Seminar on the topic "Ethical Dilemmas of Social Inclusion Practices in Art Museums: The Case of Moscow Exhibition Spaces Network"
Dear colleagues! We invite you to take part in the Laboratory seminar, which will be held on November 20, 2023 at 4 pm (Moscow time)
The seminar will be dedicated to a presentation by Danila Ivanov (a Research Assistant at our Laboratory) and Roman Abramov (Dr., Prof., Leading Research Fellow at the Laboratory) on the topic "Ethical Dilemmas of Social Inclusion Practices in Art Museums: The Case of Moscow Exhibition Spaces Network".
Abstract: Art museums, according to N. Prior, who elaborates on the ideas of P. Bourdieu, on the one hand, remain the foundations of bourgeois differentiation, but, on the other hand, nowadays, they turn out to be one of the agents that protect and uphold the democratic frontiers of inclusion, equality, and accessibility. In such a context, those who develop inclusive policies and programs within the museums themselves occupy a marginal position because of the ambivalent prescriptions from the two mentioned "poles".
In this report, we will look in detail at specific cases of small art-museums, where inclusion agents (exhibition managers, directors, volunteers, artists) face ethical dilemmas in their activities. Thematically such dilemmas could be described as following: 1) inclusive art or art about inclusion; 2) work for a “social mission” or art-for-art’s sake; 3) targeting local audiences/local communities or cosmopolitanism; 4) cooperation with the government resource structures, corporations or the creation of self-organizations. Each of the mentioned choices leads to a specific ethical transgression, since each inclusive initiative implies an intentional “practice of exclusion” (which in itself is the main ethical problem of inclusion as a basic function of social work).
We will briefly introduce the ways in which agents of inclusion make such ethical choices as well. We will elaborate on the question, whether the choices and practices have ethical dimension. Moreover, we will pay special attention the definition of what “social inclusion” and “inclusion practices” as concepts mean for the representatives of museums and how the concepts are related to social work.
The seminar will be conducted in English and in an online format.
To get a link to connect, you can contact by e-mail: nsbaysha@hse.ru