Case Study Three, Museums Made Dark

This third case study asks several questions coming from case studies one and two: one, to what extent has this change been embedded by 2020 to be ‘no longer Us and Them’ and, two, to what extent can non-selective curation be performed meaningfully and effectively as a participatory method? Three, how does power perform in decision-making between the museum and the professional participant? The chapter will begin with an analysis of interviews conducted with the professional participants and curators, followed by auto-ethnographic observations. This will move forward the findings from the previous case studies and also seek to understand how power performs at an operational level in the partnership between museums and professional artists. Are these partners othered in the same way as the volunteers in the Volunteers Events Team and the community participants of Bricks and Mortar? Does their professionalism and perceived non-vulnerability change the levels of ‘duty of care’ the museum feels towards them, and if so, how does this manifest?