Radical Structural Change in North American Dress and Textile Museums and Collections: Critically Analyzing Social Justice,Oppression,and Empowerment

Abstract

The purpose of our research was to examine how dress and textile collections or museums have explicitly and implicitly conveyed solidarity with social-justice efforts. This includes how institutions have made antidiscrimination part of their guiding principles, as well as how these ideologies may have materialized in exhibitions. Using content analysis, we analyzed mission statements, diversity statements, and exhibition titles and descriptions of 134 North American dress and textile museums or collections. We identified five themes in the mission statements: preserving knowledge, education, spectrum of social-justice related language, oppressive language, and other commitments. We found that about half of the museums or collections had diversity statements and most created solidarity statements against racism on social media. A little less than half of the institutions explicitly incorporated social justice within exhibition titles and descriptions. Positive steps were made among these institutions to combat discrimination, but there is work still to be done.

Keywords

Fashion activism Black Lives Matter exhibitions mission diversity equity website social media discrimination

On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, was killed in Minnesota by a White police officer after Floyd was arrested for allegedly using counterfeit money. Floyd's death follows the killings of thousands of unarmed Black people by police, including Breonna Taylor, Trayvon Martin, and Sandra Bland, among others; these injustices have prompted activism around the globe to consider structural change needed to combat police brutality and white supremacy (Taylor, 2021). In the months following Floyd's death, a surge of museums made pledges “to initiate change within their walls” (Dafoe & Goldstein, 2020, para. 1); however, many museums are policed spaces and colonial institutions with fraught histories evidenced by a range of oppressive practices (Sleeper-Smith, 2009; Lonetree, 2012). Scholars and journalists alike have called upon Dress and Textile Museums and Collections (DTMC) to directly address oppression through decolonial approaches (Friedman, 2020), like rejecting settler ideology and engaging in reparations (Kaiser & Green, 2021).

DTMC and their discursive strategies matter because they impact how cultures understand who they are and relationships to others, including how the other is defined. Collecting, display, and documentation legacies of DTMC have produced and some continue to perpetuate contemporary oppressive practices. For instance, methods of documentation and organization (e.g., womenswear versus menswear), and presentation (e.g., binary representations of femininity and masculinity via mannequins) have perpetuated the subjugation of marginalized peoples (Chapin, et al., 2019). With regard to collecting, for example, initiatives to collect dress within art museums in their founding years occurred largely in decorative art departments where singular objects were acquired for their physical and aesthetic properties, which tended to ignore the cultural context of the maker/wearer generally (Melchior, 2014). Natural history museums, created ethnological dress collections as evidence of the “other” (Melchior, 2014), and in some university collections “ethnic” dress has been catalogued and housed separately from European and American fashions, which perpetuates deleterious binaries like fashion versus costume and traditional versus modern (Welters & Lillethun, 2018). In the 1960s and 70s, numerous museums began collecting popular American and European high-end fashions, brands, and designer labels. Diana Vreeland's influential exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute contributed to this trend, and centered creative expression over cultural narratives. Then, in the latter 20^th and early 21^st centuries, art museums began to center fashion exhibitions because they attracted large audiences, broader demographics, and the media coverage (Green & Reddy-Best, 2022; Melchior, 2014).

Contemporary calls to reimagine DTMC through reparative and social justice efforts face a long history of exclusion in institutions where objects were divorced from their cultural context (Melchior, 2014). Additionally, fashion artifacts are far removed from their “situated bodily practices,” making it difficult to center the nuance and fluidity of subject formation (Entwistle, 2000, pg. 325; Reddy-Best & Goodin, 2020). Therefore, critical reflection that is coupled with reflective action in DTMCs can make progress towards justice and inclusion.

DTMC within university settings have a similarly complex past. In the early twentieth century, faculty used DTMC to support fashion curricula at numerous land-grant institutions, which themselves are institutions entrenched in Indigenous dispossession and white supremacy (Green & Reddy-Best, 2022; Sorber, 2018; Welters and Ordoñez, 2011). University collections were typically built from donations and travel to other countries to collect “ethnographic objects,” a practice rooted in settler-colonialism (Rodriguez, 2020; Xepoleas & Hayflick, 2022). University and ethnographic collections in museums have been used by designers, both student and professional, to inspire design work, a practice that institutionalized appropriation in the early-mid twentieth century (Xepoleas & Green, 2020). Some curators have addressed these oppressive practices by incorporating a social justice perspective in their policies, exhibitions, and activities (Green & Reddy-Best, 2022; Incluseum, 2015; Matthews & Reddy-Best, 2022; Murawski, 2019; Vidalon, 2022; Xepolease & Hayflick, 2022).

Purpose of Research

Given recent calls for justice in, and decolonization of, the museum, our research examined how contemporary DTMC use their guiding principles to explicitly and implicitly convey solidarity with social justice efforts and to practice anti-discrimination. In addition, we investigated how these principles may have materialized in their public-facing online content (Dafoe & Goldstein, 2020). What approaches have DTMC taken during this pivotal time when change is demanded? Tangible change can take time in institutions mired in bureaucracy, but what is happening in DTMC right now? Our research will lay the groundwork for critical analyses of DTMC and their justice efforts longitudinally. As one outcome, we also propose philosophical and tangible ways to center equity and anti-discrimination in DTMC spaces.

For museums and collections to become more inclusive spaces, curator Erikson (2002) argued, “one needs to know the history of the surrounding community, the collections, the staff, and the mission statement” (p. 189). DTMC are polyatomic, with many moving parts that could intersect with social justice efforts (e.g., social media, exhibition labels, programming, hiring practices, collecting policies, the collection scope, etc.). However, our analysis focused on (a) mission and diversity statements and (b) exhibition titles and descriptions because these are the guiding principles of the DTMC and their public-facing scholarly work, respectively.

