Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest

by Laura Raicovich

A leading activist museum director explains why museums are at the center of a political storm and how they can be reimagined.

In an age of protest, culture and museums have come under fire. Protests against museum funding (like the Metropolitan Museum accepting Sackler family money) and boards (such as the Whitney appointing tear gas manufacturer Warren Kanders)—to say nothing of demonstrations over exhibitions and artworks—have roiled cultural institutions across the world, from the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi to the Akron Art Museum. Meanwhile never have there been more calls for museums to work for social change.

In this book, Raicovich shows how art museums arose as colonial institutions bearing an ideology of neutrality that masks their role in upholding capitalist values. And she suggests how museums can be reinvented to serve better, public ends.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Politics, Museums, Activism, Art History, History

224 pages, Hardcover

Published June 15, 2021

About the author

Laura Raicovich is President and Executive Director of The Queens Museum of the City of New York. A champion of socially engaged art practices that address the most pressing social, political, and ecological issues of our times, she has defined her career with artist-driven projects and programs. Recent projects at the Queens Museum include “Mierle Laderman Ukeles: Maintenance Art”; “William Gropper: Bearing Witness”; “Mickalene Thomas: Untitled”; “Mariam Ghani: Garden of Forked Tongues”; “Duke Riley: That’s What She Said”; “Hey! Ho! Let’s Go: Ramones and the Birth of Punk,” as well as a series of programs designed with Rebecca Solnit and Joshua Jelly Shapiro to launch their “Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas.” She lectures internationally, has contributed regularly to The Brooklyn Rail, and is the author of A Diary of Mysterious Difficulties and At the Lightning Field.

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid first 75 pages or so but the back half was too heavy on covid-era headline glossovers, value statements and other filler

[Claudia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing - should be required reading for anyone vaguely interested in studying art

[Fabienne · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 This is a solid book analyzing the ways in which museums are imbued with different power relations, such as capitalism, the legacy of colonialism, etc. While I agreed with pretty much all takes, none of the general ideas felt particularly new to me, which is why the read felt a bit tedious at times. The book is also extremely US focused, which is not surprising as of course this is the authors background and area of expertise, however I found the few international examples the most interesting and wish there was a bit more on how her analysis of US museums compares internationally. All in all I would mostly recommend it to readers new to these questions

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

okay. so. when reading this I kept thinking about what my dearest advisor Dr. Marcus Pyle said about an early draft of my thesis: “Abby, if you don’t stop trying to sound so smart this is going to be a really bad paper.” this is a much less egregious example of course given this is like an actual published author but to me the writing style did not deliver at all on being accessible - it felt really hard to digest and also read as a little disingenuous/performative at times. (eek! sorry.)

BUT!! that being said, this is an interesting perspective from a former museum director and consolidates a lot of huge events into several concise points. the content is really important and ultimately well conveyed, I just wish the style was different but maybe that’s just a me problem!!!!! we’ll see what the undergrads say

[nini · Rating 4 out of 5]

the only main criticism i have is that this book should’ve been longer ! there’s definitely room to add more meat to the arguments but it is a nice concise area of introduction ; there was a lot of interesting bits in this book that called my attention and i will be taking with me from now on — 🚖

[Lo · Rating 3 out of 5]

The content is easily digestible because Raicovich makes it so. Building the foundation of what a museum is, the historical function they provide, and the “neutrality” that is prevalent in these museums helped expand mysteries thoughts on what a museum should and could be. But do I think she went far enough?

While art has the potential to put a radical (or even progressive) shift in society, museums are propped up by rich donors and the government that have an agenda or “neutral” analysis to art. Museums are meant to build, reinforce, show culture and status of those that own or fund the museum. That is currently a white, western view (in the US and west) that is then presented, pedagogically taught, and operated as such. This goes onto what “neutrality” even is. Nothing is neutral in our society, and a space that is meant to inform will always have an epistemological emphasis on the status quo. To claim neutrality while teaching of art is to cement the status quo at best, and at worst form an erasure of Indigenous, Black, queer, disabled, and other people’s art.

I fear this book has a limited scope and audience. The last 3 chapters, if not the whole book, is Racism 101 (which she ironically calls out earlier) primarily targeted to curators, directors, and board members of museums. I typically attempt to grasp things from books not designed for me, but with this limited scope, I don’t think much translates well to other aspects. Another issue I have with this book is the lack of genuine ideas for fixing the issues she addresses. For example, she takes only 5 pages near the end of the book to mention growing unionization efforts in museums, but doesn’t outline how that could assist. Overall, well written, but my question is for who will this be useful?

