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  • 1.  What is a difficult conversation you have had in a museum?

    Posted 02-12-2025 01:11 PM

    Dear All

    What is a difficult conversation you have had in a museum? It can be with a visitor or with colleagues. I do not think we should shy away from them it can be a good thing. 

    I look forward to responses.

    Thanks,

    Rachel



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    Rachel Alschuler
    Museum Education/ Visitor Experience
    San Francisco CA
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  • 2.  RE: What is a difficult conversation you have had in a museum?

    Posted 02-13-2025 11:24 AM
    I had a conversation with a peer about concerns in how their communication style has a passive, assertive behavior tone.  I told them it was important to convey the impact of their tone to be able to adjust how they address situations.  The outcome was very positive, and we have had positive conversations since then.

    Hope this helps.

    --
    Velda McRae-Yates, PhD, CCDP/AP
    Chief Human Resources Officer
    Peabody Essex Museum
    161 Essex Street
    Salem, Massachusetts 01970
    O:  (978) 745-9500 
    F:  (978) 741-2864




    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: What is a difficult conversation you have had in a museum?

    Posted 02-13-2025 01:12 PM

    Dear  Velda

    Sounds like a necessary conversation with a good out come. All insight in useful.

    Thanks,

    Rachel



    ------------------------------
    Rachel Alschuler
    Museum Education/ Visitor Experience
    San Francisco CA
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: What is a difficult conversation you have had in a museum?

    Posted 02-14-2025 03:10 PM

    Dear colleagues:

    In the course of my museum career (from which I am now retired), conversations in response to criticism in the local newspaper of a major capital project that I was leading resulted in my decision to respond in my museum's bi-monthly newsletter with as much vigour as I could muster. I really didn't have much 'difficulty' writing about the issues raised (essentially attacking the basic values of a museum in a small community) but, in the back of my mind, I was concerned that my strong advocacy in the defense of my institution & project leadership might not be acceptable to my employer, a municipality in a Canadian province. I did respond as forcefully as I could in 3 separate legal-sized newsletter issues that were circulated to museum members, public bulletin boards in the community, as well as to the government department that provided some minimal funding to my museum. I 'published' my editorials as follow at: https://miscellaneousmuseology.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/1986-04-museum-heritage-values.pdf , https://miscellaneousmuseology.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/1993-02-values-of-museums.pdf , & https://miscellaneousmuseology.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/1994-10-waller-museum-project-justification.pdf . Having been challenged to leave my job, I was successful in operationalising the project more-or-less as planned. So, my advice to readers is NEVER give up on the recurring necessity to "kick at the darkness [of opposition to the values of heritage preservation & education] 'till it bleeds daylight" (Bruce Cockburn "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" lyric). 



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    Paul C.Thistle
    Director/Curator (retired)
    Stratford, Ontario
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: What is a difficult conversation you have had in a museum?

    Posted 02-17-2025 01:01 PM

    Latta Plantation, outside Charlotte, NC. I'm the docent in the house that was built in 1803. The builder made his money traveling up and down the Great Wagon Road delivering goods, etc. But merchants aren't able to vote - only landowners. So Latta buys a plantation. And owns slaves. 

    So here I am, in the house giving house tours to school groups. I open the door... and there I am, white chick standing there in my hoop skirts, facing an entire class of nothing but black children. And today's topic, we are going to talk about slavery. I look at them, they look at me, and ALL of us are thinking the same thing; "wow, this is wildly inappropriate."

    We all did our best. We had some honest conversations about the brutality of the whole system. They were very gracious to me. They listened, I listened, we compared notes about what we knew. 

    But there is one thing that will haunt me the rest of my life. They described what they knew of the way enslaved people were treated... but there was a question I should have asked: "Let's pretend for a moment that what people say is true, that not EVERY slave was always beaten... does that make slavery any less wrong?" 

    The evil of slavery is not the brutality of the beatings. It's the evil that comes from the uneven power structure. Enslaved people cannot leave a bad working environment. They cannot reap the benefits of their own labor, their own talents. 

    I will always live with the feeling that I failed those children because I thought of the question too late.



    ------------------------------
    Jeanette Watts
    Dance Historian
    History is My Playground
    www.DancingThruHistory.com
    937-974-8730
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: What is a difficult conversation you have had in a museum?

    Posted 02-17-2025 01:07 PM

    Dear All

    Thanks for all of your insight and I can understand that we need to talk about difficult subjects and to do so can help us all understand better and learn more of the whole story.

    Thanks again,

    Rachel



    ------------------------------
    Rachel Alschuler
    Museum Education/ Visitor Experience
    San Francisco CA
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


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