Isabella: Thursday Conversation with Dan Rahimi

On Thursday, I spent the bulk of my day working on a three part project for Dr. Zuberi. Part one is the creation of a MyFinds list based off the objects in the African sculpsture book. Part two is the creation of an object spreadsheet that lists the object number, donor, date, provenance of each object, etc. Part three is the completion of a "History of the African Collections," reference list. I hope that all of these parts will inform each other and that they will of use to Dr. Zuberi as he completes the final object lists.

My vision for the final product is that we will have an extensive and well organized objects list and a detailed reference list for each donor. This way, Dr. Zuberi or anyone on the team can look for the object they want on the objects list, find basic information on what material it's made of, who donated it, etc. on the spreadsheet and if they want deeper information on the provenance, they can find that on the reference sheet. Hopefully, in this way Dr. Zuberi will have a wide foundation for his research moving forward. I feel very good about having this clear plan in mind, especially as it gives us a definitive finish line as the internship winds to a close.

We also were able to dive into a really interesting conversation on the importance of language, the emotional responses to powerful objects, and careful ways of representation in our conversation with Dan Rahimi. Dan was able to give us a deep look into the Toronto Into the Heart of Africa exhibition that spiraled into massive protests and police abusing protestors in order to protect the museum (which to me its really ironic that the preservation of an elitist institution is placed above the people the museum intends to serve. Really speaks to what is a museum's true purpose and intentions). I thought that this exhibition serves as an important guideline (or warning) about the creation of the future African exhibition that intends to speak about the Penn Museum's complicity in colonial histories. Into the Heart of Africa intended to be transparent about the colonial history of its objects, but instead, ended up deeply hurting its audiences with its images and representations of violence. I really like Monique's conversation about how museums are not sterile spaces and how the emotional response a visitor feels is more powerful than anything explained in a label. Having disruptive, engaging, and informative labels is incredibly important in exhibitions that talk about painful, exploitative histories, but no matter how good the label is, that does not stop an audience from feeling deeply hurt by what is in front of them. As a contrast to Into the Heart of Africa, I am interested in next figuring out exhibitions who did this right, who reached out to audiences in honest and productive ways?

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