Clark Art Institute: Latest Anti-Art Museum?

A friend asked me a question a couple of weeks ago. “Is there a museum in the country that isn’t woke?” I define “woke,” in a museum setting, as “foregrounding racism and other forms of oppression and social activism in programs and scholarship.” It’s what passes for art history for people bored with art. I said to my friend that I think it varies. A museum like the MFA in Boston not only drinks the woke Kool-Aid but soaks in it and, who knows, might very well put a Kool-Aid water feature in its front yard.

Directors, HR people, school outreach staff, chief curators, and trustees are among those spending lots of their time on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. Most museums, though, have a million moving parts. Most curators have specialties that, even when contorted, have nothing to do with racism à la mode.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

A friend asked me a question a couple of weeks ago. “Is there a museum in the country that isn’t woke?” I define “woke,” in a museum setting, as “foregrounding racism and other forms of oppression and social activism in programs and scholarship.” It’s what passes for art history for people bored with art. I said to my friend that I think it varies. A museum like the MFA in Boston not only drinks the woke Kool-Aid but soaks in it and, who knows, might very well put a Kool-Aid water feature in its front yard.

Directors, HR people, school outreach staff, chief curators, and trustees are among those spending lots of their time on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. Most museums, though, have a million moving parts. Most curators have specialties that, even when contorted, have nothing to do with racism à la mode.