Learning through Museum Controversies Three Canadian Examples

Abstract

Controversy has bedeviled museums forever, especially but certainly not exclusively those art museums which show modern and contemporary art. Controversies will probably always be likely, for they are an occasion on which the museum is directly confronted by a public questioning the museum’s decisions and processes, often too hidden and frequently misunderstood. Given the increasing recognition that it is no longer sufficient for museums to collect, conserve and display, but rather that museums must now engage fundamentally and directly with their communities, how can museums manage controversy? Can museums learn from controversy to discover better ways of working with their publics? This paper will examine three controversies in Canadian museums – The Spirit Sings, Voice of Fire and Vanitas or the Meat Dress - in an attempt to analyze these questions using the ANT concepts of Bruno Latour.