{"id":9349,"date":"2026-03-10T06:46:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T06:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8080\/en\/?post_type=news&p=9349"},"modified":"2026-03-10T06:46:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T06:46:00","slug":"2020-06-16-6664","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.jwd-artspace.com\/en\/news\/2020-06-16-6664\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Lives Matter Artifacts Become a Collections in Museums"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Overview<\/h3>\n\t\t
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\n\t\t\t16 June 2020\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t\t
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Black Lives Matter Artifacts Become a Collections in Museums<\/h2>\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t
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(Photo by ANGELA WEISS\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>As the world watches protests continue to unfold in response to the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, museum leaders are paying close attention too. Why they are collecting artifacts from this \u00a0protests as they’re happening. Museum are reacting quickly to protest across the country.
Homemade signs, masks, and tear gas canisters have become important markers of these historical events that could someday find their way into museum collections.Like Margi Hofer, vice president and museum director at the\u00a0New-York Historical Society said that they\u2019ve \u00a0collected several flyers, protest signs with slogans like \u2018I Can\u2019t Breathe\u2019 and \u2018Black Lives Matter.
This rapid collecting is not a new phenomenon. The museum\u2019s \u201cHist<\/a>ory Responds\u201d\u00a0is the one included, which was launched in the aftermath of the 9\/11 attacks, recently mobilized\u00a0in response to the COVID-19 pandemic\u00a0by accessioning everything from homemade hand sanitizer to jigsaw puzzles. Now, as protesters take to the streets of New York, the museum is reaching out to its network of photographers with an eye toward acquiring images documenting the protests. Or London\u2019s\u00a0Victoria & Albert Museum\u00a0acquired the pink pussy hat,\u00a0after the 2017 Women\u2019s March and the National Museum of African American History and Culture owns artifacts from the 2014 protests over the police killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner\u2014recent events have forced museums around the world to be unusually responsive.
Handmade signs are uniquely suited to telling individual stories connected to historical events. \u201cThe artifact actually stands as a metaphor,\u201d Aaron Bryant, curator of photography and visual culture and contemporary collecting at the Smithsonian\u00a0National Museum of African American History and Culture, told Artnet News. \u201cIn many ways, it becomes a portal by which we can connect our visitors with the story we are trying to tell. \u201cI usually look for things that come from donors\u2014a gas mask that might have been worn in Ferguson or a protest sign they carried in Baltimore with demonstrations over Freddie Gray. They have a story that they can tell about the object, and that\u2019s important,\u201d he said\u201d
<\/a>
\u201cIt\u2019s rare to be so aware of a significant moment when you\u2019re living through it, but this is a season of vast change. Starting with the pandemic, we\u2019ve been having conversations among the curators and exhibit developers about what objects and ephemera we should bring into our collections to enable us to tell the stories of this moment. Because not only do we look for images and mementos, but also the stories and records of the people they came from, and what these objects meant to them. That additional information is critical, because these objects anchor these deeper stories.\u201d
\u2013 Peggy Monahan, the director of content development at the\u00a0Oakland Museum of California
Over the last weekend of May, the\u00a0Museum of the City of New York\u2019s\u00a0#CovidStoriesNYC\u00a0hashtag, introduced the previous month to help guide efforts to shape a coronavirus collection, filled up with images of protests around the city. The museum has issued a call asking people to share these images instead under its\u00a0#ActivistNY hashtag,<\/a>\u00a0which was introduced a few years ago as part of its rotating \u201cActivist New York\u201d exhibition that highlights social movements in the city\u2019s history, from early struggles for religious tolerance, to labor unionizations, to the AIDS crisis, and beyond.
Collecting contemporary protests artifacts will also help museums remind viewers of the nation\u2019s history, and how the demonstrations and riots unfolding today are linked to the past.
<\/a>
The\u00a0New-York Historical Society reported that the items they\u2019re\u00a0collecting\u00a0join a\u00a0collection\u00a0which documents racism, civil unrest, and collective action throughout American history. One of the most powerful artifacts in their museum\u00a0collection\u00a0is a draft wheel from the conscription lottery that touched off the racially-charged Draft Riots of July 1863\u2014the worst urban riots in American history.
When the African American museum opened its first temporary exhibition, \u201cMore Than a Picture,\u201d in 2017. The sign, which reads \u201cWE DEMAND AN END TO POLICE BRUTALITY NOW,\u201d is sadly just as timely now, more than 55 years later.
