I work at The Jewish Museum San Francisco, and have been following this
ongoing discourse with much interest.  Our Museum has been around since 1984,
and we've always made it a priority, through our public programs and especiall
y through our education programs, to involve both our local Jewish and
non-Jewish communities in the Museum's activities.

I think that, no matter what type of museum you may work at, it's vitally
important to reach out, and make your programs available to, all communities,
whether they make up 1% , 50% or 99.9% of your community's population.  If
your museum or cultural institution is devoted to the
history/culture/experiences of people of color, ethnic, sexual or religious
"minorities," etc., it's especially important, because then you can show that
you have a common bond.

For instance, The Jewish Museum in New York originated an exhibit (which was
here in S.F. last fall) called Too Jewish? Challenging Traditional Identities.
  Now, this exhibit specifically spoke to the experiences of Jews growing up
in post-WWII America, but I think that members of other "minority" groups
could relate as well. You don't want to necessarily perpetuate "victim art,"
per se, but these sorts of exhibits can bring people together.

Now, I know that you can't reach or serve all of the people all of the time,
and you don't want to spread yourselves too thin trying to achieve world
peace and harmony through better museum programming (joke), but some effort
is required.  The "minorities make up only 1% of our community" excuse just
doesn't fly.

Next?

Tchira Seligman
The Jewish Museum San Francisco