Overview

In an age of protest, culture and museums have come under fire. Protests of museum funding (for example, the Metropolitan Museum accepting Sackler family money) and boards (for example, the Whitney appointing tear gas manufacturer Warren Kanders)--to say nothing of demonstrations over exhibitions and artworks--have roiled cultural institutions across the world, from the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi to the Akron Art Museum. At the same time, never have there been more calls for museums to work for social change, calls for the emergence of a new role for culture. As director of the Queens Museum, Laura Raicovich helped turn that New York municipal institution into a public commons for art and activism, organizing high-powered exhibitions that were also political protests. Then in January, 2018, she resigned, after a dispute with the Queens Museum board and city officials became a public controversy--she had objected to the Israeli government using the museum for an event featuring vice president Mike Pence. In this book, Raicovich explains some of the key museum flashpoints, and she also provides historical context for the current controversies. She shows how art museums arose as colonial institutions bearing an ideology of neutrality that masks their role in upholding capitalist values. And she suggests how museums can be reinvented to serve better, public ends.

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9781839760501

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Reviews

Culture Strike is a must-read account of how museums have positioned themselves as progressive while working hard to maintain the status quo. Written by someone who knows the ropes and drawing on interviews and conversations from all corners of the art world, it is a road map of how we've gotten where we are, a blueprint for change, and a love letter to museums for their potential to change the world if only we would think differently about them. -Aruna D'souza, author of Whitewalling In this brave and bracing book, Laura Raicovich critiques our cultural institutions with compassion, curiosity, and conviction. Through insightful case studies and compelling history lessons, Culture Strike examines the many ways museums are implicated in capitalism, colonialism, and white supremacy, recognizing the profound power imbalances and biases that plague the sector without losing sight of the radical democratic possibility that also exists therein. By shredding the myth of neutrality and universalism that prop up an unjust status quo, Raicovich challenges us to tap into our creativity to imagine and finally build a truly public, egalitarian, and inclusive cultural sphere we deserve. -Astra Taylor, author of Democracy May Not Exist, but We'll Miss It when It's Gone Laura Raicovich's incisive critiques and exposures are not just about taking sides or taking down. Her articulations are enveloped by an impassioned understanding that to survive meaningfully you need the heart to evolve and the soul intact. -Mel Chin, artist and MacArthur Fellow Urgent. -Travis Diehl, art-agenda Raicovich doesn't just provide an analysis of everything that's gone wrong-she also details a refreshing look at a few cases where museums have stepped up and made changes. -Shanti Escalante-De Mattei, ARTnews Raicovich has thought deeply about how cultural institutions can better reflect and answer to their communities. -Helen Holmes, Observer [Culture Strike] brilliantly problematizes the pervasive old myth of 'neutrality.' -Dessane Lopez Cassell, Hyperallergic

Culture Strike is a must-read account of how museums have positioned themselves as progressive while working hard to maintain the status quo. Written by someone who knows the ropes and drawing on interviews and conversations from all corners of the art world, it is a road map of how we've gotten where we are, a blueprint for change, and a love letter to museums for their potential to change the world if only we would think differently about them. --Aruna D'souza, author of Whitewalling In this brave and bracing book, Laura Raicovich critiques our cultural institutions with compassion, curiosity, and conviction. Through insightful case studies and compelling history lessons, Culture Strike examines the many ways museums are implicated in capitalism, colonialism, and white supremacy, recognizing the profound power imbalances and biases that plague the sector without losing sight of the radical democratic possibility that also exists therein. By shredding the myth of neutrality and universalism that prop up an unjust status quo, Raicovich challenges us to tap into our creativity to imagine and finally build a truly public, egalitarian, and inclusive cultural sphere we deserve. --Astra Taylor, author of Democracy May Not Exist, but We'll Miss It when It's Gone Laura Raicovich's incisive critiques and exposures are not just about taking sides or taking down. Her articulations are enveloped by an impassioned understanding that to survive meaningfully you need the heart to evolve and the soul intact. --Mel Chin, artist and MacArthur Fellow

Author Information

Laura Raicovich was President and Executive Director of the Queens Museum, and prior to that was with Creative Time and Dia Art Foundation. She is a recipient of both the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Fellowship and the inaugural Emily H. Tremaine Journalism Fellowship for Curators at Hyperallergic. She co-edited Assuming Boycott and is the author of At the Lightning Field and A Diary of Mysterious Difficulties.

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