We began with mission and diversity statements because these discursive forms of representation are created and disseminated at the institutional level and have the potential to impact systemic change. These statements can arguably, but not always, be difficult to produce and change due to political structures and power imbalances in institutions; therefore, what is represented in a statement may only reflect some of their stakeholders’ (e.g., the board of directors, employees, members) values. We also recognize that such statements may largely represent “non-performativity” of anti-discrimination (Ahmed, 2004, p. 5). After analysis of mission and diversity statements, we looked to exhibition titles and descriptions as a scholarly public space where social-justice philosophies could materialize. Exhibitions are often central to a DTMC and writing the exhibition title and brief description often requires investment of time, effort, and other resources. Titles and short descriptions are also one of the more stable and long-lasting components of an exhibition, which tend to be archived on the Internet. Conveying social-justice philosophies within the title and description is one way to materialize commitment. We recognize that professionals at different institutions have varying amounts of autonomy in these areas and consider this in interpretation and critique. Our research explores one guiding area (i.e., mission and diversity statements) where social justice philosophies are presented, and one public platform they could be actualized (i.e., exhibition titles and descriptions) in DTMC.

Social Justice

How social justice operates in the institutional context, and its definition, may take many forms. To form a just society, institutions may commit to equitable distribution of opportunities, wealth, and privilege. Unchecked capitalism and the privileging of dominant groups over time produces oppression. For example, people of color, Indigenous communities, queer and trans individuals, people with disabilities, undocumented people, women, people living in poverty or with a lower socio-economic status, fat people, oppressed religious groups, and/or immigrants have experienced significant marginalization in the United States where a neoliberal capitalist economic system dominates (Ornstein, 2017; Räikkä, 2014). For some individuals, multiple layers of oppression shape intersecting subjectivities (e.g., Black trans women) (Crenshaw, 1989). By using a social-justice lens to critique organizational structures, we bring attention to power, privilege, and oppression (Asare, 2020), which can guide museum professionals, stakeholders, and visitors to engage in social change that uplifts marginalized voices.

Social Justice Initiatives in Museums and Collections

While some institutions are dedicated to justice narratives, others that claim a broader focus contend that museums should maintain a neutral perspective (Bailey, 2019). Nevertheless, no object nor any history is neutral, and no perspective is objective (Autry & Murawski, n.d.). Some people within institutions want to become “change agents, to educate, inspire and support the empowerment of their visitors” (Nightingale & Sandell, 2012, p. 1). This desire is evident in the recent social-media campaign #MuseumsAreNotNeutral, which was developed “to expose the myth of museum neutrality and demand equity-based transformation” (Autry & Murawski, n.d., para. 6) at the institutional level. Some DTMC have also acted on social justice initiatives through institutional practices. For example, Ling and van Dartel (2018) noted that Dutch ethnographic fashion museums acknowledged “the negative impact of colonization by rewording bigoted terms, offering transparency on the colonial legacy from the museum collections and developing a national policy regarding claims for colonial heritage” (p. 73). Discouraged by a dearth of social justice resources, Jenkins (n.d.) founded the Fashion and Race Database in 2017 to, “expand the narrative of fashion history and challenge mis-representation” (para 1).

Some fashion curators have used exhibition content to overtly and subtly challenge hegemonic ideologies and narratives. For example, E-J Scott displayed trans objects and centered trans voices in the Museum of Transology, a public museum exhibition (Proctor, 2018). Curators at Iowa State University's Textiles and Clothing Museum produced Queer Fashion & Style: Stories from the Heartland, featuring 10 queer and trans women's fashion objects in a participatory exhibition-building process (Reddy-Best & Goodin, 2020). Cole (2017) explained that, despite the significant efforts, it has taken too long to bring social justice into museums. Our work evaluates this claim by analyzing museums’ guiding principles and exhibitions within DTMC, raises awareness of current practices, and proposes possibilities for productive change.

Methods

Few researchers have analyzed the ways DTMC have explicitly or implicitly conveyed solidarity with social justice philosophies through current guiding principles and public outreach, like exhibitions. We analyzed the 134 North American DTMC listed on Costume Society of America's (CSA) online database, which is the most comprehensive and up-to-date list. We collected data from September 2020 to July 2022. Of the 134 listed, 130 had online content available in English. We thought critically about institution categories and began by separating the sample into university-affiliated museums/collections (n = 39, 30%) and those not affiliated with a university (n = 91, 70%); however, the American Alliance of Museum's (AAM) online “Find a Member Museum” search function includes 25 different categories, many of which were not mutually-exclusive. Rather than further categorize, we ultimately chose to analyze all North American DTMC institutions. We recognize that each DTMC has unique operating procedures and practices, even when compared to institutions of similar size and budget. However, our data is delimited by time (i.e., 2020–2), place (i.e., North America), and collection content (e.g., dress), and we encourage future scholars to consider variables impacting each institution, and perhaps their ability to incorporate social justice philosophies into their operation.

We used content analysis (Neuman, 2014) to examine missions, diversity statements, exhibition titles, and exhibition descriptions. In the twenty-first century, and especially amidst a global pandemic, digital content is an important (Ciecko, 2020) way for museums and collections to communicate with the public. According to the AAM (2012), the mission statement is “the beating heart of a museum” and “drives everything the museum does,” which includes, “vision, policy-making, planning and operations” (p. 1). The museum's future direction is therefore set, “though the mission, which impacts the policies and plans influencing staff actions and behaviors” (American Alliance of Museums, 2012, p. 1). We analyzed DTMC mission statements that were available through the institutions’ website or social media platforms. If a collection did not have its own mission statement (n = 100, 81%), then we used the mission statement of the unit, department, or institution in which it was housed. We analyzed text identified as a “mission” by the institution, as well as statements on an institution's about page (or related heading) that were defined with words or phrases homologous with the term and concept of mission, including purpose, objective, goal, committed to, mandate, aims, and dedicated to (hereafter we refer to everything as mission for short). We identified emergent themes in the mission (Table 1) using the constant comparative method following open, axial, and selective coding (Creswell, 2014). During open coding, we noted what the mission included, and identified social-justice philosophies within the statements (e.g., uplifting marginalized voices and bringing attention to power, privilege, and oppression) (Asare, 2020; Ornstein, 2017; Räikkä, 2014). We then created a codebook with all the possible codes and code definitions. Next, we moved into axial coding by connecting and collapsing our initial codes. Lastly, we used selective coding to identify larger themes and subthemes.

