The EMBARC Toolkit

Authors:

• Kenneth Doutt, Em Hall, and Kat Pesigan, Museology Graduate Program
• Chair: Meena Selvakumar
• Jessica Luke
• Priya Frank

Abstract:

This document is formatted as a PDF for submission to the University of Washington. For a more accessible version, email embarcproject@gmail.com This toolkit is intended to be a living, changing document. To view the toolkit in its intended format with functional links and bookmarks, click here: The EMBARC Toolkit. What follows is the work as it stood in June of 2021. We know from research, evaluations, anecdotes and personal experiences that many museum staff face barriers in their museums while working toward anti-racist goals. These barriers include leadership, museum structures, and white supremacy culture. We also know that effective efforts toward anti-racism must involve individual and collective efforts over the long-term. Efforts that are exclusively high-level or reactionary are inherently ineffective. The purpose of this project was to develop a toolkit for white and coercively privileged emerging museum practitioners who want to take anti-racist action with or without institutional support. This toolkit is designed to help translate the process of personal learning into action through the use of scripts and templates, scenario prompts, and strategies for proposing projects to leadership. This toolkit is not, itself, anti-racist; it is designed to allow an individual to pursue anti-racism in the context of museums as they currently stand while acknowledging that our livelihoods often depend on remaining employed. As such, this toolkit offers strategies that accommodate oppressive structures throughout museums. The topics and strategies covered in this document are the result of a front-end evaluation, continuous consultation with an advisory board of museum and museum-adjacent practitioners and student focus groups.

Poster:

Download a copy of the project poster

Project Deliverable:

The EMBARC Toolkit

Video Presentation