ABSTRACT
Although museums are sites of cultural, social and political exchanges, rarely (if ever) do the people employed in these cultural institutions respond quickly to contemporary socio-politics in exhibition spaces. In early 2017, the executive order (13769) for the first travel ban changed that in New York City. Straddling activism and protest, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), two of the largest and most well-respected art museums in New York City (and the world), created interpretation in gallery spaces to respond to this injustice. These socially innovative responses circumvented traditional organizational decision structures and addressed immediate socio-environmental issues. This chapter examines the role of interpretation in The Met’s curator-led tours and MoMA’s rehang/interpretation of the fifth-floor permanent exhibition galleries to include artworks by artists from the banned countries. Rooted in interpretation theory, museology, museum activism and exhibition history, this chapter argues that the future relevance of art museum exhibition could be in interpretation, which is critical in the accessibility of an exhibition, responsible for the meanings audiences create, and is essential in linking the familiar with the unfamiliar.
