Imagine how different the world would be if we didn’t have the opportunity to learn about the cultures of the past.
Across the country, there are institutions and professionals dedicated to ensuring that artifacts, oral histories, works of art, material culture, rare books, manuscripts and many other things far outlive the life of their creators. While each institution has a different goal, they are all unified in a common effort to ensure public access to the valuable histories and lessons highlighted by the objects within their collections.
Museums have grown beyond the days when they were only places of passive learning and observation. Today, museums are community anchors with exhibitions and programs aimed at bringing people together, engaging in conversation and exchanging ideas, and providing safe spaces for people to reflect, find meaning and make sense of the world around them.
Museums can inspire a love of learning, promote connection to subject matter and encourage lifelong learners with us to continually question and explore.
I have had many experiences with our local museums. I remember hearing Holocaust Survivor testimony as an elementary student. I remember field trips to the art museum. I can still feel the warmth from the spark of inspiration I experienced after touring the Zora Neale Hurston Museum and the festival grounds.
I’ve had the privilege of sharing local history with students during their visits to the Orange County Regional History Center. I’ve seen the power that art and artmaking give students with autism and intellectual disabilities, providing an avenue to communicate. I have seen museums change lives by serving those in under-resourced neighborhoods, drawing connections from the events of the past to happenings of today; holding space for interfaith dialogue; providing opportunities and resources for teachers to deepen and enhance their lessons, exposing students to history and traditions of those that came before us; by highlighting ingenuity borne from necessity and by giving people a place to share their stories of change, tragedy and triumph.
Museums should be places for reflection, dialogue, debate and exchange of ideas. Museums around the country are inspiring people to learn more, take a stance and get involved — all while connecting people more deeply to the community they are visiting or live in. Science museums are exploring the impact of global warming and rising sea levels on their communities in addition to engaging more young people in concepts and careers related to STEAM. History museums are illustrating present-day consequences of enslavement, systemic racism and urban development. Art museums are focused on providing opportunities and exhibitions for artists of color, emerging artists and those working in new media.
Over the years, there have been a lot of conversations surrounding the onePULSE Memorial and Museum. Members of our community have strong feelings about it — I do too. The onePULSE Foundation is, through its very existence, challenging us all to grapple with the following questions: Who “owns” personal and community stories? Who decides how we honor victims of terror and tragedy? The most important question of all though is: What lessons can we draw from this tragic event so people aren’t targeted because of race, ethnicity, religion or sexuality?
I applaud the Foundation for its dedication to honoring the lives of the Angels, survivors and first responders. I applaud them for the ways in which they’re engaging the stakeholders and sharing updates when they can. I’m proud of its scholarship program. They’ve developed incredible programming in an increasingly challenging environment. Most importantly, I applaud their approach to engaging survivors, their families, loved ones of the victims, the community and many other stakeholders in the design process, among many other things.
The answers to the above questions aren’t easy. They aren’t easily answered when the work is done right. As unfortunate as it is, our community isn’t alone in having to answer them. Holocaust museums across the country are updating and broadening their narratives to include all persecuted groups and updated research. History museums are decolonizing their collections and reinterpreting permanent exhibits. Art museums, science museums, small house museums, specialty museums, museums with living collections — they are all doing the work.
One of my most meaningful experiences working at the Holocaust Center was a patron who came to the Center looking for solace following the 2016 elections. Museums are places that allow people to make meaning of the world around them. They are places of active learning and honoring memory that engage visitors in ways that reading, film or theatre alone cannot.
Museums are places that show us what was and challenge us to imagine what will be because of us. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum reminds us “what you do matters.”
What we do matters, yes, for onePULSE, but every other museum and our community at large. I plan to continue to advocate, rally and speak up on behalf of every community that is under attack and in danger of being erased. I plan to support organizations and leaders that embrace diversity and inclusion and are striving for true equity. I plan to attend drag shows. I’ll keep donating. I plan to show up and keep showing up. I hope you’ll join me.
Terrance Hunter is the CEO of Central Florida Community Arts and an Orlando native who has been involved in the arts since elementary school.
