realities. With a critical feminist perspective, oral narratives are recognized for their
dynamic potential to enhance historical archives. The very qualities of memory that—at least in
oral form—make personal narrative suspect for historical use are the qualities that, with feminist
consciousness, make oral stories capable of dynamic, transgressive interventions in the archive.
These oral memories, even unconscious reminiscences, “can reveal new layers of ‘truth’ to a
narrative normally shaped around legal and political landmarks.”259 The dynamic affective
nature of personal narratives is what creates the potential to name, disrupt and reveal cultural
norms.
A critically conscious approach to personal narratives, however, considers the role of
power in production. Existing normative hierarchies can shape the narratives produced. Feminist
oral historians have called attention to practices of shared authority and interpretation as
important issues of power in personal narratives. An oral history, even when approved in its
entirety by the subject, holds many areas open to curatorial interpretation. For example,
historians may infer meaning into the chosen words or silences of the subject which are at odds
with the subject’s own interpretation.260 In museums, oral histories are usually far too long to be
used in exhibits or displays. The curator selects particular sections or phrases that conform to the
larger curatorial narrative—the agential cut261 of the exhibit. This is one of the representational
challenges that I sought to address by choosing the digital storytelling model, rather than oral
histories. While the final video is still open to interpretation, the filmmakers had total control
over the narrative structure and invested heavily in refining the visual and audio presentation of
259 Curran, 13.
260 Borland, 63.
261 McPherson 2014, 179-181
117
their narrative. The films produced are short-enough to display in an exhibit and are designed in
a coherent sequence, such that there is little incentive to splice the narrative into shorter pieces.
However, the ultimate interpretation of the personal memories presented is up to the viewer.
With so many people involved in making meaning out of these personal narratives, there
is a continuous act of interpretation. For many of the storytellers, the chosen narratives address a
history of trauma, making meaning out of struggle for those who experienced it and those who
did not.262 In addition, the storyteller is creating particular meanings in the time and space of
telling that may not resonate with that same storyteller in a different time and place. Memory and
narrative change meaning over time, and in this case the storyteller is constructing meaning both
for oneself and for the present and perceived future audiences.263 In this way, the narrative
constructed in the story is a constitution of how the storyteller sees oneself—at this moment in
time—and how the storyteller hopes to be seen, accounting for the possible perceptions of
current and future audiences. This is an awareness of narrative fluctuation that both Macklin and
I built into the QTM Storytelling Workshop. We constructed the workshop activities so that each
participant received regular feedback from both the group and individuals in the group, as they
developed their film scripts and story boards. In support of this, we repeatedly invited the
participants to be aware of this cross-influence on each other. In addition, we consistently
acknowledged the fleeting moment of “truth” that their video would represent; we encouraged
each filmmaker to speak to what they felt was important in that moment, and to let the film be a
testament to that moment in time, rather than a film tasked with representing the essence of the
filmmaker for all time. In this way and others, Macklin and I, along with all the other
262 Cvetkovich, 241-242.
263 Borland, 63.
118
filmmakers, influenced the shape of each film made in those two weekends. In addition, the
filmmakers each had some audience in mind when they made their films. Some chose to speak to
a younger version of themselves. Some explicitly addressed a target audience in the film:
Larrainzar ended the film with the text “To all undocuqueer dreamers” followed by “Make it
real!”264 Elisabeth ended zir film speaking to an audience imagined to be like zirself, “the path
we walk is lonely. I want you to know you are not alone.”265 The films freeze this moment in
time, these influences and these imagined audiences. At the same time, they maintain a field of
interpretation open to each viewer.
Audience members bring their personal histories, their feelings of that moment and the
influences of context to their interpretations. Viewing the films back-to-back in a 30-minute reel
during the official premiere at the Queering the History Museum Symposium in 2013 brought a
standing-room-only audience to breathless silence, which erupted into emotional applause. The
same 30-minute reel shown in a museum theater as a supplement to performances, food and
festivities when Revealing Queer opened at MOHAI in 2014 brought tepid responses from
sparse audience-members. A selected trio of films, shown during a Gender and Sexuality Studies
class alongside a film that introduces the Women Who Rock Oral History Archive266 brought
mixed reactions from the students in attendance. While many appreciated the emotion conveyed
in the digital stories, they noticed that the films did not seem as polished or conversational as the
oral history clips presented. Context effects audience interpretation and likewise, the storytellers
themselves would surely present a slightly different narrative if tasked with telling their story
264 Larrainzar, Omecihuatl.
265 Elisabeth, Continually Coming Out: A Story of Margaret.
266 For more information about the Women Who Rock Oral History Project, see
https://womenwhorockcommunity.org/digital-oral-history-project/
119
anew in each of these places and times. “As performance contexts change, as we discover new
audiences, and as we renegotiate our sense of self, our narratives also will change.”267 Each film
represents an agential cut of a personal history, crystalized in that time and place, relating to one
queer’s experience of social histories. They are an agential cut of personal history, cut out of
larger social histories. Each story, concocted in a subject-led collaboration, invites a continuous
interpretation of the identities, ideas and facts presented. In this way, the meaning of each film is
an on-going collaboration between viewer and subject. Each viewer is invited to make their own
connections—affective, dissonant, and interpretive. While the filmmakers’ moment of
interpretation is static, the films invite dynamic audience participation, an archival artifact that
continuously references the repertoire.
Digital Disruptions: Tensions in the Archive
When I conceived of the digital storytelling workshop, one of my personal goals was to
create new material artifacts that would be added to existing museum archives. While the films
that were produced are an actual artifact, they hold a place of tension in the historical archive.
With spoken narratives, musical sound tracks and texts over-laying images, the films contain
many elements of embodied performance. Indeed, as discussed above, the narrative structures of
the films themselves are virtual embodiments of the filmmakers’ experiences, reflections and
self-constructed identities. While I do not think that these digital artifacts stand in for the body
itself, they do capture many of the dynamic elements of embodied performance. Taylor engages
this point of tension between the artifact and what it represents in her book The Archive and the
Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas.268 Reminiscent of the agential cut
267 Borland, 63.
268 Taylor.
120
discussed earlier, Taylor highlights the process of selection, classification and presentation of
materials as the actions that produce an archival object.269 Taylor specifically identifies the
cultural belief that some kinds of objects are enduring “(i.e. texts, documents, buildings, bones)”
while some kinds of objects are seen as ephemeral and thus not available for inclusion in the
archive “(i.e. spoken language, dance, sports, ritual).”270 These ephemeral objects require
“presence: people participate in the production and reproduction of knowledge by ‘being there,’
being a part of the transmission.” In this way, ephemeral objects are dynamic and responsive.
Taylor explains, “As opposed to the supposedly stable objects in the archive, the actions that are
the repertoire do not remain the same. The repertoire both keeps and transforms choreographies
of meaning.”271 The videos produced in the QTM workshop operate in between the archive and
the repertoire, as defined by Taylor. Ephemeral actions—dynamic, collaborative and
responsive—are recorded in the digital stories. The filmmakers collaboratively participated in the
dynamic and ephemeral process of narrative production, much of which is captured in the digital
artifact. Filmmakers incorporated changes at the suggestion or inspiration of their colleagues in
the workshop, as well as their friends and families who, for many of the filmmakers, assisted
with aspects of the film during the week in-between our two weekend workshop sessions. Thus,
the resulting films recorded the dynamic process of collaborative knowledge production and the
films attest to these ephemeral processes. Likewise, the efficacy of the films requires the
presence of the audience, relying on viewers to participate in the production and reproduction of
knowledge272—a characteristic of the repertoire. The engagement of the audience is a critical
element of the power of the story, in the moments of affective resonance that are created between
269 Taylor, Kindle Location 380.
270 Taylor, Kindle Location 372.
271 Taylor, Kindle Location 380.
272 Taylor, Kindle Location 372.
121
storyteller and story viewer. Yet, the resulting final product is in-fact a one-way transmission, no
longer able to adapt to or incorporate change. The final video becomes part of the archive—
transcribe-able, viewable, store-able.273 The completed videos come to represent the filmmaker,
at that time and place and social moment. And while the video attests to these ephemeral
processes of collaboration and production, the film itself cannot, as Taylor points out, record
these processes for future study. The collaborative, disruptive processes that ground the
interventions incorporated into the process of filmmaking, are part of the live, embodied
processes that “excee[d] the archive’s ability to capture it.”274 While the films have become
archiveable artifacts which record the presence of collaboration, the processes that formed the
heart of our intervention are not archiveable, not recorded and leave the videos produced to stand
on their own testimony, inviting future collaborations with the audience. Thus these films are
neither simply artifact or repertoire. They function as, what I call, evocative objects. These are
objects that evoke both resonance and dissonance which exceeds the limits of a traditional
artifact, creating potential for critical inquiry.
In many of these films, the affective nature of the narrative, along with the transgressive
modes of self-representation, create opportunities for the viewer to experience instructional
dissonance. This is the dissonance that I referenced in my earlier discussions of critical feminist
museology—the moment of recognition that is created when the world is not the way we
expected it to be, when our social rules for interpreting representations fail us because the object
we are viewing does not match those social rules. The dissonance becomes an opportunity for
instruction in that moment of revelation when invisible social rules become known. Butler
273 Taylor, Kindle Location 388.
274 Ibid.
122
outlines this instructional dissonance in Gender Trouble.275 Here Butler discusses the ways that
our very bodies function as representations of meaning, meanings that we have learned to
recognize as the naturalized categories of sex and gender, as well as race. With a lifetime of
social training to make identities like sex and gender seem “factic,” as Butler puts it, how do we
recognize the illusion that is maintained in our daily performances of gender? While Butler here
is specifically speaking to gender and sex, the same questions can be posed about other social
identities that are read on our bodies, like race, disability and class. Butler poses the question,
“What, then, enables the exposure of the rift between the phantasmatic and the real whereby the
real admits itself as phantasmatic?”276 Butler asserts that the very site of real-ness—the body—
can become the site of resistance by taking up the tools of identity expression and using them in
unexpected ways; specifically, Butler explores performances of gender whose dissonance serves
to reveal the socially constructed practices that collaborate to make gender appear natural.277
Identifying practices of parody, Butler analyzes the use of familiar tools in unexpected ways.278
The unexpected use of expected signifiers creates opportunities for dissonance in the viewer, a
process which operates for all identities that are socially projected upon our bodies.
Dissonance calls into question the accepted norms of culture, and the codified structures
that are often maintained in our archives and displays. Playing with signifiers of race, gender and
sexuality, as well as with narrative development and temporality, the QTM filmmakers deployed
recognizable tools in new, often dissonant ways. No two story-tellers presented the same labels
of identity in their films. Each took up identity labels and explored them, or eschewed specific
labels and instead explored their personal journey of self-discovery. Along the way, they created
275 Butler 1990, Kindle Location 2447.
276 Ibid.
277 Butler 1990, Kindle Location 2415-2447.
278 Butler 1990, Kindle Location 2415-2447.
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opportunities for affective resonance with their viewers. Sean Curran describes this resonance in
his analysis of LGBTQ oral histories: “Like all narratives about marginalized communities,
ultimately these stories are about people and their victories and losses; these are stories of human
interests and part of our history, regardless of sexuality, gender identity, religion or race”
(original emphasis).279 Each time I share these films in class rooms and presentations, as well as
at the official screenings I have attended, audience members mention the emotional relatability
of the films. They often follow that statement of emotional affinity with a question about the
story that was presented. The power of emotional relatability provides a strong motivation for
seeking understanding. The combined experiences of both affective resonance and dissonance
have the power to pull viewers towards critical questioning, inviting audiences to leave with
open questions or unsettled responses.
In exposing that which is naturalized as naturalized, instructional dissonance has the
potential to highlight the normalizing structures and socially constructed identities that each of
these filmmakers resists. Curran highlights LGBTQ stories in particular as critical investigations
of identity. “All identities are constructed, but LGBTQ identities are necessarily done so more
consciously, due to the constraints that many . . . LGBTQ people, have had to negotiate.”280 The
very fact of queerness creates a literal body of knowledge from which socially-constructed
identities are both exposed and contested. The power of these shared experiences of queerness,
presented in the digital stories as relatable narratives of life experience, traverse race, sexuality,
ethnicity, nationality, citizenship, religion and family formation. The breadth and scope of
common human experiences within these stories creates opportunities for productive dissonance.
279 Curran, 23.
280 Curran, 26.
124
This opening is the interstitial space of oppositional consciousness, which Sandoval recognizes
as a tool of resistance.281
The power of the digital story as dynamic, affective and potentially dissonant is the
power of an artifact to exceed the limits of the archive and to move closer to the queer archive
described by Halberstam, “[T]he notion of an archive has to extend beyond the image of a place
to collect material or hold documents and it has to become a floating signifier for the kinds of
lives implied by the paper remnants of shows, clubs, events and meetings. The archive is not
simply a repository; it is also a theory of cultural relevance, a construction of collective memory
and a complex record of queer activity.”282 Digital stories functioning as evocative objects
respond to this call: exceeding the affective limits of a traditional artifact, playing with time and
space, at once speaking to individual and collective experiences, recording the ephemera of
queer existences.
Conclusions
The digital stories function in ways beyond that of a traditional archival artifact.
Responding to the challenges of missing artifacts, in both museum and personal collections, the
digital stories recoup historical events through personal narrative and creative visualizations.
While digital stories also add to the archive, they have a reach far beyond that of a traditional
material artifact. Evocative objects, in their reference to human experience, open a space of
potential engagement. The film creates a platform for the malleability of time and of identity.
Filmmakers have opportunities to evoke normative understandings of history, of identity
281 Sandoval 2000, 55.
282 J. Halberstam, “What’s that Smell: Queer Temporalities and Subcultural Lives,” International Journal of
Cultural Studies 6: 3 (2003) 326.
125
categories like gender and race, of familial structures and social bonds and even of narrative
structures. Yet, in that evocation, filmmakers are not bound to normative interpretations. Playing
with what is expected, digital stories have the potential to both draw-in and provoke audiences.
That provocation may be temporary, may be uncomfortable, and may lead to the dissonance that
reveals the invisible normalizing structures which shape our worlds. Combining subject-led
representation with the power of collaboration, digital stories are a powerful tool of historical
reparation.
The power of these evocative objects can work in collaboration with the material artifacts
that populate typical museum archives and exhibits. Queer theorists writing about the queer
archive, recognize the significance of preserving relics of queer life, such as zines, posters, bar
signs or photographs of meetings or protests.283 The very presence of material objects on display
has an immense power of communication. Visitors at the opening night celebration of Revealing
Queer echoed this power of the object; several individuals expressed their tearful joy at seeing
artifacts representing their lives present in a mainstream history museum in personal
conversations with Bailey and me. Visitors gazed at photos from past Pride Parades in the Seattle
area, recognizing friends or recalling related memories. Later exhibit attendees shared the power
of exhibition in responses in the visitor log. For example, on June first, 2014, someone calling
themselves A.B.M. responded to the artifacts stating: “I exist, I exist, I EXIST. No more
silence” (original emphasis, punctuation added).284
283 Halberstam names some of these specific kinds of material culture in “What’s that Smell: Queer Temporalities
and Subcultural Lives, 326. Muñoz narrates theories of queer temporality drawing upon the photographs of queer
space—artifacts that reference queer events—in Cruising Utopia. Freeman likewise draws on archives of art to
construct her exploration of queer time in Time Binds.
284 Revealing Queer Visitor Log at the Museum of History and Industry. Undated.
126
When digital stories accompany these artifacts they can deepen and amplify the impact of
inclusion, of recognition and of belonging. Evoking relatable human experiences through
personal narratives that both engage and contest social structures, digital stories reach beyond the
static display of an object. The films “bring static material to life and deepen understanding” of
the artifacts on display.285 For example, an updated version of the Lifetimes exhibit mounted by
the Croyden Museum and Heritage Service in England, intentionally displayed objects that were
not easily identifiable as LGBTQ.286 This was done in an effort to represent LGBTQ lives as
more complex than a focus on sexuality alone would communicate.287 Looking at a lesbian
electrician’s electric drill, however, communicates very little about the subject until the viewer
hears her story about breaking gender barriers through an electrician’s apprenticeship, accessible
on touch screens in front of the display.288 The digital story fills in the gap between object and
interpretation, creating opportunities for affective resonance and dissonance along the way.
Collections, like those on display in Revealing Queer, of photographs, newspapers,
clothing and other artifacts can have a compelling impact, both in the archive and on exhibit.
While LGBTQ artifacts have been collected, there are many challenges in finding and presenting
these. Historical oppressions result in failure to institutionally claim an LGBTQ identity and
likewise a failure of archives to label LGBTQ identities in their collections. Material explicitly
associated with LGBTQ histories “often documents persecution, victimization, visibility, sex and
partying, without any physical record of the more domestic and everyday aspects of LGBTQ
285 Curran, 20.
286 Angela Vanegas, “Representing Lesbians and Gay Men in British Social History Museums,” Gender, Sexuality
and Museums:A Routlege Reader edited by Amy K. Levin (New York: Routledge Press, 2010) 164-165.
287 Ibid.
288 Vanegas, 168.
127
life.”289 This is compounded by the fact that collecting in museums often occurs from “the top
down” featuring “the loudest voices,” 290 which tends to reproduce the centrality of white
heteronormativity. Revealing Queer’s Curator, Bailey, searched archives all over the region to
assemble many of the pieces of the exhibit, but many more artifacts were provided by individuals
who held the materials in their personal collections, and loaned them for the exhibit. Many more
desired artifacts were simply unavailable, even after reaching out to a range of possible sources.
Digital stories offer a compelling intervention into what is missing in our historical
archives. At the same time, digital stories are a medium of artifact that maintains dynamic
possibilities for exploring dominant notions of identity, as well as the people and histories that
contest heteronormativity in all its forms. GLBT History Museum Curator Don Romesburg,
quoted by fellow Curator Gerard Koskovich, succinctly articulates the power of display that
museums hold, connecting objects to “symbolic meanings in ways that constitute and amplify
normative social structures while mystifying the Museum’s own role in reinforcing systems of
inclusion and exclusion.”291 Digital stories, functioning as evocative objects, have the potential
to make visible these mystifying processes of normalization, in the museum and in our social
worlds.
289 Curran, 10.
290 Curran, 15.
291 Gerard Koskovich, “Displaying the Queer Past: Purposes Publics and Possibilities at the GLBT History
Museum” QED A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking 1: 2 (Summer 2014) 69-70. Don Romesburg writes of his own
experiences in “Presenting the Queer Past: A Case for the GLBT History Museum” Radical History Review 120
(Fall 2014) 131-144.
128
Chapter 4:
Queering MOHAI: Codifications and Resistance in Practice
While I argue that the digital storytelling model presents particularly effective tools for
disrupting the heteronormative histories typically represented in U.S. history museums, the larger
goal of queering a museum remains to be addressed. How, in fact, does one queer a museum,
given that the very impetus of queer defies many of the logics of museum practice? In this
chapter, I consider the potency and challenges of putting queer into practice in museum spaces,
specifically analyzing the intention and the actual impact of the QTM-MOHAI collaboration.
This chapter draws from the practical applications explored in Chapters Two and Three, using
praxis as the foundation for theoretical engagements. Drawing out, applying, reflecting and
responding—this analysis develops the conversation between theory and practice which is so
critical for effective museum change. The principles of critical feminist museology, which guide
us to engage the un-named assumptions of the systems and institutions we employ, and use this
knowledge to explore modes of resistance that exist in-between the norms, operate effectively
within the rubric of queering a museum space.
Queer practices, I argue, must be combined with critical consciousness to effectively
serve the goals of diversifying museum processes and increasing identity-based inclusion in
museums that is intersectional. Existing hierarchies of exclusion often re-assert dominance, even
when deployed with intentions of inclusion. As I will discuss here, hegemonic norms of identity
dominated many of the processes and visual representations throughout the QTM-MOHAI
collaboration, perpetuating under-representations of transgender histories and communities of
color. The possibilities that queerness points us to, however, are found within those failures to
diversify—as moments that expose historical and institutional exclusion, as gaps or ruptures
within dominant narratives, and as affective resonances across difference.
129
Can One Actually Queer a Museum?
What does it mean to queer a museum space? Museologist Robert Mills dismisses the
idea of simply delineating hetero and homo sexualities, as this approach cannot help but
reproduce a false hetero-homo binary which continues to center heterosexuality.292 Both queer
and women of color feminist works disrupt this kind of binary logic so commonly found in
historical representations: male/female; white/person of color; us/them; domestic
achievement/public achievement; like me/not like me. Mills argues that we must consider the
potential of queer theory to critically engage normalizing concepts, such as law, government,
time, identity.293 Butler asserts that it is this refusal to become codified—in binaries or other
systems—that gives the project of ‘queer’ its power as a “site of collective contestation.”294 This
combination of both recognizing socially constructed categories of identity and resisting the
static and codified nature of these categories gives intersectional and queer theories their
immense power for enacting change. This is the theoretical foundation of critical feminist
museology, which we see in operation in this queer activist space of the museum.
But applying queer theory to museum spaces seems to create an impossible paradox, if
“queer entails a refusal of meaning,” how do museums embrace queer while directly attempting
to create meaning for museum visitors?295 Drawing out specific cultural ideas can help guide
efforts to queer the museum. As discussed in earlier chapters, queer theorists such as Butler and
Cohen encourage an application of queer theory that explicitly rejects monolithic categories
292 Mills, 45.
293 Mills, 45-46.
294 Butler1993, 227-228.
295 Mills, 46, original emphasis.
130
which have clear boundaries and containments, categories that enforce single-identity focus.296
In this sense, queer demands that we consider dynamic, overlapping identities in our museum
work. The embrace of queer also resists structural containment, refusing codification in the act of
contesting accepted cultural meanings.297 As Eve Sedgewick points out in “Queer and Now,”
through this process of unsettling what has become codified, queering can function to make tacit
things explicit.298
This exposure of norms inherent in queering also has the potential to highlight the role
that museums as an institution play in constructing cultural norms through traditional museum
displays. Jennifer Tyburczy responds to the normalization of identities in her mode of “queer
curation.” Queer curation, as Tyburczy posits, explores the relationships between object
presentation and visitors, exposing the normative sexual relationships created through museum
“citation and repetition of familiar arrangements.”299 By utilizing juxtaposition and playful
spacial arrangement, Tyburczy asserts that a queer view of sexuality can be presented which
includes both the “pleasures and discomforts” of viewing “nonormative sexualities.”300 Tyburczy
specifically investigates the power to address the racist history of slavery in the U.S. at the same
time that normative notions of sexuality are explored. Working at the Leather Archives and
Museum in Chicago,301 Tyburczy investigates displays of sexuality that include bondage, torture
296 Cathy J. Cohen, “Punks, Bulldaggers, And Welfare Queens,” The Routledge Queer Studies Reader edited by
Donald E. Hall and Annmarie Jagose, with Andrea Bebell and Susan Potter (London and New York: Routledge
Press, 2013) 74-95; Judith Butler, Bodies that Matter: on the Discursive Limits of “Sex” (New York: Routledge
Press, 1993) 227.
297 Butler 1993, 227-228
298 Eve Sedgewick “Queer and Now,” The Routledge Queer Studies Reader edited by Donald E. Hall and Annmarie
Jagose, with Andrea Bebell and Susan Potter (London and New York: Routledge Press, 2013) 5.
299 Jennifer Tyburczy, Sex Museums: The Politics and Performance of Display (Chicago: The University of Chicago
Press, 2016) 178 & 198.