Table 1.

Mission Statement Analysis Codebook with Themes, 1st Tier Subthemes, and 2nd Tier Subthemes.

Theme	1^st Tier Subthemes	2^nd Tier Subthemes
(1) Commitment to preserving knowledge	Artifacts; Built environment; Natural resources; Stories (e.g., oral histories)
(2) Commitment to education	Topic: Regions	Global; Regional/local
	Topic: Material culture	Textiles; Dress; or Accessories and shoes
	Topic: Time period
	Topic: Topical emphasis	Gender; Commerce/business; Ethnicity; Religion; The human experience in relation to objects/heritage; Design or designers; Technology; Folk artists; *Specific marginalized communities
	Type of education:	Experiential learning: exhibitions/programming; Critical thinking; Scholarship contributions; Cultural competence; Challenge cultural stereotypes; *Online accessibility
	Audience members they aim to educate	General public, enthusiasts, or hobbyists; Educators; Students; Artists; Industry partners
*(3) Spectrum of social-justice related language	*Broad: “diverse” or “inclusive” but does not define context of the 2^nd tier subthemes (e.g., collection)	Collection; Stakeholders; Staff; Visitors; Exhibitions; Non-contextual usage of word “diversity”
	*Direct action: social justice, action, or equity
(4) Other commitments	Conservation services
	Financial sustainability
	Furthering parent mission
	Positive work environment

Note: *Themes identified as conveying within the spectrum of social-justice philosophies: uplifting marginalized voices and/or bringing attention to power, privilege, and oppression.

Some DTMC developed diversity statements, which vary in length and content, but typically articulate what diversity means to the institution, why it matters, and/or how they approach diversity through action (Heaslip, n.d.; Randall et al., 2014). Therefore, if a DTMC did not communicate social justice values in their mission, it might be conveyed in a separate diversity statement. We also noted whether or not the DTMC provided a diversity statement on their website, and if a collection did not have its own diversity statement, we examined if the unit, department, or institution in which it was housed had a statement. We also analyzed the physical placement of the diversity statement on the website (Table 2) because location provides some insight into how much the content is valued; however, we recognize content location may be a result of poor web design (Krug, 2006), and not all museum professionals have control over their website design. We considered these types of barriers in our interpretations and arguments. Additionally, some institutions released statements on social media in response to George Floyd's death on May 25, 2020 and the protests that followed (Dafoe & Goldstein, 2020); these types of post are often criticized as nonperformative speech acts as they do not commit to action (Ahmed, 2004). In order to provide context around action or lack thereof, we also analyzed if DTMC released a statement after May 25, 2020 on their Facebook or Instagram, two of the most used social-media platforms (Clement, 2020).

Table 2.

Diversity Statement Analysis Codebook with Themes, 1st Tier Subthemes, and 2nd Tier Subthemes.

Theme	1^st Tier Subthemes	2^nd Tier Subthemes
Diversity statement or commitment to equity and change location and availability	Availability on the institution's website	-Yes, included on website -No, not included on website
	Location on the institution's website	-Visible from homepage or a major tab -Not visible from homepage or a major tab
	Availability on institution's social media accounts (Facebook and Instagram) after George Floyd's death on May 25, 2020	-Yes, included diversity statement or response on social media accounts (including acknowledgement of systemic racism in museums; made commitment to equity and/or change; participated in black-out Tuesday; shared resources to combat racism) -No, did not include diversity response on social media accounts

Exhibition titles and descriptions are arguably one of the major public-facing outputs that many, though not all, DTMC consistently produce; therefore, we also analyzed this language. An exhibition team puts extensive, iterative work into researching and ultimately naming the exhibition as it “can do much to determine how others perceive and remember an exhibition. And how many people will attend” (Landi, 2013, para 22). If the DTMC strongly values social justice and is committed to its materialization, these philosophies should be reflected in at least some of the exhibition titles and descriptive information digitally available to a wider public (American Alliance of Museums, 2021). We examined exhibition titles and descriptions produced by the 130 institutions, but only included exhibitions where it was evident that at least 50% of the objects comprised of clothing, textiles, and/or accessories. Because there was a surge in activism and heightened attention to social justice in 2013 with the start of the Black Lives Matter movement, we reviewed all exhibitions curated between 2013 and 2022 including exhibitions scheduled for the future. Guided by scholarly explanation of social justice philosophies (Ornstein, 2014; Räikkä, 2014), we analyzed if these perspectives were explicit in the exhibition description and/or title (Table 3).

Table 3.

Exhibition Title and Description Analysis Codebook with Themes and 1^st Tier Subthemes.

