with allies – and defuse the opposition

Several veteran museum professionals also looked back on years of building support through programming that attracted diverse audiences in the community:

You can’t just show things that are all the time provocative or political or super-scholarly or super crowd-pleasing, like vapid. You have to have a mix. It has to be a mix, and there has to be something for everyone I think.

For our place, what has worked best is to build a relationship with the museum as a whole and not to try to sell it like a commodity, like, “Do you love this idea? Do you hate this idea?” It’s not to say that sometimes we don’t go for specific we often do, but the base level funding is, I think, coming out of a respect and a trust in our ability to have a menu of things. If you hate one thing, come back next time and see something different. I’m very focused on weathering controversy by building relationships before you need them, while you need them, after you need them.

Never leaving the relationship open and raw, circling back, even if it’s three years, circling back, talking to people, even if they never come back as donors, because it’s the long haul we’re talking about. It’s not the exhibition, it’s not the one chance or it’s not the museum curator, it’s not anything, it’s like investment in your institution on a decade by decade basis.”

6.6 Communicating early, often, and inclusively with campus stakeholders can help leverage power with allies – and defuse the opposition.

Although external community support is helpful, it probably won’t matter if the campus community is not already informed and included in outreach efforts. Again, veteran museum professionals shared that being proactive and inclusive were essential to building support. This was never about asking permission, but rather making sure that administrators, staff, faculty, students, and others could never say they didn’t know:

I’ve been doing this for 20 years at this institution, and so I think now I just know what I can do and what I can’t do. We did a performing gender exhibition, and I think we did a great job of prepping the institution for that so that there was minimal impact on it. It was all the prepping of the institution to show that.

One strategy that has worked very well for us is always communicating up when we think there’s a problem, through the chancellor’s office, through the provost’s office . . . We don’t always make it, because sometimes we don’t know what’s going to tick people off, but we try to send everything up ahead of the firestorm.

“We all want to talk about this.” A Study of Freedom of Artistic Expression in Academic Art Museums and Galleries

I had these same people that I had met during the [first controversial] exhibition, I invited them to come see the show before it opened so that they would be able, at least, if there were any– I think it’s one thing to not know anything and then try to deal with any kind of public response that is very critical. I wanted them to see the artwork so that if there were any backlash, they would be prepared. They came and they said, ‘We have no problem with this, this is all fine.’ There was a piece that said, “Fuck Trump.” I did want them to see that this was going to be part of the show and that I’m not going to take it out of the show. I wanted them to know that this was there. It was more of a courtesy, I think, and also, it’s educating them.

Again, that’s what I mean by the prep, meetings with the president, meeting with the provost, doing all of that upfront, and student academic, like the Student Services Office just in case anything came their way, or it was triggering for somebody, things like that. They were okay with caveats. They’re like, “Okay, so you have to do X, Y, and Z. If you’re going to do this, then let’s make sure we do X, Y and Z.” As long as we made sure about the signage. We put out a lot of media, probably more media than we normally would, to make sure that people understood there was explicit imagery.

If and when it is your turn in the court of public opinion, demonstrated professionalism and strong relationships can mean the difference between success and failure. One veteran museum professional working in a pubic flagship in a conservative state shared sage advice about the importance of doing your homework, standing firm in support of freedom of artistic expression, taking responsibility, and demonstrating confidence and leadership if controversy does erupt:

I’m so much more worried about the chilling effect that you see on director’s boards, chancellors, boards of regents. I can’t tell them it’ll all be okay. Only thing I can say is, ‘I’m going to be there with you every step of the way, I’m going to build a relationship. I’m going to take some of the hard questions. I’m going to be there first.’ That’s all I can do. . . I’ve never gotten fired and I’ve been in a ton of trouble.