300 Tyburczy, 178.
301 For more information about the Leather Archives and Museum, see http://www.leatherarchives.org/
131
and power as part of the pleasurable, sexual act. One example she explores is a display called
The History of Black BDSM, composed by Dark Connections, a nonprofit collective dedicated to
providing BDSM302 resources to people of color. The display was part of an exhibit curated by
Tyburczy called Debates in Leather.303 This display included images of interracial leather sex
scenes and floggers alongside “a photo of the freed slave, author and minister Thomas Johnson
holding shackles in his hands.”304 Different perspectives and arguments were included in labels
and texts, and objects were interspersed from different historical time periods “in order to
recognize the original use of the object as a tool of discipline, empire, and nonconsensual torture
and the later adaptation of the object as an instrument for enacting an erotics of pleasure and
pain.”305 Visitor comments showed responses ranging from “discomfort,” to requesting future
exhibits (more people of color focus; transsexual leather history) to “cautionary remarks,” to
“kudos.”306 Many of the written responses explored the relationships between historical slavery,
racism and consensual and nonconsensual torture.307 The juxtaposition of materials in this
display deepened the conversation, bringing together histories of racism and cultural norms of
sexuality that provoked many responses. Here displays of floggers and whips as sexual toys
played with normative expectations of sexuality. Given its location in a museum dedicated to
“leather, kink and fetish lifestyles”—which function outside cultural norms of sexuality—people
who chose to view this exhibit likely had some familiarity or expectation of nonnormative
sexualities being presented. But these expectations were also played with, as the floggers and
whips of pleasure were displayed as floggers and whips with a devastating racialized history.
302 BDSM stands for bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, sadism and masochism
303 Tyburczy, 185.
304 Tyburczy, 186.
305 Tyburczy, 186.
306 Tyburczy, 189.
307 Tyburczy, 189.
132
Queerness as representation is a paradox of both disrupting the expected codes while
refusing to offer new codes. A queer representation—which by its very nature is nonnormative—
invites audience engagement and offers to be provocative, potentially subversive, and affective.
In many ways the QTM-MOHAI collaboration failed the queer project of resistance and instead
reinforced existing institutional failures: codifying queerness, re-centering the dominant and
invoking existing cultural norms of the hegemonic human body. Yet, within these failures, we
find moments of queer subversion that exploit spaces in-between our socially codified binaries:
highlighting the exclusive nature of existing museum representations; calling in excluded
community members who called out QTM and MOHAI for our failures; and drawing on
affective dissonance to build connections across difference. The critically conscious approach to
queering that critical feminist museology calls for guides us to celebrations and resistances that
exploit the very failures of our collaboration.
Institutional Failures: Codifying Queer
When QTM developed our collaboration with MOHAI, we attempted to apply the ideas
of queer to our work with several specific goals. We wanted to address the lack of representation
of LGBTQ materials in museum archives and displays, while also complicating static notions of
identity. In the process, we hoped to consciously attend to the additional exclusions of LGBTQ
people who are multiply marginalized in museums based on race, class, gender and disability.
While I reviewed the details of QTM’s methods and accomplishments in Chapter Two, this
section explores the impact of our application of queer theory as a queer endeavor.
Given that one of the goals of queerness is to resist definition, in some ways QTM’s
exhibit, Revealing Queer, failed. The result of intense collaborations between Bailey as the Lead
Curator, the entire Community Advisory Committee (which included me), and the staff at
133
MOHAI, the contents of Revealing Queer defined for many viewers what queer and LGBT mean
in apparently concrete terms. The relative dominance of white representation asserted queer as a
mostly white identity. Because a majority of the exhibit artifacts discussed the experiences of
gays and lesbians, the limited trans, non-binary and bisexual representations in the exhibit failed
to shift the dominant narrative of queer as equivalent to gay and lesbian. And while the QTM
process was a collaborative community model, this process functioned as an add-on to existing
MOHAI processes. In this way, no matter how revolutionary our goals or procedures, the QTM-
MOHAI collaboration did not require that the museum make any significant ongoing changes
from the status quo.
Revealing Queer created a static representation of identity that, even with its roots in
queerness, codified identity categories in several ways. Despite a “Curator’s Note” that reminded
visitors that “Revealing Queer is not an all-encompassing narrative,”308 the exhibit opened with
an identity section that literally defined terms, including lesbian, gay, sex, gender, sexuality,
bisexuality and queer.309 The section opened and closed with statements that attempted to
complicate identity,310 but the center piece of that opening section provided short, simple
definitions of these identity categories.
308 Quote from “Curator’s Note” exhibit label in Revealing Queer on display in 2014 at the Museum of History and
Industry, Seattle WA.
309 These panels were part of the “What does it mean” label section which began with the statement “In LGBTQ
communities, we use a variety of terms to communicate people’s complex and ever-changing experiences and
identities.” On display in Revealing Queer.
310 See above for the opening label quote. The other end of the identity section invited audience participation with
the statement and question, “A person’s too complex to sum up in a single word. What words do you use to
describe your identity? Share them here.” Audience members could choose to share their own identity vocabulary
on sticky notes.
134
Pictured top: A
low-technology interactive
that invited visitors to
think about the complexity
of their own identities.
Pictured bottom:
An interactive kiosk where
visitors could open a cover
to reveal a definition of a
specific identity-
based word.
Words included
sex, sexuality,
gender, lesbian,
queer, gay,
female-to-male
(FTM), male-to-
female (MTF),
bisexual or bi,
transgender,
straight
(heterosexual),
they/them, he/she,
faggot, dyke.
Photos by Nicole Robert
The exhibit was housed in a gallery of approximately 1,000 square feet; in such a small
space, it is impossible to effectively represent all LGBTQ people from the Seattle area. Yet, as
the only exhibit MOHAI has hosted that explicitly features LGBTQ histories, this small gallery
bore the burden of speaking for the entire, heterogeneous group that is encompassed within
LGBTQ. In an effort to explicitly avoid addressing all histories of local LGBTQ communities,
the over-arching exhibit narrative took a topical rather than a chronological approach. Each
sectional topic featured local cases that developed that topic in some detail, with specific
representations selected by the Advisory Committee. For example, a section on gay bars
introduced the importance of bars as gathering places for people to find LGBTQ community.
135
Several bars were discussed, including the iconic Seattle bar, Shelly’s Leg,311 Seattle’s only
Lesbian bar, The Wild Rose and the Golden Horse Shoe. The neon sign from the Six Eleven
Tavern was featured prominently in a case at the center of the exhibit.
Pictured top: The neon
sign from the Six Eleven
Tavern in a case with
textual ephemera from the
time period in which the
bar was popularly
attended by LGBT locals.
Photo by Nicole Robert.
Pictured: The entry to the
Lived Experience section
featuring an election
poster for Sherry Harris.
Photo by Nicole Robert.
Another section,
titled Lived
Experiences, featured
the personal stories of
several significant
LGBTQ individuals,
including Jacque
Larrainzar, Sherry
Harris, James Gaylord
and Cal Anderson. Near the back of the exhibit, a section titled Celebrate! explained
311 For more information about the history and significance of gay bars in Seattle, including Shelly’s Leg, see Gary
Atkins Gay Seattle: Stories of Exile and Belonging (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2003).
136
“Celebrating yourself, your sexuality, or your differences is something that is revered within
LGBTQ communities and sustains the fight for equality.”312 This section featured pride festivals,
queer proms and AIDs activism. Collectively, these, and the other stories in the exhibit, avoided
creating a linear chronology, but they could not avoid the pressure of being called upon to
represent a deep, broad and diverse history.
No matter the effort extended to avoid speaking for an entire LGBTQ history, the
exhibit’s singularity—in MOHAI, in Seattle, in history museums more generally—forced it to
represent far more than could be contained in the scope of the project. Revealing Queer became
the representation of LGBTQ, no matter how incomplete or static, and despite the objectives of
the CAC or QTM. The materials making up the exhibit were limited, and ultimately represented
more of the L and G than the BTQ, and more white narratives than those of communities of
color.
Indeed, our selection of the very word queer to describe our project likely contributed to
the construction of a white-centered space. Bailey and I adopted the word queer early in our
collaborations for several reasons. Not only do we both personally identify as queer, I believed
that the disruptive nature of the idea of queer was central to our project. In each of our
interventions I hoped that QTM would create spaces that defied easy categorization and resisted
re-codifying a new norm. Queerness leaves room for a range of self-identities within its
expansive umbrella, as well as room for shifting personal identities of sexuality and gender. I
view the potential of queerness as that interstitial space of resistance that Chela Sandoval, José
Esteban Muñoz and Emma Pérez reference.
312 Text from the “Celebrate!” panel in the Revealing Queer exhibit.
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But the reality of queerness is a reality that is marked by the intersecting structures of
oppression that shape all of our social worlds, including queer ones. As E. Patrick Johnson
explores in his essay on “’Quare’ Studies,” queer is marked by whiteness and “not necessarily
embraced by gays, bisexuals, lesbians, and [transgender] people of color.”313 Similarly, Cohen
illuminates one of the “great failings” of queer theory and queer politics in “their inability to
incorporate into analysis of the world and strategies for political mobilization the roles that race,
class and gender play in defining people’s differing relations to dominant and normalizing
power.”314 The failure of queer theory and activism has been a failure to approach structural
power dynamics from an intersectional framework. Johnson names this failure, recognizing
queer theory’s lack of foundation in “the material realities of gays and lesbians of color.”315 This
concern is echoed in Priyank Jadal’s essay “Sites of Resistance or Sites of Racism.” Jadal asserts
that “radical queer spaces” that fail to address issues such as race, class and gender—issues
which may not at first seem to be “specifically queer” —function as further “legitimization of
[the] white identity that exists in gay mainstream culture.”316 These failures of queer activism to
move beyond a framework of white non-heterosexuality have been evident and concerning to
communities of color for quite some time. Given this history, as well as QTM’s association with
two historically exclusive institutions—both the university and the museum— the term queer
313 E. Patrick Johnson, “’Quare’ Studies, or ‘(Almost) Everything I Know About Queer Studies I Learned from My
Grandmother’” in The Routledge Queer Studies Reader edited by Donald E. Hall and Annamarie Jagose, with
Andrea Bebell and Susan Potter (London and New York: Routledge Press, 2013) 99.
314 Cohen, 89.
315 Johnson, 100.
316 Priyank Jadal, “Sites of Resistance or Sites of Racism” in That’s Revolting: Queer Strategies for Resisting
Assimilation edited by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore (New York: Soft Skull Press, 2004, 2008) 42.
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likely did not indicate the radical change-movement we imagined, but instead a project attached
to liberal concepts of inclusion that fail to produce significant changes.317
Coming from spaces that have privileged whiteness, and given the history of white-
centered activism in gay and lesbian work,318 when QTM invited participation from queers of all
races and ethnicities, we needed to show a deep commitment to struggles that are “not
specifically queer.”319 Neither Bailey nor I had the relationships or histories of collaboration with
queer communities of color that would have made us more trustworthy white collaborators, and
the outreach we did to build these relationships was time-limited and targeted around the existing
QTM-MOHAI collaboration. The marker of ‘queer’ does not in and of itself sufficiently account
for an intersectional approach to change-work. In a 2016 interview, Butler spoke about this need
to update ‘queer’ to be “less exclusionary to trans people and people of color.”320 Activism from
transgender communities have pointed out the problems with queer as a broadly inclusive
umbrella term. Butler summarizes, “If queer means that we are generally people whose gender
and sexuality is ‘unfixed’ then what room is there in a queer movement for those who understand
themselves as requiring—and wanting—a clear gender category within a binary frame?”321 Some
people are struggling to be recognized on the basis of a clear name and gender,322 and queer as
an unfixed category erases that activist work. These critiques from transgender communities and
317 Kyra, “How to Uphold White Supremacy by Focusing on Diversity and Inclusion: Liberalism’s Inherent Racism”
in Model View Culture: Technology, Culture and Diversity Media, 12/10/14.
https://modelviewculture.com/pieces/how-to-uphold-white-supremacy-by-focusing-on-diversity-and-inclusion
318 Dean Spade, “Fighting to Win” in That’s Revolting: Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation edited by
Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore (New York: Soft Skull Press, 2004, 2008) 48.
319 Jadal, 42.
320 Sara Ahmed, “Interview with Judith Butler,” Sexualities 0 (0) 1-11 2016, 9.
321 Ahmed, 9.
322 Ahmed, 9.
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queer communities of color are important and powerful arguments that “expose and oppose
[queer’s] exclusionary limits in the context of a broadening struggle.”323
The institutional frameworks in which QTM operated did not leave much room for
critical reflection on the normalizing processes within queer that frequently reproduce white
heteronormativity, even as queer resists it. Those who felt most welcome and most invested in
our project were those who have been historically more welcomed into both universities and
colonial museums. The queer people who most consistently showed up at our table were the
same people who had advocated for gay and lesbian rights, and were interested in gay and
lesbian histories. The communities they were a part of the CAC were largely white and
cisgender, and this contributed to a re-centering of both whiteness and cisgender representations
in our exhibit. As the exhibit content was being finalized, the CAC meetings began to be
dominated by the voices of white cisgender gay men. While we attempted to disrupt that
dominance in our meeting facilitation, their actions discouraged the full participation of other
CAC members with different narratives to contribute.
Adding queer into a museum space that has not explicitly addressed racism, homophobia
or cis-normativity is consistent with an additive approach, with few apparent reasons to inspire
trust for ongoing commitments to sustainable, systemic change. And, as Curran has pointed out,
within historically oppressed communities, trust “can often be one of the largest hurdles to
overcome.”324 By adopting queer as our project guide without explicit indications of
intersectional commitments, we signaled a normative white-centered focus to the QTM-MOHAI
collaboration. The prevalence of white representation in the exhibit reflected this.
323 Ahmed, 9.
324 Sean Curran, 29.
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This re-centering of whiteness and cisnormativity in Revealing Queer was further
influenced by the structures of the systems in which we participated. For example, the exhibit
drew many objects from local archives which are largely populated with artifacts that narrate
white, cisgender, gay and lesbian stories. Efforts to include other stories meant reaching beyond
what was in existing archives. For example, the feature on Sherry Harris, the first black lesbian
elected to any public office in the United States, almost got cut from the exhibit because it was
so hard to find a photo that could be used.325 Thanks to extensive archival research by Bailey,
Harris did stay in the exhibit. This challenge to locate materials, however, influenced the
placement and length of the final display which did include a brief mention of Harris in the Lived
Experiences section. The normative nature of the majority of the objects influenced the content
and the meaning of the exhibit.
Beyond available artifacts, social norms impact the meanings attributed to the artifacts on
display. The information conveyed by artifacts utilized, from archives or elsewhere, is mediated
by the social and cultural systems in which we all operate. The words and imagery on display in
all museum exhibits must refer to cultural knowledge in order to communicate. Exhibits and
screenings must pack a lot of information into a small space or short time frame, which further
emphasizes the need to create meaning in quick, impactful displays that rely upon existing
cultural symbols in order to communicate.
Institutional Failures: Re-Asserting Norms
325 Erin Bailey, Personal Communication. May 2015. For more information about Sherry Harris who served on
Seattle’s City Council from 1992-1995, see Eric Marcus, Out in All Directions: A Treasury of Gay and Lesbian
America (New York: Warner Books, Inc., 1995) as well as George Howland Jr., “Power Lesbians: Queer Women on
Top in the Emerald City” Seattle Weekly News 10/9/2006 http://www.seattleweekly.com/2001-07-11/news/power-
lesbians/
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Judith Butler highlights the process of social and cultural mediation of meaning in her
discussions of gender. Attempts to reshape, contest and dismantle meaning, Butler asserts, are
shaped by the pre-existing cultural scripts always already associated with the signifier of
meaning.326 The historical discourse attached to signifiers of meaning—in this case the text,
visuals and artifacts— “effectively decenters” the intentions of the display.327 The historical
ideologies that are invoked in the museum display are central to the meaningful symbolic
conversation. So, an exhibit or film displaying queerness will always be associated with existing
cultural scripts of queer. Queer as a term of shame and denigration.328 Queer as a space of white
gay and lesbian politics.329 Queer as a space of radical destabilization and politicization that
recognizes the “multiplicity and interconnectedness of our identities.”330 Attempts to self-define
our queerness, to write our own collaborative, contested narratives will remain “never fully
owned, but always and only redeployed, twisted, queered from a prior usage.” 331 The very
institutions which are resisted in the word queer, and in the QTM-MOHAI project, are the same
institutions that give queer its meaning, and that continue to shape the ways in which queer
exhibits and films are understood. Homophobia, racism and misogyny are products of social
institutions that regulate our bodies; and homophobia, racism and misogyny are cultural norms
which give meaning to the displays created in the QTM project. Indeed, it is fear of gender and
sexual non-normativity that initially gave the word queer its discursive power as a shameful
marker of those that do not fit the norm. In the reclamation process of queer, and in the radical
326 Judith Butler, “Critically Queer” in The Routledge Queer Studies Reader edited by Donald E. Hall and
Annamarie Jagose, with Andrea Bebell and Susan Potter (London and New York: Routledge Press, 2013) 20.
327 Butler 2013, 20.
328 Butler 2013, 19.
329 Johnson, 99-100.
330 Cohen, 90 and 91.
331 Butler 2013, 21.
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exploration of what queer can be, these histories necessarily shape and give meaning to the
impact of queer interventions.
Heteronormativity, as Cohen reminds us, relies upon past and present normalizing
processes and institutions “which legitimize and privilege heterosexuality”.332 Museums, of
course, have been one of those institutions and in many ways continues to be so. Much has been
written about the role of museums as “a civilizing instrument,”333 designed to socialize visitors334
to the norms of cultural life and encourage the “self-regulating subject”335 of the nation-state.
Museums have managed the display of sexuality—even when sexuality is not mentioned—to
uphold heteronormative ideals336 of what bodies should look like, how those bodies should
function and how those bodies should interact. These historical and ongoing emphases that
privilege whiteness, heterosexuality and cisgender masculinities function institutionally to
maintain those privileges. One of the Curators at the GLBT museum, Don Romesburg,
acknowledges the tendency toward reproducing structural privilege, even in museum work
focused entirely on non-heterosexual representations: “Without constant and specific diligence . .
. [museum] holdings will always veer toward those most likely to have the space, time, and
sense of entitlement to claim a place in history — often well-connected white, gay men.”337
It is precisely through association with recognizable institutions that those who function
on the margins are brought into the heteronormative framework, made legible and subject to the
332 Cohen, 77.
333 Lara Kriegel, “After the Exhibitionary Complex: Museum Histories and the Future of the Victorian Past”
Victorian Studies 48 (Summer 2006) 683.
334 Tyburczy, 178.
335 Tony Bennett, The Birth of the Museum: History, Theory, Politics (London: Routledge Press, 1995) 68.
336 Stuart Frost, “Secret Museums: Hidden Histories of Sex and Sexuality” Museums and Social Issues 3:1 (Spring
2008) 29-32; Tyburczy, 1-2;
337 Don Romesburg, “Presenting the Queer Past: A Case for the GLBT History Museum” Radical History Review
120 (Fall 2014) 135
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regulating structures of society.338 There is no way to introduce all that is queer into the structure
of the museum without also making that very queerness subject to the normalizing structures of
the museum itself. It is upon this concept that Halberstam advocates for us to “suspect
memorialization” for its’ “tendency to tidy up disorderly histories.” 339 The very act of
constructing a memory makes the subjects of memorialization condition to the disciplining of
heteronormativity. This is where messy narratives become cleaned-up, complex ideas become
simplified and historical trajectories are mapped out in linear, progressive chronologies.
Institutional Failures: Limits of Collaboration
Operating a queer collaboration within the structures of the museum, as well as the
existing social hierarchies of heteronormativity, limits the radical potential of collaborative
processes. Bailey and I chose a model of collaboration as foundational to the QTM mission
generally, and the QTM-MOHAI collaboration specifically, in order to reshape the processes of
narrative production in ways that promote diversity, critical reflection and engagement. Feminist
Scholars Amanda Swarr and Richa Nagar “suggest that interweaving theories and practices of
knowledge production through collaborative dialogues provides a way to radically rethink
existing approaches to subalternity, voice, authorship, and representation.”340 Trained in the
collaborative model of exhibit development that the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific
American Experience341 is famous for, Bailey and I applied this framework to the facilitation of
the entire QTM-MOHAI collaboration. Through the collaborative efforts of many, QTM sought
338 J. Halberstam, The Queer Art of Failure (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2011) 10.
339 Halberstam 2011, 15.
340 Richa Nagar and Amanda Lock Swarr, “Introduction: Theorizing Transnational Feminist Praxis,” Critical
Transnational Feminist Praxis edited by Amanda Lock Swarr and Richa Nagar (Albany: State University of New
York Press, 2010) Kindle Location 121.
341 For more information about the Community-Based Exhibition Model utilized by the Wing Luke Museum of the
Asian Pacific American Experience, see http://www.wingluke.org/community-process/
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to radically intervene in representations of queer histories while exploring ethical modes of
representation. This foundation in collaboration is a practical intervention in heteronormative
structures. But collaboration does have its limits.
Collaborative decision-making necessitates compromise, as the visions, hopes and
knowledge of many are pared down to what is agreeable to most; and, in this case, what the CAC
determined had also to be agreeable to the institution of the museum. Exhibit installation and
final decisions were all handled by MOHAI staff. In fact, our QTM-MOHAI Memorandum of
Understanding maintained MOHAI’s right of final approval for all materials relating to the
exhibit. While MOHAI stretched to accommodate our collaborative process of content
development, the need to gain input on exhibit narratives was a complex chain: from the CAC, to
Baily as Lead Curator, to the MOHAI exhibit team, back to the CAC and back to MOHAI. This
was a time-expanding demand that MOHAI’s staff was not accustomed to managing. The need
to bring edits back to the CAC was a necessary step for QTM’s vision. As Bailey pointed out, an
edit made by an exhibit developer without subject matter expertise could end up cutting the
entire representation of a particular group from the exhibit.342 The brevity of text required by a
small exhibit makes it challenging to address diverse groups in full complexity. And with
representation of all queer lives so lacking, the pressure to represent the range of queer
experiences in the Revealing Queer exhibit was high. So, our collective carefully debated such
exhibit details as punctuation, phrasing, thematic foci and definitions of language.
When a collective is making a decision collaboratively, it is rare that any one member of
the collective is fully satisfied with the result. Rather, all members are making compromises in
342 Bailey, May 2015.
145
service of the larger whole. And in this case, those compromises were necessarily shaped by the
institutional norms of MOHAI and the professional norms of the museum field. These norms are
maintained through museum graduate programs, the American Alliance of Museums343 and
standards passed down through centuries of museum management. Standards influence all areas
of museum management, including exhibition planning time-lines, duration of display, material
and type of museum signage, spacial arrangement of the exhibit displays, events that accompany
the exhibits and more.
In addition to the influence of existing standards established by the larger field of
museums and the practices inherent to MOHAI, choices were shaped by the personal experiences
and identities that each individual brought to the collective. For example, to the white, cisgender
gay men for whom AIDs was a central experience of gayness, the topic of the AIDs epidemic
was often brought up at our meetings as needing more attention. For those who had studied local
gay history professionally, specific narratives of important gay places had already been
established in their minds. When people were affiliated with a particular organization, as most of
the CAC members were, issues impacting that organization were paramount in their
contributions. All of these factors mixed together to establish what specific organizations and
people would be featured in the exhibit.
This model of collaboration is one way of attempting “to account for and represent
difference.”344 But, as Swarr and Nagar point out, this method of repairing exclusions is
343 The American Alliance of Museums (AAM) maintains a summary of best practices on their website. In addition,
AAM published a 2008 book addressing national standards for museums to consider when seeking AAM
Accreditation: Elizabeth E. Merritt, National Standards and Best Practices for U.S. Museums (Washington D.C.:
American Association of Museums, 2008). Note that the professional association recently changed its’ name,
though not its’ initials, from American Association of Museums to the American Alliance of Museums.
