Parable of Museum Learning: Activating Afrofuturistic A-R-Tography Approaches

Abstract

In the twenty-first century, museum learning has shifted with the world's social climate, exploring new approaches to engage the public with collections. This text reframes the museum art educator as an activator and how they can utilize concepts within Afrofuturism to decolonize hegemonic white cultural institutions and Eurocentric epistemes. Taking inspiration from the #MuseumAreNotNeutral movement that started in 2017, the article probes three examples of activities conducted by museum activators through an Afrofuturistic a-r-tography approach. The activities discussed draw from author Octavia Butler's Parable Series and the popular Pan-African philosophical concepts ubuntu (human kindness) and sankofa (relation of time) as learning prompts on exhibition tours at the Art Gallery of Ontario. The analysis and application of an Afrofuturistic a-r-tographic framework will provide insights into the parable of museum learning and the potential future for a museum activator's role.

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