[Lucy Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was soooo good. It addresses the question of what role museums and cultural places have in shaping politics and society, etc, and answered some
of my own grapplings about non-profits and the point of cultural institutions in the first place. The chapter that resonated with me the most and that I will probably reread was “Show Me the Money,” about the tension between private donor interests, public interests, board interests, and staff interests at museums, and sort of addresses the catch 22 that is the lack of public funding for museums that forces them to depend on private philanthropy, and the often morally corrupt interests of private philanthropists that then shape what goes on in the museum, often against the values of staff members and public audiences.

[Arianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

“We also have to rest and laugh and heal -all of us- but that can only happen if we are also willing to sit in the spaces of discomfort so necessary to bring about change, and to accept accountability. The inequities reflected in our systems of culture have been reinscribed for centuries, alongside the ideologies of white supremacy, capitalism, ability, and cis-heteropatriarchy. They can be undone, collectively, with intention, and with a fearlessness that comes from conviction and commitment, and also from an abundance of love.”

[Cassi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of margin notes. Full review to come.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

#MuseumsAreNotNeutral

(Because neutrality doesn't exist).

3.5/5.

[Nicole Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

will definitely be returning to this many times

[s · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 ish rounded up / will have to reread this because 4dobe acr0bat decided to crash and delete all my annotations right as i finished the book but ughhhh anyway. i learned so much holy shit like laura raicovich puts into words exactly how i feel about museums and expands it further :(( so much thought and evidence and care is inserted into every aspect of this book like the way she analyzes the organizational structure of the museum and how that impacts the way museums are understood by the public, how art and culture is preserved and manipulated more often than we think, the inherent care that museum workers and participants of society have for art and culture in the context of late capitalism, through the consequences of colonialism and oppression that dispel any possibility for (positions of) neutrality and thus the need to implement a decolonial framework in restructuring the museum, the importance of worker unionization (!!!), and ultimately reimagining the museum as the site of transcendent care and education that it has always claimed to be like wowowowowow

[Cynthia Maltbie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Her primary point about museums reflecting the status quo, designed for white people with money who know the rules of museums definitely re-oriented my thinking about them and I appreciated that. The case studies were interesting and provocative. However, I found her writing to be a mix of academic abstractions and meandering memoir. Perhaps because I'm familiar with some of her arguments, I found it to be way too long. Better written, well-edited, it could have been a long magazine piece.

[Brittany · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this, I really did. I agree with the broad thesis (museums are not neutral places), but I was so, so, so irritated to read the author's take on many things. The few really important questions that were raised were overshadowed by me having a hard time taking some of the things the book says seriously.

Dana Schutz - Open Casket, 2017 Whitney Biennial
Sam Durant - Scaffold, Walker Art Center

[cab · Rating 4 out of 5]

Must read for museum studies + museum workers, thinking very much about the cultural differences in the USA and Japan. In the concluding chapter, Raicovich writes

... I now turn to a set of issues that represent a starting point for the collective work that is underway to varying degrees at all museums and cultural institutions. These include: the public security resources contracted by museums that perpetuate racism and xenophobia; inequities in compensation and a panoply of hiring practices that must be reformed and made more transparent and accessible; the resistance to attempts to unionize; how boards recruit, operate, and govern; how museum staffs are organized and defined; how publics are engaged and imagined; and the urgency of diversity initiatives that go beyond tokenism towards assembling a staff and board of myriad lived experiences to make all of this change real.

Which! Pretty much hit the nail on the head I think!

Wonderful reflections and essays by the former Executive Director of the Queens Museum, I think her credentials and experience really lend weight and power to her views on the museum as an institution, highlighting issues of labor, perspective/history, anti-racism/decolonisation and equity; reassuring, (I guess!) as a rank-and-file employee to know that upper management is thinking about these issues too.

Raicovich quotes from many Indigenous and Black writers (among them Saidiya Hartman, Amy Lonetree ...), which I enjoyed. Definitely going to check out Amy Lonetree's Decolonizing Museums: Representing Native America in National and Tribal Museums after this.

Definitely also enjoyed some of the foundational museum studies texts she cites in the first chapter, "Revelations", among them George Brown Goode (1889) and John Cotton Dana (1917), which I will go check out.

[Clementine · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 🌟

Cool subject matter with a strong beginning and end, but it got a bit muddy in the middle. Needed more editing to condense some of the middle chapters - and because there were a lot of typos, including someone's name (cringe).

Shimrit Lee's Decolonize Museums covers a lot of the same ground and is, I think, more effective overall. Legacy Russell's discussion of the Dana Schutz controversy in her recent book Black Meme was definitely more generative than Raicovich's.

