Curating Controversy: Exhibiting Difficult Objects in Museums (virtual) - Program

Cultural shifts and updated curatorial standards have influenced current ideas about what is appropriate to discuss and display in museums and historical organizations. Increasingly, journalists, critics, scholars, and the public are approaching museum exhibitions with a more critical eye as to which stories organizations choose to interpret as well as those that are absent. Join us as MHS President Catherine Allgor moderates a conversation among representatives from Historic New England, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Peabody Essex Museum, about the curatorial decision-making process on how to tell difficult histories. Speakers will touch on debates about displaying controversial objects and speak to how their institutions use exhibitions as a tool to facilitate discussion.

This panel is part of an annual lecture series in honor of President Emeritus Dennis Fiori in recognition of his leadership. The lecture series is made possible by gifts from friends of the Society.