Role of Artists and Cultural Institutions in Civic Engagement

• Arts will remain as chroniclers of our time after we're gone
• Artists tell truths, expose lies, help future generations learn about present
• Arts expand understanding, bring people together in healing, help express pain
• Artists ignite "radical imagination" for rebuilding better society
• Arts produce cultural change → leads to social change → necessary for political/economic/policy change
• Museums are fundamental pillars of society, among few truly public democratic spaces
• Museums are places of inspiration, learning, expand empathy and moral thinking
• Museums enable difficult/courageous conversations, must be in real service of community

Brooklyn Museum Context and Mission

• Brooklyn Museum survived Civil War, World War II, Spanish flu, 9/11 - "warrior" institution
• One of oldest/largest museums in country
• Serves borough of 2.5+ million people (would be 3rd largest independent city in US)
• Located in central Brooklyn between dynamic, culturally diverse neighborhoods
• Area hardest hit by COVID in world/nation
• Communities affected by COVID disparities: grief, health, food, housing, job, economic insecurity

Post-9/11 Creative Response - Tribute in Light

• Hours after 9/11, NY Times art director called about artist response
• Two artists in residency program in South Tower created concept
• Dream of two beacons of light illuminating lower Manhattan
• Appeared on NY Times Magazine cover, became Tribute in Light
• First appeared 6 months after 9/11, meant to be temporary (max 90 days)
• Has returned every 9/11 anniversary for 19 years
• Powerfully reclaimed skyline, honored lives lost, celebrated NYC resilience
• Family member quote: "most painful thing I have seen and I'm so glad it exists"
• Demonstrates art can be challenging, painful, yet bring people together in mourning/healing

COVID Memorial Project Development

• Conversation with Laurie Cumbo (City Council majority leader) about projecting COVID victims on museum facade
• 22,000+ people died of COVID in NYC in past 3 months
• Victims mostly just numbers, need to put face/story to loss
• ~1/3 of COVID deaths are frontline workers, often immigrants, unlikely to have obituaries in major papers
• Project requires community work/outreach with equity lens
• Goal: show real dimensions of COVID impact, provide opportunity for collective mourning/celebrating lives

Museum Reopening Challenges and Plans

• 3/4 reduction in capacity from pre-COVID levels
• Timed entrances, advance RSVP system to avoid lines
• Pay-what-you-wish museum (half audience young/local, don't pay anyway)
• Monitor social distancing in friendly/joyous way
• Masks required
• NYC Department of Education won't allow field trips for next year
• Heartbreak over empty museum, missing children in galleries every morning

Equity and Structural Change at Brooklyn Museum

• Community care/diversity in museum's DNA, not new initiative
• Museums founded on belief that sharing world cultures leads to understanding/empathy
• Must acknowledge museums' histories inextricably linked with colonialist agendas
• Museums contributed to harm by privileging Western white hierarchies, suppressing other truths/cultures
• Long overdue to acknowledge histories/practices, dismantle them within institutions
• Recent exhibitions spotlight suppressed histories: African-American, Latinx cultures, LGBTQ contributions
• Social justice pedagogy in education team
• Structural changes: growing paid internships to diversify field pipeline
• Must commit to supercharging structural change within institutions and society

Artist Responses to Current Moment

• Artists actively participating in movements nationwide/worldwide
• Artists are real players in shaping movement building
• Artists concerned about disparities COVID made explicit
• Creating work about disparities, creating change within communities
• Participating actively as citizens
• Extraordinary art already being created, will be important for imagining future

External Programming and JR Collaboration

• Memorial project as way to bring museum outside
• JR (TED Prize winner) exhibition at museum
• JR's team photographing frontline workers, especially hospital workers in Brooklyn
• Will wheat paste portraits of frontline workers on museum facade
• Plans to activate public spaces beyond museum walls