ABSTRACT
This essay argues that the tensions between exposure and withholding warrant new approaches toward museum transparency. Citing diverse examples within a range of museum policies and practices, I examine both the problematics and potential of transparency within the context of twenty-first century museum ethics. The chapter acknowledges the advances made by ‘dashboard” transparency – transparency as demonstrated through statistics that benchmark performance outcomes – but calls for a strategy of radical transparency that empowers museum communities by acknowledging ‘situated revelations’. Situated revelations make the disclosure of data meaningful for constituents through contextualization, translation, and mediation as they identify the agendas of the ‘experts’ doing this framing work. Through equitable knowledge sharing, situated revelations provide a mode to critique and redistribute power and resources. They empower consumers of information to make critically informed choices and take action.
