Re-Presenting Disability: Activism and Agency in the Museum

321 Pages·2013·4.03 MB·English

by  Sandell, Richard, Dodd, Jocelyn, Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie

RE-PRESENTING DISABILITY
What part might museums play in reframing the ways in which society
perceives and understands disability? What ethical, interpretive and pragmatic
challenges are generated by museums’ attempts to redress the invisibility of
disabled people in their narratives and how might these be overcome? How
are increasing interactions between museums and disability constituencies
(activists, community groups, disability studies scholars) generating both new
opportunities to engage visitors and new insights into collections and, at the
sametime,demandingandcreatingnewformsofmuseumpractice?
This volume brings together an international group of academics and
professionals whose recent scholarship and practice addresses these under-
researched but increasingly pressing questions. It addresses gaps in both the
museum studies and disability studies fields. While a growing body of
literature in museum studies has explored issues of representation pertaining
to groups whose histories have been excluded or marginalized, this is the
first comprehensive international analysis and exploration of the treatment of
disability-related narratives in museums and galleries. Similarly, while the
burgeoning field of disability studies includes investigations of representa-
tional practices within film, television, journalism, literature, and charity
advertising, the museum as both a site of exclusion and a site for the staging
of interventions intended to elicit support for disability rights has been lar-
gely overlooked. Re-Presenting Disability: Activism and Agency in the Museum is
an invaluable volume for researchers, practitioners and students interested in
the social role of museums; disability; and representation and identity.
Richard Sandell is Director and Head of the School of Museum Studies at
the University of Leicester.
Jocelyn Dodd is Director of the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries
(RCMG)intheSchoolofMuseumStudiesattheUniversityofLeicester.
Rosemarie Garland-Thomson is Professor of Women’s Studies at Emory
University in Atlanta, Georgia.
(Photo:JulianAnderson)
RE-PRESENTING
DISABILITY
Activism and agency in the museum
Edited by
Richard Sandell, Jocelyn Dodd,
Rosemarie Garland-Thomson
TO NICKI, JONATHAN AND THE ARTISTS
AND SUBJECTS OF DISABILITY ART
Firstpublished2010
byRoutledge
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SimultaneouslypublishedintheUSAandCanada
byRoutledge
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RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness
©2010RichardSandell,JocelynDodd,RosemarieGarland-Thomson,
editorialandselectionmatter;individualchapters,thecontributors
TypesetinGaramondbyTaylor&FrancisBooks
PrintedandboundinGreatBritainbyTJInternationalLtd,Padstow,
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Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedor
utilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,snow
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BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Re-presentingdisability:activismandagencyinthemuseum/editedby
RichardSandell,JocelynDodd,RosemarieGarland-Thomson.--1sted.
p.cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
1. Museums--Socialaspects.2.Museumtechniques--Socialaspects.
3. Museumexhibits. 4. Museumvisitors. 5. Disabilitystudies.
6. Peoplewithdisabilities--History. 7. Peoplewithdisabilities--Public
opinion. 8. Peoplewithdisabilities–Politicalactivity. 9. Agent
(Philosophy) 10. Peoplewithdisabilities--Civilrights. I. Sandell,
Richard,1967- II. Dodd,Jocelyn. III. Garland-Thomson,Rosemarie.
IV. Title:Representingdisability.
AM7.R3952010
069--dc22
2009028480
ISBN10:0-415-49471-0(hbk)
ISBN10:0-415-49473-7(pbk)
ISBN13:978-0-415-49471-7(hbk)
ISBN13:978-0-415-49473-1(pbk)
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations viii
Notes on Contributors x
Acknowledgments xvii
Preface xix
PART 1
New ways of seeing 1
1 Activist practice 3
RICHARDSANDELLANDJOCELYNDODD
2 Picturing people with disabilities: classical portraiture
