Early in the course discussion, some students picked up on a thread of dialogue that opposed one of Anthony Shelton’s arguments in “Critical Museology: A Manifesto”. Shelton argues that in order for critical museology to do its work as a field of academia, it must remain separated from operational museology and the practicalities of developing exhibits, researching, and running a museum. I maintain that this is an ideal with no real purpose – what is the reason for writing critiques of museum theory and practice without then reflecting that back into how museums themselves are performed and maintained? For this reason, I found the museum visits and curator discussions from both the field school and the conference especially intriguing. They were a consistent reminder that anthropologies of and within museums must be placed within their cultural context (in this example, that of a public trust and business) and couched in terms that acknowledge the practical limitations these realities may provide.
In the various Montreal museums we visited we were able to discuss the ways that curators, researchers, and administration were attempting to integrate current theoretical directions into their exhibition and administrative practices. Questions of audience, accessibility, transparency, and reflexivity were all part of the conversations these museums were willing to have within their departments as well as with their publics. In some cases, this led to gestures to adjust how the museums curated or developed programming. These efforts were still often stymied by bureaucratic or monetary realities. When acknowledging this tension, I found that we had the most fruitful conversations during on museum visits. It is important to see how large, slow-moving institutions handle the critiques of put forward by critical museology and take steps into establishing programs and guidelines that may have a lasting impact on the relevance of the museum. Hopefully these changes reflect a new generation of museum practice that informs, and is informed by, critical museology.