Museum of US
Embracing Change: The Transformation From the Museum of Man to the Museum of Us
Welcome to the vibrant world of museums, where history dances with our ever-evolving social narratives! Brace yourself for an inspiring journey through time as we spotlight the remarkable transformation of the Museum of Us in sunny San Diego. This isn't just a name change; it's a revolution in how we celebrate the rich tapestry of human experience. Are you ready to dive in? Let’s go!
The Why Behind the Name Change
Once upon a time, this museum was known as the Museum of Man—a name that felt as outdated as your grandma's flip phone! The museum's leadership realized that excluding half the population (sorry, ladies!) simply wouldn’t cut it anymore. Micah Parzen, the visionary CEO, put it best: "The phrase 'Museum of Man' didn’t include women and didn’t embrace the broader human experience." In this day and age, we need a name that reflects our colorful and diverse world!
The journey to rebranding began way back in the 1990s but gained serious momentum in 2010 when the museum embraced an inspiring new mission: to connect people and explore the human experience together. After many brainstorming sessions, community discussions, and even some debates over coffee cups, the name Museum of Us emerged—a name that echoes inclusivity and togetherness!
Community Engagement: A Collaborative Adventure
Changing a museum's name is no walk in the park; it’s more like a thrilling scavenger hunt with the community! The Museum of Us didn’t just pull a new name out of a hat; they engaged local patrons to voice their thoughts and feelings. Kara Vetter, the Senior Director of Cultural Resources, shared, “We built connections through open dialogue, ensuring everyone felt included in our journey.”
Of course, not everyone was on board with the change. Some nostalgic visitors were less than pleased, with strong opinions—think of it as the museum version of a reality TV showdown! Yet, the wild winds of the 2020 pandemic breathed new life into their transformation, making it the perfect opportunity to leap forward into a bright new future.
Turning the Tide: Addressing Concerns and Building Community
When the name change hit the airwaves, reactions varied from cheers to totally unexpected social media rants! Micah faced critics head-on, reminding us that criticism can be a powerful tool for growth. “We had to be very clear about who we are and what we stand for,” he explained, noting that it forged a stronger bond with supporters and helped the museum reaffirm its commitment to change.
Amid the whirlwind of reactions and headlines, the Museum of Us harnessed newfound enthusiasm, rallying their supporters to embrace a fresh start with open arms!
Evolving Exhibits: Showcasing the Power of Inclusion
With a new identity comes a renewed focus on revitalizing exhibits! The Museum of Us is all about sharing stories that matter—from cultural celebrations to poignant social issues. Kara emphasized how they move away from outdated narratives toward exhibits that reflect today’s society, ensuring everyone can see themselves in the museum.
A shining example of this mission is the Hostile Terrain 94 exhibit, created with the Undocumented Migration Project. It's a heart-wrenching dedication to the humanitarian crises at the US-Mexico border—a project that’s as much about listening as it is about learning. Together, they’re creating spaces where visitors can explore powerful stories they might not have encountered elsewhere.
Museums as Agents of Change: Sparking Conversations
The Museum of Us firmly believes that they have a unique responsibility in today’s world. "Museums should be platforms for dialogue about diversity and inclusion," said Kara. Instead of sitting on the sidelines, they’re stepping up to challenge social norms and inspire change.
They recognize that these conversations can be tricky, but that’s what makes them all the more essential! "We need to prepare visitors for journeying through tough topics," Micah proposed. By being transparent and inviting, the museum hopes to foster a culture of understanding where everyone feels comfortable engaging with difficult yet meaningful subjects.
Looking to the Future: The Next Chapter
As the Museum of Us continues its transformation, big things are on the horizon! The focus is on enhancing diversity and inclusion across all exhibits while encouraging community input. With new projects brewing that will showcase a myriad of human experiences, the museum is committed to creating an artistic panorama that invites collaboration, curiosity, and, most importantly, connection.
So, as we bounce into this new phase, one specific truth arises: the Museum of Us is resolute in its mission to reflect society’s stories and empower us all to become storytellers. You’re invited to join this journey of celebrating history together, hand in hand, because history isn’t just about the past; it’s about all of us!
With an invigorating blend of fun, fascination, and fresh perspectives, the Museum of Us is reshaping our understanding of what museums can be in the 21st century. So, what are you waiting for?
