Power in Meaning: Changing Indigenous Museum Collection Narratives

Abstract

New Museum Theory is successful not only in creating space for Native voice(s) at the Spencer Museum of Art through the exhibition, Passages: Persistent Visions of a Native Place, but also in beginning a new chapter for the ethnographic collection at the University of Kansas. In this thesis, I discover the success of the exhibition and the repurposing of the collection through critical analysis of how the collection has been and is now interpreted and managed. This discovery involves conducting a summative evaluation of the exhibit, and exploring the ways in which New Museum Theory affects the collection. The summative evaluation includes an analysis of visitor surveys, interviews with Native American artists, and observations of programming. The summative evaluation and my analysis reveals that New Museum Theory is successful in creating space for Native voice(s) in the museum, as well as changing the narrative of the collection. Broader conclusions can be drawn from these results for the positive effect New Museum Theory may have on the future of indigenous collections across the United States.