I admire Raicovich's expertise on this subject matter and her commitment to transformation from within the field. Just wish the book had been better edited so her best ideas would truly sing.

[Lea Winston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow this took me a long time to read haha. As you can tell I purchased the book towards the beginning of grad school when I was all excited and ambitious and delusional enough to think I’d want to do some side-reading. Anyways, slowly but surely I finished and I did enjoy the book. It provided some great examples of both good and bad things museums have done recently to illustrate the many changes museums must make in order to remain culturally relevant institutions. The amount of change is quite overwhelming, but I’m excited to hopefully make a small difference in the field!

[Alen Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5!
I totally understand the need for all the smallest details and name dropping in this book, but I just wish it was more condensed and more straight to the point.

It has profound statements throughout, nevertheless, and the read is not hard at all. One will find those golden nuggets without any difficulty.

Keep in mind, however, that this is heavily centered on USA, as Raicovich speaks mostly from her experience (and that’s amazing). Look rather for overarching ideas that might serve as a basis for further thought in your local context.

[Ernest · Rating 1 out of 5]

The essays / book are filled with instances of discrimination one after another. Raicovich writes such outlandish claims that it is really laughable.

Written as a ploy for Raicovich to pivot into a government consulting, political career. Internal investigations discovered instances of despicable behavior where no amount of high school-rate essay writing and citing sources, etc., can cover.

Raicovich was found to to have assigned museum moneys to fund personal political endeavors. Hypocrisy at its finest.

[Venneh · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who got an anthropology degree and fucking LOVES dialectics, this entire book is extremely up my alley. It’s a slim volume, but if you haven’t read a book that’s heavy on cultural theory in a hot minute, it may be a bit slow going. Besides the standard “shit most of our museums were based on us looting third world cultures” and “actually maybe we should take a look at whose money we take, looking at you The Sacklers”, Raicovich goes deeper into “hey, here’s how to include diversity in your discussions of what artworks you show and not make some real fucking stupid mistakes” and “how to decolonize your museum”. She also includes a good historical background for those who may not have it. Definitely worth a read through.

[Luc Forsyth · Rating 3 out of 5]

pretty solid read on a totally unfamiliar topic! i found this pretty dense and occasionally difficult to wrap my head around, but this was overall very educational and consistently engaging, fascinating. not a ton else to say! it’s well-considered and researched, coming from author’s firsthand experience and well as a place of genuine respect for many of her peers. really cool to see and read about. would give her other works a go!

[Aaron Milliau · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is astounding, changed and made me reflect on art and museums I should have been reflecting long before. It is a must read for anyone interested in art an/or museums. Many of these sentences written in this book made me look upon myself as a white artist and how I can make a change in the future by being educated on these topics. Thank you Laura

[Nina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great discussion of ongoing institutional issues across the field. I especially enjoyed reading Raikovich's analysis of the myth of institutional neutrality. As a former director of the Queens Museum Raikovich knows and understands challenges as well as opportunities to create a new type of institutional engagement.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Protest of a cultural institution can and should be understood in terms of extreme care for what it does."

"From an institutional perspective, I firmly believe that the single most important and impactful way to make changes is to radically slow down... Slowing down is crucial because it allows us to take more time to make important decisions."

[Abby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was recommended this by one of my professors because of its relation to the class as it's literally about museums and curation. If you've ever liked museums or art read it, it's super important that we understand where museums come from and how they perpetrate colonial ideologies.

[Megan Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

a very current commentary on the role museums play in the modern cultural landscape and the responsibilities they have to the communities they serve; a bit densely packed in parts, but raicovich convincingly and clearly conveys the main idea that museums are not, and cannot be, ‘neutral’ spaces

[Ellie Botoman · Rating 4 out of 5]

loved this but i felt like a lot of case studies were packed into a relatively slim book and could’ve greatly benefited from being 100 pages longer. i could have read raicovich talk about this subject for hours more

[Eli · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another book I read for my dissertation and so I was debating whether to add it on to my reading challenge but I also enjoyed this book, it was an easy read but sometimes it did make me want to bang my head against a brick wall because some bits just wasn't really necessary?

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid overview and investigation into structural inequities and paradoxes present in museum/art/culture spaces. Enjoyed how there were proposed strategies for future growth, including examples from institutions doing the work to strive for equity. Would recommend!

[Victoria Ellwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fascinating as someone interested by the subject matter because it comes from such an experienced, well researched place. Engaging for me but from a purely literary respective not the easiest narrative or writing style to follow.