'Veil' and the politics of community exhibiting: some thoughts from Glasgow

Citation

Munro E (2013) 'Veil' and the politics of community exhibiting: some thoughts from Glasgow. Cultural Geographies, 20 (2), pp. 243-248. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474474012456953

Abstract
This paper is broadly concerned with community engagement as a facet of museum practice. The paper offers a reading of a community exhibition entitled Curious, held at St Mungo’s Museum of Religious Life and Art in the city of Glasgow. I take the reader on a tour of the exhibition, offering insights into its form and function. I show how community exhibitions can pose challenges to traditional museum practice by disrupting taken-for-granted assumptions about curatorial authority, and I emphasize both the range of meanings that can be attached to museum objects and the radical potential of including non-expert knowledge in the creation of displays and exhibitions. I also argue, however, that community exhibitions may be understood as poor relations to traditionally curated exhibits, and that curatorial authority is still key to the production of museum displays.

Keywords
community; curator; engagement; exhibition; museum; outreach

Journal
Cultural Geographies: Volume 20, Issue 2