Open Collections

Fong, Denise Catalina

University of British Columbia

The dissertation is inspired by the concept of relational curating in art galleries and re-orients this work by examining the role and impact of community-centered curation in museums. It supports meaning-making and representation of racialized communities by addressing their long-standing marginalization and disempowerment in museum spaces. A greater understanding of the relationalities within curatorial practice can help museums develop more effective and socially-just forms of engagement and representation that will resonate with racialized community groups and visitors. Theories of museum meaning-making and representation were central to the interpretation of data. When examined through the lens of representation and affect, research on meaning-making sheds light on the aspirations and experiences of racialized peoples during museum encounters. The study analyzes exhibition team members and visitors' meaning-making experiences by studying how people engage, empathize and experience empowerment in museums. The intrinsic qualitative case study, informed by phenomenographic methodology, examines a single multi-sited temporary exhibition primarily through qualitative interviews with exhibition team members and visitors of A Seat at the Table: Chinese Immigration and British Columbia, presented at the Museum of Vancouver (MOV) and the Chinese Canadian Museum of British Columbia (CCM) in 2020-2023. The exhibition, one of the largest museum exhibitions on Chinese Canadian history to date, showcased the lived experiences of Chinese Canadians over the past century through the lens of food, racism, and activism. The analysis demonstrates how theories of meaning-making and community-centered curating can collectively help museums better conceptualize the values and needs of museum visitors. It enables researchers to develop culturally informed curatorial processes of exhibition development as it relates to the representation of racialized communities. This research also draws on the researcher’s self-reflections as the exhibition co-curator, which forms the basis for her reflective praxis as a racialized museum curator.

Text

2024-10-03

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/89328

Interdisciplinary Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/