Creativity , technology and culture
Advancing structural change in regional art museums with and by culturally and linguistically diverse art communities
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The problem
The 2018 Diversity Arts Australia report , Shifting the Balance , identified exceedingly low levels of representation of art workers from non-Anglo and culturally and linguistically diverse ( CaLD ) backgrounds in Australian cultural institutions , including art galleries and museums .
Our solution
Rather than simply representing CaLD artists in exhibitions or public programs , we need to advance structural change in museums , says Dr Verónica Tello from UNSW ’ s School of Art & Design . Verónica Tello is a Chilean-Australian art historian and writer who focuses on transnationalism in / out of the Pacific , Latin America and Australia .
She is collaborating with the Murray Albury Museum of Art ( MAMA ), leading art and cultural studies academics , and a new generation of non-Anglo / CaLD curators and writers to analyse how racism pervades museum operations . MAMA is located in a settlement city , Albury-Wodonga , with an increasing population of CaLD migrant and refugee communities .
Grappling with both the low representation of CaLD cultural leaders in museums and the growing number of CaLD communities in regional Australia , the project is working with MAMA to make it accountable to diversity . It moves away from the common method of ‘ diversifying ’ museums via displays or audience development to ask how curating museum operations more broadly can redress structural racism .
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Group portrait of Parallel Curatorial Fellows at MAMA ( L-R ): Tian Zhang , Kelly “ Lovemonster ” Dezart- Smith , Lana Kate Nguyen , Ruha Fifita and Evgenia Anagnostopoulou ( absent : Sebastian Henry-Jones ). Photo : Jeremy Weihrauch , 2022 .