344 Nagar and Swarr, Kindle Location 1073
146
predicated on the unquestioned foundation of naturalized differences. “This approach to
difference is problematic precisely because it presumes there is proper meaning to difference,
one that exists prior to and outside of representation, that collaboration can work to uncover”.345
While Bailey and I conceived of collaboration as a way to expand inclusion—both
representational and participatory inclusion—the process of collaboration maintained identity-
based differences. Those invited to participate were not already influencers within MOHAI’s
existing structures. Though the intent was to expand and include, the very act of inclusion re-
centers those who already inhabit the center. Only those who do not occupy places of privilege
need to be added into that which already exists.346 In this way, our efforts at collaboration failed
to disrupt existing structures and effectively supported the operation of the structures that created
exclusion in the first place. Roderick A. Ferguson addresses this problem with inclusion, naming
it as a model that reinforces difference, even as it incorporates difference. Drawing from the
work of Stuart Hall and Chandra Mohanty, Ferguson explains that institutional transformations
which “render race and gender as individualized matters rather than as structural or institutional
ones” have the impact of neutralizing radical changes, even as they appear to address exclusion.
347 In fact, collaborating with a previously excluded group of people can make the institution
appear to be changing, all the while obfuscating the fact that no significant processes or systems
are under-going long-term change. In this case, the collaboration with the CAC, the collaboration
between MOHAI and QTM, and even the collaboration between the digital stories and the
artifacts in the exhibit, were all temporary aberrations in an institution that continues to operate
in largely the same way that it did prior to our collaborations. We did bring in institutional
345 Nagar and Swarr, Kindle Location 1073
346 Nagar and Swarr, Kindle Location 1055-1073.
347 Roderick A. Ferguson, “Administering Sexuality or The Will to Institutionality,” Radical History Review 100
(Winter 2008) 162.
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outsiders to the work, and we did broaden the identities of those who get to influence museum
exhibition. MOHAI gained some credibility as an institution that works with queer narratives.
And, while some small revelations occurred in this process, the institution itself remains largely
unchanged. The collaborations were short-lived and took the shape of additional and temporary
changes.
Further, the identity-based differences that brought our CAC together upheld the very
differences that propelled exclusion. Our reparation efforts specifically sought members
representing a range of identities based on gender, sexuality, race and geographic location. CAC
members were selected because of their affiliations with organizations that represented LGBTQ
communities. While participation shifted over the course of the two-year project, the CAC
included representatives from such organizations as the Northwest Gay and Lesbian History
Museum Project, the Old Lesbians Organizing for Change, Ingersoll Gender Center, the Gender
Alliance of the South Sound, the Queer Social Club, Seattle Gay News and Entre Hermanos348.
The identity categories that we sought were present largely as individual experiences of
difference. This fact alone made any conversation about the ways in which identity categories
are created by institutions, like MOHAI, inaccessible. Conversations about difference focused on
lived experiences of difference and the narratives which these might produce. While this is an
important step in reparation, it also precludes emphasis on the larger structural and institutional
conditions that create these identity categories, and that uphold exclusions based on them. These
categories of difference are the same ones upon which exclusion from museums has been
predicated.
348 For a complete list of CAC members see http://queeringthemuseum.org/previous-projects/community-advisory-
committee/
148
A similar focus on individual identity was present in our selection of participants for the
DSW. Applications for the DSW were solicited through the social and professional networks of
entire CAC. Applicants were asked to self-identify in an open text box, and to share some
personal information about themselves. A sub-committee of the CAC which included myself,
advised CAC members to look for applicants that seemed capable of telling a story and whose
stories are under-represented in existing LGBT archives. In addition, CAC members knew that
the videos made in the DSW might turn out to be suitable for inclusion in the exhibit. This
necessarily guided CAC members to consider what kinds of stories they wanted in the exhibit.
At this early planning stage, because the exhibit was largely un-defined, CAC members drew on
their personal desires rather than an existing exhibit map.
At the selection meeting, I asked CAC members to rank the anonymous applications on a
scale of 1 to 5, with a 5 indicating that this applicant was a top choice for the workshop. After
the anonymous voting process, all applicant numbers were tallied, creating a list of those with
top scores. These were considered Finalists and were contacted over the phone by a CAC
member to confirm their ability to participate. While the goal was to have ten participants, eight
of the Finalists ultimately were able to be present at the workshops. The ability to have two
weekends free, as well as transportation to the UW campus in Bothell, impacted final
participation. Bothell is a 45-minute drive north of Seattle, and an even longer bus ride. Most bus
commutes from Seattle to Bothell would involve multiple transfers. While many life factors
played a role in selection—access to the online application, availability to attend the workshop,
transportation—the collaborative selection process of the CAC was central in determining who
was present. And this selection process was absolutely shaped by its affiliation with the museum
149
exhibit, and the perceived or desired requirements that each CAC member imagined for that
exhibit.
Part of this selection process for the DSW and for the general content of the exhibit was
based in each individual’s ideas of what constituted an accurate queer history of the Seattle area.
The exhibit, in particular, housed within the authoritative institution of an iconic Seattle museum,
was obligated to present an accurate historical representation. Assessment of its accuracy was
often included in audience responses to the exhibit, as they felt that a particular narrative was
overly-emphasized or that their own identities and experiences had not been included.349
Accurate representation brings a pressure to conform to pre-existing notions of chronology,
identity and even narrative organization. This pressure influences selection, even collaborative
selection, to uphold, rather than contest, existing ideologies of identity.
Digital stories, as evocative objects, bring a great deal of potential to enhance and
complicate the identity-based representations of queer history in an exhibit. However, the
institutional frameworks within which we operated limited what the films could accomplish.
Despite producing eight films, only three were on display in the exhibit. Those three were tucked
in a corner of the exhibit space that visitors could easily pass by. Two of the films selected by the
CAC were intended to accompany the personal stories featured in the exhibit, but in the process
of installation those films were shifted by the exhibit staff. The three digital stories shared one
viewing screen, where visitors could select one of the three films by pushing a button in the
display. This placement was ultimately out of the control of the QTM team, instead conforming
to the installation requirements of the museum exhibit. In fact, the films as individual artifacts
349 Based on audience comments in the log book, personally communicated feedback and feedback received on
MOHAI’s social media channels.
150
outside of the museum have received more air-play and broader access than the exhibit itself
could provide. The films have been screened separately online, in film festivals across the United
States, in classrooms and conferences and in private showings.
Taken all together, these results failed to subvert heteronormative dominance. In fact, an
argument could be made that our efforts to change the museum, grounded in queer theories,
failed to realize the paradoxical possibilities of queerness. Rather than disrupting codifications,
some of our efforts codified normative conceptions of identity, upheld normative identity
categories and re-centered heteronormative ideals. When dominance is re-asserted, what
interventions remain?
Queer Failure as Resistance
Despite these institutional failures, the theoretical foundations of this dissertation guide
us to another possible interpretation of the QTM-MOHAI collaboration. These failures and
normative codifications create a dissonance within which we can find new possibilities. Each
moment of failure, each lapse, creates opportunities to see the interstitial space of possibilities.
This is the third space of new imaginaries that Emma Pérez effectively exploits in her efforts to
decolonize historical narratives.350 This is also the imagined space of possibilities that Muñoz
conceived of as queer futurity.351 This dissonance is the tool of rupture that Sandoval discusses in
her Methodology of the Oppressed.352 The gaps, the missing representations, the points of
350 Pérez.
351 Muñoz 2009.
352 Sandoval 2000.
151
contention, all become potential spaces for disruptions and resistance. The failures present the
opportunity Sedgewick identified, of making the tacit explicit. These are the in-between spaces
of resistance upon which critical feminist museology is based.
Indeed, in The Queer Art of Failure, Halberstam explores the ways that failure itself can
function oppositionally; failed efforts become acts of queer resistance in and of themselves.353 I
use the concept of queer failure not as a disavowal of the pain, hostility and impossible choices
that characterize many of the experiences of those who are structurally oppressed.354 Rather, in
my application of queer failure, it is a recognition of the agency of the oppressed to deploy the
very cruelties of exclusions in ways that may also produce connection, joys and even—at
times—institutional change.
Each failed effort to queer MOHAI created oppositional dissonance and opportunities for
resistance. These queer failures exploited the spaces of the in-between, exposing historical and
institutional exclusions, exceeding the limits of progressive chronologies and expanding beyond
that which could be seen in the exhibit itself. The digital stories, operating on the edges of
institutionality, stretched the possibilities for accurate, complex and non-linear historical
representations. In all of the digital stories, linear chronologies were displaced, creating
dissonant moments that rupture and re-think temporality itself. Drawing upon critical feminist
museology, in the following section I will explore these dissonant ruptures—gaps that can be
queered— that exist within our institutional failures.
Queer Failures: Queering Temporality
353 Halberstam 2011.
354 This concept of queer failure has been modified by Merri Lisa Johnson’s critiques of Halberstam’s argument in
“Bad Romance: A Crip Feminist Critique of Queer Failure,” Hypatia 30:1 (Winter 2015) 264.
152
Halberstam explores multiple means of failure—failures of conformity, failures in
teaching and learning—that he355 believes open up space for oppositional, ephemeral and even
delegitimate knowledges.356 Similarly, Romesburg advocates for a queering of the museum that
specifically targets the very production of knowledge, “highlighting and destabilizing frames of
perception through which we come to, or lose, embodiment, subjectivity, space, rights, and
affect.”357 This destabilization is the dissonance of critical feminist museology, a dissonance that
James Sanders also advocates for in his call for “perceptual deconstructions as well as
intersectionalities.”358
The potential of queering, then, is the potential to exceed the limits of structural,
institutional, even citational, normativity in its ability to invoke institutional disruption and
failure. Each person who reads the exhibit text or gazes at the artifacts and images, brings their
own messy history to bear upon their personal interpretation of the display. While the imagery is
invoking cultural ideologies and citing social symbols, the ultimate interpretation of the display’s
meanings will include all that is present in those who do the interpreting; even in the same
person, with the same set of social and personal experiences, the interpretation of the exhibit will
vary depending on who else is present in the exhibit, who accompanies the viewer, the emotions
and physical state of the viewer, the ideas that are popular in broader cultural media at that
moment, and more. As Butler explains, the reach of what is displayed cannot be controlled and
355 I use the pronoun he here to refer to Halberstam, who publishes under Judith and also goes by Jack. According to
Halberstam’s online publication dated September 3, 2012, Halberstam will utilize either he or she for pronouns, as
well as both the names Judith and Jack, though Halberstam expresses a recent preference for Jack. For the simplicity
of the reader, I picked the pronoun he and utilize that one throughout, where necessary. Please note that
Halberstam’s gender identity intentionally floats between the realms of he and she. Jack Halberstam, “On
Pronouns,” September 3, 2012. http://www.jackhalberstam.com/on-pronouns/
356 Halberstam 2011, 9-15.
357 Romesburg, 135.
358 James Sanders, “The Museum’s Silent Sexual Performance,” Museums and Social Issues 3:1 (2008): 20-21.
153
ownership is in fact yielded to those who interpret, take-up, reform or deform the
performance.359 This awareness already moves the display beyond traditional museum structures
of ownership and collaboration. And while all exhibits participate in this audience collaboration,
the queered exhibit that employs critical feminist principles—what may be considered “critically
queer”360—utilizes social signifiers to disrupt, to fragment and even to complicate that which is
expected and commonly understood. This complication and disruption is seen in the queer
failures to fit neatly into the “reproductive majoritarian heterosexuality.”361 Queer life, which has
failed at fitting norms of gender, sexuality, race and more,362 resists the limits of the linear,
progressive trajectories promised by heteronormativity.
Freeman and Muñoz identify one path of queer resistance as the exploitation of non-
normative time. They both recognize that individuals and groups may be present in one moment,
actively recalling or referencing past moments, while at the same time imagining future
possibilities that resist the limits of social, institutional and temporal norms. Freeman discusses
the ways that past events—and their embedded meanings—become resources for interventions in
present experiences; recognition of the connections between past, present and future creates a
temporal drag that disrupts the present and exceeds the limits of the structured narratives
presented in a simple display.363 With this in mind, Freeman pushes the limits of Butler’s
concept of citations of the past, asserting that the “past” and even the “present” cannot be
understood simplistically, but must account for the presence of life lived otherwise than in the
359 Butler 2013, 28-29.
360 Ibid.
361 Muñoz 2009, 22.
362 Here I draw from Halberstam’s discussion of queer failures in The Queer Art of Failure.
363 Freeman, 59-61.
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present.”364 Muñoz makes a similar assertion that the “present must be known in relation to the
alternative temporal and spatial maps provided by a perception of past and future affective
worlds.”365 In this way, conscious disruption of simplistic cultural codes is possible through the
resource of interstitial time. The temporal drag can be a tool of complexity and subversion, even
if not visible, even if covert.
Queerness itself is often transmitted covertly, in ways that escape normative discursive
meanings. “Instead of being clearly available as visible evidence, queerness has instead existed
as innuendo, gossip, fleeting moments, and performances that are meant to be interacted with by
those within its epistemological sphere—while evaporating at the touch of those who would
eliminate queer possibility.”366 These affective, fleeting transits exceed time, Freeman and
Muñoz argue, and are utilized by queer people for whom the present is an “impoverished and
toxic” environment.367 We can see these temporal deconstructions quite clearly in the self-
representations of several of the digital storytellers, as detailed in Chapter Three. But it is
possible for these affective disruptions to make themselves known in a more static museum
display, depending on how the imagery is interpreted by the viewer. Each time the information
presented doesn’t quite fit the norm that is
evoked, the edges of that norm become
permeable. So that a normative understanding
of gender expression, disrupted in many of the
images on display in Revealing Queer, exposes
the limits of that norm. For example, a panel featuring Marsha Botzer, a founder and leader of
364 Freeman, 63.
365 Muñoz 2009, 27
366 Muñoz 1996, 96.
367 Muñoz 2009, 27.
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Ingersoll Gender Center declared “The time to
be happy is now.” The text went on to
encourage the audience to “embrace transgender
communities and welcome new ways of
thinking about inclusion and diversity.” This
included several photos of Ingersoll staff and
volunteers smiling warmly while welcoming
people to their information booth at a festival.
In this panel, transgender people are welcomed
and celebrated, despite living in a
heteronormative society that limits gender possibilities to strict performances of the hegemonic
masculine and feminine binary. In another section, a photo of women with short hair are proudly
carrying a sign in a parade that describes them as “Women Often Mistaken for Men in Public
Restrooms.” Here we see women performing their female gender identity in ways that exceed the
limits of the male/female binary.
Similarly, narratives of compulsory heterosexuality are disrupted by the images of self-
described lesbians and gays who greet the camera with happiness and joy. In addition to
photographs of people celebrating at pride parades and standing in front of organizations that
they founded—such as the Lambert House—the exhibit included posters extolling power and
pride, such as a 1987 pride poster with the slogan “Unity in Pride, Power, Life and Justice:
Lesbian and Gay Pride Parade March and Freedom Rally.” These representations hold up
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experiences of life—pride, happiness, power and self-confidence—that heteronormativity
dictates are not possible for those who fall outside its boundaries.
These failures to fit
“chronormativity,”368 —a term
coined by Freeman to reference the
normalizing structures of time
itself—allow queer
communications that exceed the
limits of normalized signification,
travelling through affect, overt and
covert transmissions. Layered
representations may signify
normative social meanings and also the resistant, deviant, non-normative constructions of reality
that queers of all racial, ethnic, class, disability and gender identities have created, shared and
relied upon—sometimes as a means of survival. Muñoz envisions intersectional differences as
central to these cross-temporal queer possibilities, describing a queer utopian imaginary “in
which multiple forms of belonging in difference adhere to a belonging in collectivity.”369 This
act of drawing upon collective experiences, reactions and resistances to construct an imaginary
queer utopia is a failure to adhere to normative notions of rationality.370 This is a rationality that
would keep us grounded in the present moment, aware of the limits of our own individual
knowledge, experience and capacity. This rationality operates as the reasoned logic of
368 Freeman, 3.
369 Muñoz 2009, 20.
370 Muñoz 2009, 31.
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heteronormativity, understanding that the moments of the past that we have chosen to
memorialize provide a solid, linear foundation for the present and that propels the normative
future which this chronology demands. Resisting this rational construction of progress instead
privileges the “naïve or nonsensical”371 —that which does not seem possible in the toxicity
experienced by those “who do not feel the privilege of majoritarian belonging.”372 Failure to fit
the norms exposes those norms for what they are—socially constructed means of regulation—
and opens up the possibilities of oppositional consciousness and resistance.
Queer Failures: Highlighting Institutional Norms
As critical feminist museology shows us, consciousness of institutional norms is a potent
pathway of resistance. The failures I have named in the Revealing Queer exhibit mirrored
failures present in the larger museum space of MOHAI. The attention given to Revealing
Queer’s failures brought similar attention to structural exclusions on a larger scale. QTM’s
failure to fit institutional procedures presented provocative moments for intervention. By
emphasizing process and collaboration, QTM exposed normalizing processes in existing
MOHAI procedures and invited larger community conversations about representation and
inclusion.
QTM’s community-led exhibit development process involved decision-making by
consensus for decisions ranging from exhibit text punctuation to the inclusion of specific
artifacts and narratives. This is an inherently time-consuming and messy procedure that
prioritizes process over the potentially competing needs to produce an exhibit that is efficient
with a clear cohesive narrative. This was a significant risk for MOHAI to hand over so much of
371 Halberstam 2011, 22.
372 Muñoz 2009, 27.
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the exhibit control—though they did retain final approval—and it was a risk that resulted in
many institutional ruptures, including increased engagement with MOHAI’s local community
members. QTM’s demonstrated focus on the process helped MOHAI staff to both see the benefit
of these kinds of collaborations, as well as to identify institutional procedures that could be
modified to provide more support of these kinds of community processes.373 For example, the
training of volunteer docents was modified to ensure that volunteers had knowledge about
LGBTQ terminologies, as well as the unique exhibit development process utilized for Revealing
Queer.
One of the results of our exhibit development process was the increased opportunities for
subversive dissonance in exhibit audiences. As discussed earlier, the exhibit included a few
stories of LGBTQ people of color, but these were vastly out-numbered by the images and stories
of LGBTQ white individuals and groups. This imbalance was hard to miss. And many visitors
shared their concern about the lack of people of color through comments made in the interactive
exhibit kiosks, the visitor log, and through social media outlets related to both MOHAI and
QTM. These valid concerns could have easily been cast against any other exhibit at MOHAI, but
the nature of Revealing Queer’s community processes were the catalyst that brought these
concerns to the attention of MOHAI’s staff. In fact, the close connection to LGBTQ
communities invited commentary on many of Revealing Queer’s failures, including concern
about the aesthetic choices, the focus on community organizations, the many stories that were
left out, the lack of depth of some of the stories that were included and the small amount of
materials featuring trans stories. All of these concerns engaged regional community members in
373 Personal conversations with MOHAI staff. Some areas discussed include communication flow, point of contact
staff people and volunteer trainings.
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conversations about representation, inclusion, identity and the responsibilities of the museum.
MOHAI was exposed to these very real concerns, engaging in some conversations with
community members who had been largely absent to that point. This institutional failure became
the basis for increased engagement on important conversations—a queering that exploited the
lack to create a foot hold.
Throughout the run of Revealing Queer, LGBTQ stories were predominantly, though not
exclusively, represented in the contained space of this LGBTQ-focused exhibit. While this
placement forced Revealing Queer to function as a definitive singular narrative for a diverse and
complex group of people, this same placement also served to highlight the fact that most of the
museum did not mention LGBTQ stories. Our failure to radically change the whole of MOHAI’s
exhibit spaces effectively highlighted the relative absence of LGBTQ artifacts in the rest of the
institution.
Queer Failures: Collaboration that Exceeds the Institution
One of the biggest process-oriented interventions QTM made was centering collaboration
in the oversight and content-development of our entire project with MOHAI. Bailey, Macklin
and I all conceptualized collaboration as an intellectual and political tool to bridge structural
gaps, with possibilities that exceed its potential as a methodological intervention. The
collaborations that created QTM, that formed the QTM-MOHAI collaboration, that functioned in
the CAC selection of DSW participants, the collaboration between Macklin and I, and the
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collaborative creation of individual narratives in the DSW, were all essential to what was
produced.
Collaboration resists institutional structures because it exceeds those structures. Consider
the hierarchy of an organization chart for most large museums in the U.S. There are, by design,
specialized areas of knowing and doing, dividing the labor into discrete sections in order to
manage the scale of large projects. Topical areas divide and contain knowledge gathering and
production into categories such as, volunteer management, education programs, exhibit
installation, public programs, marketing, fundraising and overall management. While these
divides serve a practical purpose, developing a project that is truly collaborative in design and
production requires individuals to traverse organizational boundaries and protocols. Crossing
these boundaries can be both difficult and disruptive to organizational norms.
When we structure work to function separately, we are losing opportunities to critically
engage the unconscious assumptions that shape our tasks and choices. Those who approach work
differently than we do can often recognize what have become our unquestioned norms, so
naturalized to our work flow that we rarely see them. The different knowledge sets each person
and functional area brings to the project can add value to all the other areas, and synergistically
enhance the project as a whole. Imagine creating an exhibit plan that builds on educational
opportunities, is designed around public programs and incorporates relationship-building that can
enhance community support of the museum, resulting in such tangible impacts as long-term
relationships, financial and artifact donations. This kind of holistic impact is possible when work
happens across difference—functional, organizational, experiential and identity-based difference.
The QTM CAC incorporated more differences than a typical work committee might,
including differences of identity, education, expertise and political commitments. However, the
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QTM-MOHAI collaboration functioned alongside existing MOHAI organizational divisions and
was, therefore, shaped by the institutional norms of MOHAI. Our CAC intervention was
additive, failing to perform the intersectional critical reflections that critical feminist museology
is grounded in. Inserting a collaborative project temporarily into an existing system fails to
produce the radical possibilities of collaborative work. As such, the QTM-MOHAI collaboration
missed opportunities to create the kind of holistic impact that we had, at first, envisioned. This
institutional failure limited the impact that our CAC could have on MOHAI broadly and on the
results of our project more specifically.
Paradoxically, the DSW had the least success in mapping onto MOHAI’s institutional
norms and therefore the greatest success in queering both the process and the product of our
labors. Where we experienced the greatest collaborative freedom was in the area with the least
institutional oversight. The failure of the digital storytelling workshop to map onto institutional
norms contributed to its ability to expand beyond the normalizing influences of “straight time”374
and institutionally-codified heteronormativity. Our institutional failure created space for queering
to flourish.
Unlike the Revealing Queer exhibit, and even the Community Advisory Committee
meetings, the digital storytelling process, planning and implementation all happened without
MOHAI’s input, influence or contributions. While the digital stories were part of the initial
proposal to partner with MOHAI, the museum did not become involved in the digital storytelling
process until the films were completed. The workshop was funded entirely by grants,
scholarships and in-kind donations. Originally inspired by the work of the Center for Digital
374 Muñoz, 22
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Storytelling375 (CDS), I investigated inviting CDS to lead the workshop for the QTM project.
However, the $10,000 starting price tag set a fund-raising bar too high for me to reach within the
given time-frame. Encouraged by my advisors, I determined to use this funding failure as an
opportunity to create a workshop truly grounded in the queer and feminist principles that guide
my work. Rather than add-in awareness of queer experiences to a pre-existing format, I was able
to work with a skilled feminist colleague, Macklin, to collaboratively design an experience true
to our values. I brought experience teaching writing workshops and narrative development, and
Macklin brought the technical expertise required to produce the films. We both brought
experiences in critical feminist organizing, and a shared background in the collaborative
community intervention The Women Who Rock project.376
Drawing from these common foundations, Macklin and I designed the entire workshop
together. We received supportive guidance from academic advisors, who also helped us to access
a computer lab on the university campus in which to hold the workshops. The CAC provided
oversight of the selection process for participants but left the workshop itself to Macklin and me.