Transcript
00:00:09:23 - 00:00:35:02
TK
Welcome, welcome. Welcome, friend. I'm TC, your tour guide to the past, and you are listening to For the Love of History, the podcast where we talk about world history, women's history, and weird history. And today we have two guests. Our first time—no, second time—that we've had two guests, but it is our first time that we are having some experts from a museum and a CEO, which is very exciting.
00:00:35:04 - 00:00:54:18
TK
So today we are talking with Kara Vetter, the Senior Director of Cultural Resources at the Museum of Us, and the CEO of the Museum, Micah Parzen. Thank you so much for joining us today. I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with me.
00:00:54:20 - 00:00:56:17
Micah
Really happy to be here. Thanks for having us.
00:00:56:19 - 00:01:26:16
TK
So we're across the ocean as we normally are at 7:30 in the morning. For me, it's late in the afternoon for them, so we're just going to dive right into our topic today. So, like I said, these two wonderful human beings are from the Museum of Us, which used to be called the Museum of Man. And today we're going to talk about the whys and the hows of changing the museum from the Museum of Man to the Museum of Us.
00:01:26:16 - 00:01:34:03
TK
So first of all, why was this decision made in the first place to change the name here?
00:01:34:03 - 00:01:35:11
Micah
You want me to take the first crack at that?
00:01:35:15 - 00:01:37:15
Kara
Yes. I do want you to take the first crack.
00:01:37:19 - 00:02:05:21
Micah
I'm scared. I am the CEO, so I guess I'm largely responsible for that process. But really? Okay. It was years in the making. I would say dating back to the early 90s when we first started thinking about changing the name, and there had been a serious consideration of that and ultimately voted down by the membership. The idea being that the word, the phrase, or the name Museum of Man was exclusive, didn’t include women, you know, kind of started to show up on the radar.
00:02:05:21 - 00:02:47:14
Micah
Fast forward to 2017, so 27 years later, we knew that it was an issue we would have to grapple with. And prior to that, beginning about in 2010, we started down a very different path as an institution, and we adopted a very different kind of mission. We moved from the sort of old-school preserve, interpret kind of mission to a much more contemporary and relevant one of inspiring human connections by exploring the human experience. And the deeper and deeper we got into how, as an institution, do we become more relevant to the community?
00:02:47:16 - 00:03:15:00
Micah
How do we bring the community into the work we're doing? And so we are an institution for and by the community. The more we sort of leaned into our anti-racist and decolonial work, and over the years, we just started feeling like we weren't a museum of man anymore. And so we started down the path and ended up after a very long process with a name that is part descriptive of the journey we've been on over the last many years.
00:03:15:02 - 00:03:45:20
Micah
But I think even more importantly, part aspirational. So a name that really pushes us to constantly be asking that question, what does it mean to be a museum that is truly for all of us, and not just for some of us? The usual suspects of white, educated, wealthy folks who museums have long been designed for, and particularly museums like ours, that emerged out of the colonial endeavor doing extraordinary harm to indigenous and other communities of color.
00:03:45:22 - 00:03:54:09
Micah
So ours has been a long journey, and the name change was a critical part of that process that gave us a springboard to the future as well.
00:03:54:12 - 00:03:58:10
TK
That's excellent. Kara, do you have anything to add to that or…?
00:03:58:12 - 00:04:19:06
Kara
Not too much, no. You said it excellently well, Micah. But also as part of the changes was sharing out about what it means to change. So we put together some publicly-facing information not only about the name change. So you can find that through…or we have a couple of slide decks for Google Arts and Culture that really discuss the process and what that was like, and the who, what, where, when, and why of it all.
00:04:19:10 - 00:04:37:00
Kara
And then there's some associated slide decks that talk about our decolonizing journey that dovetail in with that, that give that information, deeper information about the why of it all as well. So that really helps tell the story and the history of what we've been doing for the last several years.
00:04:37:01 - 00:05:02:15
TK
That's so fantastic. I didn't realize that it was such a community-based undertaking, that you were open with the community and telling them the different steps that you took in order to make this change. So having it be such a public change, was there any pushback that you received on changing the museum's name from the Museum of Man to the Museum of Us?
