Colorquest: A museum pedagogy on ethnic self-identity, representation and cultural histories at the Boston MFA

Abstract

Museums, especially the larger urban visual arts institutions established in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries serve as repositories of global history, Empire and cultural memory, even as they shape identity. When students of colour come to museums, they frequently only see their ancestors depicted in classic portrayals of pre-twentieth century figuration framed by the white imagination and often without any mediated interpretation that confronts racialized visual texts and unpleasant histories. How should scholars and teachers interpret and mediate this space for all students one that confronts our deepest fears about cultural authenticity, hegemony, self-representation, narratives and story telling, prejudice and the passage of time? This article shares excerpts from an educational game the author has used at secondary and college level for over a decade. In Colorquest students explore the cultural and intellectual space that museum collections and accessioning practices provide for interpreting how people of colour are represented in their artefacts; and the xenophobic gaze shaping their representation. The pedagogical site for Colorquest is the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

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