From the beginning, Macklin and I committed to an ethos of access and reproducibility. No
matter what skills participants brought to the workshop, we wanted each participant to leave with
a quality video, the skills and tools to create more videos, and resources to share their knowledge
with others. In this way, both products of the workshop and the processes used in the workshop
reach far beyond those two weekends together. While at the workshop, we all looked back into
our individual and collective pasts, drawing threads of connection, exploration and inspiration.
We pulled those threads into that creative moment, producing films that reflected a personal,
375 The Center for Digital Storytelling recently rebranded as The Story Center http://www.storycenter.org/
376 For more information on the Women Who Rock project, visit http://womenwhorockcommunity.org/
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significant historical moment. Those creations and that experience, continue to weave new paths
and new opportunities. Larrainzar has incorporated digital storytelling into Seattle-based work
with undocumented queer immigrants and the Seattle Counseling Services.377 Keith incorporated
a version of our DSW into her summer work with Seattle’s youth, utilizing the same free tools.378
Hernandez drew from his experience at the DSW to deepen his personal connections to his
family and utilized imagery from his films as a foundation for his college senior art project. Isis
Asare invited two of the digital storytellers to share their films at screenings sponsored by Sistah
Sinema. By design, the videos and the knowledge created at the workshops travels far beyond
our control.
The impact of collaboration is viscerally visible in the compounded impact of the
meanings communicated when the films are viewed collectively. Each filmmaker’s identity,
viewed in one discrete film, both conformed and resisted normative identity categories of race,
gender and sexuality to some degree. But collectively—collaboratively—the films disrupt static
notions of race, gender and sexuality. Individually, the films show the results of the collective
explorations that happened in the workshop. Each individual representation functions as an
expansion of individual identity. But as a group, the films resist codification and expose the
many layered limits of heteronormativity. This power in collaboration may be why several of the
filmmakers expressed hesitation at the idea of their individual film being screened all alone; for
those individuals, even their personal narrative held greater potency and great context when
presented as part of the workshop’s collective production.379 The ethos of collaboration carried
over beyond the workshop itself, influencing the presentation of the films. The bonds established
377 http://www.seattlecounseling.org/iruo/
378 Personal communication with Angelica Macklin, Summer 2013
379 Personal communication, June 2013.
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between the participants were palpable during the initial film screening at the Queering the
History Museum Symposium in June 2013. All the filmmakers were present and responded
collaboratively to the audience questions and comments.
The collaborative foundations—in many ways made possible because of the DSW’s
tangential relationship to the museum—functioned as both method and pedagogy. Collaborating
together strengthened the quality of the individual films produced, influenced the impact of the
films when shown collectively, and enhanced the ability of these queer representations to resist
static notions of identity. By failing to map onto existing institutional norms, the DSW found
more freedom to subvert the limits of those norms—more freedom to be queer.
Even the limits of accuracy were contested in the films that were produced. Playing with
identity requires expanding notions of historical accuracy, as these films did. Operating on the
edges of the institution, the digital stories had more opportunity to fail to be accurate than the
exhibit could. As the digital stories were explicitly personal narratives, the accuracy of their
content was difficult to contest. The DSW was released from the mandate for historical accuracy
and freed to speak to the personal. The storytellers created representations that were both packed
with sameness—relatable human moments, as well as evocative of difference—largely the
differences that each storyteller perceived about themselves that had marked their journey
through the social institutions of family, education, citizenship and government. In this way, the
films were able to complicate historical narratives and were not subject to the collaborative
editing and re-editing process that the rest of the exhibit content under-went. The films queered
evidentiary requirements, accepting “the performative, the affective and the ephemeral”380 as
380 Vu Tuan Nguyen, “Towards a Queer Intersectional Museology” (Sydney: University of Sydney, 2013)
Dissertation toward a Master of Museum Studies, 35.
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legitimate ways of understanding queer histories. Within this institutional framework, operating
literally and figuratively on the edges of the exhibit, the digital stories blurred the boundaries of
accuracy and collaboration. The storytellers were both the subjects of knowledge and the
producers of knowledge, inviting the audience into a queer collaboration of knowledge
production.
This product—workshop and videos—is a collaborative application of queer temporality.
Collectively, all the workshop participants and leaders created a queer temporal space that
echoes back to the past, reverberates out to and through the participants and emanates into a
future with no clear end point. The products, both visible and invisible, spread out from the
workshop itself geographically and temporally—stretching time. In these actions, the static
codification of identities is actively resisted by the collective impact on the films and the film-
makers.
Queering a Museum
Queer in theory, queer in application? Queerness as a framework does not prevent
institutional norms from operating, or hegemonic structures from asserting heteronormativity.
Critical feminist museology demonstrates that no matter the tools or approach, we must engage
with critical consciousness of the ways that hegemony is maintained through institutional
frameworks, like museums. Queer theory, in collaboration with critical feminist theories, does
offer a framework for subverting and resisting—even within the institutional failures. Operating
in the interstitial moments that exist between dominance, we can queer institutional failures. In
QTM’s collaboration with MOHAI, those queer opportunities were present—exposing historical
and institutional exclusion, as gaps or ruptures within dominant narratives, and as affective,
collaborative resonances that complicated notions of identity and authenticity.
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Conclusions
This dissertation, like the change work advocated for here, addresses multiple audiences.
Museum professionals, museum students and museum visitors all have a stake in the ongoing
contributions that museums make to our communities. Potential audiences, and all those whom
museums claim to serve in their local and larger communities, are impacted by the choices
museums make. Feminist and queer scholars who have long advocated for recognizing the power
and impact of representation have a stake in efforts of museums to address identity-based
exclusions. Those who advocate for scholarship that engages publics beyond the academy are
impacted by the ways that museums utilize scholarship and educate informal audiences. Among
these groups, many have turned to digital tools as possible solutions for the geographic and
economic barriers of access that have shaped oppressed communities’ engagements with
historical representations in museums. Any of these individuals concerned with the potential of
digital tools to offer new solutions to old problems may find relevance in the arguments I present
here.
Speaking to this range of potential stake holders, the conclusions I construct here
similarly address a range of responses to my research. In addition to considering the significance
of the work presented in the preceding paragraphs, I conclude with specific practices that
museum professionals, public scholars and those employing digital tools may utilize in their
commitments to changing identity-based exclusions. Ultimately, I advocate for the
reconsideration of inclusion as a goal. Rather, I suggest a critically reflective approach to
redressing the long-standing exclusions enforced by heteronormative ideals. Collaboration that
shares authority with the subjects of the narrative must be grounded in critical consciousness in
order to uphold an ethic of relational responsibility. This attention to the ethics of our
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relationships strengthens museum professionals’ access to under-represented stories, as well as
the ability to portray these stories thoughtfully. But we cannot approach relationships across
difference without reflecting critically on the oppressive structures in which we and our
institutions participate.
Critical feminist museology offers a theory and a method of long-term change, that is
flexible and responsive to the practical limitations each museum faces. Drawing consciously
upon the affective opportunities presented by digital media, historical exclusions become
opportunities for consciously engaging audiences in the messy, painful and complex histories of
our social worlds. Moving beyond the master narratives of heteronormativity, digital stories
address the lack of material artifacts and highlight the potential of affect, imagination and
collaboration as tools of change. Instead of being limited by existing social codes—with which
museum audiences are familiar—these codes create opportunities for affective, instructive
dissonance that can serve to highlight the very existence of these codes, as well as the impact of
their existence on the people of our communities. Digital narratives, produced in critically
conscious collaboration, function as evocative objects; historical artifacts that add to the archive
even as they have the potential to reach beyond the archive, presenting relatable human
experiences that fail to fit cultural norms. Through connection and dissonance, these stories
resonate with audiences and deepen the complexity of the historical narratives we tell.
Loving Resistance
Love creates an opportunity for rupturing that which we know for sure; of crossing the
boundaries that have been so firmly implanted in our experiences, our institutions, our lives.
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This is not the heteronormative romantic love, but the love described by Sandoval as capable of
pulling us outside of ideologies and revealing new possibilities for change. This is a love that is
reassuring, warming and pleasurable, like the pleasurable embrace that Gabriel invites museums
to utilize in support of expanding queer inclusion.381 This love can be the ground for affective
dissonance. It is this “social-erotics,” as Sandoval calls it, practiced by skilled and critically-
conscious activists, that creates opportunities for alliance across our differences and thus for
radical, emancipatory change.382 The differential that is created in the third space—the potential
in-between the binaries of a heteronormative world—is a potent site of political contestation.
Compelled by love and even desire,383 movement towards critical consciousness progresses
beyond what seems possible. It is love and desire that draw our diverse LGBTQ communities
together, and that can draw together coalitions across all kinds of difference, towards the
imagined possibilities of the queer utopia.384 As one visitor to Revealing Queer summarized, “I
am so much more like you than I’m not.”385
Queering is powerfully effective when it is affective; it is the relatable resonances which
exceed the confines of hegemonic norms that will lead to change. This is the change possible
when audiences connect to critically-constructed narratives, recognizing themselves in the stories
even as they recognize stark differences. The resonance of the narratives creates space for
disruption when the familiar becomes complex and the resonance shifts to dissonance.
381 Gabriel, 63.
382 Sandoval 2002, 27.
383 Sandoval 2002 draws from Foucault’s discussion of “a desire capable of driving the body and the will beyond
their limits,” towards “an anti-postmodern, anti-fascist, and anti-colonial oppositional consciousness and praxis”
Kindle Location 2062.
384Queer utopia is a direct reference to the imagined futures discussed by Muñoz in Cruising Utopia.
385 This is a quote from the Revealing Queer museum visitor log, which is un-dated.
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Recognizing common experiences of affection is a strong ground upon which to stand
while stretching our consciousness beyond our own experiences. Hernandez reflected back on
the experience of participating in the collaborative workshop noting, “The process we underwent
asked that we not only share our story, but to also listen and understand the experiences of the
other participants. Our stories were all very unique and it was clear that there was no one Queer
experience that could represent us all. This, I thought, was wonderful.”386 Similarly, feedback
provided anonymously immediately after the workshop suggested that the most positive part of
the experience was “seeing everyone’s end products; not feeling isolated; feeling freedom.” The
connections formed across differences at the workshop itself were carried through in viewer
experiences of the completed films. Love and other forms of affection guide connection across
perceived barriers. And this connection helps us all to “’queer’ our assumptions, adopt different
perspectives and step outside of the confines of what is—and is not—considered ‘normal.’”387
Museologist Susan Ferentinos reminds us, “These are questions with implications for many,
many aspects of our lives, but they also have particular relevance for the museum field.”388
Diversifying Museums
As Ferentinos notes, there is continued focus from museum professionals on finding
ways to engage with under-represented communities in museums. The American Alliance of
Museums updated their Diversity and Inclusion Policy in 2014.389 The policy concludes that “in
386 Caleb Hernandez, “Queer Digital Stories: Identity,” Queering the Museum Project 4/16/2016
https://queeringthemuseum.org/2016/04/16/queer-digital-stories-identity/
387 Susan Ferentinos, “The Expanding Conversation,” Queering the Museum Project 4/16/2015
https://queeringthemuseum.org/2015/04/16/the-expanding-conversation/
388 Ibid.
389 American Alliance of Museums, “Diversity and Inclusion Policy,” 2/26/2014. http://www.aam-us.org/about-
us/who-we-are/strategic-plan/diversity-and-inclusion-policy
170
order to leverage diversity, an environment must be created where people feel supported, listened
to and able to do their personal best.” This statement affirms the significance of collaboration
and relational responsibility in responding to identity-based exclusions. They go on to advise that
while “[d]iversity always exists in social systems,” inclusion “must be created.”390 The worlds in
which we operate are already diverse. But we must take thoughtful action in order to help
museums reflect this diversity. That action must include educating all future museum
professionals, not just those who are under-represented, on the need for inclusion in museums,
according to Gretchen Sorin, Director of the Cooperstown Graduate Program in History Museum
Studies. 391 Sorin advises that this education is best delivered with specific strategies to
accomplish these goals, and is reaching out to the broader museum community to support these
practices, 392 which include considering all areas of museum work in our change efforts. Johnetta
B. Cole, president of the Association of Museum Directors, recently expressed specific concern
over the homogeneity of museum boards393—the decision-making body that has significant
oversight of all non-profit museum policies. Actions to address this range from identity-specific
recruitment to tracking board diversity on a spreadsheet.394 Online communities are having
extensive conversations about diversity in museums, as well as specific practices to address the
challenges of change. Topics range from gender disparities in art museum management395 to
390 Ibid.
391 Gretchen Sorin, “Museum Studies Programs and Tools for Creating More Inclusive Curricula,” Center for the
Future of Museums, 3/29/16. http://futureofmuseums.blogspot.com/2016/03/museum-studies-programs-tools-
for.html?m=1
392 Sorin
393 Ted Loos, “Speed Museum Turns to a Spreadsheet to Increase Diversity,” The New York Times, 3/15/2016.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/03/17/arts/design/speed-museum-turns-to-a-spreadsheet-to-increase-
diversity.html?emc=edit_tnt_20160316&nlid=23074679&tntemail0=y&_r=2&referer
394 Loos.
395 Anne Marie Gan et al, “The Gender Gap in Art Museum Directorships,” The Association of Art Museum
Directors, 3/7/2014.
https://aamd.org/sites/default/files/document/The%20Gender%20Gap%20in%20Art%20Museum%20Directorships_
0.pdf
171
racial inequalities in staffing and representation.396 Clearly, there is extensive professional
interest and commitment to expand identity-based inclusion in U.S. museums.
However, “many cultural organizations still rely on the tacit assumption that visitors are
heterosexual, monogamous, and live within a traditional nuclear family model.”397 Ferentinos
explains: “Artifacts and interpretation reinforce the idea that these conditions are the societal
norm, which implicitly suggests that alternative ways of relating are not normal, are somehow
inferior. We see this when museums describe the (heterosexual) marriage and procreation of one
historic figure, but opt to ignore another’s same-sex attachments, deeming such information
irrelevant, libelous, or confrontational.” 398 The intersectional framework offered by critical
feminist museology offers tools applicable to all areas of concern which museums are grappling
with in the quest to diversify, and responds to problems with the concept of inclusion. The model
of inclusion, while an important starting ground, sets up both a center and a set of outsiders. Who
do you invite into the center? Who gets to extend the invitation? What ideas about their very
outsider-ship must they bring to be included? And when have we included enough? If we
approach diversity as an additive, we will always be wondering if the limited resources of
museums and archives can stretch far enough to include them all. Or if we include women, is
that enough? What if we include Native Americans? Must we also include gays and lesbians?
Does that include transgender histories? Where do gender-non-conformers fit? This model
assumes that people will fit into one category, not many. And this model frames diversity as a
game of competition for limited resources.
396 The Incluseum, a blog investigating inclusion in museums, has hosted a variety of these conversations as well as
shared information about conversations on race in museums held at the American Alliance of Museums national
conferences. https://incluseum.com/?s=race&submit=Search
397 Ferentinos.
398 Ferentinos.
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Intersectional feminists and queer theorists point us to a different approach. Critical
feminist museology begins with creating consciousness about the resources and processes that
are already in place. What choices have we made that have unwittingly shaped our audiences?
What processes do we employ that unconsciously re-center heteronormativity? By the time we
invite collaborators to a project, we have often already decided many of the factors that will
determine who can and will participate: the time and place of meetings, the cost of participation,
the transportation methods available to get to the meetings—all of these institutional and
structural options impacts collaboration. Collaborators are also frequently invited after the
framework of a project has already been approved; this limits the impact that collaborators could
possibly have and may preclude the project from access to new conceptual models or procedures.
Developing critical consciousness requires that we seek ideas and information outside of our
usual pathways. The theories of both intersectional feminists and queer theorists guide us to two
important concepts for initiating change work: 1) reflect critically on the institutions, systems
and procedures that structure our pathways and our choices and 2) draw from this conscious
perspective to identify pathways in-between the simplistic, binary trajectories of normalcy.
Based on these two steps, the QTM-MOHAI projects focused on collaboration, relational
responsibility and critical reflection as the values that guided our work. Within the digital
storytelling project, these values facilitated the creation of complex, affective narratives. The
complexity afforded by digital technologies supported the filmmakers’ production of historical
artifacts which both defined and disrupted identity categories of gender, sexuality and race. The
unique quality inherent in these evocative objects is their ability to capture the particulars of
individual experience while at the same time highlighting the structural norms and institutions
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that shaped their experiences.399 This quality is not innate to digital tools, but is the result of
digital production through a critically reflective, collaborative process of media-making.
For Museum Professionals
Museum professionals are tasked with performing the necessary practical labors that will
bring about change, upholding professional standards while disrupting the normative
representations of history that currently dominate our museums and archives. Intersectional
feminist and queer theorists present flexible and important concepts for changing how we do our
work. Yet, the question I often hear is, “How do I actually do that?” Embracing the values of
critical consciousness, collaboration and relational responsibility, we can identity several,
practical steps to implementation.
Critical Consciousness
This is the essential first step to making productive changes. You have to understand
where you have been, before you can decide what needs to change, and how to improve it.
Critical consciousness is also a necessary ongoing practice. Checking in on relationships,
policies and procedures consistently will ensure an enduring commitment to improvements,
rather than a one-time change. The following are some places to begin this critical
consciousness-raising.
Unpack your history
399The emphasis on micro and macro here is influenced by Chandra Talpade Mohanty’s question, “I ask what would
it mean to be attentive to the micropolitics of everyday life as well as to the larger processes that recolonize the
culture and identities of people across the globe.” from “Under Western Eyes’ Revisited: Feminist Solidarity
through Anticapitalist Struggles,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. Vol. 28 No 2 (2002) 508-509.
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What are the historical roots of your museum? We always want to celebrate where we
come from, but we also need to understand the oppressions that may have been part of our
formation, in order to understand how that history is shaping exclusions today. Many museums
and archives were formed as part of a white colonial project, preserving stories of white male
accomplishment. Other museums collected indigenous artifacts, preserving a “dying nation”
without critical awareness of the ways in which these preservation acts also contributed towards
the decimation of many indigenous practices. Just as we have to know we have a past in order to
imagine a future, we have to know what structural privileges shaped that past, in order to
comprehend the ways in which our present practices uphold structural exclusions.
Be sure to include work processes in this critical consciousness raising. Identity specific
procedures and pull some focus away from the end product. What processes have you inherited
from prior work groups? What procedures are embedded in the institutional history? Or graduate
school training? What small changes to the process might offer new opportunities for
complexity, engagement or partnerships?
Contextualize your mission
What is driving you to consider inclusion? What is the institutional motivation for
addressing diversity and identity-based representation? Review the mission of your institution.
Think about how this mission both embraces and rejects diverse narratives.
For example, do you have a mandate to represent a particular geographic region? Who
has populated this area?
Is your focus on a particular discipline (science? art?) What structures of that discipline
have historically centered the work of white men? How is that history impacting your collection?
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Are you focused on the contributions of a particular founding family? Regional artist?
What are the diverse narratives that intertwine with those central stories? How could you expand
to include those?
All of these missions encompass opportunities to tell complex, inclusive stories but the
particular focus of your museum will drive the approach you take to that inclusion. This practice
of reflection will also help you to understand how your mission has shaped the current content
that your institutions collects and displays.
Surface your Assumptions
Department by department, topic by topic, invest the time to reflect critically on your
processes and procedures. For example, what assumptions are embedded in your archive naming
conventions? What information is being recorded and what is being left out? What connections
between artifacts are being preserved? What narratives do these connections support?
Or, you might consider what values are expressed in the language on your museum
membership forms? Or in your audience surveys? Do you assume that all museum audience
members will fit neatly into male/female gender-binary categories? Do you leave space for
mixed-race identities? Consider what information you really need to know and avoid asking for
data simply to ask. Be able to make a clear argument for the relevance of any data you are asking
people to contribute.
Consider also the structure of the museum space. What assumptions are communicated in
the placement of your entrances, exits and bathrooms? Does wheel chair access require using a
side or back entrance? Do bathrooms assume that only women need a changing table? Do you
offer gender-neutral bathroom spaces?
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There is a lot of information about who and what our institutions value, and what our
museum culture considers normal in the details of our work policies, practices and decisions.
Collaboration
Expanding our awareness requires that we collaborate with a variety of people, who each
bring their own histories, expertise and life experiences. Respectful collaboration is an essential
tool for surfacing our assumptions, expanding our access to artifacts and finding new ways of
doing museum work; ways that disrupt the reification of heteronormativity. Following are some
ideas about how to approach collaboration.
Shake Up your Structure
Collaboration is often a shift that needs to occur inside of our institutions, not just with
people outside of the institution. Look for ways to build institutional alliances across
departmental boundaries. Consider including people who are at the bottom of the management
hierarchy; we often overlook the incredible knowledge that staff greeting our visitors has
acquired about museum audiences. This kind of change sounds scary to many, but it can be
simpler than it sounds. You don’t have to fully embrace non-hierarchical consensus-based
decision-making in order to shift perspectives. Consider bringing in all departments at the very
beginning of a new project. Ask representatives with a different institutional expertise to shadow
your work group and reflect on the processes you use. Where are there overlaps? Or connection
points? What assumptions’ that have become naturalized to you are apparent to your colleague?
Intra-institutional collaboration can create multiple opportunities for new synergies and
solutions.
Respectful, Reciprocal Relationships
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A truly inclusive community space invests in enduring relationships with community
members from a variety of social backgrounds and identities. Developing trust takes time,
particularly when an institution has done little to inspire trust in the past. It may feel
uncomfortable, it may be messy, but investing time into individuals and community groups is a
worthwhile endeavor and a critical step for the creation of an inclusive space. Send museum staff
to local community events so that you and your institution are recognized as active, engaged
community members. Talk to people and demonstrate interest in knowing what issues are
important to them. Spend a lot of time listening. Be open to opportunities that community
members bring you—even if you can’t do what they propose, consider what you can do. Those
of us with access to the inner-workings of a museum may be brutally aware that many museums
operate with strict budgets and limited financial resources. Despite this, museums are sites of
community riches and resources. Community members may expect the museum to contribute in
some way, and will be conscious of the institutional resources that are inherent in the position
that a museum holds. Responding respectfully, and honestly, to proposals invites authentic
opportunities for collaboration.
Relational Responsibility
Effective and consistent collaboration is built on strong relationships. People want to
work with people and institutions that can be trusted. Trust is formed when we are open about
commitments and hold each other accountable in moments of failure. Following are some initial
suggestions towards ongoing relational responsibility.
Encourage Failures and Incentivize Risk
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Institutional change and social change require risks. If we function in an environment that
criticize and deprecate failures, we will become averse to risk. Find structured ways to create
opportunities for risk, and build the trust of your team when they encounter failures. Celebrate
failures in consistent and predictable ways. Team meetings may include time to propose new
risky endeavors. Help your team to focus on what in the process can change and give them time
to try out the change. Consider including a portfolio of failures in your individual and team
reflections that recognizes risk, change, success and failure.400 You will still be producing many
traditional and admirable products; your team will still utilize many long-standing processes, but
this shift towards process will create room for new ideas, for risk and for change.
