July 17, 2007
Is the U.S. Government Asking Museums to Advance Its Foreign-Policy Goals
Museums should be wary of participating in a new program run by the Association of American Museums, in Washington, in partnership with the U.S. State Department, writes Lee Rosenbaum, a freelance writer, on CultureGrrl.
“Should museums participate in a program that exploits their expertise to promote U.S. government foreign-policy objectives?” she says.
The program, Museums & Community Collaborations Abroad, will provide grants of $50,000 to $100,000 to three to five American museums in its first year. The money comes from the U.S. State Department.
The program is aimed at regions and communities that would benefit most from a better connection with, and understanding of, American people and culture, says Ms. Rosenbaum, quoting materials from the association about the program.
Ms. Rosenbaum criticizes the program’s request for proposals, which suggests “specific ‘project concepts’ for five ‘pre-qualified’ foreign museums, along with the foreign-policy objectives that the projects should promote.”
For example, the Shymkent Museum of Natural History, in Kazakhstan, has proposed a project designed to increase awareness of the country’s history among its residents. According to the proposal, the project fits in with U.S. foreign policy goals of encouraging a national identity among the country’s multiethnic, multireligious population.
“Let’s hope there are no takers,” she says. “Cultural ties can assuredly improve relations between countries, but not when they are conceived as an instrument of political propaganda.”
What do you think of this program? Does it threaten the independence of nonprofit museums or help expand museum programs around the world?
—Nicole Lewis
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AAM is pleased to see so much attention being paid to our new Museums and Community Collaborations Abroad program. However, when Ms. Rosenbaum characterizes MCCA as “an instrument of political propaganda” we must cheerfully but firmly disagree
Cultural diplomacy—the exchange of ideas, information, art, and other aspects of culture among nations and their peoples in order to foster mutual understanding—is nothing new at AAM and US museums. For 25 years, AAM and the US Department of State have partnered to enable US museum professionals to collaborate with colleagues abroad. Through our previous International Partnerships Among Museums (IPAM) program, we’ve enabled more than 220 museum-based exchanges involving museums in 84 different countries. All these exchanges were conducted in the straightforward conviction that museum professionals operating with complete academic freedom are among the most effective ambassadors between cultures.
For 2007, we have updated and relaunched this longstanding international exchange program as Museum and Community Collaborations Abroad. With MCCA, we are challenging museums to raise their partnerships to another level by ensuring that the benefits of the collaborations extend beyond museum staff to the communities they serve.
Ms. Rosenbaum has expressed her worry—bordering on conviction—that the State Department will exert undue influence on the content of the projects or the selection of the final awards. A complete reading of the program criteria and selection procedures will put such concerns swiftly to rest.
In specific:
•Only US museums, not AAM or the State Department, can make proposals.
•US museums can propose on any subject and with any partner they choose.
•US museums are in total control of the participating staff as well as the format, structure, and content of their projects.
•Department of State does not vet the proposals at any point in the competition cycle.
•Final selection will be made by a peer review panel composed of a past IPAM participant from a US museum; a representative of ICOM-US (the US National Committee of the International Council of Museums); and a distinguished non-US museum professional.
We think sunshine is the best medicine. We therefore invite Give & Take readers to become active participants as the program unfolds.
Read the winning program descriptions. Take part in the imaginative community-based programming. After you’ve met the partners and participated in some of the community forums, public festivals, artists’ exchanges, and other community-to-community connections that the program will make possible; report back.
We’re confident that you will see nothing but museums doing what they do best—building connections among people with creativity, verve, and of course intellectual freedom and scholarly independence.
Erik Ledbetter
Senior Manager, International Programs
American Association of Museums
— Erik Ledbetter Jul 18, 09:00 AM #