00:05:02:18 - 00:05:35:16
Micah
Yes, there was an enormous amount of blowback, both during the process leading up to it and after. When we first announced that we were planning on changing the name, we didn’t know to what, there were many people who engaged in sort of an outcry. How could you possibly? That's the museum I grew up with. It holds a very nostalgic and special place in my heart, and I actually got some very angry calls from very wealthy donors who basically said, you better watch your back.
00:05:35:16 - 00:05:59:14
Micah
And if you change the name, you know, you may not have a job much longer and another director will just change it back. And so, you know, there was a lot of upheaval around that, so much so that it sort of paralyzed us for a time. Yeah. And it wasn't really until COVID, a few years into our process, that we decided that that was the time—things were so topsy-turvy.
00:05:59:18 - 00:06:23:16
Micah
Change was in the air. Everybody was having to adapt to different challenges, and we figured, let's rip the Band-Aid off. We had read an article early on in the pandemic called The Pandemic is a Portal by Arundhati Roy, where she argues in the Financial Times, that in the midst of all this pain and suffering, we have this amazing opportunity to emerge as a better version of ourselves.
00:06:23:22 - 00:06:47:05
Micah
And we really took that to heart. And the name change was sort of a springboard through that portal and beyond. After the name change, the day we announced it, there was this amazing outpouring of love and support that just sort of buoyed us. People were so excited and grateful and thankful. And of course, there were many haters as well.
00:06:47:05 - 00:07:26:15
Micah
Breitbart picked up the story and before we knew it, within 24 hours of the announcement, we were appearing on Fox News and Tucker Carlson, where he and a colleague were lambasting the name change as another example of woke cancellation culture run amok and political correctness at its worst. And our core team had to weather the juggernaut of hate that emerged out of that, but in many ways it was the best thing that happened to us because it allowed us to be very clear about who we are and what we stand for, and in turn, allow others to sort of react to that relative to who they are and what
00:07:26:15 - 00:07:33:18
Micah
they stand for. And, you know, we're convinced that that's really the role that museums should be playing today and going forward.
00:07:33:20 - 00:07:40:00
TK
Yeah, I agree, museums are not neutral places. So excellent. Kara, do you have anything to add to that?
00:07:40:00 - 00:08:03:09
Kara
I would say that as we've been—we've been in this name for a while now. And it's been nice to witness, as people walk through the park or engage in social media. It's allowed a different way for us to interact with the public. In a less prescriptive, the museum-says-this kind of statement, it's more of a welcoming environment that's intended to be engaging and collaborative.
00:08:03:09 - 00:08:17:18
Kara
And it's about, again, all of us. And so it's been nice to watch as folks walk through the park and they're like, "What is this?" You know, and it's more of a question of interest and less of a "What is the Museum of Man?" Is it of men, like, has it meant mankind? But language changes as it does. And we had a different visitorship at the time, so sometimes that didn’t even translate to other languages well, you know? So it was just very confusing.
00:08:17:19 - 00:08:35:00
Kara
So this is a more inviting way to come in and learn about what "us" means and how we share that knowledge together.
00:08:35:02 - 00:08:56:05
TK
Now, as a bilingual person myself, I speak Japanese, so thinking about translating the Museum of Man versus the Museum of Us into Japanese—two completely, completely different meanings. So I love that name change. What other iterations of the name were there before the Museum of Us was chosen?
00:08:56:07 - 00:09:04:14
Micah
Oh my goodness, yeah. I mean, back in the 90s, they brainstormed maybe 200-plus names.
00:09:05:01 - 00:09:31:19
Micah
And some of them were, you know, as wacky as can be, and others were like as traditional as can be. When we ended up moving toward the name change in earnest in the late, you know, 2000, 1920 around Covid. And before that, we had sort of done a series of focus groups where we brainstormed lots of names, and, you know, there were several that sort of kept rising to the top in terms of many groups identifying them.
00:09:31:19 - 00:09:55:15
Micah
And the challenge, of course, is when you're trying to appeal to a lot of people, you end up kind of lowering to the lowest common denominator. Right. And we ended up kind of deciding on 5 or 6 to test with the community. Some of them were kind of evolutionary, like the Museum of Humanity or the Museum of Humankind—kind of an incremental, inclusive expansion.
00:09:55:17 - 00:10:14:13
Micah
And others were kind of revolutionary. You know, I'm not even sure I remember them. I remember one was that we you like, meet me at the we, you know, walk or hey, there’s, you know, less museum and more sort of like, you know, happening kind of oriented. What was another one? They were sort of in that type of space.