Claim your Social Knowledge
It is important to understand the ways in which your individual socially-regulated
identities affect what you see and what norms you have become accustomed to. Privileges
accorded to those who fit social norms based on race, class, disability, gender and sexuality often
function as blinders, erasing the social processes which create these systems of privilege. For this
reason, it is often the ways that we fall outside of privilege that are the most visible to us, and we
must make extra effort to educate ourselves about the privileges we hold. Use your social
knowledge—the ways that you see privilege operating—to analyze the structures and choices of
your institution. You may know immediately that the assumptions made about family structures
in the membership materials are excluding any families that do not fit the model of
mom/dad/child, but others will not notice. Alternatively, respect others when they bring social
knowledge that you do not have. When a volunteer communicates that a specific practice is
400 Thanks to Beck Tench for introducing the concept of a Portfolio of Failure at a presentation given to the
University of Washington Museology program in 2011. For more information about Tench, see
http://www.becktench.com/#first
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racist, listen. Ask questions. Move away from defense and towards understanding. Claiming our
social knowledge means using the information we have access and respecting the lived
experiences of those who are different from us. Approaching lived, social knowledge as valuable
and respected will deepen the respect built into our collaborative relationships.
Build in Critical Reflection
Effective change work means always being curious about what could change. Don’t stop
your critical reflections after an initial evaluation of mission and procedures. Build a consistent
practice of inquiry into your processes and routines. Invite your colleagues, content-contributors,
volunteers, customers and board members to participate in inquiry. Even a few minutes of
reflection built into a routine meeting can result in new perspectives and surprising discoveries.
Effectively addressing structures of oppression is an ongoing process and a commitment.
Committing to the small steps that you can take now, and standing by a process of consistent
improvement through reflection, will ensure that those small steps become significant over time.
If you don’t see immediate results from these small moments of inquiry, don’t give up. New
ways of approaching work take time to adopt. Your collaborators will need time to build trust in
the authenticity of these structured reflections. Inquiry into one’s own cultural systems is not
easy. It may be uncomfortable at times. And it will definitely feel like 5 minutes that you need in
order to meet that product-oriented deadline. But that 5-minute investment can bring significant
rewards.
Making big changes, begin with small details. Terminology. Location. Access. Parking.
Bus lines. These are the only some of the details that will surface as museum professionals apply
the techniques of collaboration, relational responsibility and critical consciousness. These are
techniques that can and should be incorporated into museum professional training, both in
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graduate school and throughout our careers. Museum professionals cannot contribute towards
more diverse museums and archives until we recognize the role that museums play in codifying a
heteronormative ideal.
Critical Feminist Museology’s Impact
Critical feminist museology begins with theoretical analysis: of the problems of identity-
based exclusions in museums, of the intersectional feminist responses to exclusion and of the
queer theorists engaging representation. Drawing from all of these fields, critical feminist
museology proposes a dynamic intersectional approach to identity work; an approach that is
grounded in critical consciousness of the normalizing structures of our worlds.
Heteronormativity has shaped U.S. archives and museums, centering hegemonic norms
of white masculinity. QTM responded to this dominance by deploying collaboration, relational
responsibility and critical consciousness as tools of change. Heteronormative representations of
history have presented linear, simplistic progress narratives that rely on existing archives
populated with the artifacts of society’s great white men. Using digital tools, the digital
storytelling project facilitated self-reflective collaborations that produced short, complex,
dynamic narratives of local queer lives. These films fill archival gaps while stretching and
expanding that gap; standing in for what is missing and highlighting the structures that created
these gaps in the first place.
In some ways, the QTM workshop and the videos produced there are also products of
queer temporalities. We created a temporary space that echoed back to pasts, invisible and
tangible, spoke out through the storytellers and emanated into the future, with no clear end point.
The films, now released for several years, cross geographical and temporal boundaries. In each
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moment of viewing, these experiences are reflected and rejoined. Time is pulled apart in those
moments.
The films both crystallize and contest our own cultural performances of identities,
bringing into question and codifying performances of race, gender and sexuality. This research
and the methods I propose, tease out conceptions of gender and sexuality as historically and
currently constructed, while at the same time illuminating hidden histories of non-conforming
race, gender and sexualities. Speaking to both the particular and the structural, the narratives
produced here evoke affective resonance and highlight shared human experience. They build
relatability across difference, preserving that difference while building connection. And this
connection serves as fertile ground for highlighting the structures and institutions that have
oppressed people who fall outside of norms.
These evocative objects expand both the materiality and the possibilities of artifact-based
histories. They are both product of and testament to critical collaborations that reframe historical
accuracy through shared authorship. The methods and the evocative objects hold rich
possibilities for reframing the work of museums broadly, and the collection of under-represented
histories specifically.
We have already witnessed positive impacts of this work. Carvin describes the QTM
project as “validating, uplifting . . . Personally, the exhibit created an opportunity for my struggle
to be understood and for me to be recognized and honored as someone who has positively
impacted the Queer community in Washington State.”401 Similarly, Hernandez notes the positive
impact on his family relationships and personal life since telling his story. Learning more about
401 Mian Carvin, “De Facto,” Queering the Museum Project 3/16/2016
https://queeringthemuseum.org/2016/03/16/de-facto/
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his father’s struggle with AIDS and supporting his little sister with her own process of coming
out to the family with her girlfriend: “These are now part of my new story. A story I wouldn’t
have been able to create without the guidance and reminders that the Queering the Museum
project has afforded me. A story is worth telling and a story is worth listening to.”402 The project
of Queering the Museum challenged heteronormativity and continues to contribute to the larger
professional efforts to ask, “what happens when we readjust the lens? What can we learn by
interrogating societal assumptions of normality? What can cultural outsiders teach us about
struggle, privilege, and belonging?”403 These challenges are part of widespread efforts to disrupt
heteronormativity, inside and outside of museums. And these efforts make a significant
contribution to the hope that is at the core of Muñoz imagined queer utopia. Larrainzar
summarizes this hopeful vision, “This little film [Omecihuatl] is a small seed that I hope will
bloom into a thousand flowers.404
The failures of this work also open up areas for further research. This essay fails several
areas of intersectional analysis in museum representations, specifically the complexities of
disability and class along with race, gender and sexuality. In addition, a greater understanding of
the tension between a sexualized hyper-visibility of LGBTQ bodies and the corresponding
erasure of LGBTQ narratives would deepen and strengthen research into the representations of
queer narratives. A more nuanced understanding of the particular challenges of transgender
representation would improve this work. As love and feeling play such a significant role in the
results of this research, there is room to expand engagement with affect theory.
402 Caleb Hernandez, “Queer Digital Stories: ‘Identity’” Queering the Museum Project 4/16/2016
https://queeringthemuseum.org/2016/04/16/queer-digital-stories-identity/
403 Ferentinos.
404 Jacque Larrainzar, “Reclaiming Gender through Undocumented Stories,” Queering the Museum Project,
11/2/2015 https://queeringthemuseum.org/2015/11/02/omecihuatl-reclaiming-gender-through-undocumented-
stories/
183
The digital storytelling project succeeded in creating new artifacts, but missed
opportunities to explore the life of those artifacts outside of the museum. Online spaces hold rich
possibilities for engaging collaborative history production including: naming conventions,
classification, meta data, artifact collection, artifact production, and historical research that are
worthy of greater attention.
“If you don’t know you have a past, how can you believe you have a future?”405
The past is a critical resource, for hope, for survival, for happiness. Failure to represent
the stories of those who fall outside heteronormativity must end. Those in positions of structural
and institutional power must commit to critical reflection that leads toward recognition of the
processes and policies that uphold exclusions. We must recognize the experiences of those unlike
ourselves. We must recognize the ways in which we are alike in order to cross the gaps of
difference.
Queering as a path of resistance and reclamation must be joined with the challenging
work of critical consciousness-raising. As Macklin has pointed out, form alone does not
necessarily produce the path to change.406 Collaboration and digital stories are not all-purpose
solutions, but are tools that—applied with critical consciousness within frameworks that inspire
trust and center process—can offer tools for dissonant, productive ruptures of heteronormativity.
Digital storytelling is a tool that can add affective, complex interpretations to static artifacts and
represent missing artifacts. With consciousness, the complex personal narratives that digital
storytelling communicates can flex beyond institutional limits. One of the filmmakers, Carvin,
405 Hugh Ryan, “Notes on the Pop Up Museum of Queer History” QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking Vol 1
No 2 (Summer 2014) 83.
406 Angelica Macklin, personal communication and “Imaginaries in the Queering the Museum Digital Storytelling
Project,” University of Washington COM 519, Prof. LeiLani Nishime, Fall 2014.
184
shared a reflection after the workshop that included this encouragement to action, “There is a lot
of healing to be done. We need to know who we are as a people, as a culture. We deserve to
know and so does the world.”407
Queer histories are histories of all of our communities—LGBTQ people exist across all
racial, ethnic, disability, class, religious and national identities. Our stories need to be included in
the larger historical narratives of our nation’s museums. We cannot wait for there to be enough
material in the archives, or even for a group like QTM to propose a collaboration. Museum
professionals and all those invested in inclusive histories need to engage in a process of critical
reflection that includes the processes, policies and assumptions which contribute to museums “as
producers of power and of normative meaning.”408 We must make explicit commitments to
working across identity-based differences and embrace intersectional realities, “inclusive of all
those who stand on the outside of the dominant constructed norm of state-sanctioned white
middle- and upper-class heterosexuality.”409
Queering a museum must allow space for the complex, the naïve and the messy. We must
make room for failures. Drawing on affective, personal, collaborative resources, museums can
become critically queer and recognize the opportunities for disruptive change, even within
failures. As Sandoval and Gabriel encourage, love is one form of affective resonance that has the
power to draw us beyond the limits of comfort; into what could become a critically queer
embrace of identities that have operated upon the margins of heteronormative societies, and the
museums that tell their histories.
407 Mian Carvin, a post shared on facebook 4/10/13.
408 Patrik Steorn, "Curating Queer Heritage: Queer Knowledge and Museum Practice," Curator: The Museum
Journal 55:3 (2012): 364.
409 Cohen, 77.
185
186
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Appendix
Artifacts available in the following order
Museum of History and Industry
Museum of History and Industry and Queering the Museum Project Memorandum of
Understanding
MOHAI Explores LGBTQ History in Locally-Developed Exhibit, Revealing Queer
Revealing Queer Opening
Community Advisory Committee
Blank Memorandum of Understanding between community organization and Queering the
Museum Project
List of Community Advisory Committee Participants
Revealing Queer Media Coverage
History Café: Seattle’s LGBTQ Community
The Seattle Lesbian
Museum Metamorphosis 2013
Seattle Spoken Wheel
Museum Politics and Power
Plinth
The Stranger
crg@cgp
Point Foundation
Seattle Gay News
The Incluseum
Real Change News
Pride Foundation
Queering the History Museum Symposium
City Arts Magazine
Call for participation
Symposium Program
Humanities Washington
The Incluseum
Digital Storytelling Project (DSP)
Blank participant application
The Incluseum article about the DSP
Signed video release forms from the DSP participants with addresses removed
Signed image release forms from the DSP participants with addresses removed
Museum of History and Industry
You are here: Home Press & Media Press Releases MOHAI Explores LGBTQ History in LocallyDeveloped Exhibit, Revealing Queer
MOHAI Explores LGBTQ History in Locally-Developed Exhibit, Revealing Queer
Seattle – The Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) proudly begins its second year
in its new home at Lake Union Park by presenting Revealing Queer, a landmark
exhibit on the history of the LGBTQ community in the Puget Sound region. This
exhibit is one of the very first of its kind in a history museum, and will be on display
from Friday, February 14 through Sunday, July 6, 2014.
MOHAI invites the community to join in celebrating the opening of this breakthrough
exhibit at the Revealing Queer Opening Night Celebration on Friday, February 14,
2014, from 7:00—11:00 pm at MOHAI. The evening will feature drink, dessert, activities
and performances from LGBTQ groups across Seattle. Tickets are $12 for the general
public and $10 for MOHAI members, and are available online at www.mohai.org.
MOHAI members will get to preview Revealing Queer on Wednesday, February 12
from 6:00 – 8:30 pm. For more information on the opening night event and MOHAI
membership, please visit mohai.org.
Revealing Queer explores how the Puget Sound LGBTQ community has grown,
changed, become more visible, and worked towards equality. Informed throughout by
the lived experiences of this incredibly diverse population, the exhibit traces its
history from an emerging underground group in the years before the Stonewall Riots
of 1969, to the large and politically active community that helped make marriage
equality law in Washington State in 2012. Visitors will be able to discover this
complex history through a variety of themes, including language, significant cultural
spaces, queer celebrations, regional law, and more. The artifacts, photographs, and
documents that fill the exhibit have come both from MOHAI’s collection and from
donors across the country—many have not been seen before by the public.
This exhibit is the result of collaboration between many individuals and
organizations, led by Erin Bailey and Nicole Robert, cofounders of Queering the
Museum—an ongoing project to uncover and share LGBTQ stories in institutions
across the country. Bailey and Robert worked closely with a Community Advisory
Committee composed of representatives from local LGBTQ organizations to create
Revealing Queer. “We started this project seeking to explore ways to engage LGBTQ
communities in museums,” says Bailey, stating, “This exhibition has recovered
history that would have otherwise been lost, and is preserving the history that’s
happening now. We’re trying to ensure that the Queer narrative is archived.”
Revealing Queer will be featured in MOHAI’s Linda and Ted Johnson Family
Community Gallery, an intimate space designed to promote community ownership of
MOHAI through exhibits curated in collaboration with local partners. Its rotating
exhibits offer an opportunity to hear diverse voices and stories from the
contemporary Puget Sound region. Past exhibitions in the Community Gallery have
included Punctum/Poetry, presented with ArtsCorps, and Still Afloat: A Contemporary
History of Seattle’s Floating Homes, presented with the Floating Homes Association.
MOHAI thanks the Pride Foundation, Microsoft, 4Culture, and the Seattle Foundation
for their generous support of Revealing Queer.
About MOHAI
MOHAI is dedicated to enriching lives through preserving, sharing, and teaching the
diverse history of Seattle, the Puget Sound region, and the nation. As the largest
private heritage organization in the State of Washington; the museum engages
communities through interactive exhibits, online resources, and awardwinning public
and youth education programs. For more information about MOHAI, please visit
www.mohai.org or call (206) 3241126.
###
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Revealing Queer Opening Night Celebration
THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT
Celebrate love with MOHAI! This Valentine's Day, enjoy food and drink, and learn all about how the Puget Sound LGBTQ community
has grown, changed, and made history at the opening of this landmark new exhibit.
Happenings throughout the evening include:
• 8 pm Gay Bingo hosted by Mama Tits
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levels of membership to meet your needs and your budget. Your
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• 9 pm Queer Burlesque with Lily Divine and Pidgeon Von Tramp
• 9:45 pm DJ SassyBlack (Cat of THEESatisfaction)
• 7:30, 8:30 and 9:30 pm Gallery talks with Community Advisory Committee members
• Queering the Museum project Digital Storytelling playing in the Theater all night long
• All galleries open!
THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT
Performance by DJ Sassyblack
(aka Cat of THEESatisfaction)
Queer burlesque with Lily Divine
and Pidegon Von Tramp
Gay bingo with Mama Tits and the
Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence
This event is recommended for ages 16 and older. All ticket sales are final. For information on reaching MOHAI and parking in the
area, please click here. Please plan ahead: the bar will be cashonly. If you forget to bring cash, there are a number of bank and credit
union ATMs along Westlake Ave N and Terry Ave N in the South Lake Union neighborhood.
About Revealing Queer:
MOHAI proudly presents this landmark exhibit exploring the history of the Puget Sound LGBTQ community. Informed throughout by the
lived experiences of this incredibly diverse population, the exhibit traces its history from an emerging underground group in the years
before the Stonewall Riots of 1969, to the large and politically active community that helped make marriage equality law in Washington
State in 2012. Visitors will discover this complex history through a variety of themes, including language, significant cultural spaces,
queer celebrations, regional law, and more. The artifacts, photographs, and documents that fill the exhibit have come both from
MOHAI’s collection and from donors across the country—many have not been seen before by the public.
This exhibit is the result of collaboration between many individuals and organizations, led by Erin Bailey and Nicole Robert, cofounders
of Queering the Museum—an ongoing project to uncover and share LGBTQ stories in institutions across the country. Bailey and Robert
5/26/2015 MOHAI
http://www.mohai.org/component/content/article/731revealingqueeropeningnightcelebration 3/3
MOHAI thanks these donors for their generous annual operating support.
ABOUT US PRIVACY INFORMATION CONTACT US PRESS & MEDIA MUSEUM OF HISTORY & INDUSTRY 860 Terry Ave N, Seattle WA, 98109 / T: 206-324-1126
worked closely with a Community Advisory Committee composed of representatives from local LGBTQ organizations to create
Revealing Queer. For more information on the Queering the Museum Project, please click here.
Revealing Queer will be featured in MOHAI’s Linda and Ted Johnson Family Community Gallery, an intimate space designed to
promote community ownership of MOHAI through exhibits curated in collaboration with local partners. Its rotating exhibits offer an
opportunity to hear diverse voices and stories from the contemporary Puget Sound region.
MOHAI thanks these generous sponsors for their support of Revealing Queer:
Community Advisory Committee
1
Queering the Museum Project
Erin Bailey, M.A Candidate
Nicole Robert, PhD. Candidate
2012-2013
Queering the (History) Museum Project
Community Partner Organization Agreement
Community Partner Organizations will support the Queering the Museum events throughout the
partnership with the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI), which extends from the present
day through the Spring of 2014. In return, partner organizations will be recognized as
community sponsors by both MOHAI and QTM.
Partner Organizations will:
• Identify an individual or individuals to participate on the Community Advisory
Committee, as outlined below.
• Promote QTM events to your own community members
• Identify MOHAI and QTM as community partners on appropriate promotional materials
Partner Organizations will be recognized by both MOHAI and QTM in the following ways:
• Listed as community partners on QTM event promotional materials
• Identified as community partners on QTM's website and social media activities
• Identified as community partners on MOHAI's website where QTM events are posted
• Recognized at appropriate QTM and MOHAI events
In addition, partner organizations will receive complimentary invitations to attend all QTM
events.
Queering the Museum Community Advisory Committee
The community advisory committee (CAC) is formed of community members representing a
variety of perspectives from and on local Queer communities. Local Queer organizations that
have committed to community partnership agreements with the Queering the Museum (QTM)
for the history project may identify an individual from their organization to participate in the
CAC meetings. In addition, individuals who have demonstrated knowledge and commitment to
preserving local Queer histories may be invited to participate.
We seek CAC members that will help us to include a diversity of experiences and perspectives in
the QTM project. This includes diversity of age, race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality.
2
CAC Individual Participants
Individual Community Advisory Committee members will attend regularly scheduled meetings,
occurring monthly. One individual will attend from each partner organization; it need not be the
same individual each month.
• Members will provide input on the development of the schedule for the Queering the
History Museum Symposium.
• Members will promote all QTM events within Queer organizations with which they are
connected.
• Members will participate in developing the collecting policy for the Queering the History
Museum Digital Storytelling Project (DSP) and will assist in inviting individuals to apply
for participation.
• Members will review the DSP applications and collaboratively make the final selection of
the 10 participants, with a commitment to including a range of local Queer experiences.
• CAC members will provide ongoing support of QTM activities, including the DSP, the
Symposium and the Exhibit. This may include promoting events, inviting individuals
and groups to attend events, attending events personally, recruiting volunteers, personally
volunteering, advertising QTM events, and providing two-way communication between
QTM and the Queer organization(s) with which you are personally affiliated.
• In addition, individuals will be asked to assist in responding to questions and concerns
raised by participants or the larger area community for the duration of the QTHM project
with MOHAI.
• Individuals may be asked to assist with fundraising opportunities by writing letter of
support or other appropriate documents, connecting QTM with any interested donors or
letting QTM know about other fundraising opportunities.
Community Partner Organization: ________________________________________
Representative: _______________________________________________________
Preferred Contact Info: ____________________________________________________
QTM Representative:____________________________________________________
Today’s Date: _________________________
Private: Community Advisory Committee
Thank you to all of our Community Advisory Commi鴺ee (CAC) members. CAC organizations
have provided invaluable guidance and support to the work of Queering the Museum, both past
and present:
API‑Chaya
Entre Hermanos
Gay City Health Project
Gender Alliance of the South Sound
Ingersoll Gender Center
Lily Divine Productions
Northwest Lesbian and Gay History Museum Project
Oasis Youth Center
Puget Sound‑Old Lesbians Organizing for Change
Queer Social Club
Queer Youth Space
Rainbow Center
Tim Burak
Aleska Manilla
Sea鴺le Gay News
University of Washington: Bothell, Sea鴺le, Tacoma Campuses
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Workshops | the incluseumEdit
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Revealing Queer Media Coverage
History Cafe (/programs/history-cafe)
History Cafe: Seattle's LGBTQ Community
Thursday, February 20, 2014
History Cafe: Seattle's LGBTQ Community
Erin Bailey, curator of MOHAI’s upcoming exhibit Revealing Queer, will moderate a panel of
community members, artists, and historians to explore the history of Seattle’s LGBTQ
community.
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Home / Top News / Local / Interview with the Cofounder of Revealing Queer at MOHAI
By - May 27, 2014 - In Local, Top News 351 0
Museum of History and Industry
Awareness and support for the Puget Sound’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer
(LGBTQ) community has surged in recent years. Marriage equality and Seattle electing its first
openly gay mayor demonstrate the forward momentum. The Museum of History and Industry’s
(MOHAI) current exhibit, Revealing Queer, is encouraging future progress via a celebration and
recognition of the past.
“One of the main goals is for people to fall back in love with this city because of the LGBTQ
communities who’ve lived here over the past 40 years,” said Erin Bailey, curator of Revealing
Queer. “There are still fights to be fought, but there are resources here to do it. That is what’s
important to remember and what people will get from the exhibition.”
Revealing Queer is unique nationally. Few mainstream museums have chosen to host LGBTQ-
focused history exhibits. According to Bailey, MOHAI is the first Washington history museum.
With colleague Nicole Robert, Bailey cofounded Queering the Museum Project to advocate for
museums to incorporate and feature LGBTQ history. A positive reaction to MOHAI’s exhibit will
hopefully encourage other institutions.
Bailey, a University of Washington graduate, spoke with The Seattle Lesbian about what makes
Revealing Queer a must-see and why everyone benefits from learning about this aspect of local
history.
I grew up in the middle of nowhere in Michigan. It wasn’t the most diverse place I’ve ever seen
and it didn’t have a ton of access to culture. Going to museums was an awakening. It introduced
me to the world as a whole and the idea that more was happening than just what I saw at my
house or high school. There is a whole global community.
Erin Bailey, curator of Revealing Queer exhibit
When I began assessing museums with a mature approach, I realized that (as part of the LGBTQ
community) my history wasn’t represented and I couldn’t grow from learning about it. I wanted
to contribute to a conversation about why that wasn’t happening and how we could address it
in an equitable way.
There are lots of different ways to think about queer. It’s an identity, a theory and a political
mentality. In regards to theory, it opens up a conversation about anyone who deviates from any
kind of norm whether it’s sexual, gender or ideological. People don’t fit into easy categories. As
an identity, it’s talking about sexuality beyond gender definitions. Politically, it’s radical but not
radical. It’s not a big F-you statement to The Man. It’s a very specific, “No, thank you” to The
Man.
It covers about 1973 – which arguably marks the area’s first, unofficial pride protests – to
present day with Ed Murray being Seattle’s first openly gay mayor. We broke it into five broad
themes. First, we engage with Language so people can understand what we’re talking about. We
knew using the word “queer” was going raise some eyebrows. What does it mean to be queer?