Theme	1^st Tier Subthemes
Social justice lens	-Explicitly uplifted marginalized community voices or stories (people of color, Indigenous communities, the queer and trans community, people with disabilities, undocumented people, women, people living in poverty or with a lower socio-economic status, fat people, oppressed religious groups, and/or immigrants); included exhibitions as explicit social justice on women only if had a feminist lens or that had an intersectional approach and addressed multiple oppressed identities such as fat or Black women -Content brings explicit attention to power, privilege, or oppression: questions cultural norms about race, class, gender, or sexuality brings attention to and rejects colonialism problematized exoticization in exhibition content (e.g., critically discussed people of color and exoticiation of their aesthetics) focus on social movements or societal issues (e.g., 1920s suffrage; labor- or environmental-justice issues)
	-In exhibition development, partnered with local institutions, organizations, or communities centering marginalized identities

Theme

1^st Tier Subthemes

Social justice lens

-Explicitly uplifted marginalized community voices or stories (people of color, Indigenous communities, the queer and trans community, people with disabilities, undocumented people, women, people living in poverty or with a lower socio-economic status, fat people, oppressed religious groups, and/or immigrants); included exhibitions as explicit social justice on women only if had a feminist lens or that had an intersectional approach and addressed multiple oppressed identities such as fat or Black women

-Content brings explicit attention to power, privilege, or oppression:

questions cultural norms about race, class, gender, or sexuality

brings attention to and rejects colonialism

problematized exoticization in exhibition content (e.g., critically discussed people of color and exoticiation of their aesthetics)

focus on social movements or societal issues (e.g., 1920s suffrage; labor- or environmental-justice issues)

-In exhibition development, partnered with local institutions, organizations, or communities centering marginalized identities

We checked intercoder agreement for each data set by dividing the total number of agreements by the total number of codes. Two authors independently coded each set of data, and then the authors compared coding, noted disagreements, and adjusted the codebook. Our initial check resulted in the following agreements: missions (87%), diversity statements (73%), exhibition titles and descriptions (82%). After we re-worked and finalized the codebook, we re-coded all data. Disagreements were reconciled and we ended with 100% agreement for each data set, which is above the recommended 80% benchmark (Creswell, 2014).

Results

Missions

When analyzing the 123 (N = 100%) available missions of the 130 DTMC (a few institutions did not have missions), we identified five themes (percentages in this section are out of the 123 available missions). Within these themes, we found institutions communicated their commitment to preserving knowledge through artifacts (n = 41, 33%), the built environment (n = 9, 7%), natural resources (n = 11, 9%), or stories (n = 20, 16%). For example, the Old State House Museum's mission reads, "To interpret the history of Arkansas from statehood to the present, to preserve the Old State House, and to collect and preserve artifacts that aid in that interpretation and preservation."

Institutions also highlighted their commitment to education related to specific topics, types of education, and their target audience members they were committed to educating. Different topic areas included global perspectives (n = 28, 23%) and a specific region (n = 61, 50%). Institutions also emphasized the importance of educating audiences about specific dress or textile-related material culture (n = 26, 21%) and different time periods (n = 15, 12%). For example, the University of Georgia's Historic Clothing and Textile Collection's mission reads,

Our mission is to be a valuable platform for outreach, experiential learning, teaching, research, inclusivity, and inspiration at the University of Georgia. Our goal is to allow for further knowledge of the state of Georgia's regional history inside and outside of the classroom, while providing important examples of structural design elements and notable designers.

Some institutions highlighted a topical emphasis such as a focus on gender (n = 1, 1%), business (n = 3, 2%), ethnicity (n = 6, 5%), religion (n = 2, 2%), the human experience in relation to objects (n = 43, 35%), design(ers) (n = 8, 7%), genealogy (n = 4, 3%), technology (n = 6, 5%), folk artists (n = 3, 2%), and/or specific marginalized communities (n = 6, 5%). Specific marginalized communities included focus on Jewish people (n = 1, 1%), Asian people (n = 1, 1%), Latvian people (n = 1, 1%), and Indigenous peoples (n = 3, 2%). For example, The Jewish Museum of Maryland at the Herbert Bearman Campus details their commitment to Jewish stories: “We connect people to Jewish experiences and Maryland's Jewish community to its roots.” The National Museum of the American Indian was the only museum that expressed an explicit commitment to preserving and displaying materials in alignment with Indigenous ways of knowing via partnerships with Indigenous peoples (n = 1, 1%).

Institutions also identified the types of education they were committed to such as experiential learning (n = 59, 48%), critical thinking (n = 15, 12%), contributions in scholarship (n = 33, 27%), cultural competence (n = 26, 21%), challenging cultural stereotypes (n = 1, 1%), and online accessibility (n = 9, 7%). Promoting cultural competency (n = 26, 21%) was evident in the Antelope Valley Indian Museum's mission:

To provide for the education, inspiration and benefit of the people of California as well as those throughout the world with interest in the material culture and lifeways of prehistoric, historic, and contemporary American Indian cultures and the unique folk art represented at the park by:

- providing programs, projects, and exhibits that educate, enlighten, and inspire people to explore the cultures represented at the Museum and to an ever-widening audience.

- supporting research and information dissemination that will provide understanding of the links between these treasures and the peoples who generated them.

- preserving the park's natural, cultural and historic resources unimpaired for present and future generations.

The Asian Arts & Cultures Center was the only museum (n = 1, 1%) with a commitment to challenging cultural stereotypes:

The Asian Arts & Culture Center at Towson University engages the university and surrounding communities in cross-cultural dialogue through a broad range of artistic and cultural learning experiences related to Asia. Our programs increase understanding of the world's diverse cultures, challenge stereotypes, strengthen cultural competency, and offer unique perspectives on creativity and the human experience.

A few museums prioritized online accessibility (n = 9, 7%) to work towards democratizing educational outreach. While online accessibility may be aligned with social-justice philosophies by moving knowledge beyond the academic or museum paywall, it does not address accessibility of the Internet, nor that of Indigenous peoples to handle, touch, and use the materials extracted from them and held by these institutions.

