Betty
Di Salvo
Bridging the gap between formal and informal learning
Museum
and Gallery Art Education
Who is... socially excluded and why this matter
The term “social exclusion”, coined in France in the 1974 and subsequently applied across
the academic, political and professional worlds, has lost its original definition, its meaning now
shifting from context to context. If in the 1970s the socially excluded were the “mentally and
physically handicapped, suicidal people, aged invalids, abused children, substance users, delinquents,
single parents, multi-problem households, marginal asocial persons and other social misfits”
(Silver, 1995:6 in Sandell, 2011:404), today the prevailing definition recognises the wider exclusion of different
cultural communities, a state of affairs that can have important social, economic and political repercussions.
I
Indeed, according to Sandell, since their invention museums and galleries have had the power to “reinforce exclusionary practices within economic, political, and social dimensions”, preserving and affirming values dictated by an elite aristocracy; yet at the same time, they can also possess the antidote to overcome this social evil (Sandell, 2001:407). The substantial difference between the different models of social exclusion lies in the fact that while social, political and economic exclusions can be better defined and fought against (Bhalla and Lapeyre, 1997), cultural discrimination can occur in many ways and is not always recognisable at first glance (Sandell, 2001).
Despite efforts made in the 1990s by the UK’s major national museums to promote varied access-related .....initiatives, inspired by the idea that art and museums can lead people to a higher social order (Kavanagh, 1994 in Sandell, 2001), museums “have continued to play a significant role in differentiating elite from popular social classes” (Bennett, 1995:28 in Sandell, 2001:409). Within an institution’s museological choices the power remains to culturally exclude certain categories of our society, but also to achieve the reverse: representation of a minor community in a museum can affirm community identity and as a result promote tolerance and understanding of ....minority groups within society (Sandell, 2001).
Today, a great deal of effort is expended in widening the inclusivity of museums. Cultural, social and economic welfare agencies are increasingly exhorted to tackle social exclusion. The debate, far from being appeased over the years, has now culminated in the creation of the Social Exclusion Unit, a government body which adopts a multi-agency approach to tackle the causes and symptoms of exclusion (GLLAM, 2000).
Museums and galleries, which until the twentieth century were primarily concerned with the accumulation, conservation and dispensation of human knowledge (Pringle, 2013:117), are re-shaping understanding of their role and functions within communities (Greenhill, 1997) and actively tackling issues of deprivation and disadvantage (Sandell, 2001:403) in order to demonstrate their new social and educational values. Indeed, the GLLAM report of 2000 already records the objective of “tackling crime” as a social outcome of museum initiatives engaging excluded communities.
Despite some negative opinion regarding the new social role taken by museums and galleries, such as that of Appleton, who argues that “the social inclusion agenda is indifferent to, and even contemptuous of, the activities on which the museum is built [and …] therefore distorts the very basis of the institution” (Appleton, 2013:3), the general attitude of museums and galleries, social institutions, governments and funding bodies seems quite positive, with policy makers willing to follow a more inclusive, outreach-focused approach.
What “social inclusion” means within museum practice, and what can be achieved through the agency of museums, remain un-answered questions (GLLAM, 2000), for every institution has different priorities and social inclusion policies. Positive signals can be found in the GLAAM report of 2000, which stated that even if museums are “at different points along the social inclusion road” they appeared to be going in the same direction (GLLAM, 2000:15).
A significant development from an operational and organisational perspective has been the welcoming attitude museums have displayed to other institutions, pursuing the development of partnerships within the private sector (Sandell, 2001:401) and with other museums (GLLAM, 2000). Working in partnership with other organisations has become a virtual necessity; not only is it financially prudent, such partnerships enrich all those who contribute to them (Hazel and Woolfard, 2004:6).
Educational activities in prisons, primarily developed by social organisations and youth services (GLLAM, 2008:23), represent a completely new field of work for museums and galleries, who for the first time are facing completely different rules, modus operandi, timing and goals.
Bettina Di Salvo, 2014
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+ Forest Hills Elementary
+ Hollywood Central Elementary
+ Horizon Elementary
+ Lake Forest Elementary
+ Village Elementary
+ Watkins Elementary
+ Hollywood Central Elementary
+ Silver Lakes Elementary
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