Spaces and Places covers community resources, gay bars as political and communal spaces,
places of activism and more. Celebrations talks about pride, but also the other popular events
that happen throughout the region that people might not know about. Lived Experience
Visitors engage with the MOHAI’s Revealing Queer exhibit
discusses the iconic people who were game-changers in this region. They set the pace for what
we’re doing, how our politics work and even how immigration considers these issues. Finally,
Regional Law and Policy has a lot of content because it covers so much that has happened in
the last 40 years.
We used a Community Advisory Committee model. There were 12 groups such as the Ingersoll
Gender Center, the Gay City Health Project, Queer Youth Space and more. The committee
developed the narrative and what they felt should or didn’t need to be included. There were
some great discussions.
We designed it so it really is for everybody. The goal is to make connections for everyone.
Anybody can be a mother regardless of who you love or how you identify. Anybody can be a
political activist. Anybody can emigrate from a different country. All those themes are in the
exhibit and are relatable and help bridge everyone’s experiences
The queer identity is about more than sexuality. I didn’t want to have a “Mature Audience”
disclaimer – and there isn’t. Yes, there is the sexual aspect [of being LGBTQ], but that’s just one
part of who we are. We also have all these other gifts and skills to offer like anyone else does. I
Visitors engage with the MOHAI’s Revealing Queer exhibit
want to encourage people to find the part of queer identities that intersects with their own.
So much has happened in last 40 years and it’s really impressive. People in this region made
initiatives and started things that had an amazing impact. I think the exhibition helps people
understand Seattle’s role in the national context and how progressive we’ve always been as a
city. We had the first mental health clinic in the country for LGBTQ people. We had first drop-in
youth center that wasn’t associated with a university. The Ingersoll Gender Center was one of
the nation’s first transgender centers and has been functioning for over 30 years. Seattle was
dealing with AIDS before it was identified as AIDS. This city has been in the trenches of the gay
rights movement for the past 40 years.
—
Revealing Queer runs through July 6, 2014. For Family Pride Day, MOHAI will offer all-ages
activities Saturday, June 28, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
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Museum Metamorphosis 2013
The permanent and official blog of the University of Leicester's School of Museum Studies PhD student
conferences and special events.
6 NOVEMBER 2013
Transmutation #20 Revealing Queer: an exhibition and
symposium at the Museum of History and Industry
The PhD community will be
hosting a conference,
November 56 2013. The
MUSEUM METAMORPHOSOS
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Erin Bailey is the founder of Queering the Museum, a project in
Seattle, USA. Her work applies a lot of museological thought,
queer theory and gender studies as a platform for the way in which
we think about representation in museums.
Queer studies are controversial, and so so often eliminated from
the national narrative alongside other things such as death,
asylum seekers, racism, indigenous issues, and more. The list of
controversial topics in the US is, for me, quite disturbing, reflecting
uneasy tensions between individual rights, the loyalty to the state
and church, and the relationship between America and the wider
world. For LGBT people, their already controversial situation is
complicated by their multiplicity of other, sometimes conflicting,
identities.
Changes in societal ideology, such as legalisation of samesex
marriage, allow museums to adapt to the times and tackle difficult
subjects. Museums play an important role in creating national
identity, and it is important that the government have a role in
stating that.
Bailey's work applies Elee Wood's 7 Rules for Revolution, which
use the power of museums to create transformative educational
spaces whilst rewriting the national narrative. But museums must
find ways of interpreting objects which do not give queer identities
as given and monumental through all places and times.
Queering the Museum is a joint effort between two scholars,
including Baily, with the purpose of researching topics including
theme is Museum
Metamorphosis. More details
to come!
Curiouser and Curiouser was
a conference that took place
in March 2011 by the PhD
students at the University of
Leicester's School of
Museum Studies. It set out to
deconstruct the ideas of
normality and eccentricity in
museums and heritage
institutions. What exactly is
normal and what is
idiosyncratic or eccentric?
The conference questioned
whether there is a true
distinction between these
terms, explore new
possibilities of definition and
shed new light on the
standard notion of collections,
collecting and interpretation.
We wished to take an
unusual approach to the
‘unusual’ and ask what is
appropriate or permissible,
what creates the eccentric
and why we are fascinated by
it. The conference
CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER
2011
5/26/2015 Museum Metamorphosis 2013: Transmutation #20 Revealing Queer: an exhibition and symposium at the Museum of History and Industry
http://msphdconf.blogspot.com/2013/11/transmutation20revealingqueer.html 3/10
inclusion, representation, engagement and collecting/preserving
history of relevance to the LGBTQ communities.
They made a proposal to the Museum of History and Industry in
Seattle, which accepted it. This allowed them to host a symposium
and a digital workshop, and an exhibition is being planned. MOHAI
is a significant institution the largest history collection in the area.
At the time, they were themselves undergoing a significant process
of change; in 2012, they moved to a larger and more prominant
building.
The exhibition will be the first to address LGBTQ history over the
last 40 years. They plan to work with a community advisory
committee within the Puget Sound region. Unlike many such
committees, the QtM group get to take part in every aspect of the
development and marketing of the exhibition. The exhibition is
designed for a general audience; MOHAI's audience is beleived to
be predominantly middle aged and right wing. But Seattle has one
of the largest LGBTQ populations in the US, and has historically
been at the forefront of LGBTQ rights. They had their first Gay
Pride festival in 1973, and were treating AIDS before the epidemic
broke.
The committee is made up not just of individual members, but of
members representing organisations. They have monthly
meetings, and three subgroups worked on the exhibition, the
digital storytelling project and the symposia (these groups are now
merged and collaborate on the exhibition). Members were
recruited through public events, coffee shop meetings, word of
proceedings are archived
with the tag 'curiouser'.
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mouth.
What does such a process take; trust, which is made up of time,
emotional investment, listening, patience, and, perhaps most
importantly, committed follow through. LGBTQ communities in
Seattle have historical reasons for not trusting institutions; so trust,
talking and listening is absolutely crucial.
The Queering the History Museum symposia brought ideas and
speakers to the museum, but institutional change didn't occur.
There was, perhaps, a lack of trust here. I wonder how the project
is supposed to have a future when 'the Man' isn't there? I hope
that this changes soon.
So how, after the exhibition, are the project and the History
Museum supposed to build relationships sustainably into the
future? This is something I don't have an answer to. I can say,
however, that this is an astonishing and brave project, and I hope
the trust is built, and sustained, to allow it to continue.
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Metamorphosis of
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KEYNOTE Love the
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Transmutation #14 An
Opening at the End of
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Tate in transition:
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Artistic change? Live
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Metamorphoses:
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Things are changing:
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Metamorphosis as
Dialogic Disc...
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Monad to man:
shifting natural...
Transmutation #6
Before the Museum
Transformation #5 In
case of emergency,
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860 Terry Avenue N
Seattle, WA 98109
206.324.1126
information@mohai.org
Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) is a tribute to the creative energy and
enterprise of the PaciÖc Northwest. As are most museums these days, it is also an information-
gathering site, inviting viewers to share their thoughts, ideas, and experiences as they move
MUSEUMS
MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND INDUSTRY
MARCH 30, 2014 | LEAVE A COMMENT
Seattle Spoken Wheel
through the space, listening to others who have left their marks on our region.
My favorite spaces in the museum are touch screens where you can animate a person’s image and
hear what she has to say about innovation. Although some of the people on these screens are
predictable—well-known regional entrepreneurs and MacArthur Award winners, for example—
there are others who are unexpected, such as people talking about the role of creativity in
skateboarding, early education, and DNA discoveries. Museum goers are invited to contribute
their own talking screen, as if to say creativity can come from anywhere where knowledge,
passion, and vision reside together.
There is much to see at MOHAI about the history of our place, and much to do, too, including
lifting the hill off Denny Hill. A reason to get there before July 6th is so you can see the exhibit
entitled Revealing Queer, which tracks growth and change in Puget Sound’s LGBTQ community
between 1969 and 2012, the year when marriage equality came to Washington State. The
exhibit is fascinating but perhaps more interesting and moving are the notes that people visiting
the exhibit have posted about their lives today. I hope the museum has a staff researcher who is
doing something with those notes!
In addition, there are “toe” trucks and movies, planes and cars, fashion and ship Ögureheads that
remind you once again how creepy-looking Ögureheads are. Why is that?? All of these great
sights are easily accessed in a wheelchair.
Furthermore, if you come to MOHAI with someone who is not in a wheelchair but who has
trouble walking, wheelchairs are available for your use.
MOHAI also houses a great little café and a tiny gift store crammed with wonders. One of the
wonders in that gift store was the young woman who was stafÖng it on the day when we were
there. When asked about a book available in the store, she said, “I’m not sure about that one. I
haven’t had time to read all of it yet.” I asked her if she read every book in the bookstore, and she
said, “I try to read them all so I can talk with visitors who are interested in them.” That young
woman, whose name I’m sorry to say I did not get, should get a raise!
Parking: ADA parking is right up next to the building. Head down the drive off Valley Street
toward the museum and stop at the speaker and gate. Push the button and tell the responder
that you need ADA parking. The gate will open and you’ll follow the road down to the museum. It
couldn’t be easier.
Entrances: There are no stairs at the front entrance and two sets of doors, both automatic. The
inside doors present a little problem because the automatic door-opening button is on the wall
right next to the doors, which open outward. You’ll need to push the button and immediately
move back out of the way of the door. Once inside you’ll be at the ticketing and information
counter.
Inside space: Inside the museum, passageways are spacious. You can see everything your
walking friends can see, and there are places for pushers to take a break along the way. A glass
elevator takes you to the second and third ×oor exhibits, and exhibits are easy to move in and out
of. The café space easily accommodates wheelchairs, with moveable chairs around tables and
ample space between tables.
Restrooms: Restrooms provide great wheelchair access and grab bars around the toilets.
There’s one near the café and one on the second ×oor, and both are perfect for wheelchair use.
Photos of interior space online: Some
Photos of entrances online: No
Reservations taken: Not necessary. When you visit, tell them Spoken Wheel highly
recommended them!
What the wheelchair pusher has to say: Wonderful ADA parking, right up next to the door. Flat
pushing inside and out. Elevator access was good. The layout was great.
Overall: Five wheels for great access!
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Revealing Queer,
Revealing Our Work
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Conference
Coverage
Click here for an overview of
all posts covering the
Museum & Politics
conference, 9-14 September
2014, Russia.
(http://museumspoliticsand
power.org/conference-
coverage/)
(http://museumspoliticsandpower.
(http://museumspoliticsandpower.org/wp-
content/uploads/2014/05/Installation-image-of-Reveling-Queer-Feb-
2014.-Photo-credit-Barbie-Hull-2.jpg)How do museums talk about
history that has been socially oppressed for decades?
That was the question that drove me to graduate school. I wanted to
know how museums have historically engaged socially oppressed
communities within their exhibitions, collections, and educational
initiatives so we can better understand how to continue this work into
the future. The power dynamics and politicking that are associated with
community or socially engaged work in museums, specifically the power
dynamics between communities and curators, fear of critique when
engaging contemporary politics, and the saddening reality that archives
don’t reflect socially oppressed communities, are some of the barriers
museums face when working with communities that are not socially
accepted.
To better understand how history museums can use exhibitions to write
these communities into the archive, Queering the Museum project
(http://queeringthemuseum.org/) (QTM) partnered with the Museum of
History & Industry (http://www.mohai.org/exhibits/item/2620-
revealing-queer) (MOHAI) to explore Queer representation and collecting
practices in their institution. MOHAI is the largest private heritage
organization in the State of Washington with a collection of over 4 million
objects, documents, and photographs from the Puget Sound region’s
past. Their mission is to “collect and preserve the diverse history of
Seattle, the Puget Sound region and beyond. Highlighting innovation and
education, MOHAI enriches lives by sharing the individual and collective
stories of our communities.” MOHAI is a growing institution that moved
into a large state of the art building in 2012 and as a result has the space
and resources to engage with diverse communities. With every new
initiative institutions have to navigate processes in their practices. Most
notably during our partnership we opened Revealing Queer
(http://www.mohai.org/exhibits/item/2620-revealing-queer), an
exhibition that highlights the last 40 years of LGBTQ history in the Puget
Sound region of Washington State, USA as told by the communities who
lived these experiences. When thinking about how to open an exhibition
that equitably tells the stories of a diverse subgroup of peoples we knew
that Revealing Queer would benefit from using the community advisory
committee model coined by the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific
American Experience (http://www.wingluke.org/). This model allowed us
(http://museumspoliticsandpower.
org/conference-coverage/)
(http://museumspoliticsandpower.org/conference-
coverage/)
Recent Posts
(http://museumspoliticsandpower.
org/conference-coverage/)
(http://museumspoliticsandpower.
org/conference-coverage/)
(http://museumspoliticsand
power.org/conference-
coverage/)What we have
learned – Reflecting on
‘Museums, Politics and
Power’
(http://museumspoliticsand
power.org/2014/10/28/wha
t-we-have-learned/)
“Wir, die Museen, stehen
nicht außerhalb der Politik,
aber darüber”
(http://museumspoliticsand
power.org/2014/09/30/wir-
die-museen-stehen-nicht-
auserhalb-der-politik-aber-
daruber/)
Share Your Photos!
(http://museumspoliticsand
power.org/2014/09/26/shar
e-your-photos/)
Press Review
(http://museumspoliticsand
power.org/2014/09/20/pre
ss-review/)
Museums – objects and
subjects of territorial
development
(http://museumspoliticsand
power.org/2014/09/20/mus
eums-objects-and-
subjects-of-territorial-
development/)
American Experience (http://www.wingluke.org/). This model allowed us
authentically tell these stories to visitors and to help build the archive of
regional LGBTQ history. This committee shaped the content of the
exhibition, identified objects held in community collections, and ensured
that the vast corners of Queer communities knew about our work at
MOHAI. This process literally questioned the power of museums in telling
stories of marginalized communities and continues to explore how
museums mediate an exhibition that engages contemporary politics.
(http://museumspoliticsandpower.org/wp-
content/uploads/2014/05/Members-of-the-Community-Advisory-
Committee-at-the-opening-of-Reveling-Queer-Feb-2014.-Photo-
credit-Barbie-Hull.jpg)Revealing Queer opened on February 14, 2014 to
a sold out opening party, quantitatively showing that engaging with
marginalized communities will build new bridges between the museum
and the communities they serve or in this case want to serve. Over the
course of the exhibition we have seen a diversity of people in the
exhibition space, including families, youth, aging communities and
school groups. As visitors continue to trickle into the exhibition the
comment book shines a light on the value of this exhibition at MOHAI.
One visitor left this note in the comment book, “wonderful exhibit –
strikes a chord with this young (25 year old) heart of mine. I love this city
and I love its history. Having a very smooth life since coming out in
2005, this exhibit gives me new energy to help others.” This comment
embodies the goals of the exhibition, to teach about LGBTQ history in
the Puget Sound, show the diversity of experiences within LGBTQ
communities, and use the museum as a space to inspire visitors to
continue fighting inequality in their lives and communities. We live in a
time when where human rights are advancing and society is rapidly
incorporating social values that reflect a diversity of identities, as
embodied in the current fight for and in some states passing of marriage
equality. While these changes are among us it does not mean that society
has achieved equality. It has been argued that society will never be truly
equal given that accepting one community or idea is often at the expense
of another. Much the same within the curation of an exhibition, when
one element of an identity is represented it is physically taking up the
space where another element could be represented. While the politics
around equality are being explored and understood, we do know that
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around equality are being explored and understood, we do know that
within LGBTQ experiences oppression still exists. Since 2010 we have
seen a surge in youth bullying and suicide, as well as an even longer
problem of the continued oppression of Trans identified peoples in
schools, gyms, hospitals, prisons, and the workforce – society is simply
not equal. Revealing Queer and the work of Queering the Museum Project
questions the power of museums and the power of politics in the media
to influence society, using the museum as a safe space to have dialogue
about oppression and inequality. The ability of the museum to act as a
facilitator of dialogue exposes the power of museums to change society.
(http://museumspoliticsandpower.org/wp-
content/uploads/2014/05/Installation-image-of-Reveling-Queer-Feb-
2014.-Photo-credit-Barbie-Hull.jpg)Working with MOHAI to open this
exhibition was a rare opportunity for recent grad and I am well aware of
how fortunate I was to be in that position. However, I also learned so
much about community work in museums, institutional vs. community
expectations, and how to do professional work so personal to my life.
Navigating these paths was an exercise of faith, faith that I work ethically
within the context and ensuring that I am listening to the community as
they share the darkest parts of their identities. At the end of months of
meetings and discussions, we put ourselves on the walls of the museums
for the general public to view. Open for criticism and hopefully
celebrations. One visitor to the exhibition shared these thoughts of
Facebook,
As a gay man, I was truly embarrassed by this exhibit.
There is little substance to it. It has the appearance, and
effect, of something created as a homework assignment by
a less than average high school class. It’s just bad! It
basically consists of a disjointed collection of posters and
poorly produced storyboards that are meaningless in
conveying the depth of gay “history.” Significant chapters
are ignored and insignificant “stories” are included. Worse,
there is one shameful advertisement after another from
“
blogstoeckchen/#comment-
1230)
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there is one shameful advertisement after another from
local gay organizations that must have contributed to this
disaster in some way or another. There is nothing moving
or powerful about it. Moreover, shame on my gay brethren;
the aesthetics of the presentation were amateur,
sophomoric.
This particular critique was not just on the topic of the exhibition, but on
the quality of the design and depth of the content. While this feedback is
a sharp stab to the heart of any institution trying to do good work, it also
speaks to expectations. We live in a society where LGBTQ identities are
becoming more visible and with visibility come the assumption that
queer history is as rich as any other communities’ history, and I
completely agree. What is missing from this critique is an understanding
that in museums we tell stories, stories of people, places, and thing.
These stories give the museum power and are usually object driven. At
the end of the day an exhibition is only as good as the archive is comes
from and the queer archive is seriously lacking in depth. The lack of deep
and rich queer objects forced us to take an experimental path for
interpretation, such as using digital stories created by community
members that allow them to tell their stories in their own voices, while
developing the technical skills to create these videos. Moreover, we
worked exceptionally hard to move away from the gay, white, cis-
gendered narrative that populates media. There are more narratives that
should be included in this exhibition; however, we only had 1,000 square
feet of space to make magic happen. His message was really hard for
me to read; however, the ten positive comments to the 1 negative must
mean were doing something right. Success is not written on social media
nor is it left in a comment book it comes from the experiences of people
in the galleries. Seeing people crying because their history is validated or
seeing teaching moments between adults and children in the galleries, to
tweets such as this one, “At the Revealing Queer exhibition @MOHAI &
honestly having a hard time not bursting into tears. Amazing work”
“Wishing a project like this existed in my home city/every city,” make you
forget naysayers and fosters inspiration to keep on trying.
As we come closer to the closing of Revealing Queer on July 6, 2014, we
are still navigating how to maintain relationships between MOHAI and
LGBTQ communities. This power dynamic will continue to play out over
time; however, MOHAI is dedicated to telling these stories in their
collections, exhibitions and programs. This exhibition moves MOHAI
away from the stereotypes of traditional history museum and into a
dialogue of power, politics and oppression.
Erin Bailey is the curator of Revealing Queer and co-founder of Queering
the Museum project. A a recent graduate from the Museology Graduate
Program at the University of Washington her career is dedicated to
finding new access points for museums to engage with contemporary
politics and culture.
Images, top to bottom: Installation image of Reveling Queer, Feb 2014;
Members of the Community Advisory Committee at the opening of
Reveling Queer, Feb 2014; Installation image of Reveling Queer, Feb
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Queering the Museum at the Museum of History & Industry
April 13, 2014 by Nalini Jasmine Elias 0 Comments
Exterior south view – Spike Mafford
For museums, access involves acknowledging the diverse histories and cultures of the communities they
serve. Access in museums also serves as a pathway to social justice, as museums acknowledge that there
are differences that could either unite us or separate us and participate in the everchanging dialogues of
social justice and equity. Given their roles in their communities, museums have a particular responsibility
to recognize a diversity of stories and use these stories to initiate change. The Museum of History &
Industry (MOHAI) is not only recognizing the last 40 years of LGBTQ histories in Seattle’s Puget Sound
region, it is celebrating them with its landmark exhibition Revealing Queer. LGBTQ is a term that points
to different identities that are outside of heteronormity, and the five letters that compose the term are
simultaneously liberating and oppressive as each comes with a set of societal expectations.
MOHAI’s Revealing Queer illustrates how the Puget Sound LGBTQ community has gained visibility,
and it encourages the community to continue to work towards equality through legal reform and
activism.
The blossoming of Puget Sound’s LGBTQ community, from before the Stonewall Riots of 1969 to the
politically active community that supported marriage equality law in Washington State in 2012, is
remarkably portrayed in Revealing Queer. This exhibit was led by curator Erin Bailey, cofounder
of Queering the Museum, along with the collaboration of a Community Advisory Committee composed
of a range of LGBTQ groups remarkable in scope: API Chaya, Entre Hermanos, Gay City Health Project,
Ingersoll Gender Center, Gender Alliance of the South Sound, Lily Divine Productions, Northwest
Lesbian and Gay History Museum Project, Oasis Youth Center, Puget Sound – Old Lesbians Organizing
for Change, Queer Youth Space, Rainbow Center, Seattle Gay News and the University of Washington.
The Community Advisory Community’s role was vital in the creation of the exhibition, as the group
helped shape and direct the content in the exhibition based off of the experiences they lived as members
of the Seattle LGBTQ community. Bailey believes that working alongside a Community Advisory
Committee was beneficial, as “the authority of the museum is put into the hands of those who live the
experiences represented in the exhibition. It moves us away from an expert approach to a community
driven approach. LGBTQ histories are often times left out of the archive and by using the community
advisory committee model [we] were able to supplement the lack of archive while developing exhibitions
related to LGBTQ people.”
Historic photograph – via MOHAI
Revealing Queer is also a project of Queering the Museum (QTM), an evolving project concerned with
representations of LGBT/Q people in museums across the country. The LGBT/Q acronym stands for
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender identified individuals. The letter Q, referencing Queer and
Questioning, represents those who reject a specific or static sexual and/or gender identity and embrace
queer as a broad identifier. The goal of QTM is “to facilitate critical dialogues between community
members and museum practitioners [to address] the role that museums play in forming social norms
around gender and sexuality.” QTM especially collaborates with museums to educate and help construct
normalized ideas of race, gender, and sexuality, and to connect community members with museum
professionals in their communities through a variety of activities. MOHAI’s mission to highlight
innovation and education and to enrich lives by sharing the individual and collective stories of our
communities has become an ideal platform for QTM’s projects.
MOHAI’s vision of innovation through historical exploration and inspiring people to create a better
future for themselves and their communities is clearly reflected in Revealing Queer’s documentation of
LGBTQ’s changing communities, cultures, and art. A predominant feature in this exhibition, as Bailey
notes, is the theme of language. In the exhibition, there is a compilation of “commonly used terms within
the LGBTQ community as a way to provide visitors with an understanding of these letters, [as well as]
pejorative words, words that [she thinks] should no longer be used to create an opportunity for people to
reflect on the language that they use to describe the LGBTQ community.” Bailey understands that most
people do not know what the acronym means and wanted to clearly define it in the exhibition to avoid
biases or confusion.
So far Revealing Queer has been well received in the community. It is important that museums and
scholars continue to not only document the history of LGBTQ communities, but to also celebrate those
stories. Bailey highlights the need to build a concise archive about the LGBTQ experience so that
museums can dig deeper into this community. Revealing Queer serves as a model of how museums can
serve as sites of social justice. MOHAI and Queering the Museum understand that social justice takes
more than a few groups of individuals to question conditions and seek justice, or even to recognize the
collective impact of differences. It is up to us as professionals and human beings to question or reject
injustices and find ways to promote equality. MOHAI is finally queering the museum by identifying
LGBTQ as a relevant and valuable topic through a thoughtprovoking exhibition that challenges,
educates, and spreads awareness. As a result, Revealing Queer has become a dynamic classroom about
people, politics, culture, sexuality, individuality, and art.
