The University of Minnesota's Weisman Art Museum nabbed a grant of $239,912 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), a part of the agency's Museums for America program. It is one of 120 organizations to receive this award and will go toward supporting organizational and systemic change in how the museum operates.
"University art museums like WAM occupy a unique space in the cultural landscape, situated simultaneously in the worlds of the arts and the academy," Weisman director Alejandra Peña Gutiérrez said. "If we are to remain relevant as cultural institutions, we have a duty to develop practices that position museums as intentional actors in society, whose agency extends well beyond the museum walls, and even beyond the arts."
The grant focuses on funding for a truth and reconciliation project, including consultation with Indigenous communities toward decolonizing, research into reconciliation and repair. There also will be Indigenous-led development of culturally responsive evaluation practices for WAM. During the next grant cycle, WAM will launch an Indigenous artist-in-residence program.
While the IMLS grant does not directly fund repatriation, WAM is in the process of repatriating an inventory of 2,000 Native objects from the Mimbres Valley. The final submission of the full inventory of Mimbres cultural objects will be complete by December 2022. The Mimbres collection was dug up more than 90 years ago by the U's anthropology department; the actual repatriation will happen at a later date in consultation with Mimbres-descendent tribes.
The Weisman has dragged its feet on the process, which launched 30 years ago after Congress passed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which required federally funded institutions to return Native remains and sacred objects to tribes.
Former Weisman director Lyndel King argued that such objects should stay in museums even though she took steps to comply with the law. Peña Gutiérrez approaches the topic in a different way.
Winning the IMLS grant and the truth and reconciliation work being undertaken at WAM signals a shift in the museum's approach to Indigenous artifacts and cultural history.
"This is a moment for us to reflect, consult with Indigenous community members, artists, and leaders, and to fully engage the work of repair for injuries done by WAM, and by museums and cultural institutions more broadly, to develop new, more inclusive practices in conversation with the communities we serve," Peña Gutiérrez said. "This project is an important step on the path toward changing museum practice at the Weisman for the better."