Several institutions identified the varying audience members they aimed to educate (n = 101, 82%), with groups including the public (n = 61, 50%), educators (n = 14, 11%), students (n = 20, 16%), artists (n = 5, 4%), and industry partners (n = 1, 1%). For example, in The Ohio State University's Historic Costume & Textiles Collection's mission, they identified their audience as: “faculty, undergraduate and graduate students, industry partners and community members.”

In the third theme, we identified that the missions contained a spectrum of social-justice related language. Language included broad terms such as diverse, diversity, inclusive, and/or inclusivity (n = 31, 25%) in relation to collections (n = 10, 8%), stakeholders (n = 1, 1%), staff (n = 1, 1%), visitors (n = 13, 11%), and exhibitions (n = 4, 3%). For example, the Belle Meade Plantation mission says, "To create innovative and inclusive guest experiences, engaging educational opportunities, and a fulfilling team environment, while preserving the historic relevance of the site for future generations." Additionally, the Hood Museum of Art mission states, “The Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, centers art and people in teaching and learning through inclusive and robust academic, cultural, and civic engagements with art and its histories.” Institutions tended to use the term diversity without specific context (n = 11, 9%).

Only three (2%) DTMC explicitly conveyed their commitment to social-justice philosophies by using terms like social justice, social action, and social equity in their missions. For example, the mission of The Baltimore Museum of Art reads,

The Baltimore Museum of Art connects art to Baltimore and Baltimore to the world, embodying a commitment to artistic excellence and social equity in every decision from art presentation, interpretation, and collecting to the composition of our Board of Trustees, staff, and volunteers—creating a museum welcoming to all.

A fifth theme communicated other commitments such as offering consultation services (n = 1, 1%) and financial stability (n = 3, 2%). Additionally, missions of collections/museums that operated under a parent organization concentrated on furthering the mission of this larger institution (n = 11, 9%). Some missions also emphasized the importance of creating a positive working environment for those employed within the institution (n = 4, 3%). For example, the Pioneer and Historical Society of Muskingum County, Ohio mission states,

Celebrate and preserve the history of Muskingum County and its people so that our historic legacy is passed on to future generations. Towards this end we will: educate and engage a diverse public through a variety of programs; maintain our museum buildings and collections; support research; publish historical documents; and manage the society openly, ethically, and professionally.

Committing to managing the organization openly, ethnically, and professionally highlights their emphasis on a positive work environment.

Diversity Statements

We identified 63 (49%) institutions that had a diversity statement or commitment to equity and change on their website; of these institutions, 28 (22%) were easily visible from the home page, about page, or another major tab (percentages in this section were calculated out of the 130 institutions). For example, the Western Reserve Historical Society's diversity statement was found on a major tab in their about page. After the death of George Floyd, many institutions made diversity statements or commitments to equity and change on their Facebook or Instagram pages (n = 101, 78%). For example, The Museum of History and Industry posted an explicit response to George Floyd's death on their Instagram page on June 3, 2020:

We, the leaders of Seattle's Cultural Roundtable…stand with our Black and Brown colleagues and community members in mourning the senseless deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and so many other victims of violence rooted in the institutional racism that enables it. We are together committed to fostering more equitable, diverse and inclusive workplaces and collective communities. We stand with People of Color in the fight for justice and act as agents for positive change.

While some institutions posted commitments to change, other institutions did not explicitly commit to change or acknowledge George Floyd's death. For example, the American Latvian Association's Facebook post on June 1, 2020 stated, “We condemn racism and discrimination in our society, and support those who exercise their right to protest peacefully,” which does not express their interest in engaging in their own action-oriented justice work. Of the institutions under analysis (N = 130, 100%), 107 (82%) had a diversity statement or commitment to equity and change on their social media, website, or both.

Exhibition Titles and Descriptions

We evaluated 711 clothing, textile, and dress exhibition titles and descriptions and determined 172 (24%) exhibition titles and descriptions at 54 (42%) different institutions overtly reflected a social justice lens. Some institutions explicitly uplifted marginalized community voices or stories. For example, the Textile Museum of Canada's exhibition ᖃᓪᓗᓈᖅᑕᐃᑦ ᓯᑯᓯᓛᕐᒥᑦ Printed Textiles from Kinngait Studios, showcased “the little-known story of a group of Inuit artists and printmakers who produced a collection of graphic textiles in Kinngait, (Cape Dorset, Nunavut) in the 1950s and 60s.” Some exhibitions also incorporated an intersectional approach and addressed multiple oppressed identities such as the Royal Ontario Museum's exhibition Worn: Shaping Black Feminine Identity.

Exhibitions considering a social justice lens also questioned cultural norms about race, class, gender, and/or sexuality. This was seen in the Bata Shoe Museum's exhibition Standing Tall: The Curious History of Men in Heels,” which:

challenged preconceived notions about who wears heels and why. From privileged rulers to hyper-sexualized rock stars this provocative exhibition explored the history of men in heels from the early 1600s to today, delving into the use and meanings of heeled footwear in men's dress.

Curators also brought attention to the importance of rejecting colonialism. For example, the Fowler Museum's exhibition Fiiman Tembe: Maroon Arts from Suriname focused on the Maroon peoples whose “enslaved ancestors escaped the coastal plantations…and established free communities, with whom the colonial authorities eventually negotiated formal peace treaties…a legacy of resistance and self-determination remains critically relevant.”

Exhibitions that problematized exoticization through exhibition content was another sub-theme. The exhibition I Was India: Embroidering Exoticism - Kira Dominguez Hultgren at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles critically tackled a discussion of exoticism, which was evident in the exhibition description: “Bay Area-based artist Kira Dominguez Hultgren explores what it takes to make an Indian.” It explored “colonial and contemporary exoticism, handwork, and the spectacle.”

