Abstract

There has been a significant shift in recent decades regarding what people believe a museum should be. There is a push to leave the exploitative colonial roots of museums in the past and to move forward into more diverse and accessible frameworks of practice. This paper discusses the diversification of staff members, exhibition topics, and target audiences as politically contentious issues for both those who work within museums and those who visit. Costs associated with altering permanent exhibitions to be more respectful, or to repatriate ill-gotten artifacts are often high enough to deter even well-funded museums from making these changes. As a result, many museums struggle to attract demographics of visitors that have historically been exploited. People of color as well as people with disabilities are often made to feel uncomfortable or unsafe in museum environments or are unable to even access buildings. At a time when many cultural institutions are struggling to keep their doors open, experimentation and willingness to work with upheaval rather than against it will be paramount to the survival of the museum as an institution.