Did We Make the Right Decision? Katy Menne

Did We Make the Right Decision?

Katy Menne, Curator of Education, North Carolina Maritime Museum at Southport

Note: Before we begin, let me acknowledge a few things. I am a young, straight white female with a master’s degree. I recognize I have been afforded many privileges in my life.

Every day we are faced with a series of choices. Some are small and made with no second thought, while others could impact your livelihood, community, and beyond. As a fairly new museum professional, many choices can feel quite daunting. We recognize imposter syndrome as feeling very real, but it is important to feel challenged, live by your convictions, and push the envelope.

Inspiration

Have you ever watched a webinar and felt jazzed? While Zoom fatigue was quite common over the last year and a half, a few webinars truly sparked something within us to push for change. One of those came out of New England Museum Association (NEMA) and the National Park Service property of Longfellow House Washington’s Headquarters. The webinar was titled “Reopening The Archives: Telling Queer Stories,” and

Robin Boats: Driftwood Sailboats by Robin Douglass (She/Her). it was awe-inspiring. Reading through historical documents, Nicole Mello had a common thought, “I wonder if this person is gay?” They were bold enough to ask the question, do the research to support this theory, and now the park presents an accurate telling of Longfellow and his life.

Buy-in

How could the North Carolina Maritime Museum at Southport tell a more complete story, including the LGBTQIA+ stories, while also meeting our mission? Pondering aloud to Museum Manager, Lori Sanderlin, she challenged me to find a maritime story connecting the nautical with LGBTQIA+.

Process

The first challenge was looking for places of support or organizations that served people within the LGBTQIA+ community. Having lived all over, mostly in large cities, I thought there must be a myriad of organizations to provide assistance and support in our area. Wrong. After scouring the internet, I found only a handful of organizations across the entire state of North Carolina. Within the museum’s interpretive region, I could only

We are an experienced, award-winning design firm that helps museums, cultural institutions and foundations maintain relevance through intelligent strategy, technology and design.

Specializing in:

ON-SITE INTERACTIVES

AUGMENTED REALITY EXPERIENCES

WEBSITES & MOBILE APPS

Contact Tim Songer to learn more: tim@interactiveknowledge.com

InteractiveKnowledge.com

find two organizations. The LGBTQ Center of the

Cape Fear Coast (named Frank Harr Foundation

until July 2021) responded emphatically and immediately set up a time to chat. This initial meeting was incredibly eye-opening. After the conversation, we agreed to collaborate on a temporary art exhibit, and they would assist the museum in identifying and researching people who overlapped between the maritime and LGBTQIA+ communities.

So, why an art exhibit?

For several months the museum’s Instagram posted maritime art by a variety of artists. They turned out to be some of the most popular posts. People went crazy over this campaign. We thought we could adapt this digital series to an on-site exhibit. We also thought that art is open to interpretation and could offer some interesting insight and conversations. Since we are a cultural museum, we reached out to Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA). They are experts in the field and a State entity. We asked questions about how they asked for contributions, what media platforms to use, questions we needed to make sure to ask, and much more.

Here goes nothing

We received five submissions, and we were floored. Lori suggested that the art labels only contain the title of the piece, artist, and medium, while the main panel posed the question, “How does the water speak to you?” On the main text panel each letter of LGBTQIA+ was explained and offered a place for people to go for more information, not only on the artist, but for the type of support Frank Harr Foundation offers. Media interviews were lined up for a full rollout of this exhibit. During the exhibit installation, we had three local news outlets in the museum. Installation mostly occurred on a Friday, with a slated official opening date on the following Wednesday. Saturday morning, we received our first complaint.

Curator of Education, Menne, places final art label.

Repercussions: The ugly, the bad, the good

The Ugly: Voicemails were left with a string of swear words, offensive slurs, and political rants that would make even the least accepting of people blush. There is something uniquely ugly about hearing how much hate is in this world. While the staff made assumptions we may get some backlash, none of us had mentally prepared for it.

The Bad: There were comments left on social media postings, and emails were sent to the staff and through our website. We read about how people would not “step foot in that museum,” and others would lobby against the museum receiving funding. We also were told to take down “that gay exhibit.” The Good: During installation, two young females were walking through the exhibit hall, keeping their distance from each other. When they arrived at the installation and saw what we were doing, they began to hold hands. There was not a dry eye for several minutes.

Following the sharing of posts about the exhibit, the museum’s inbox was flooded with positive messages. One artist, who may be familiar to you, Alex Brooks, aptly wrote, “let’s drown the hate in a flood of love.” We credit Brooks with the turnaround in staff spirits.

Staff Impacts

For me, curating an exhibit that received hate was hard. While I expected there could be some backlash and have not experienced this level of hatred because of who I am, I was grasping for the surface. Returning from

a trip to sort through and document hate mail was nothing short of soul-crushing. My entire body was numb, and mentally I came face-to-face with the realization I could have just gotten myself fired and cost others their jobs. I questioned all the decisions that went into this exhibit and all the work with DEAI that led me to think this was a smart idea. Walking out of work on Saturday, I looked back at the building, hoping it would still be there when we returned on Tuesday.

“Because of my privilege, I believed that we lived in a more loving and accepting world,” Lori Sanderlin states, “Emotionally, it broke my heart to hear people shout profanities over the phone and have so much anger inside them. I was afraid for the museum and the staff that someone could do something terrible because we wanted to share beautiful maritime artwork by incredibly talented people that do not identify as heterosexual. And then, I thought about the LGBTQIA+ community and how they have to live with this fear every day. And that made me more determined than ever that diversity, equity, and inclusion must be a priority, and we have to live it, not just as a vision for the museum, but in our daily lives.”

“Being down at the front desk most of the day, I feel the exhibit has been very well received and appreciated” Kristan Phillips, Visitor and Volunteer Services Coordinator said. “I was disheartened and disturbed at the level of hate verbally and written by a few individuals that disagreed with the exhibit installation and had never seen it firsthand. But I was also hopeful and overwhelmed with the outpouring of support by plenty of other visitors.”

So, what have we learned?

Over-prepare for the backlash: Should you find yourself planning an exhibit or program potentially seen as controversial, create a standard response so the entire staff is on the same page and shows a united front. Make plans to be supportive of each other. The bottom line, we were not prepared, and our mental health suffered. It was only when we reached out to others in

the museum community asking for support that we saw just how strong a backing we had. Professionals associated with the Southeastern Museums Conference and North Carolina Museums Council, along with many thoughtful strangers, showed us incredible love that has strengthened us.

Being bold empowers others. None of this would have happened if it were not for Nicole being brave first. Thank you, Nicole, for setting an example of taking on the hard stuff. You are inspiring. Since we have had this exhibit up, other organizations have asked about the inspiration and process.

Weather the storm: While offering a platform for historically marginalized people may bring out some hateful individuals, it is for the greater good. Change and acceptance come after the struggles.

— Katy Menne

Seignouret-Brulatour House & Tricentennial Gallery

ARCHITECTURE/ENVIRONMENT

wbae.com

ODYSSEYPRESERVATION.COM

The Future of Digital Collections Software.

Discover an easier way to manage and share your collections. You’ll thank us later.