Guests:
Taylor Brandon - Founder of No Neutral Alliance; Formerly Staff at SF MOMA
Faith Mckinnie - Community Engagement Coordinator - Crocker Art Museum/ Founder of Black Artists Fund
Jova Lynne Johnson - Former Curator at MOCAD, Founder of MOCAD Resistance.
The art world has not been immune from our country's racial reckoning, and in fact has often been the site of some of the most glaring examples of hypocrisy, tone deafness and systems that support white supremacy. Nowhere has this been more evident than in the culture of some of our most venerated art museums. While many institutions are lately making a public show of collecting notable BIPOC artists and having a more diverse slate of exhibitions, these same institutions often struggle to attract and empower BIPOC employees, resist calls to diversify their boards or appeal to the communities they supposedly serve, which are often in communities that are substantially diverse. Even worse when taken to task for their blind spots and racist practices many of these institutions diminish their credibility further by alienating BIPOC staff and community members who demand change and bungle even the most superficial attempts to prove allyship with anti-racist movements. BIPOC employees face a difficult question of whether or not it's even worth it to change these organizations, so many of which are rooted in white supremacy from within, or just abandon the moment altogether and begin new institutions that serve us.
Few can speak to this with sharper clarity or authenticity than our three guests this week, all Black women who have been, or remain, part of major art museums and have spearheaded movements to hold them accountable for their racist policies, actions and leadership and demanded change.
Taylor Brandon, Jova Lynne Johnson and Faith McKinnie speak to host Tre Borden about their experiences fighting intransigent museums and what it takes to build movements that can hold them to account while also providing space to empower BIPOC artists and communities.
