Curating Controversy: Exhibiting Difficult Objects in Museums

Cultural shifts and updated curatorial standards have influenced current ideas about what is appropriate to discuss and display in museums and historical organizations. Increasingly, journalists, critics, scholars, and the public are approaching museum exhibitions with a more critical eye as to which stories organizations choose to interpret as well as those that are absent.

Representatives from three Boston-area cultural organizations will discuss current practices related to the presentation and interpretation of controversial collection items during “Curating Controversy: Exhibiting Difficult Objects in Museums,” a virtual presentation by the Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS) on Wednesday, 15 May at 6 pm.

Karina Corrigan of the Peabody Essex Museum and Erica Lome of Historic New England will be in conversation with Catherine Allgor of MHS.

The panelists will discuss the curatorial decision-making process on how to tell difficult histories, including current debates about displaying controversial objects and how their institutions use exhibitions as a tool to facilitate discourse.

This is a hybrid event. Free for MHS Members. $10 per person fee (for in person attendees). There is no charge for virtual attendees or Card to Culture participants (EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare). The in-person reception starts at 5:30 and the program will begin at 6 pm.

Registrants will receive a confirmation message with attendance information. Register to attend online here.

Illustration: “Musei Wormiani Historia,” the frontispiece from the Museum Wormianum, 1655, depicting Olaus Wormius’s (Ole Worm) cabinet of curiosities (Wellcome Collection).