Exhibitions also focused on social movements or societal issues; for example, the Seattle Art Museum's exhibition Project 42: Molly Vaughan “address[ed] the pattern of violence against transgender people in the United States, providing both a form of memorialization and an entry point for engagement and discussion” with “each of the three dresses…memorializ[ing] the life and death of a transgender person who was murdered.” Curators also developed partnerships with local institutions, organizations, or communities centering marginalized identities, such as the Textile Center of Minnesota's Artists in the Kitchen Exhibition, which had “50 all-women artist/chef-restaurateur teams…join forces in an innovative partnership.”

We examined the time period of the exhibitions with a social justice lens (N = 172, 24%) based upon their opening year (we included a few exhibitions that opened in 2012 and ran through 2013): 2012 (n = 4, 2%), 2013 (n = 14, 8%), 2014 (n = 10, 6%), 2015 (n = 17, 10%), 2016 (n = 18, 11%), 2017 (n = 14, 8%), 2018 (n = 25, 15%), 2019 (n = 30, 17%), 2020 (n = 25, 15%), 2021 (n = 9, 5%), unlisted or post-2021 future date (n = 3, 2%), and unknown date (n = 3, 2%).

We also determined if a DTMC had at least one exhibition with a social justice lens (N = 54, 42%) and if they used a spectrum of social-justice related language in their missions and/or had diversity statements (either on their websites or via social media): 49 (91%) considered social-justice in at least one of those three areas, 16 (30%) used a spectrum of social-justice related language in their mission, 28 (52%) had a diversity statement on their website, and 49 (91%) had a diversity statement on their social media. Twenty-seven institutions (21%) had a spectrum of social-justice related language in their missions or had diversity statements on their website or social media, but these philosophies did not materialize in an exhibition title or description; therefore, they were potentially engaging in performative behaviors.

Discussion

Museum professionals and researchers have argued that within museums, the mission is the cornerstone of the organization, and provides direction in policy-making and planning of museum operations (American Alliance of Museums, 2012). We therefore argue that if a museum values social, economic, political, and other forms of equity, one way to demonstrate support of these initiatives is by stating so in the mission (or as we described earlier in our methods, phrases homologous with the term and concept of mission, including purpose, objective, goal, committed to, mandate, aims, and dedicated to), creating a diversity statement (if none exists), and follow through with actions, such as exhibitions, social media content, and other public-facing outreach. Our research shows that some institutions use a spectrum of social-justice language within their missions to convey support of social justice. On the surface, these institutions appear to align with the #MuseumsAreNotNeutral campaign, rejecting the “myth of museum neutrality” (Autry & Murawski, n.d., para. 6). For example, some missions communicated a focus on histories of marginalized communities, using terms such as diversity, inclusion, social equity, or social action. Our research was also promising because most of the institutions with social justice language in their mission had followed through by curating exhibitions that highlighted marginalized groups or inequities in fashion.

Some scholars have argued that museums should remain impartial (Bailey, 2019). This argument perpetuates silently upholding white supremacy and other forms of discrimination through complacency in structures of inequity. We found that most of the museums or collections have omitted mention of social justice, equity, and inclusion in their missions. For example, many missions included only general language about preserving knowledge via stories, offering consultation services, or expressing a commitment to educating the public, but did not clarify whose stories or the specific communities they endeavored to serve. Many exhibitions also omitted social justice by ignoring marginalized communities or issues of power. Our research calls attention to practices that perpetuate discrimination, and this is apparent in the absence of social justice in missions and exhibitions.

Some museums or collections may not have included social justice language in missions because it was outlined in a separate diversity statement. Diversity statements do articulate an institution's commitment to social justice and why diversity matters (Heaslip, n.d.); however, making this part of a central mission and taking actionable steps—like exhibitions, programming, and social media content—must follow commitments to social justice. Incorporating a diversity statement into a regularly used platform, such as a website, allows the statement to become a living part of the establishment (Randall et al., 2014). We found that about half of the museums or collections had diversity statements, yet most were extremely difficult to locate. If visitors are unable to easily locate a diversity statement on the website, they will not see the statement as a living part of the museum. Foregrounding the diversity statement, as well as exhibits and programming about marginalized communities will enable institutions to be allies in combating oppression.

Another way institutions have recently expressed their commitment to diversity was through social media after the killing of George Floyd. Social media was an important communication tool for these institutions to make pledges and convey solidarity publicly (Ciecko, 2020). Since these declarations were broadcasted, the public has called on museums to act (Dafoe & Goldstein, 2020). Our research shows that most of the institutions surveyed did create solidarity statements against racism; however, time will tell what actionable steps are made with future exhibit planning, collecting, and hiring practices. Taking to public platforms in response to hate and discrimination is but the first step that museums might take to uproot oppression and become “change agents, to educate, inspire and support the empowerment of their visitors” (Nightingale & Sandell, 2012, p. 1).

Past scholars have suggested that exhibition titles and descriptions are the most visible programming produced by a museum (American Alliance of Museums, 2021; Landi, 2013, para 22) because they “can do much to determine how others perceive and remember an exhibition” (Landi, 2013, para 22). Considering the accessibility and importance of exhibition titles and descriptions, they can be a powerful tool to represent institutions’ overt support of social-justice initiatives. Our research showed that a little less than half of the institutions’ exhibitions in North America explicitly incorporated social justice in exhibition titles and descriptions. These museums are overtly working towards combatting oppression of marginalized people in one major public-facing output as opposed to making empty statements of social justice support (Tormos-Aponte, 2020). Of note is that exhibitions with a social-justice focus increased from 2013; therefore, it seems possible that these topics may continue to thrive.

