ABSTRACT

Museums are often imagined as “safe spaces for unsafe ideas,” yet such a conception ignores the real harms that museums can cause to individuals, communities, and publics. While, as a sector, we are skilled at calculating risks to the collection or institution, potential risks to publics, including staff, are rarely considered with the same rigor. It is still too rare that the question, “who might this harm?” is asked. However, the compounding crises of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the growing acknowledgment of systemic racism and oppression, create an opportunity for museums to change their practices related to risk and harm. This, therefore, becomes a critical moment to ask what it might mean to create institutions that feel safe and are safe, particularly for those have been - and continue to be - harmed. This short provocation will argue for a reframing of the relationship between risk, harm, and museums.

摘要

博物馆通常被想象为“不安全思想的安全空间”，但这种概念忽视了博物馆可能对个人、社区和公众造成的真正危害。虽然作为一个部门，我们擅长计算馆藏或机构的风险，但很少以同样严格的方式考虑对公众（包括员工）的潜在风险。“这可能会伤害谁？”这样的问题仍然很少见。被问到。然而，COVID-19 大流行的复杂危机，以及对系统性种族主义和压迫的日益认识，为博物馆创造了改变其与风险和伤害相关的做法的机会。因此，这成为一个关键时刻，可以问问创建让人感到安全且愿意接受的机构可能意味着什么。安全，特别是对于那些已经——并将继续——受到伤害的人。这种短暂的挑衅将主张重新构建风险、伤害和博物馆之间的关系。