Now that we have learned about cultural heritage, heritages of change, and disability heritage, it is time to create your own Heritages of Change exhibition! What you will be working towards is developing a mini-exhibition that includes three heritage artifacts and an exhibition guide that communicates a focused theme.

In Chapter 2, heritages of change is described as a type of heritage activism that focuses on emphasizing historically marginalized heritage, including that which is currently in the making. In order to reach this goal, Heritages of Change exhibitions practice “curatorial activism.” “Curatorial activism” is a phrase coined by Maura Reilly in the 2018 book Curatorial Activism: Towards an Ethics of Curating. In Reilly’s own words: “‘Curatorial Activism’ is a term I use to designate the practice of organizing art exhibitions with the principle aim of ensuring that certain constituencies of artists are no longer ghettoized or excluded from the master narratives of art. It is a practice that commits itself to counter-hegemonic initiatives that give voice to those who have been historically silenced or omitted altogether – and, as such, focuses almost exclusively on work produced by women, artists of color, non-Euro-Americans, and/or queer artists.” Reilly observes that certain groups – among which are listed women, artists of color, non-Euro-Americans, and/or queer people – have been erased or prevented from participating in artistic endeavors and spaces. Reilly asks questions about who gets to choose who exhibits their work, what work becomes “famous,” and what work by marginalized artists can teach us. Curatorial activism then is the act of using the agency to select artifacts – curation – that appear before the public to affect social change.

While Maura Reilly focuses on the art world, the definition of “curatorial activism” can be expanded to all of cultural heritage. We can ask questions about who decides what heritage is emphasized, whose heritage is preserved or studied, and what the effect of erasure of heritage has on the affected people. Then, we can practice curatorial activism by using the privilege to curate as an act to provide marginalized heritage more space and emphasis.

Activity 4.1

• Explore the entries in the  (very real!) “Heritages of Change” exhibition.
• Select one entry on which to focus more closely.
  • Why does it interest you?
  • What issues does it raise?
  • What do you notice about the way entries are written?
  • What heritage of change category does it address?

What is Curation?

Chelsea Emelie Kelly from the Milwaukee Art Museum talks about how “[c]urating an exhibition of artwork requires editing and ‘picking things out,’ yes—as an art museum curator, you’re searching your own museum’s collection for what would be appropriate for the idea of your show, and you also search other museums and private collections for supplementary pieces. But curating in a museum also requires research, idea development and refinement, project management, budget management, programming considerations, educational training, decisiveness, and even interior decorating skills.” Since we are not trained museum personnel creating exhibitions for a physical space, the aspects of curating including budget management and interior decoration skills are not as relevant, but Kelly illustrates two important points about heritage curation: 1) it involves “picking out” artifacts that foreground the theme of your exhibition (and these can be found anywhere!) and 2) it involves researching and thinking carefully about the ideas that you want to communicate.