People are\u00a0unaware of their history, but it\u2019s really important\u2014history gives us a blueprint.\u201d<\/em><\/strong>
\u00a0
Sources: https:\/\/news.artnet.com\/art-world\/collecting-2020-black-lives-matter-protests-1878480<\/a>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n<\/section>\n\n","protected":false},"template":"","meta":{"news_type":"news","gallery":[],"news_date":"2020-06-16","news_content":"[caption id=\"attachment_6656\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"]\"\"<\/a> (Photo by ANGELA WEISS\/AFP via Getty Images)[\/caption]As the world watches protests continue to unfold in response to the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, museum leaders are paying close attention too. Why they are collecting artifacts from this \u00a0protests as they're happening. Museum are reacting quickly to protest across the country.
Homemade signs, masks, and tear gas canisters have become important markers of these historical events that could someday find their way into museum collections.Like Margi Hofer, vice president and museum director at the\u00a0New-York Historical Society said that they\u2019ve \u00a0collected several flyers, protest signs with slogans like \u2018I Can\u2019t Breathe\u2019 and \u2018Black Lives Matter.
This rapid collecting is not a new phenomenon. The museum\u2019s \u201cHist<\/a>ory Responds\u201d\u00a0is the one included, which was launched in the aftermath of the 9\/11 attacks, recently mobilized\u00a0in response to the COVID-19 pandemic\u00a0by accessioning everything from homemade hand sanitizer to jigsaw puzzles. Now, as protesters take to the streets of New York, the museum is reaching out to its network of photographers with an eye toward acquiring images documenting the protests. Or London\u2019s\u00a0Victoria & Albert Museum\u00a0acquired the pink pussy hat,\u00a0after the 2017 Women\u2019s March and the National Museum of African American History and Culture owns artifacts from the 2014 protests over the police killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner\u2014recent events have forced museums around the world to be unusually responsive.
Handmade signs are uniquely suited to telling individual stories connected to historical events. \u201cThe artifact actually stands as a metaphor,\u201d Aaron Bryant, curator of photography and visual culture and contemporary collecting at the Smithsonian\u00a0National Museum of African American History and Culture, told Artnet News. \u201cIn many ways, it becomes a portal by which we can connect our visitors with the story we are trying to tell. \u201cI usually look for things that come from donors\u2014a gas mask that might have been worn in Ferguson or a protest sign they carried in Baltimore with demonstrations over Freddie Gray. They have a story that they can tell about the object, and that\u2019s important,\u201d he said\u201d
<\/a>
\u201cIt\u2019s rare to be so aware of a significant moment when you\u2019re living through it, but this is a season of vast change. Starting with the pandemic, we\u2019ve been having conversations among the curators and exhibit developers about what objects and ephemera we should bring into our collections to enable us to tell the stories of this moment. Because not only do we look for images and mementos, but also the stories and records of the people they came from, and what these objects meant to them. That additional information is critical, because these objects anchor these deeper stories.\u201d
\u2013 Peggy Monahan, the director of content development at the\u00a0Oakland Museum of California
Over the last weekend of May, the\u00a0Museum of the City of New York\u2019s\u00a0#CovidStoriesNYC\u00a0hashtag, introduced the previous month to help guide efforts to shape a coronavirus collection, filled up with images of protests around the city. The museum has issued a call asking people to share these images instead under its\u00a0#ActivistNY hashtag,<\/a>\u00a0which was introduced a few years ago as part of its rotating \u201cActivist New York\u201d exhibition that highlights social movements in the city\u2019s history, from early struggles for religious tolerance, to labor unionizations, to the AIDS crisis, and beyond.
Collecting contemporary protests artifacts will also help museums remind viewers of the nation\u2019s history, and how the demonstrations and riots unfolding today are linked to the past.
<\/a>
The\u00a0New-York Historical Society reported that the items they\u2019re\u00a0collecting\u00a0join a\u00a0collection\u00a0which documents racism, civil unrest, and collective action throughout American history. One of the most powerful artifacts in their museum\u00a0collection\u00a0is a draft wheel from the conscription lottery that touched off the racially-charged Draft Riots of July 1863\u2014the worst urban riots in American history.
When the African American museum opened its first temporary exhibition, \u201cMore Than a Picture,\u201d in 2017. The sign, which reads \u201cWE DEMAND AN END TO POLICE BRUTALITY NOW,\u201d is sadly just as timely now, more than 55 years later.
People are\u00a0unaware of their history, but it\u2019s really important\u2014history gives us a blueprint.\u201d<\/em><\/strong>
\u00a0
Sources: https:\/\/news.artnet.com\/art-world\/collecting-2020-black-lives-matter-protests-1878480<\/a>","news_cover_image":6670},"class_list":["post-9349","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jwd-artspace.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/9349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jwd-artspace.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jwd-artspace.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jwd-artspace.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}