Aloud_zine Art News El Paso wrote:
>
> Fellow Museum-L's:
>
> Thank you to everyone who's posted messages, kept up with this discussion
> and kept it alive and filled with energy and enthusiasm.  No one got a
> ticket this time. Bad news, the weekend is coming up and you have to turn
> in your car keys.  But some of you won't, because after all, museum people
> DO HAVE LIVES.
>
> It's been an interesting several days.  The original message of "Latinos
> in Museums" was posted to a handful of persons on Sunday and on Monday to
> the general lis t.  Since then, there's been an outpouring of comments,
> and opinions.  Remember, we all can learn from each other.  We all have
> something to say and share and unl ike Sara Phinney Kelley said a few
> posts back, the topic is IMPORTANT and merits everyone's ATTENTION.
>
> As you know, or maybe you don't, with the Western states cracking down on
> the historic migration of Mexicanos, many immigrants are now heading
> towards the Eastern seaboard, changing the cultural landscape.  Yes,
> Latinos are coming to your neighborhood soon.  Yes, even to small rural
> communities.  Any place there is a need for unskilled or semi-skilled
> WORK, migration, whether legal or not follows.  I think it's quite a
> fallacy not to be aware of other people's heritages and cultures even
> if those populations are not close at hand.  Sara, "...that of the 1400
> people on Museum-L, we didn't all respond because we're not interested.
> For some of us, our experience isn't relevant."
>
> Excuse me?!  A great part of the Internet is that it has collapsed
> geographical and cultural boundaries.  People who would have NEVER met or
> had a face to face conversation now can do so over e-mail.  So even if
> there aren't any Latinos or other people of color in your social strata,
> you're reading this verbatim aren't you.  By my name, you can assume I'm
> what you may call LATINO.  But I'm more than ju st Latino.  I'm a Chicano,
> yeah, Mexican-American for some, so I ask you, do you know the difference
> between a Chicano or a Puerto Rican or a Cuban or a Mexican national?  As
> a Chicano and probably one of the few some of you will ever have e-mail
> contact with in the near future, I have a specific culture, but I navigate
> in what we call "American" culture.  So, there it is.  We're all immigrants
> in cyber-space.
>
> Communities which never saw a Latino presence are now seeing otherwise and
> the changing demographics will AFFECT EVERYONE well into the next
> CENTURY, so BRACE yourself for CHANGE.  Some of you may even want to
> learn Spanish!  We here on the border (El Paso is on the U.S./Mexican
> border) have been dealing with international trade, economic, immigration
> longer than most states.  If you want to see the future, visit El Paso.
> So for those of you in the profession who think this DISCUSSION can't
> possibly affect you and your community or the profession, think again,
> either you work with the flow, you step aside or let it run you down.
> Museums have been stepping aside for far too long.
>
> Everyone's comments have been very interesting and for the most part
> supportive and proactive.  We've basically pointed to the need to attract
> and introduce people of color in museums, so we've addressed a bit of
> DIVERSITY or the need to train, recruit and retain multicultural persons
> for the field.  We can all agree this need in the field is a NECESSITY.
> Secondly, we've addressed the need to expose children to museums at AN
> EARLY AGE.  And to present communities with POSITIVE ACCESS POINTS for
> their participation in museums.  In her experience in museums and now as
> director of the Women's Rape Crisis Center, Farar Elliott, succinctly
> states, "I suggest to museums that want to be part of the life of the
> communities they are surrounded by, try looking for funding as if you were
> as important to the well-being of that community as another police officer
> or an emergency foodbank or a rape crisis center.  Because, of course, you
> are."  Well put Farrar!
>
> I immensely enjoyed reading Lauri Hinksman's eloquent post about her
> experiences at the Harlem Studio Museum (I was there in October, great
> museum!), her work with inner-city youth, reaching out to community and
> finding qualified and passionat e people who would otherwise be ignored
> because they didn't fit the bill.  Which connects to Heleanor Feltham's
> dilemma when she tried to find a museum job years ago.  I agree and hope
> more people feel the same way, that, "If museums are the k eeping places
> for our cultural icons, we need to be as inclusive of people as we
> are of objects, to encourage staff and volunteers who really represent
> our total community, even if it sometimes seems difficult."  Way to go
> Heleanor!
>
> In a dramatic chance of lanes, I think what Tongariki was talking about in
> his post "if they had hung an I. M. Pei pyramid on the front of the
> Smithsonian Castle building I am sure some reactionaries would have formed
> death-squads to hunt down the perpetrators," he meant as he said, museums
> are still quite conservative.  This isn't going to change any time soon.
> The whole issue of museums providing ACCESS and OPPORTUNITIES is like
> moving a mountain, done gradually by chipping away at it.  But we don't
> want to completely destroy the mountain, we just want to build a road to
> access it, so those who have the passion and the drive can climb it.
>
> Next week's topic:  Diversifying Boards.  Let it ferment in your mind.
> Gather your thoughts over the weekend.  See you on Monday.  Should
> governing boards of museums, whether public or private reflect the
> community?  You already know my answer to that puppy.  What do you think?
> For those of you would can't wait and must post, do so, the highway is
> open.
>
> Miguel
>
> P.S.  Genevieve LeMoine, I wouldn't move up to Maine, but living on the
> desert, a trunk show of the Arctic and its people, would suit me fine.
>
> Also Mr. Henry B. Crawford, sir, you never did get back to me as to how
> the Texas Tech Museum reaches out to Raza.

  Next week will be busy so I think this will be my best time to respond
before the next go-round.  I want to thank you for this lively, honest,
interesting and timely discussion -- I am a relative newcomer to Museum-L
and was wondering if it was worth my time since I'm often not at my
computer for days at a time.
        My museum has been most successful in outreach programs which we
fund ourselves or with funds from foundations.  We have a staff
development program "Examining Our Prejudices by Looking At American
Art," in which we examine individual attitudes on race, gender, age,
class, etc.  This has been funded by a local foundation and we have
worked mostly with public school faculties and staff.  We have a special
needs coordinator who works with that broad audience and who brings
adults and kids to the museum, waiving admission (we are private) and
paying transportation fees.  This is a museum-budgeted item.  We have an
annual Hispanic Festival which lets anyone into the museum free who is
Hispanic, fluent, or speaks any Spanish - tours of the collection are in
Spanish - that reminds me, we also have done Spanish Immersion tours for
teacherworkshops and student tours - we work with social service agencies
and churches to bring the largely migrant worker population to the
museum.  We schedule this on a Sunday and have flyers in Spanish to
encourage attendance.  As a mutt "Anglo" and non-speaker I have really
loved the music and fun spirit of the day and vow to try to learn Spanish
sometime.