Remaking the Art Museum By Jessica Lipsky
The traditional canon is notorious for its exclusion of many underrepresented groups. The movement to change it up has engaged the talents of many in the Mills community.
HE ARTIST NICK CAVE’S LARGE, multimedia
While Cave’s work is certainly within the
“soundsuits” immediately draw the eye. They’re
realm of what HoMA would collect (and has been
futuristic and avant-garde, engaging and impos-
exhibited internationally), anchoring the gallery
ing, designed to make viewers contemplate ideas
around a Black artist whose work discusses race
of space and safety. One of the soundsuits from
and police brutality is fairly novel and among the
Cave’s 8:46 collection—a reference to the amount
solutions to a wide-ranging lack of diverse rep-
of time that Derek Chauvin was thought to have
resentation in art museums. Norton-Westbrook,
kneeled on George Floyd’s neck—now anchors
one of the youngest-ever woman directors of a
a gallery at the Honolulu Museum of Art dedi-
major US museum, notes that “rather than mak-
cated to the depiction of human form from the
ing certain works a footnote, it’s actually about
Classical period to present.
putting those works that are front and center in
Chicago-based Cave began developing sound-
the narrative.”
suits in general after the police beating of Rodney
Fine art museums have been reckoning with
King in 1991, and his series encourages viewers
issues of representation and diversity for years,
to reflect on the myriad physical responses to vio-
and are generally making efforts to present work
lence. “It’s this incredibly powerful, vibrant work.
from more artists of color, women, and other
The idea of this work is that somebody could
underrepresented groups. Yet the stats aren’t
wear it and be transformed, and be concealed
great: A 2019 study found that 85 percent of art-
simultaneously,” says Halona Norton-Westbrook
ists in 18 major US museums were white, and 87
’05, director and CEO of the Honolulu Museum
percent were male. The path to equity is long
of Art (HoMA).
and burdened by complex power structures and systemic inequality—all of which have been further brought to light during the pandemic and civil rights uprisings. Museums across the country have responded in a variety of ways, from local community-engagement initiatives to deaccessioning, or officially removing works. Many are trying to recontextualize encyclopedic collections to develop narratives that are more relevant to contemporary audiences.
Halona Norton-Westbrook ‘05 in the galleries at the Honolulu Museum of Art, where she began work as the museum’s director in early 2020. Photo by Lawrence Tabudlo. opposite A “soundsuit” by artist Nick Cave on display in a gallery that celebrates the human form at the Honolulu Museum of Art. Photo courtesy of Honolulu Museum of Art. 14
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