Almost a quarter of the institutions included mention of social justice in their mission, diversity statement, or social media, yet did not have an exhibition title or description with a social justice philosophy since 2013. While an institution may implement these philosophies in other areas such as the collection or programming (Erikson, 2002), and many institutions have begun to do so (e.g., Brighton Museum, n.d.; Reddy-Best & Goodin, 2020), it was evident from our research that there is still opportunity to materialize these existing justice philosophies and re-write guiding principles that impact the re-telling, re-collecting, and re-documenting of fashion histories. Institutions could bring meaning and change to public stances against oppression. Will those with power, particularly in institutions where the DTMC professionals may have little agency over decisions, take these steps in the future or will they defend the hegemonic status quo (O’Brien & Crandall, 2005)? Taking a change agent approach and rejecting false neutrality is important because it can have a positive societal impact and uplift marginalized communities through visibility (Newman & McLean, 2006). However, DTMC face a complex history of colonial origins and discursive practices (Melchior, 2014; Sorber, 2018). These institutions may perceive progressive action as unnecessary, too radical, and a financial risk that is not worth taking that may be at odds with their patrons, board, and/or stakeholders. Overall, the justice actions already in place that we identified in this data are inspiring; we conclude with action-oriented recommendations for those in power to enable increasing justice in DTMC as they look to the future.

Conclusion, Recommendations, and Implications

We applaud individuals in power at institutions who are making public efforts and engaging in hidden labor to combat discrimination, while we also acknowledge that there is much work to be done. We recommend that decision-makers at the institution start by finding 3^rd-party advisors to assist with understanding actionable justice philosophies because outside individuals may be able to provide a more impartial perspective. With outside guidance, we recommend drafting an explicitly justice-oriented mission, which will then guide future decisions, policies, and practices. All teams throughout the institution should have input in, and understanding of, the mission so there is widespread adoption in DTMC exhibitions, social media posts, and educational spaces. A separate statement outlining what social justice means to the institution should be developed and included in an easy-to-find space on the website. After teams develop the guiding statements, they should identify which strategic plan areas need to be prioritized. These are the first steps towards transformative social change.

We recommend that team members use this paper for justice advocacy with their various stakeholders (e.g., trustees, deans, staff), especially those who may be in an institution with many departments where their voice is one of many and their agency may be limited. The most important implication that this paper can offer is to inspire change agents in positions of power to critically reflect upon their institution's history, which will inform their vision and actions to create a justice-oriented future.

Future researchers could explore other areas where prioritization of social justice can create change, including hiring practices, programming, collection management, employee training, leadership initiatives, partnerships with marginalized communities, and diversifying board members. Additionally, interviews with museum professionals about various barriers to this work, like institutional bureaucracy and resistance to change, would be of great importance. The museum audience's perceptions of these practices are another avenue of inquiry. Our research captured one cross-section of time. We suggest that future scholars analyze these same institutions in future years to understand transformative change longitudinally, with the understanding that the effort to hold those accountable who may have engaged in “non-performativity” of anti-discrimination can take time (Ahmed, 2004, p. 5).

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article

References

Ahmed

(2004). The non-performativity of anti-racism. Paper presented at CentreLGS Colloquium: Text and terrain: Legal studies in gender and sexuality. University of Kent. https://www.kent.ac.uk/clgs/documents/pdfs/Ahmed_sarah_clgscolloq25-09-04.pdf.

American Alliance of Museums (2012). Developing a mission statement. https://www.aam-us.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/developing-a-mission-statement-final.pdf.

American Alliance of Museums (2021). Museum facts & data. https://www.aam-us.org/programs/about-museums/museum-facts-data/#_edn10.

Asare

J. G.

(2020). 4 ways to deconstruct systems of oppression. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/janicegassam/2020/02/17/4-ways-to-deconstruct-systems-of-oppression/?sh = 41850dfc62da.

Autry

L. T. S.

Murawski

(n.d.). Join the movement. Museums Are Not Neutral. https://www.museumsarenotneutral.com/.

Bailey

D. A.

(2019). The activist spectrum in United States museums. In Janes

R. R.

Sandell

(Eds.), Museum activism (pp. 293–303). Routledge.

Brighton Museum (n.d.). Museum of transology. Brighton Museum. https://brightonmuseums.org.uk/brighton/exhibitions-displays/brighton-museum-past-exhibitions/past-exhibitions-2019/the-museum-of-transology/ .

Chapin

Green

D. N.

Neuberg

(2019). Exhibiting gender: Exploring the dynamic relationships between fashion, gender, and mannequins in museum display. Dress, 45(1), 75–88. https://doi.org/10.1080/03612112.2018.1551282

Ciecko

(2020, March 25). 4 ways museums can successfully leveraged digital content and channels during Coronavirus (COVID 19). American Alliance of Museums. https://www.aam-us.org/2020/03/25/4-ways-museums-can-successfully-leverage-digital-content-and-channels-during-coronavirus-covid-19/.

10.

Clement

(2020, November 24). Most popular social networks worldwide as of October 2020, ranked by number of active users. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/.

11.

Cole J. (2015). Johnnetta Cole: Museums, Diversity & Social Value. Association of Art Museum Directors. https://aamd.org/our-members/from-the-field/johnnetta-cole-museums-diversity-social-value

12.

Crenshaw

(1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1998(1), 139–167. https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1052&context=uclf

13.

Creswell

J. W.

(2014). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage.

14.

Dafoe

Goldstein

(2020, August 14). The George Floyd protests spurred museums to promise change. Here’s what they’ve actually done so far. Art World. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/museums-diversity-equity-commitments-1901564.

15.

Entwistle

(2000). Fashioning the fleshy body: Dress as embodied practice. Fashion Theory, 4(3), 323–347. https://doi.org/10.2752/136270400778995471

16.

Erikson

P. P.

(2002). Voices of a thousand people: The Makah cultural and research center. University of Nebraska Press.

17.

Friedman

(2020, September 29). The incredible whiteness of the museum fashion collection. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/29/style/museums-fashion-racism.html.