as reconstructive narrative 23
ROSEMARIEGARLAND-THOMSON
3 Agents at Angkor 41
LAINHART
4 ‘See no evil’ 53
VICTORIAPHIRI
5 Ghosts in the war museum 64
ANACARDEN-COYNE
6 Behind the shadow of Merrick 79
DAVIDHEVEY
7 Disability reframed: challenging visitor perceptions
in the museum 92
JOCELYNDODD,CERIJONES,DEBBIEJOLLY
ANDRICHARDSANDELL
v
RE-PRESENTING DISABILITY
Part 2
Interpretive journeys and experiments 113
8 To label the label? ‘Learning disability’ and exhibiting
‘critical proximity’ 115
HELENGRAHAM
9 Hurting and healing: reflections on representing experiences
of mental illness in museums 130
JOANNABESLEYANDCAROLLOW
10 Histories of disability and medicine: reconciling historical
narratives and contemporary values 143
JULIEANDERSONANDLISAO’SULLIVAN
11 Revealing moments: representations of disability and
sexuality 155
ELIZABETHMARIKOMURRAYANDSARAHHELAINEJACOBS
12 The red wheelchair in the white snowdrift 168
GERALDINECHIMIRRI-RUSSELL
13 Face to face: representing facial disfigurement
in a museum context 179
EMMACHAMBERS
Part 3
Unsettling practices 195
14 ‘Out from Under’: a brief history of everything 197
KATHRYNCHURCH,MELANIEPANITCH,CATHERINEFRAZEEAND
PHAEDRALIVINGSTONE
15 Transforming practice: disability perspectives
and the museum 213
SHARIROSENSTEINWERBANDTARIHARTMANSQUIRE
16 Reciprocity, accountability, empowerment: emancipatory
principles and practices in the museum 228
HEATHERHOLLINS
vi
CONTENTS
17 Disability, human rights and the public gaze: The Losheng
Story Museum 244
CHIA-LICHEN
18 A museum for all? The Norwegian Museum of Deaf
History and Culture 257
HANNAMELLEMSETHER
19 Collective bodies: what museums do for disability studies 269
KATHERINEOTT
Index 280
vii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Figures
1.1 ‘Life Beyond the Label’, Colchester Castle Museum 13
1.2 Limbless First World War veterans at Roehampton
Military Hospital 14
1.3 ‘Talking about … Disability and Art’, Birmingham
Museum and Art Gallery 18
2.1 Swim II, Chris Rush 29
2.2 Portrait of a Young Woman, c. 1465, Antonio del
Pollaiuolo 30
2.3 Alison Lapper Pregnant, Marc Quinn 35
2.4 Venus de Milo 36
6.1 Tina, Behind the Shadow of Merrick 82
6.2 Carte de visite photograph of Joseph Merrick, c. 1889 84
6.3 Jonathan Evans, Behind the Shadow of Merrick 85
6.4 Poem, Behind the Shadow of Merrick 86
7.1 ‘Life Beyond the Label’, Colchester Castle Museum 93
7.2 Response cards, ‘One in Four’, Tyne and Wear Museums 96
7.3 Response card, Birmingham Museum and
Art Gallery 99
11.1 United We Sit, Dominic Davies and Lee Adams 158
12.1 ‘What you mean I’m a federal property???’, Everett Soop 169
15.1 Harriet McBryde Johnson 214
16.1 ‘Traditional’ social sciences research practice 231
16.2 Emancipatory disability research model 233
16.3 Towards emancipatory practice: evolving relationships between
disabled people and the museum 235
16.4 Banners in the ‘Rise of Nazism’ section of the main
Holocaust exhibition at The Holocaust Centre,
Nottinghamshire 239
18.1 Speech training at Trondheim School for the Deaf, 1949 259
viii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Colour Plates
Colour Plates can be found between pages 76 and 77
1.1 The Blind Men of Jericho, a copy of a painting by
Nicholas Poussin, 1650/1700
2.1 Gilbert Stuart, Portrait of George Washington, c. 1810
2.2 Doug Auld, Shayla
2.3a Riva Lehrer, Circle Story #3: Susan Nussbaum, 1998
2.3b Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein, 1906
2.4a Riva Lehrer, Circle Story #5: Mike Ervin and Anna
Stonum, 1998
2.4b Anonymous, seventeenth-century double portrait
2.5a Image of Christopher Reeve as Superman
2.5b Sacha Newley, Christopher Reeve, 2004
6.1 Behind the Shadow of Merrick
7.1 Visitors to the exhibition, ‘One in Four’, Tyne and Wear
Museums
7.2 ‘Life Beyond the Label’, Colchester Castle Museum
7.3 ‘One in Four’, Discovery Museum, Tyne and Wear
8.1a Mabel’s certificate, Museum of Croydon
8.1b Madeleine’s celebrities, Museum of Croydon
11.1 The Little Mermaid, Denise Beckwith
11.2 Entwined, Mat Fraser with partner Patou Soult
13.1 Mazeeda B. (Post op.) by Mark Gilbert
13.2 Henry De L. IV by Mark Gilbert
19.1 Grave marker of Bertha Flatten from Faribault
State School and Hospital, Faribault, Minnesota
ix