Open Forum

Hello museum friends -- I am looking to connect with museums who have incorporated drag artists and performers in recent family-friendly programming.

We are a small-sized maritime museum planning planning to host a Drag Story Hour this June. While Drag Story Hour has become popular in library settings (and controversial in recent months), I find this kind of event relatively rare in museum settings. 

What would you share with a small museum starting this kind of event for the first time? I would love to hear what worked, what didn't, any pointers, and lessons learned. What was community reception and feedback? Was their any impact to raising (or losing) financial support? How did you deal with protesters, if at all? 

(If your museum considered hosting this event but chose not to, why?)

I understand this has become a touchy subject for some -- please keep comments positive, tolerant, and inclusive. 

Thank you very much for your advice,

Nomi

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Nomi Dayan
Executive Director
The Whaling Museum & Education Center of Cold Spring Harbor
Cold Spring Harbor NY
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The American Library Association, Urban Librarians, and the site Programming Librarian (incidentally, a great resource for museum programmers too) have some good guides and resources:

https://www.ala.org/advocacy/libraries-respond-drag-queen-story-hour

https://urbanlibrariansunite.org/drag-story-hour-support/

https://programminglibrarian.org/articles/drag-queen-story-hour-qa-port-jefferson-free-library

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Michelle Moon
Principal, Satlworks Interpretive Services
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Hi Nomi,

The Penn Museum in Philadelphia hosted some drag performances and programming in relation to the 2021–2022 exhibit "The Stories We Wear." It was prompted by the exhibition content---the curatorial and exhibitions teams worked with a Philly-based drag performer to include their story and an ensemble in the gallery, and the learning programs team continued the relationship with further programming. 

From the exhibitions side (I was on the exhibition development team at the time, before moving to a different institution), there wasn't any internal pushback about including a drag-related story once the idea emerged. There were one or two negative visitor comments on later evaluations, but there were just as many---if not more---positive evaluation comments and social media posts from visitors who were excited or moved to see a drag story highlighted in a museum. For more details on the programming side, you could try reaching out to folks in the learning programs department at Penn. Good luck!

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Lauren Cooper
Exhibition Interpretation Specialist
The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens
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Thanks a lot Lauren!

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Nomi Dayan
Executive Director
The Whaling Museum & Education Center of Cold Spring Harbor
Cold Spring Harbor NY
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-13-2023 01:28 PM
From: Lauren Cooper
Subject: Drag in Museum Programming?

Hi Nomi,

The Penn Museum in Philadelphia hosted some drag performances and programming in relation to the 2021–2022 exhibit "The Stories We Wear." It was prompted by the exhibition content---the curatorial and exhibitions teams worked with a Philly-based drag performer to include their story and an ensemble in the gallery, and the learning programs team continued the relationship with further programming. 

From the exhibitions side (I was on the exhibition development team at the time, before moving to a different institution), there wasn't any internal pushback about including a drag-related story once the idea emerged. There were one or two negative visitor comments on later evaluations, but there were just as many---if not more---positive evaluation comments and social media posts from visitors who were excited or moved to see a drag story highlighted in a museum. For more details on the programming side, you could try reaching out to folks in the learning programs department at Penn. Good luck!

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Lauren Cooper
Exhibition Interpretation Specialist
The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens
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The National Museum of Mexican Art has hosted drag events for many years with great welcoming from the community. We have not hosted a drag story hour but are considering it for our annual family festival. We have also hosted a Queer Prom since 2003 and have hosted the Sor Juana Festival since 1996 (named after the lesbian scholar and poet Sr. Juana Ines de la Cruz). I think what helps is having a consistent presence and making sure your leadership is completely on board and ready to defend against any pushback. 

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Vanessa Sanchez
Director of Education andYollocalli Arts Reach
National Museum of Mexican Art
Chicago IL
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Hi Nomi,  We recently worked with a local drag performer, Inertia, to include an open run-way at one of our monthly Museum Nights events that attract campus and community visitors. Inertia MCed in drag and brought a couple of her friends She brought a joyful and incredibly inclusive and positive attitude that engaged students, seniors, families with children, and adults on dates. She was really all about the audience and I entirely credit her for this wonderful event. Although we advertised the open runway as part of the event (this was visitors taking their own stroll down the ad hoc runway) we didn't frame it as a drag performance (e.g. here's the FB event https://fb.me/e/4n9CG7Q4J) . 

We haven't received negative feedback or seen anything on social media.  As suggested above, the key for us was to work with the performer in advance to make sure we all agreed on the expected audience for the event and what kind of atmosphere we wanted to create.  I'll be glad to put you in touch with my colleague Allysa who really did the work to make the magic happen.  

-Eric

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Eric J. Segal, Ph.D. (pronouns: he/him)
Director of Education and Curator of Academic Programs
352.294.7063 | esegal@harn.ufl.edu
Harn Museum of Art - harn.ufl.edu
University of Florida
Gainesville FL
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Hi Nomi!

You may want to reach out to Michelle Schulte, Curator and Director of Public Programs, at the LSU Museum of Art. Her email is mschulte@lsu.edu. She is working on an upcoming exhibit that features males in various states of drag. She's had a hard time navigating the exhibit in context to what's appropriate to show and the ideal "body form" or image. I'm sure she would be willing to share her thoughts and insight.

Good luck!

Heather Nowak

Program Administrator

Southeaster Museums Conference

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Heather Nowak
Program Administrator
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Hi Nomi,

You may also want to reach out to someone on the public programs team at the Dallas Museum of Art. I'm not sure who the best person on that team is to reach out to, but their info email is publicprograms@DMA.org. They've done drag performances as part of their Late Nights series. 

Cheers!

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Madeleine Fitzgerald
Manager of Adult Programs
Amon Carter Museum of American Art
Fort Worth TX
madeleinef@cartermuseum.org
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Original Message:
Sent: 2/21/2023 10:51:00 AM
From: Madeleine Fitzgerald
Subject: RE: Drag in Museum Programming?

Hi Nomi,

You may also want to reach out to someone on the public programs team at the Dallas Museum of Art. I'm not sure who the best person on that team is to reach out to, but their info email is publicprograms@DMA.org. They've done drag performances as part of their Late Nights series. 

Cheers!

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Madeleine Fitzgerald
Manager of Adult Programs
Amon Carter Museum of American Art
Fort Worth TX
madeleinef@cartermuseum.org
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