18.

Green

D. N.

Reddy-Best

K. L.

(2022). Curatorial reflections in North American university fashion collections: Challenging the canon. Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty, 13(1), 7–20. https://doi.org/10.1386/csfb_00035_2

19.

Heaslip

(n.d.). Writing a diversity and inclusion statement: How to get it right. U.S. Chamber of Commerce. https://www.uschamber.com/co/start/strategy/writing-diversity-and-inclusion-statement.

20.

Incluseum (2015, February 4). Oppression: A museum primer. The Incluseum. https://incluseum.com/2015/02/04/oppression-a-museum-primer/.

21.

Jenkins

(n. d.). The fashion and race database. https://fashionandrace.org/.

22.

Kaiser

S. B.

Green

D. N.

(2021). Fashion and cultural studies. Bloomsbury.

23.

Krug

(2006). Don’t make me think! A common sense approach to web usability. New Riders.

24.

Landi

(2013, December 9). Title fights: How museums name their shows. ARTnews. https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/how-museums-title-shows-2340/.

25.

Ling

van Dartel

(2018). Global fashion as a tool in the ethnographic museum. ZoneModa Journal, 9(2), 71–88. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2611-0563/10048

26.

Lonetree

(2012). Decolonizing Museums: Representing Native America in National and Tribal Museums. University of North Carolina Press.

27.

Matthews

D. L.

Reddy-Best

K. L.

(2022). Curating a fashion exhibition centred on black women: Combatting individual and systemic oppression at land-grant university fashion museums. Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty, 13(1), 141–166. https://doi.org/10.1386/csfb_00041_1

28.

Melchior

M. R.

(2014). Understanding fashion and dress museology. In Melchior

M. R.

Svensson

(Eds.), Fashion and museums: Theory and practice (pp. 1–18). Bloomsbury.

29.

Murawski

(2019, May 31). Interrupting white dominant culture in museums, Art Museum Teaching. https://artmuseumteaching.com/2019/05/31/interrupting-white-dominant-culture/.

30.

Neuman

L. W.

(2014). Social research methods: Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Pearson.

31.

Newman

McLean

(2006). The impact of museums upon identity. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 12(1), 49–68. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527250500384514

32.

Nightingale

Sandell

(2012). Introduction. In Nightingale

Sandell

(Eds.), Museums, equality and social justice (pp. 1–10). Taylor & Francis.

33.

O‘Brien

Crandall

(2005). Perceiving self-interest: Power, ideology, and maintenance of the status quo. Social Justice Research, 18(24), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-005-3368-4

34.

Ornstein

A. C.

(2017). Social justice: History, purpose and meaning. Social Science and Public Policy, 54(2017), 541–548. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-017-0188-8

35.

Proctor

(2018). Collecting clothing worn by trans people and the curatorial ramifications. Fashion Theory, 22(4-5), 523–530. https://doi.org/10.1080/1362704X.2018.1425524

36.

Randall

Hudson

Issacson

(2014). Formalizing a college diversity statement. Journal of Best Practices in Health Professions Diversity, 7(1), 941–953. https://www-jstor-org-443.web.bisu.edu.cn/stable/pdf/26554199.pdf.

37.

Räikkä

(2014). Social justice in practice: Questions in ethics and political philosophy. Springer.

38.

Reddy-Best

K. L.

Goodin

(2020). Queer fashion and style: Stories from the heartland – a museum exhibition. Dress, 46(2), 115–140. https://doi.org/10.1080/03612112.2019.1686875

39.

Rodriguez

J. E.

(2020). Decolonizing or recolonizing? The (mis)representation of humanity in natural history museums. History of Anthropology Review. https://histanthro.org/notes/decolonizing-or-recolonizing/.

40.

Sleeper-Smith

(2009). Contesting knowledge: Museums and Indigenous perspectives. University of Nebraska.

41.

Sorber

N. M.

(2018). Land-grant colleges and popular revolt: The origins of the Morrill Act and the reform of higher education. Cornell University Press.

42.

Stengel

(2020, June 17). Black Lives Matter protests moves corporate D&I initiatives center stage. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/geristengel/2020/06/17/black-lives-matter-protests-moves-corporate-di-initiatives-into-the-spotlight/?sh = 78fec3387a0d.

43.

Taylor

D. B.

(2021, March 9). George Floyd protests: A timeline. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/article/george-floyd-protests-timeline.html.

44.

Tormos-Aponte

(2020, June 25). On racial justice, statements are not enough. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/on-racial-justice-statements-are-not-enough/.

45.

Vidalon

(2022). Reflections on Peruvian Textile traditions: A living heritage exhibit. Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty, 13(1), 89–118. https://doi.org/10.1386/csfb_00039_1

46.

Welters

Lillethun

(2018). Fashion history: A global view. Bloomsbury.

47.

Welters

Ordoñez

(2011). Historic textile and costume collections in the academic setting. ITAA Monograph. https://cdn.ymaws.com/itaaonline.org/resource/resmgr/imported/Monograph11-TC_Collections_Academic_Setting.pdf. Accessed 9 August 2021.

48.

Whyman

(2018). Exhibition reflection: In two parts. Transformation: One man’s cross-dressing wardrobe. Fashion Theory, 22(4-5), 553–560. https://doi.org/10.1080/1362704X.2018.1425531

49.

Xepoleas

L. M.

Green

D. N.

(2020). ‘Indispensable Treasures’: Reframing Indigenous Design as ‘American’ Fashion in Illustrated Lectures. International Textile and Apparel Association Conference Proceedings.

50.

Xepoleas

L. M.

Hayflick

(2022). Curating costumes from many lands: Addressing the colonial gaze in two university dress collections through digital curation. Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty, 13(1), 21–43. https://doi.org/10.1386/csfb_00036_1