SECTOR SPOTLIGHT
British Museum - Room 1 Sir Hans Sloane
Rethinking museum stories in a time of cultural change
MuseumINSIDER is a market intelligence platform for businesses supplying the museum , heritage sector and visited cultural attractions market . One significant trend we ’ ve identified is the push for including previously unheard voices and stories in museums worldwide .
The last decade ’ s events have forced mainstream culture and politics to reckon with more nuanced understandings of power and history . While the public rhetoric surrounding these subjects is increasingly polarised , MuseumINSIDER has seen museums quietly working to create spaces for people to learn about and explore these issues on their terms , which we find very gratifying .
The Civil Rights Movement in the US Many of these projects are in the United States , focusing on the Civil Rights Movement . They include a new $ 10 million interpretation centre for the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail . This 54-mile-long trail commemorates the people and events of the 1965 Voting Rights March in Alabama , where Dr Martin Luther King Jr . led supporters fighting for the right to vote in
Central Alabama . Now , the National Park Service ( NPS ) is converting six properties into a visitor centre to tell the story of the violent attacks on the protestors that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act .
Another NPS project is a memorial at Alabama ’ s newly designated Freedom Riders National Monument site . Here , a violent mob set fire to a Freedom Riders bus during the 1961 Freedom Rides , a movement to challenge racial segregation on buses and in bus station facilities . In Atlanta , Georgia , works are now moving ahead on restoring the Martin Luther King Jr . Birthplace Museum and other key sites in his life .
Marginalised Communities While these new sites are exciting , we ’ re also increasingly seeing previously unheard perspectives involved with programming at existing sites . In exhibitions , we ’ re seeing organisations hiring consultants from marginalised communities to provide their insights and organisations working with Indigenous communities to incorporate their perspectives .
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