Revealing Queer will run through July 6th, 2014.
Filed Under: Culture, History Tagged With: LGBTQ, museum of history and industry, seattle,
washington
About Nalini Jasmine Elias
Nalini Elias is a regular Plinth contributor and currently resides in San Francisco.
A New Phase for an Old Home: The
Inaugural Exhibition of the Driehaus
Museum2 comments • 3 years ago
Thomas Canavan — Thanks for visiting Lee!
How To Make (Almost) Anything at the
Museum of Science and Industry in
Chicago2 comments • 3 years ago
Thomas Canavan — You’re welcome Kevin,
thanks for reading!
Pervasive History: An Inclusive &
Experimental Approach for Historical
Societies1 comment • a year ago
Brad Larson — Hi Liz thanks for the great
article playing out potential intersections
between urban planning and local history
museums. Very helpful to to think beyond
Creating at the Museum: ArtLab and
ArtReach
2 comments • 3 years ago
Thomas Canavan — Hi Madafo, we agree
completely. Schools should do more to give
students the opportunities to explore the way
museums do. Thanks for reading!
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G'Revealing Queer'
by Jen Graves
o to MOHAI and you'll see Boeing, the Great Fire, Rainier beer, the Kalakala,
the Space Needle, Arthur Denny, Princess Angeline, Microsoft, and Amazon—
but until now, the museum has never focused an exhibition on the
Northwest's big, influential queer community. Through artifacts,
photographs, and documents—many never seen in public before—Revealing Queer
relates the very varied stories of the lives, loves, and fights for justice of
Northwestern Ls, Gs, Bs, Ts, and straightup Qs, from the emergence of a local
underground before the Stonewall Riots of 1969 through the legalization of gay
marriage in 2012. The curators created this exhibition under the aegis of a project
SUGGESTS FEB 18, 2014
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they call Queering the Museum, in the hopes that the opposite wouldn't happen
the institutionalization of queers upon entering a museum. (Museum of History &
Industry, 860 Terry Ave N, mohai.org, 10 am–5 pm, $14, Feb 14–July 6)
Related Locations
Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI)
860 Terry Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109
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(hᄌps://classracegender.files.
wordpress.com/2015/04/erin‑
bailey‑and‑nicole‑
robert.jpg)
Queering the Museum
founders Erin Bailey and
Nicole Robert
crg@cgp
Posted on April 21, 2015April 21, 2015 by torilee0310
Revealing Queer (hᄌp://www.mohai.org/press‑media/press‑releases/item/2636‑mohai‑explores‑
lgbtq‑history‑in‑locally‑developed‑exhibit‑revealing‑queer), a landmark exhibition produced by
Seaᄌle’s Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) (hᄌp://www.mohai.org/) and curated by
Queering the Museum (hᄌp://queeringthemuseum.org/), explored the last 40 years of LGBTQ
history in the Puget Sound region. The exhibition, which opened in February 2014 and ended in
July of the same year, was the brainchild of Queering
the Museum (QTM), a project founded by museum professionals
Erin Bailey and Nicole Roberts in 2011 to explore issues of
representation of marginalized groups, particularly LGBTQ
communities, in museums. The goal of QTM is, “…to facilitate
critical dialogues between community members and museum
practitioners, addressing the role that museums play in forming
social norms around gender and sexuality.” [1] QTM investigates
these issues by doing actual projects in museums including
exhibitions, workshops, or symposiums. The two founders
proposed Revealing Queer to MOHAI because they wanted a more
regional history based exhibition that could fully connect with the
community as well as engage with LGBTQ history in a way that
was different than an art museum.
The exhibition itself explores how the Greater Puget Sound
LGBTQ community has changed and grown overtime, from its
underground origins before the Stonewall Riots in 1969 to the
2012 legalization of gay marriage in Washington
State. The exhibit’s narrative uses the history of legal reform,
activism, community organizations, and individual stories as the
basis of its content. [2] Since the museum itself did not have
extensive collections that told this history, the museum and QTM
underwent a massive community search to seek out objects,
documents, and
Revealing Queer: A Model for Inclusion
in Museums
(hᄌps://classracegender.files.wordpress.co
m/2015/04/revealing‑queer‑part‑ii.jpg)
Entrance to the exhibition Revealing Queer
(hᄌps://classracegender.files.wordpress.co
m/2015/04/community‑advisory‑
commiᄌee.jpg)
Community Advisory Commiᄌee members
documents, and
photographs to tell the story. According to curator
Erin Bailey, the overall goals of the exhibition other
than educating visitors about the history of this
community were to, “…develop relationships
between community organizations and MOHAI,
between staff members and community members.
We wanted people to learn about how to talk about
LGBTQ people, how to understand the experiences
that they lived, and to make connections between
queer experiences and non‑queer experiences.” [3]
What stood out to me about this exhibition that
differed from other museums that have sought to
tell of the history of a particular LGBTQ community
is their use of the Community Advisory Commiᄌee
(CAC) model. Based off of the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience’s
model (hᄌp://www.wingluke.org/community‑advisory‑commiᄌees), the exhibition team formed
a Community Advisory Commiᄌee that involved members of a variety of local LGBTQ
organizations including API Chaya, Entre Hermanos, Northwest Lesbian and Gay History
Museum Project, and many more. Members of these organizations were invited to weekly
exhibit meetings to help drive and develop the
content, edit text, locate objects, and also engage the
local community with the exhibit. This model is so
compelling because museums have long grappled
with how to represent cultures and communities,
especially those who have been historically
marginalized. Representation and inclusion in
cultural institutions such as museum is extremely
important because it validates a community’s
history, struggles, and accomplishments, but can be
problematic when members of a community are not
asked to represent themselves. Although
“inclusion” is a word that gets brought up a lot in
the museum world, what does it really mean? As
curator Erin Bailey points out, “Words like
inclusion, are really becoming buzzwords. Like
“innovative”, “progressive”, “diversity”, and
“multiculturalism”. These words are used a lot, and
they can become meaningless. They have power, and they have meaning, but then after being
used so much and so irreverently they lose that meaning. Using community curators allows us to
take inclusion and make it mean something to people…” [4] The CAC model is a great way to
gain a multitude of experiences, opinions, and perspectives. However, what are the drawbacks to
using this type of model?
Although public response to the exhibition seemed mostly positive as evidence from the sold out
Although public response to the exhibition seemed mostly positive as evidence from the sold out
opening, to the increase in social media activity, to the use of new LGBTQ themed public
programing (hᄌp://queeringthemuseum.org/2014/12/29/2014‑has‑come‑and‑gone‑now‑what/),
there were a few criticisms. One of these criticisms struck at the very heart of what Revealing
Queer tried to represent. Some claimed that the gay, lesbian, and bi‑sexual stories were
represented, but the transgender story was not. Another major criticism was that the narrative,
“basically consists of a disjointed collection of posters and poorly produced storyboards that are
meaningless in conveying the depth of gay “history.” [5] Though the CAC has so many great
elements, there is a danger of too many voices within an exhibition. Although curator voice can
be problematic, there is something to be said about a coherent and narratively strong exhibition.
Some major questions that I came out of this thinking about are, “How can museums balance
narrative and representative voices?” and “Can museums be too inclusive?”
[1] “About QTM,” Queering the Museum (blog). hᄌp://queeringthemuseum.org/about/
[2] “Revealing Queer opens February 14!” Queering the Museum, January 16th, 2014.
hᄌp://queeringthemuseum.org/2014/01/16/revealing‑queer‑opens‑february‑14th/
(hᄌp://queeringthemuseum.org/2014/01/16/revealing‑queer‑opens‑february‑14th/)
[3] “The Road to Revealing Queer: An Interview with Curator Erin Bailey Part II,” The
Incluseum, March 14th, 2014. hᄌp://incluseum.com/2014/03/14/the‑road‑to‑revealing‑queer‑an‑
interview‑with‑curator‑erin‑bailey‑part‑ii/
[4] “The Road to Revealing Queer: An Interview with Curator Erin Bailey Part I,” The
Incluseum, March 5th, 2014. hᄌp://incluseum.com/2014/03/05/the‑road‑to‑revealing‑queer‑an‑
interview‑with‑curator‑erin‑bailey‑part‑i/
[5] Linda Norris, “Revealing Queer, Revealing Our Work,” Museums, Politics, and Power, May 9th,
2014. hᄌp://museumspoliticsandpower.org/2014/05/09/revealing‑queer‑revealing‑our‑work/
Tags: Community, Exhibits, Gay, LGBT, Museums, Sexual Identity Categories:
Uncategorized
BLOG AT WORDPRESS.COM. THE INTERGALACTIC THEME.
5/26/2015 Scholar Nicole Robert Collaboratively Queers the Museum of History and Industry with the opening of the “Revealing Queer” History Exhibit | ViewPOINT
http://blog.pointfoundation.org/2014/03/24/scholarnicolerobertcollaborativelyqueersthemuseumofhistoryandindustrywiththeopeningoftherevealingqueerhistoryexhibit/ 1/7
ViewPOINT
Scholar Nicole Robert Collaboratively Queers the Museum of History
and Industry with the opening of the “Revealing Queer” History Exhibit
March 24, 2014
5/26/2015 Scholar Nicole Robert Collaboratively Queers the Museum of History and Industry with the opening of the “Revealing Queer” History Exhibit | ViewPOINT
http://blog.pointfoundation.org/2014/03/24/scholarnicolerobertcollaborativelyqueersthemuseumofhistoryandindustrywiththeopeningoftherevealingqueerhistoryexhibit/ 2/7
Opening panel of the Revealing Queer exhibit. Photo by Nicole Robert.
A little over two years ago, Erin Bailey and I were sitting in the café of a local Seattle museum dreaming about the ways that
queer ideas and cultures could engage mainstream museums. One of those dreams was a queer‑themed history exhibit that
would bring the rarely‑seen stories of local lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer (LGBTQ) communities into a mainstream
museum. We picked the largest history organization in the state of Washington, the Museum of History and Industry
(MOHAI) and were surprised and thrilled when they accepted our proposal.
5/26/2015 Scholar Nicole Robert Collaboratively Queers the Museum of History and Industry with the opening of the “Revealing Queer” History Exhibit | ViewPOINT
http://blog.pointfoundation.org/2014/03/24/scholarnicolerobertcollaborativelyqueersthemuseumofhistoryandindustrywiththeopeningoftherevealingqueerhistoryexhibit/ 3/7
Erin and Nicole pictured with some of the Community Advisory Committee Members. Photo property of Museum of History and Industry,
credit Barbie Hull.
th
5/26/2015 Scholar Nicole Robert Collaboratively Queers the Museum of History and Industry with the opening of the “Revealing Queer” History Exhibit | ViewPOINT
http://blog.pointfoundation.org/2014/03/24/scholarnicolerobertcollaborativelyqueersthemuseumofhistoryandindustrywiththeopeningoftherevealingqueerhistoryexhibit/ 4/7
On Feb. 14th, we celebrated the culmination of our MOHAI collaboration at the opening of the Revealing Queer exhibit, which
explores the last 40 years of regional LGBTQ histories. Erin and I co‑founded Queering the Museum—an ongoing project to
uncover and share LGBTQ stories in institutions across the country. Working with our Community Advisory Committee, we
produced a digital storytelling project, a Queer History Museum Symposium and this exhibit. Erin ably led the curation of the
exhibit while I developed the digital storytelling videos, several of which are featured in the exhibit.
Exhibit stand featuring the Six Eleven Tavern sign. Photo by Nicole Robert.
Revealing Queer is an exhibit exploring how the Puget Sound LGBTQ community has grown, changed, become more visible,
and worked towards equality. Informed throughout by the lived experiences of this incredibly diverse population, the exhibit
traces its history from an emerging underground group in the years before the Stonewall Riots of 1969, to the large and
5/26/2015 Scholar Nicole Robert Collaboratively Queers the Museum of History and Industry with the opening of the “Revealing Queer” History Exhibit | ViewPOINT
http://blog.pointfoundation.org/2014/03/24/scholarnicolerobertcollaborativelyqueersthemuseumofhistoryandindustrywiththeopeningoftherevealingqueerhistoryexhibit/ 5/7
politically active community that helped make marriage equality law in Washington State in 2012. We hope that QTM’s
partnership with MOHAI is the start of an ongoing conversation that builds lasting relationships between MOHAI and local
queer communities.
MOHAI lobby is full of people celebrating! Photo property of MOHAI, credit Barbie Hull.
5/26/2015 Scholar Nicole Robert Collaboratively Queers the Museum of History and Industry with the opening of the “Revealing Queer” History Exhibit | ViewPOINT
http://blog.pointfoundation.org/2014/03/24/scholarnicolerobertcollaborativelyqueersthemuseumofhistoryandindustrywiththeopeningoftherevealingqueerhistoryexhibit/ 6/7
With almost 700 people joining us for the Feb. 14th opening, we are thrilled by the community response. It was great to see
people recognizing themselves or friends in some of the photos and to hear people reflect about the histories they helped
create. Many people commented on the significance of seeing stories like theirs in a mainstream museum. The exhibit will be
open six months and will be featured at the American Alliance of Museums national conference in May. Erin and I are
immensely thankful to everyone who helped make this exhibit a reality. Through loaning objects, time and
knowledge, Revealing Queer is truly a collective effort.
Scholar Derek Blechinger (left) and Alum *bex(right) supporting Scholar Nicole Robert (center) on opening night.
This post was written by Walter M. Decker Point Scholar Nicole Robert
Nicole, the proud mother of two young children, came out later in life and grappled with her own shifting
5/26/2015 Scholar Nicole Robert Collaboratively Queers the Museum of History and Industry with the opening of the “Revealing Queer” History Exhibit | ViewPOINT
http://blog.pointfoundation.org/2014/03/24/scholarnicolerobertcollaborativelyqueersthemuseumofhistoryandindustrywiththeopeningoftherevealingqueerhistoryexhibit/ 7/7
identity. She found herself having to confront the limited representations of gender and sexuality that exist in
the world at large and in museums specifically. Responding to these gaps, Nicole earned an M.A. in Museology
from the University of Washington and is now pursuing a PhD in Feminist Studies. Her research focuses on the
intersections of race, gender and sexuality in U.S. history museums. Learn more about Nicole.
Nicole was one of the Point Scholars and Alumni in attendance at the recent Seattle Cornerstone event.
Category : Community Service Project, Point Scholar
Tags : art, exhibit, History, lgbt, MOHAI, Museum of History and Industry, Revealing Queer, seattle
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Revealing Queer MOHAI's groundbreaking
LGBTQ history exhibit opens February 2014
Tim Moffett SGN Staff Writer
The Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) will begin its
second year at its new Lake Union location by presenting
'Revealing Queer,' a landmark exhibit on the history of the
Puget Sound's LGBTQ community.
The exhibit is one of the first of its kind in a mainstream
history museum, and will be on display from February 14
through July 6.
'Revealing Queer' explores how the Puget Sound LGBTQ
community has grown, changed, become increasingly
visible, and worked toward equality.
Informed throughout by the lived experiences of the Puget
Sound region's very diverse population, 'Revealing Queer'
traces LGBTQ history from an emerging underground
community in the years before the Stonewall Riots of 1969,
to the large and politically active community that helped
make marriage equality law in Washington state in 2012.
Visitors will discover this complex history through a variety
of themes, including language, significant cultural spaces,
Queer celebrations, regional law, and more.
'Revealing Queer' is the result of a collaborative effort
between many individuals and organizations, led by Erin
Bailey and Nicole Robert, cofounders of Queering the
Museum an ongoing project to uncover and share
LGBTQ history in institutions across the country. 'Projects
like 'Revealing Queer' are important,' said Bailey, 'because
once you're in the museum, no one can contest your
history.'
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BREAKING NEWS
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Bailey worked closely with a community advisory
committee to curate 'Revealing Queer.' The committee was
comprised of individuals and representatives from local
LGBTQ organizations, including API Chaya, Entre
Hermanos, Ingersoll Gender Center, Northwest Lesbian &
Gay History Museum Project, Seattle Gay News, Tacoma's
Rainbow Center, and Older Lesbians Organizing for
Change.
'We started this project seeking to explore ways to engage
LGBTQ communities in museums,' said Bailey. 'This
exhibition has recovered history that would have otherwise
been lost and is preserving the history that's happening
now. We're trying to ensure that the Queer narrative is
archived.'
'Revealing Queer' will be featured in MOHAI's Linda and
Ted Johnson Family Community Gallery, an intimate space
designed to promote community ownership of MOHAI
through exhibits curated in collaboration with local
partners.
An opening night celebration will be held on Friday,
February 14, from 711 p.m. at MOHAI (860 Terry Ave. N.).
The evening will feature drink, dessert, activities and
performances from LGBTQ groups throughout Seattle.
Activities include Gay Bingo, hosted by Mama Tits, and
Queer burlesque with the incomparable Lily Divine and
Pidgeon Von Tramp.
Tickets are $12 for the general public and $10 for MOHAI
members, and are available online at www.mohai.org. The
exhibit runs through July 6.
MOHAI members can preview 'Revealing Queer' on
Wednesday, February 12 from 68:30 p.m.
MOHAI admission is FREE to the general public on the 1st
Thursday of the month.
The Seattle Gay News hopes this will be a launching point
to the conversation about preserving and celebrating the
Puget Sound region's LGBTQ history.
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THE
INCLUSE
UM
Inclusion | Museums
Search this site...
WHO WE ARE
The Incluseum is a
project based in Seattle,
Washington that
advances new ways of
being a museum
through critical
discourse, community
building and
collaborative practice
related to inclusion in
museums. The
THE ROAD TO REVEALING
QUEER: AN INTERVIEW WITH
CURATOR ERIN BAILEY, PART I
March 5, 2014 · by the incluseum · in Best Practices,
Culture, Heritage, & Identity · 3 Comments
Recently, Jana Greenslit, Incluseum contributor and intern
(read more about Jana on our About page) sat down with
Erin Bailey to discuss the Revealing Queer exhibit at the
Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) and the project
the exhibit emerged out of, Queering the Museum. Because
Revealing Queer has recently opened and is on view to the
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RT @ranaldw:
@JamesRojas
public we hope that this interview:
1. gives readers an inside look at the process and
intention behind the scenes of the exhibit and
2. makes those who have not yet experienced it want to
get over to MOHAI right away!
The Incluseum is particularly excited about the way the
Community Advisory Committee structure was applied for
the 䎦rst time at MOHAI through this exhibit. Erin’s
commitment to the CAC model and her desire to share
leadership and agency over the exhibit with LGBTQ
identifying community members invested in issues, work
and advocacy for LGBTQ communities in Seattle is one of the
de䎦ning aspects of the exhibit. When you attend Revealing
Queer you know that the narrative is not the product of a
sole, disembodied curatorial voice. Rather, what you
experience is a narrative crafted from the exchange and
discourse amongst directly involved stakeholders. As Erin
has stated, it is important that the breadth and diversity of
the lived experiences of LGBTQ identifying individuals were
self-represented to add accountability and community
ownership to the exhibit process. We will be sharing this
interview in two installments.
* * * *
J: Can you describe your role in the Revealing Queer
exhibition at MOHAI?
E: I am the curator of the Revealing Queer exhibition, and the
The Incluseum
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co-founder of the Queering the Museum (QTM) project with
Nicole Robert. We started that project in 2011 to explore a
practice-based methodology for how museums engage with
marginalized communities, speci䎦cally LGBTQ communities,
from the perspective of representation, inclusion,
exhibitions, collections, and educational programming.
People talk about inclusion a lot, it’s become a buzz word
kind of like diversity or multiculturalism. We started really
thinking critically about how museums are carrying out
inclusive work through our own practical application, which
is something we felt was lacking in the academy, if you will.
Entry to Revealing Queer Exhibit. Courtesy of Barbie Hull Photography.
J: Could you go a little bit more in-depth about what events
led to this exhibit now? Why are you doing it here, now, in
Seattle?
E: Before QTM, was QTM, I was working on a symposium
called Queering the Art Museum which was in conjunction
with the Hide/Seek exhibition at the Tacoma Art Museum. At
that time, I met Nicole and we founded QTM as a result of
that symposium. Building off that, I also curated a juried art
show in Tacoma that was a local response to Hide/Seek,
which was looking at themes of same sex desire in American
portraiture. I invited artists to submit works that were looking
at same sex desire in local regional portraiture to contrast
what the pillars of the art world were saying [Hide/Seek]
versus the people who were living these experiences on a
daily-basis. This project aimed to be community focused.
During that whole process Nicole and I drafted a proposal to
MOHAI, which included the Queering the History Museum
symposium and a curated exhibition that would address the
last 40 years of LGBTQ regional history. After we submitted
that proposal, we did a lot of networking, thinking, and risk
taking, because the museums could have easily been like,
“Yeah right, please child, go away,” and they didn’t!
J: Why did you and Nicole choose MOHAI? Did you consider
sending proposals to more than one institution?
E: No, we didn’t. We picked MOHAI because I have a
background in history. We especially wanted it to be a
history museum because of the unique way in which
sexuality could be addressed in this space over an art
museums. MOHAI is the only regional history museum in
Seattle and we thought it would have the biggest impact for
the community, versus having it out in Tacoma, for example.
I also knew people who worked here at MOHAI so I was
able to pilot test the idea around the museum, saw how staff
reacted to it, and got a better understanding of their vision
for their new community gallery.
Erin and Nicole. Courtesy of Barbie Hull Photography.
J: Have you seen any reactions from the community so far?
What do you think the general response is to this exhibit?
E: We used the Community Advisory Committee model, or
CAC, that the Wing Luke Museum coined and developed.
We adapted it to meet the needs of both MOHAI and QTM.
This means we took the public to be more of a creator
versus a collaborator, which had a direct impact on, for
example, securing objects. First, we speci䎦cally reached out
to LGBTQ organizations and allowed anybody from those
organizations to come as representatives at monthly
meetings to allow for a broader depth of experiences and
perspectives. Thanks to these meetings, we had built quite a
bit of community support for the exhibition before it even
opened! This allowed us to collect objects and craft a more
diverse narrative that better re䎪ects the communities we
wanted to represent. So because of all this work, I think a lot
of excitement had been building around the exhibition. I was
told people were crying at the member’s preview…it’s really
impactful! When people walk through the exhibition there
seems to be feelings of: “Oh my gosh, I know the guy in the
red dress in that photograph, and that was me chasing that
guy off the parkway, or this is my best friend, and I slept with
this guy and that guy.” This exhibition is a lot like a reunion of
memories, which is very important for validating and
authenticating people’s lived experiences…and the fact that
this is all happening in a museum makes it a part of the
greater narrative.
J: In what ways do you see this exhibition as achieving
greater inclusion for the LGBTQ community?
E: This exhibition is helping build bridges between MOHAI
and the LGBTQ community. A bridge is sometimes a bad
metaphor because it’s just two way…we’re building a web of
connections. MOHAI staff has reached out to the community
and the Community Advisory Committee in a variety of
ways, from community meetings to collections. Words like
inclusion, are really becoming buzzwords. Like “innovative”,
“progressive”, “diversity”, and “multiculturalism”. These
words are used a lot, and they can become meaningless.
They have power, and they have meaning, but then after
being used so much and so irreverently they lose that
meaning. Using community curators allows us to take
inclusion and make it mean something to people. My role as
a museum professional helped validate CAC participants’
stories and make them valuable for the greater narrative of
queer communities. In the gallery, people deeply connected
to the objects on view. The director of MOHAI even put his
domestic partnership license in the exhibition. He was so
excited when he brought it to the exhibition team! So the
excitement of getting your story into the exhibition was top,
down, left, right, incredibly inspiring for these people and
allowed the museum to authenticate other ways of living,
speci䎦cally authenticate non-normalized sexual lives and
how they intersect with the rest of the history that’s told. I
think this is an important way to help inclusion become more
than just a buzzword.
