Mining the Museum Response

The exhibit Mining the Museum at the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore was cutting edge and different than any museum exhibit visitors had ever seen. The exhibit is very interesting and thought provoking. I never really thought about how institutions would be innately racist, that just by presenting the facts without bias that they are not presenting the full story or are missing part of the story like the slaves and African Americans contributions. I think the use of color to correspond to the themes of the rooms. Wilson uses subtle and not so subtle artifacts to raise awareness, reactions and to provoke the visitors. Wilson also deals with how museums present the information and artifacts. If he is drawing attention to how museums are trying to remain biased but are inherently racist, he also draws attention to the displays that museums use, number coding, and glass cases. Wilson curated a thought provoking exhibit about race relations and race in Maryland.