Change is Required - Bearing Witness: Truth, Trust, and Civic Engagement

In this final session of our Change is Required: Preparing for the Post-Pandemic Museum series, three contributors explore how, in this time of widespread anxiety, isolation, mis- and dis-information, and ‘culture war’ flareups, museums can maintain their reputations as trustworthy organizations and still address such timely and significant issues as climate change, systemic racism, political partisanship, and economic inequity.   How can current practice adapt to "bear witness' to historical and scientific evidence yet recognize the many different personal 'truths' and beliefs that visitors bring into our spaces? How can staff, volunteers, and community members use our programs, collections, and exhibitions to make space for multiple points of view--not necessarily changing minds but at least opening them? How can museums be safe places for 'unsafe' discourse? How can museums presume to 'hold space' for communities when their own internal structures are biased and flawed?  Panelists: Tramia Jackson, Director of Learning, George Washington’s Mount Vernon  Erin Mast, President and CEO, Lincoln Presidential Foundation Mariah Berlanger-Shevchuk, Director of Exhibitions and Cultural Resources, Five Oaks Museum  Facilitation: Marsha Semmel, Co-Editor of Change is Required: Preparing for the Post-Pandemic Museum