‘The Guardian’ article: A learning opportunity
Images often speak louder than words.
The photograph in The Guardian taken to accompany their review of the From Local To Global exhibition has provided a learning opportunity for Scarborough Museums. This project has encouraged us to reflect on the organisation and how we present ourselves to the outside world is key to our messaging – particularly messages aimed at people from under-represented or marginalised communities. These messages concern our ambitions to be an inclusive, safe and welcoming organisation, where everyone is respected, and all voices are heard. We don’t always get this right and I don’t think we did with the first photo used in The Guardian article.
For copyright reasons, we cannot use the image from the Guardian article on this website. Please follow this link to view it: https://bit.ly/FLTGphotograph
Framed by objects extracted from Africa by Harrison, the viewer focuses in on a white, middle-aged women – me – in the centre of the frame, posed in a way not dissimilar to the photograph of Harrison in a doorway, standing between two tusks (right). Even the folded arms bear an uncanny similarity.
This photograph appears to reinforce a narrative of the supremacy of the white British voice, so often prevalent in museums, which ubiquitously frames the narrative of Africa - even the more reflective decolonising narratives of many museums today.
Image: James Harrison with four elephant tusks. © Scarborough Museums and Galleries
What does it say about our inclusive ambitions? Any person from a diverse background may look at this and see complacency - a white organisation that thinks it has decolonised, so job done. It does not convey the extensive work that has been going on to decentralise the white British authorial voice in this project, behind the scenes and behind the camera, nor the way we try to reflect on our position, from a place of discomfort, to affect meaningful change.
Great though it is to gain some national recognition, perhaps the learning for Scarborough Museums is that we challenge the authority of the media by not simply complying with what they think would make the best shot but using our knowledge to ensure we have greater control of our own narrative.
Dorcas Taylor, Scarborough Museums and Galleries