Members of the Community Advisory Committee, Marsha Botzen,
Aleksa Manilla, and Laura Brewer. Courtesy of Barbie Hull
Photography.
J: How do you think this exhibit impacts people beyond the
Seattle area?
E: I think it’s great. I think it shines a really nice light on
Seattle because we have so many 䎦rsts. For example, the
䎦rst mental health counseling services for LGBTQ people in
the country, arguably the world as far as we know, was here
in Seattle. We have the 䎦rst youth drop-in center for LGBTQ
youth not associated with a college campus, which is a big
deal because of class issues and accessibility for people who
do not attend university. We were 䎦ghting AIDS before AIDS
was even identi䎦ed as AIDS. We were 䎦ghting for several big
issues before the national LGBTQ movement happened. It’s
these things that Seattle was already doing that suddenly
became progressive and interesting and innovative. All this
contributes to making Seattle what it is today, and I think
that’s something people will take away from this exhibition.
…Stay tuned for the second part of this interview which will
be posted next week.
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The Road to
Revealing Queer: An
Interview with
Curator Erin Bailey,
Part II
Re-thinking Narrative
Production in
Museums through
Digital Storytelling
Workshops
Queer is here and in
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With 6 comments
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3 comments
The Road to Revealing Queer: An Interview with Curator Erin Bailey, Part
II | the incluseum · March 14, 2014 - 8:25 am · Reply→
[…] The Incluseum is particularly excited about the
way the Community Advisory Committee structure
was applied for the 䎦rst time at MOHAI through this
exhibit. Erin’s commitment to the CAC model and
her desire to share leadership and agency over the
exhibit with LGBTQ identifying community
members invested in issues, work and advocacy for
LGBTQ communities in Seattle is one of the de䎦ning
aspects of the exhibit. When you attend Revealing
Queer you know that the narrative is not the
product of a sole, disembodied curatorial voice.
Rather, what you experience is a narrative crafted
from the exchange and discourse amongst directly
involved stakeholders. As Erin has stated, when
there is so much diversity within the grouped
identities of LGBTQ identifying individuals, it is so
important that at least some of that diversity can be
Tags: Community Advisory, Curation, Sexual
Identities
represented at the table to add accountability to the
exhibit process. This post is the second part of the
two part interview. You can read the 䎦rst part here.
[…]
Re-thinking Narrative Production in Museums through Digital
Storytelling Workshops | the incluseum · March 19, 2014 - 1:34 pm ·
Reply→
[…] by Queering the Museum (QTM) and relied on a
community-based approach to curation (read: Part 1
and Part 2). Today, we host Nicole Robert, Doctoral
Candidate in Feminist Studies and Co-Founder […]
The Road to Revealing Queer | Queering the Museum · April 15, 2014 -
11:11 am · Reply→
[…] out these posts for an interview with Curator
Erin Bailey (Part 1 and Part 2) and some behind the
scenes information about the development of the
Digital […]
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THE
INCLUSE
UM
Inclusion | Museums
Search this site...
WHO WE ARE
The Incluseum is a
project based in Seattle,
Washington that
advances new ways of
being a museum
through critical
discourse, community
building and
collaborative practice
related to inclusion in
museums. The
THE ROAD TO REVEALING
QUEER: AN INTERVIEW WITH
CURATOR ERIN BAILEY, PART II
March 14, 2014 · by the incluseum · in Best Practices,
Culture, Heritage, & Identity · 2 Comments
Recently, Jana Greenslit, Incluseum contributor and intern
(read more about Jana on our About page) sat down with
Erin Bailey to discuss the Revealing Queer exhibit at the
Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) and the project
the exhibit emerged out of, Queering the Museum. Because
Revealing Queer has recently opened and is on view to the
ABOUT EXHIBITS RESOURCES
TOOLS & PUBLICATIONS GUEST BLOG CONTACT
Incluseum is facilitated
and coordinated by
Aletheia Wittman and
Rose Paquet Kinsley.
Contact us for
consulting, collaboration
or guest blogging at
incluseum@gmail.com.
YOU ARE FOLLOWING
THE INCLUSEUM
You are following this
blog, along with 953
other amazing people
(manage).
STAY CONNECTED
THE INCLUSEUM ON
FACEBOOK
THE INCLUSEUM ON
TWITTER
RT @ranaldw:
@JamesRojas
public we hope that this interview:
1. gives readers an inside look at the process and
intention behind the scenes of the exhibit and
2. makes those who have not yet experienced it want to
get over to MOHAI right away!
The Incluseum is particularly excited about the way the
Community Advisory Committee structure was applied for
the 䏁켞rst time at MOHAI through this exhibit. Erin’s
commitment to the CAC model and her desire to share
leadership and agency over the exhibit with LGBTQ
identifying community members invested in issues, work
and advocacy for LGBTQ communities in Seattle is one of the
de䏁켞ning aspects of the exhibit. When you attend Revealing
Queer you know that the narrative is not the product of a
sole, disembodied curatorial voice. Rather, what you
experience is a narrative crafted from the exchange and
discourse amongst directly involved stakeholders. As Erin
has stated, when there is so much diversity within the
grouped identities of LGBTQ identifying individuals, it is so
important that at least some of that diversity can be
represented at the table to add accountability to the exhibit
process. This post is the second part of the two part interview. You can
read the 䏁켞rst part here.
* * * *
J: When you were setting out to develop the Revealing
Queer exhibit, did you have any speci䏁켞c outcomes or goals
in mind?
The Incluseum
1,848 likes
Liked
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@incluseum @CCCADI
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@CentroPR
@MuseumEductr305
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… 1 day ago
RT @stassistephanie:
Blast this until the end
of time... Or Twitter.
Whichever comes
䏁켞rst.
twitter.com/incluseum
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@AAM_LGBTQ Happy
to share this amazing
work! 1 day ago
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E: I wrote impact statements, yes. I’m going to paraphrase,
as I wrote them at the very beginning and referenced them a
lot but I haven’t looked at them in months. First, it was to
develop a deeper understanding of LGBTQ communities in
Seattle. It was to make Seattle fall back in love with itself
because of the LGBTQ community. Also, it was getting these
stories into the narrative and the archive of the museum.
Now learning outcomes were a little bit different because we
wanted people to be able to understand queer history. Just
generally speaking, even people who identify as LGBTQ don’t
know their own history, which is problematic. We also
wanted it to be a de facto community space. We wanted
queer communities to come in and feel that this was theirs
and claimed and comfortable, and that MOHAI as an af䏁켞liate
proxy was also a queer space that they could claim and use
as they needed to. We wanted to develop relationships
between community organizations and MOHAI, between
staff members and community members. We wanted
people to learn about how to talk about LGBTQ people, how
to understand the experiences that they lived, and to make
connections between queer experiences and non-queer
experiences. Because there’s a lot of really similar
experiences between the two. I may have this non-
normalized sexual life, but I’m also a pastor. Or I’m also a
teacher. Or I’m also a researcher or a scholar or a mother or
a father…the list goes on, literally an in䏁켞nite list of other
identi䏁켞es that queer people carry with them.
Erin speaks at the Opening of Revealing Queer. Photo
Courtesy of Barbie Hull Photography.
J: What would need to happen with this exhibit for you to
consider it a success? What do you hope to happen from
this point on from the opening of the exhibit? How are you
going to measure that success?
E: I think that success evolves. I don’t think that success can
ever be fully predicted, and if you think you can, then I don’t
think you’re thinking critically about what you’re doing. You
can measure success in attendance. You can sell 500 pre-
sold tickets to the opening. That can be considered
successful. People have cried in the exhibition already. That
can be considered successful. The director came to me and
said, “Erin, I think you’ve really done something special here.”
That’s de䏁켞nitely something I would consider successful. But I
wonder if we can measure non-quantitative success before
it happens. I have no idea how the community’s going to
respond to this. I have no idea the impact it’s going have ten
years from now. I have no idea the percentage of MOHAI’s
collections that are going to increase because of the
acquisition of queer objects. All those things could be
considered successes. But the fact that MOHAI is doing it,
and has learned about queer and the philosophies and
theories behind it, and has adopted that into the mentality
working through the rest of their departments…I think that is
success. So it’s a hard question to answer but with a lot of
possibilities. The fact that MOHAI developed this gallery as a
new model and used the Community Advisory Committee in
the gallery space might also be considered a success. Is it a
big success for me? I don’t know. Is it for MOHAI? Maybe. It’s
just that every individual person has a different de䏁켞nition of
success, and so on that account we should ask everybody or
have a focus group on what success looks like based on this
exhibition.
J: Is this the 䏁켞rst time MOHAI has used the Community
Advisory Committee (CAC) model for an exhibition?
E: Yes, this is the 䏁켞rst time. They have worked with
community groups before, and I have no idea how they
developed their exhibitions, but my understanding of it so far
is that the community groups would come to MOHAI and
say “I wanna tell a story about houseboats,” and then they
would develop this exhibition and MOHAI would install it.
There’s never been a long-standing community driven
narrative working through MOHAI’s design team in that
capacity, as far as I know. Half of the reason MOHAI wanted
to do it was to see how it could work in a history museum
setting, in a new space…in addition to the value of
community narrative.
A Wall With Space to Participate – Soon it was Filled! Photo courtesy
of Barbie Hull Photography.
Photo Courtesy: Rose Paquet Kinsley
J: Was this the 䏁켞rst time you’ve personally worked with this
model?
E: Yeah. I learned when I interned at the Wing Luke Museum,
or at least got to see the working of it. I only interned there
for a summer so I barely had any background knowledge
with the Southeast Asia exhibition that I worked on. My role
in that was very small.
J: Now that you’ve gone through the whole process, do you
have anything to say about this particular model? Pros or
cons?
E: I think it’s a really great model because it’s so 䏄퍡exible. I
think that if someone were to open up The Wing Luke
Museum’s book on Community Advisory Committee models
and followed it to a tee, they’d be doing themselves a
disservice. I really think you need to adapt it and make it
whatever you need it to be for your context. Make that
happen. If you already have strong ties with whatever
community, and you don’t necessarily need the CAC to keep
building those ties, but you need them to still reach out to
certain members of the community, than a secondary level
of outreach. If you have an in-house expert in something,
they could be a part of the process. It’s more about using the
resources you have internally and then pulling the resources
that are critical from the community that you don’t have and
merging it together.
The Wing Luke Museum has noted some of the limitations
with the model, for example it’s super labor intensive. I
literally had to bring every single part of myself to the table
every single time I walked into a CAC meeting. I had to be
completely transparent about who I am as a human, people
in my life, and the experiences that I’ve had. I had to come
out 14,000 times in the process, which is 䏁켞ne with me. I have
no problems coming out, but continually putting those
emotions and not only the best emotions out, and being able
to manage that in a really positive way is something that
takes time to re䏁켞ne. To consistently do it over and over and
over again takes a little bit of a toll on you. But the rewards
from it are very important, like getting to sit around a table
with 12 people who are the pioneers of queer communities,
activism, and community organizing. Not only are they
af䏁켞rming your history, but you’re learning from them, and
they’re learning from you. You realize that you have the 12
best parents sitting around a table telling you, “you done
good kid,” or saying, “This is so different from my experience.
I 䏁켞nd that so fascinating. Let’s talk about it some more.”
Having that kind of relationship where you have all these
queer icons I didn’t have growing up was so important for
me. There were times the emotions were really high in that
capacity so it became a binding agent that allowed the CAC
and myself to function successfully. I think that’s something
people don’t always note about it.
J: Do you have anything you’d like to add?
E: Yeah, the exhibition is open until July 6, 2014. We’ll have a
history café on February 20th where we’re talking about the
role of community history projects in regards to the archiving
of community history. We’re looking at how artists, scholars,
and community workers work together in different capacities
to create these types of projects. We’re also doing a
collections initiative with MOHAI, so they’ll be building their
collection as a result of this exhibition. We’ll be having a
family day in June during Pride Weekend, which is going to
be fun. I really do hope that everyone comes to see the
exhibition and I would love if they shared their thoughts with
me because I think that’s really valuable. I’m totally open to
the world having my e-mail address which is problematic
but whatever. I opened up that can of worms like a year ago,
so what’s a few more? I really do want to talk to people
about it and I really do want to hear what they have to say.
I’m looking forward to hearing from folks from around the
Seattle area and their perspective on things. Good or bad.
We’re open to it.
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Re-thinking Narrative Production in Museums through Digital
Storytelling Workshops | the incluseum · March 19, 2014 - 1:34 pm ·
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[…] Queering the Museum (QTM) and relied on a
community-based approach to curation (read: Part 1
and Part 2). Today, we host Nicole Robert, Doctoral
Candidate in Feminist Studies and Co-Founder of
QTM. She […]
The Road to Revealing Queer | Queering the Museum · April 15, 2014 -
11:11 am · Reply→
[…] out these posts for an interview with Curator
Erin Bailey (Part 1 and Part 2) and some behind the
Tags: Community Advisory, Curation, Sexual
Identities
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What we talk about when we talk about history
by Administrator (/users/admin) | February 28th, 2014
The 1974 poster of the first pride festival in Seattle, yellowing issues of Seattle Gay News and
the neon sign of the legendary 611 gay bar: These are some of the objects that are displayed
in MOHAI’s “Revealing Queer” exhibition, which focuses on the history of the Puget Sound
LBGTQ community over the past 40 years.
“It’s a sad story in many ways but also a celebration of the people who have struggled, not
just for themselves, but for everyone,” said Fia Gibbs, who attended the exhibit’s opening
night.
“Revealing Queer” is a product of the Queering the Museum project, which was founded in
2011 by Erin Bailey, a recent graduate of the University of Washington (UW) Museology
program, and Nicole Robert, a Ph.D. candidate in the University of Washington department
of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies.
“We thought the museums didn’t do LBGTQ people justice,” said Bailey, who presented the idea of “Revealing Queer” to MOHAI and was
hired as a contractor curator for the exhibition.
“MOHAI took a huge risk, but they trusted the project. This is the first time a regional museum in the area does an exhibition with this
theme,” she said.
To create the exhibition, Bailey worked with a community advisory committee, consisting of people from 12 organizations within the LGBTQ
community, a model that has previously been used by the Wing Luke Museum. The idea is to invite people with relevant life experiences to
tell their stories. The committee met about once a month for more than a year.
Some of the objects in the exhibition were donated or lent out by individuals or organizations, while others come from MOHAI’s archives, the
archives of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the UW libraries. The result is an exhibition covering themes like meeting spaces, celebrations,
public policy changes and stories about individuals in the LGBTQ community.
One of the experiences represented is that of James Gaylord, a teacher at Wilson High School in Tacoma, who in 1972 was fired and faced
charges of immorality because of his sexual orientation. Another is that of transgender activist Marsha Botzer, who, among many other
accomplishments, helped found Equal Rights Washington and the Seattle LGBTQ Community Center.
“We want to show the breadth and diversity of queer people. We are parents, teachers, politicians and sometimes curators,” Bailey said.
The exhibit also touched on homelessness and economic vulnerability, featuring the story of Mexico-born civil rights advocate Jacque
Larrainzar, who was kicked out of her home when she came out, as well as on the history of public policy concerning employment and
housing discrimination.
By hosting “Revealing Queer,” MOHAI hopes to start conversations. As MOHAI marketing officer Lauren Semet put it, “We need LGBTQ people
to be a part of the narrative when we talk about history.”
Marchers participate in Seattle’s 1977 Gay Pride
Parade.
Photo courtesy MOHAI
(http://realchangenews.org/sites/default/files/styles/article_imag _full/public/pg-
5-revealing-queer2-022614.jpg?
itok=g5FwoU21)
Click to view larger
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Revealing Queer: The Exhibit (Seattle, WA)
Event Details
Date: July 6, 2014
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Categories: Western Washington (http://www.pridefoundation.org/events/category/western
washington/)
Revealing Queer (2.14.2014 – 7.6.2014)
Museum of History and Industry, 860 Terry Avenue North, Seattle, WA 98109
MOHAI proudly presents this landmark exhibit exploring the history of the Puget Sound LGBTQ
community. Informed throughout by the lived experiences of this incredibly diverse population, the
exhibit traces its history from an emerging underground group in the years before the Stonewall Riots
of 1969, to the large and politically active community that helped make marriage equality law in
Washington State in 2012. Visitors will discover this complex history through a variety of themes,
including language, significant cultural spaces, queer celebrations, regional law, and more. The
artifacts, photographs, and documents that fill the exhibit have come both from MOHAI’s collection
and from donors across the country—many have not been seen before by the public.
This exhibit is the result of collaboration between many individuals and organizations, led by Erin
Bailey and Nicole Robert, cofounders of Queering the Museum—an ongoing project to uncover and
share LGBTQ stories in institutions across the country. Bailey and Robert worked closely with a
Community Advisory Committee composed of representatives from local LGBTQ organizations to
create Revealing Queer. For more information on the Queering the Museum Project, please click here
(http://queeringthemuseum.org/).
Revealing Queer will be featured in MOHAI’s Linda and Ted Johnson Family Community Gallery, an
intimate space designed to promote community ownership of MOHAI through exhibits curated in
collaboration with local partners. Its rotating exhibits offer an opportunity to hear diverse voices and
stories from the contemporary Puget Sound region.
For more information, please visit MOHAI’s website (http://www.mohai.org/exhibits/item/2620
revealingqueer).
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Queering the History Museum Symposium
PREVIEW
Queering the MOHAI
Thursday, June 6, 2013 | by ERIN KING
Queering the Museum is an ongoing project that fills venerable institutions with
overlooked LGBT art and artifacts. Last year, QTM founders Erin Bailey and Nicole
Robert worked with Tacoma Art Museum and the Henry Art Gallery to ensure their
collections and programming are more inclusive of queer work. The pair takes on the
Museum of History and Industry next; turns out the institution known for ships and
airplanes also houses an archive of pride paraphernalia and LGBT treasures. The
exhibition doesn't open until winter 2014, but Bailey and Robert are conducting a
symposium on June 8 that will do something quite unusual in the whitewalled world of
museums: ask the public what it wants to see.
Participants can review and provide feedback on the exhibition plan, then drop into
presentations by the New Yorkbased PopUp Museum of Queer History, the Puget
Sound chapter of Old Lesbians Organizing for Change and curators from the GLBT
History Museum in San Francisco. The night will wrap up with a performance by
Capitan Smartypants of the Seattle Men's Chorus aboard the historic steamship Virginia
V.
"There's been a lot of conversation about inclusion in museums for decades, but we
found that queer inclusion wasn't coming up much," Bailey says. "When it was, it was a
very specific, onedimensional idea of what it means to be queer. We found that there
was an opportunity to broaden that conversation, especially considering the role that
museums have in the national narrative and how the community is seen globally."
That conversation took on an increased urgency when the Smithsonian caved to the
demands of homophobic congressmen and removed David Wojnarowicz's video A Fire
in my Belly from a 2010 exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. Dozens of
institutions worldwide screened the video or displayed LGBT works of art in protest.
QTM has built on that momentum, hoping to reach museums across the country and
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increase the visibility of queer art and history.
Robert has pioneered a new take on oral history, producing eight short films which will
screen at the June 8 symposium. She organized a fourday workshop that helped non
filmmaker members of the local LGBT community create their own vignettes that
highlight stories they would like to preserve for posterity. "We taught all the
participants to do this on their own so that they can go and do this as many times as
they want and teach other people—they got the opportunity to share a story that is
appropriate for inclusion in an archive or to be shown in a museum," says
Robert. "We're hoping to repeat the workshops as often as we can get the money to do
it."
QTM has its roots in projects like Mining the Museum, Fred Wilson's groundbreaking
1992 intervention which unearthed horrifying artifacts lurking in the Maryland Historical
Society's collection—Klan hoods, slave shackles—and displayed them alongside typical
historymuseum stuff like silver tea services to highlight the effects of racism on the
way museums collect and show objects. The exhibition fueled a shift from the
parochial, whitemale curatorial style that dominated the 20th century and continues to
affect our nation's cultural repositories. QTM pushes museums to look critically at their
practices and mine their collections.
Bailey's archival diving has turned up some interesting finds. "The beautiful thing about
this project is that you see all fresh things that people haven't seen before," she says.
"There's a ton of things that come out of the woodwork. I had a community member
tell me that they had a pride flag that was used early on that was made by a fiber
artist here in Seattle. It was used for several years, taken down to Burning Man and
back. It made the rounds around the country and he still has it."
What will be in the final exhibition? You'll have to wait and see. And come out on June
8—Bailey and Robert won't make any decisions until after the public has a say.
Get tickets and the full schedule
at http://queeringthemuseum.org/2013/05/14/symposiumprogram/
Archival photo courtesy MOHAI
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5/26/2015 Queering the Museum Project – Request for Proposals | Western Museums Association
http://www.westmuse.org/2013/04/19/queeringthemuseumprojectrequestforproposals 1/4
Queering the Museum Project – Request for Proposals
By Erin Bailey
Please help spread the word about the upcoming Queering the History Museum Symposium on June 8,
2013 at the Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) in Seattle, Washington.
On June 8th Queering The Museum Project (QTM) and the Museum of History &
Industry(http://www.mohai.org/) are joining forces for the Queering the History Museum
Symposium. This symposium will feature the PopUp Museum of Queer
History(http://www.queermuseum.com/) based out of New York, and include a variety of breakout sessions to
discuss issues of representation, inclusion and the role of museums in forming social norms around gender, race
and sexuality. After the symposium we will host a reception on board the historic Virginia
V(http://www.virginiav.org/) steamship!
QTM is designed to be a communitybased project that works to engage individuals in the administrative, historic,
and creative components of museums, and this symposium is no different. We are requesting proposals from
historians, artists, activists and community organizations to lead sessions during the symposium. Each session will
be between 6090 minutes in length. We welcome nontraditional session proposals that feature creative, interactive
or performancebased activities.
We welcome a diverse array of presenters, including those:
Of both Queer and nonQueer communities
Of different levels of experience
Both professionals and non professionals
From community groups or individuals
5/26/2015 Queering the Museum Project – Request for Proposals | Western Museums Association
http://www.westmuse.org/2013/04/19/queeringthemuseumprojectrequestforproposals 2/4
From community groups or individuals
In particular, the Community Advisory Committee is interested in proposals that accomplish one or more of the
following:
Feature diverse practices in historical, archive and museum work
Incorporate performance based sessions
Are relevant to our region and beyond
Draw upon exhibits at MOHAI or other local museums
Are based or supported by current research
Stimulate and foster creative thinking
Highlight links between the local and the global
The symposium will address themes, such as Presentation of Museums, Where’s the Queer, Future of Queer, and
Community Engagement in museums.
Session proposals should include the following information:
A 100 word description of the proposed session activities
A 100 word explanation of why you think this session is a good fit for the symposium
A brief biography of the session leaders
Required equipment needs
Please submit proposals to queeringthemuseum@gmail.com by 5:00 pm on May 1, 2013.
For more information please visit our website,
www.queeringthemuseum.org(http://www.queeringthemuseum.org).
Interested in attending? Tickets are on sale, please visit MOHAI’s website(http://www.mohai.org/visitus/mohai
calendar/eventdetail/444//queeringthehistorymuseumsymposium) to purchase your ticket today.
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5/26/2015 Queering the Museum Project – Request for Proposals | Western Museums Association
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Submitted by Gudrun (not verified)(http://www.nuzavo.com) on Fri, 20130426 11:07
Thanks for finally talking about >Queering the Museum Project â Request for Proposals « WestMuse Blog