W&M ScholarWorks Undergraduate Honors Theses Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 7-2011 The Art Museum as a Socio-political Actor: El Museo del Barrio and the Museo de Arte y Memoria as Activist Cultural Productions in their Respective Communities Erin C. Sexton College of William and Mary Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons Recommended Citation Sexton, Erin C., "The Art Museum as a Socio-political Actor: El Museo del Barrio and the Museo de Arte y Memoria as Activist Cultural Productions in their Respective Communities" (2011). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 440. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/440 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Undergraduate Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 4 ® • ! ≤ - ≥ • ° ≥ ° 3 £ © ¨ © © £ ° ¨ !£≤ %¨ - ≥• §•¨ "°≤≤© °§ ®• - ≥• §• !≤• -• ≤©° ° ≥ ! £ © © ≥ # ¨ ≤°¨ 0≤§ £©≥ © ®•©≤ 2•≥•£©• # ©©•≥ Erin Sexton Acknowledgements: A very large —thank you“ to Alan Wallach, Silvia Tandeciarz, Sibel Zandi Sayek, Susan Webster, and Alexa Hoyne for their edits, i n s i g h t , a n d encouragement along the way. I am also indebted to Ingrid Jaschek and Susan Delvalle who gave their time, energy an d invaluable knowledge t o s u p p o r t this endeavor . —Revalorizing the culture from a democratic point of view implies empowering it as the stage for symbolic institutional mediations, where codes and identities interactively plot significations, values, and forms of p o w e r . “ Nelly Richard, The Insubordination of Signs: Political Change, Cultural Transformation, and Poetics of the Crisis (Durham: Duke ,niversity Press, .//01 67. Introduction Cultural theorist Nelly Richard claims that power struggles are played out in cultural products. W h e n culture is viewed as a democratic tool, it becomes a viable source of power i n s o c i o p o l i t i c a l m o v e m e n t s . El 6useo del 7arrio and the 6useo de Arte y 6emoria have put this theory into a c t i o n . El 6useo del 7arrio, located in t h e grand Hechscher 7uilding on 8ifth Avenue , b o r d e r i n g New 9ork City:s East Harlem neighborhood ( 8 i g u r e s 1 a n d . 1, is quite distinct f rom the 6useo de Arte y 6emoria, w h i c h occupies an unassuming former private home on a side street i n t h e city of La Plata, Argentina (8igure s 3 a n d 0 1 . 8ounded in 1929 as a small community project t o s e r v e New 9ork:s Puerto Rican neighborhood , El 6useo del 7arrio , or just El 6useo, h a s g r o w n i n t o a m a j o r p a n Latino institution that a t t e m p t s to increase the value of Latin American culture in the ,nited States through art. The museum is also a source of empowerment for the El 7arrio community, offering knowledge and creative opportunities where the school system could not. T h e 6 u s e o de Arte y 6emoria , founded in .00., i s a branch of the human rights organization, La ComisiAn Provincial por la 6emoria, which p r o m o t e s art that examines the effects of human rights violations. Located in La Plata, the capital of the 7uenos Aires province , and one of the most targeted cities in the country during the latest period of state terrorism between 1932 and 1 9 8 0 , the museum is an active participant in the political struggle for recognition of a n d reparations for the human rights violations committed during the dictatorship in A r g e n t i n a . 7 o t h museums were conceptualized as activist organizations that would u t i l i z e a r t in specific ways to create conscientious, critical, and empowered citizens within their respective communities. A comparison between the two art museums is useful in that it reveals how characteristically divers e a c t i v i s t art museums share many basic ideas about how to reach audiences and a t t a i n particular goals. 8urthermore, a co m p a r i s o n is also constructive in that it illuminates ways that communities respond to d i f f e r e n t initiatives , and how museum s m a y a d a p t t o t h e c ommunity:s needs i n o r d e r t o remain relevant . I n the following sections, I will argue that these museums, E l 6 u s e o d e l 7arrio and the 6useo de Arte y 6emoria, while distinct in significant ways, even i n particular mission, use exhibits, educational and public initiatives, and their physical presence to achieve socio political objectives. 6any intellectuals have espoused the argument that cultural products , including written text, performance, and the fine arts, can be used as socio political weapons. T h e art museum is rarely viewed as a cultural product . H o w e v e r , I argue that El 6useo del 7arrio and the 6useo d e Arte y 6emoria a r e institutions produced to present and reflect the culture of their immediate communities. This cultural representation occurs on a tangible level through the space that each museum occupies, but it is also reflected i n t h e programs that the museums are responsible for hosting. E a c h c o m p o n e n t o f t h e s e mu s e u m s i s capable of contributing to community activism . W h i l e f i n e a r t m u s e u m s have traditionally carried the s t i g m a o f elitist institutions that serve only the most e d ucated and —sophisticated“ portion s of the population, a c t i v i s t art, and the museums t h a t p r o m o t e i t such as El 6useo del 7arrio and the 6useo de Arte y 6emoria, s t r i v e t o challenge and change this perception. 1 Intellectual Field Eduardo Caleano asserts in his Defensa de la Palabra (Defense of the Word1 , t h a t in a resistance movement all forms of cultural production may be used as intellectual w e a p o n s to further or impede a c a u s e . C a l e a n o specifically c i t e s radio, film, television, popular song, a n d popular journalism as well as literature as potential types of persuasive cultural production. C a l e a no does not include art museums in h i s l i s t , b u t leaves room for o t h e r m e d i u m s, s t a t i n g , — The culture of resistance uses all means at its disposal as it is not granted the luxury of wasting any vehicle or opportunity for expression .“ . W h i l e Caleano concludes that culture a l o n e cannot create change, he ass e r t s t h a t various forms of cultural production c a n i n spire it. Ar t m u s e u m s a l s o exist to promote and create cultural productions that can be provocative and help to facilitate so c i o p o l i t i c a l a c t i o n s . 8urther support for the museum as a cultural product i s expressed in Alison Jones: a r t i c l e , The Cultural Production of Classroom Practice . According to Jones, a cultural p r o d u c t i o n m a y take the form of an institution that encourages and develops c u l t u r a l activities. Her article claims that the classroom, a place that facilitates learning and h u m a n a c t i o n , is a type of structurally l o c a t e d cultural production .3 According to t h i s 1 Lucy R. Lippard , —Activating Activist Art,“ C i r c a 17 (19801: 13 14 . Eduardo H. Caleano, DDefensa de la palabra.D Nosotros decimos no : crnicas (1963/1988) . 6 e x i c o , D.F.: Siglo Veintiuno, 1989, ..3 . —La cultura de resistencia emplea todos los medios a s u alcance y no se concede el lujo de desperdiciar ningFn vehGculo ni opo rtunidad de expresiAn.“ 3 Alison Jones, —The Cultural Production of Classroom Practice, “ British Journal of Sociology of Education 10 (1989): 19. mental frame w o r k , the museum c a n b e more completely considered a cultural product on an institutional level w h e n it is viewed as a visually oriented classroom . 7 o t h E l 6 u s e o d e l 7 a rrio and the 6useo de Arte y 6emoria were founded up on educational initiatives and continue to value didactic components of museum work .