Introduction: Setting Out the Parameters

The introduction will give a brief discussion on how this book came about and introduce some of the theoretical thinking by looking at the power of language in museum participatory practice. This chapter will outline key definitions the author will use throughout the book before highlighting the beginnings of the project seen through the lens of Bernadette Lynch (2011), Whose Cake Is It Anyway? and the author’s practice as a community artist and educator working in museums and theatre. As you read the following pages, you will come to understand that there is a bigger picture in this work, one that is rooted in spatial and social justice aims—one that involves becoming open to new possibilities and contributes to greater agency in meaningful participation. The key elements in how to do this can be found in the concepts and theoretical underpinnings of radical openness (hooks, b. (1989). Choosing the Margin as a Space of Radical Openness. Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media, 36, 15–23.), languaging (Phipps, A. M., & Gonzalez, M. (2004). Modern Languages: Learning and Teaching in an Intercultural Field (Teaching & Learning the Humanities in Higher Education). SAGE; Freire, P. (2017). Pedagogy of the Oppressed (M. Bergman Ramos, Trans.). Published in Penguin Classics 2017. Penguin Modern Classics. Penguin Books.), just space (Westwater, A. (2021). The Othering Museum. How Power Performs in Co-curatorial Participation in Museums 2013–202 [Unpublished PhD Thesis]. Cardiff University. Accessed 07 January 2022. https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/140868/1/2021westatercaphd.pdf ) and the spect-actor (Boal, Augusto. 1973. Theatre of the Oppressed (New Edition). Pluto Press.). We will also discuss why this work is important by extensively presenting the meaning and performances of othering and power (Hall, S., & Du Gay, P. (Eds.). (1996). Questions of Cultural Identity. SAGE; Hall, S. (1997a). Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices (Culture, Media and Identities) (Vol. 2). SAGE.).