Museums, Sexuality, and Gender Activism

This wonderfully eclectic and engaging book discusses a huge variety of innovative practices - and it will sustain and push forward the shared enterprise of creating queer and feminist museum spaces. - Alison Oram, Leeds Beckett University, UK Wide-ranging, forceful and keyed to our moment, this book has an unabashed political agenda: to make the museum safe for the depiction of sexual, cultural and gender difference. In so doing, it's alive to the irony that a site of exploration and education is so often in reality merely a place for the reproduction of dominant ideologies. Through a series of case studies, this book sketches an alternative path. - Jonathan D. Katz, University at Buffalo, USA To sum up, the book is a precious companion that offers valuable insights into what has happened and what is happening in the field of sexuality and gender activism in museums. It contains many resources in its comprehensive bibliography and weblinks (to articles, projects, artists, archives. etc.) and is a useful tool for those wishing to immerse themselves in the theme. With Museums, Sexuality and Gender Activism, editors and authors are filling the gap between academic and activist writing and offering scholarly insight, analytical tools, inspiration and concrete examples not only to students and scholars, but also to practitioners working in museums, galleries, archives and libraries. --Silvia Gaetti, Sehepunkte Journal, Germany 'This important book offers nuanced, exciting and timely insight into a broad range of concerns around museums, sexuality and gender activism and suggests questions and topics for future research. [...] Perhaps the book's most significant contribution to the field is the questions it raises for future collaboration of the museum community and the LGBTQ+ community.'- Robin Ostow, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada. Museum and Society Journal, July 2021 issue. 'The anthology places itself firmly in this tradition of audible public demands, heightened governmental scrutiny, an increasingly diverse and outward-looking workforce (57) in museums. As such it offers rich possibilities for the reader to engage with museums and gender activism, preferably in combination. Since the book is so rich in details it is easy to see how it can be used as a hands-on guide when working in/with museums and in building exhibitions. The fact that this book is a follow-up for its predecessor is also a reminder of the importance of learning from and building on previous experiences.' ~Nina Nyman, Queer Eye Reviews The real strength of the book is its polyvocality achieving its goal to include the voices of as many participants in the discourse as possible in collecting articles from artists, curators, scholars and community representatives. The editors underline their openness to others' voices, experiences, and realities, since the very nature of their work and the understanding of museums demands plural perspectives (5), while acknowledging that the voices represented are just a few of those they would have wished to include [...]. ~ Silvia Gaetti, Rezension von The writings in Museums, Sexuality, and Gender Activism exemplify practices and the necessary groundwork for what an inclusive museum can be. A good number of these 'de-practices' demonstrate a new definition of museums engaging in social diversity and gender activism. A dialogue about this inclusive museology is still ongoing. The intended readership is very wide. This book not only invites museum practitioners, curators, archivists, and educators but also appeals to students and researchers in museology, heritage studies, art history, gender studies, race studies, and queer theory. ~ Liang-Kai Yu, Leiden University Centre for Arts in Society This was a huge success - I have never experienced students engaging and debating that much - the group was international and while some had never encountered such issues as queerness, MeToo, etc. and in a university setting before, others were arguing for the post-gendered society. The students were especially interested in your discussion on whether or not to out artists posthumously. ~ Randi Marselis, Roskilde University, Denmark