00:10:14:13 - 00:10:39:03
Micah
And the museum of us was a little bit on the—it was kind of in the middle, really, and it didn’t test the best of any. The ones that tested the best were the incremental changes, right? Because change is so hard for folks. And then, you know, we ended up deciding on the Museum of Us, and a lot of people love it, and a lot of people hate it, you know, and we got a lot of blowback on the specific name as well.
00:10:39:04 - 00:10:53:12
Micah
But, you know, I think now while there are still people who hold a grudge, most people have sort of moved on. And virtually everybody in our community knows that we’ve changed our name, and they probably have some opinion, whether they share it with me or not.
00:10:53:14 - 00:10:55:04
Kara
Right, exactly.
00:10:55:07 - 00:10:59:07
TK
Kara, are there any names that you remember that stick out for you?
00:10:59:09 - 00:11:17:20
Kara
I mostly just remember the we because I liked it, and I liked the potential, like, mock graphic because it was like a reflection show. It was like we need, so you could kind of see how, like, us then I—but then I also was like, that may not be great for, like, vandalism, you know, and what other folks might do with that.
00:11:17:20 - 00:11:22:07
Kara
So yeah, I'm glad that while I liked it, I'm glad we didn’t go with it.
00:11:22:09 - 00:11:47:08
TK
On in theory, not in practice. I'd love to know what the process was like for weeding out some of the maybe not mission-aligning exhibits at the museum. So what was the process of taking out things? Was there reparations involved? Was there collaboration with community? I would love to know what there was.
00:11:47:08 - 00:12:09:12
Kara
So just kind of a pull back to, like, kind of how museums operate, just so, like, the public knows, these exhibits take a long time to put together. They take a long time to put on. Many institutions usually have a years-long slate ahead of them of what they’ve got coming down the pipe. So for us, we’ve kind of—we’ve had that in various degrees doing different plans and different exhibits over the years.
00:12:09:12 - 00:12:32:02
Kara
And so for us, as we’ve been taking this journey into decolonizing practices, into anti-racism practices, we’ve been able to kind of peel off exhibits as they’ve aged out or timed out, or maybe, you know, it's just time for them to come down and start to be like, all right, well, we have this space that we know is going to be closing around X date, or we know the space is going to become available at this point.
00:12:32:04 - 00:12:55:17
Kara
What is more mission-aligned with where we are now. So like we had when Micah first started, we put in the beer ology exhibit. We put it in, like, the monsters exhibit, and there were a few other things like that that were in that really brought in folks. And then as those exhibits started to age and needed to be replaced, we’re like, well, we have this orientation towards, like I said, decolonizing initiatives and social anti anti-racism and social justice.
00:12:55:17 - 00:13:16:10
Kara
So what kinds of partnerships, what kinds of exhibits would fit within this space and kind of start to help us build the narrative around what it is we want to be doing as an institution within the broader San Diego area, within the multinational region that we have. And so that process is long and varied. It depends on what idea raises to the top.
00:13:16:10 - 00:13:39:14
Kara
Usually it’s ideas that we have within our own team, but also we are approached on a regular basis by potential collaborators with an idea. It could be a fully fleshed idea, it could be just a nugget of an idea. And what does that mean? And so then we have these conversations internally about how might we bring this to fruition, what kinds of conversations need to be had, what other partners need to be part of the conversation?
00:13:39:20 - 00:14:02:03
Kara
To have a really well-rounded exhibit that discusses and examines the human condition in all of the different ways that we’re hoping that exhibit might do for us. And so we’ve had a couple of different exhibits over the years, some that are still currently in place. So one of the ones that I’m thinking of most recently is the Hostile Terrain 94 exhibit that is done in collaboration in partnership with the Undocumented Migration Project.
00:14:02:03 - 00:14:25:10
Kara
And it is all about the US-Mexico border and the policies that were put in place that really have pushed people to the outer edges of what is safe transit areas across the border, back and forth. And what that has meant, unfortunately, has meant the death and loss of life, because border policies stretching all the way back to the beginning of this country in many ways.
00:14:25:12 - 00:14:45:18
Kara
But we didn’t do that alone. That was done in collaboration with the Undocumented Migration Project. They went out there and did lots of work, not only looking to, like, drop supplies and do that kind of humanitarian work, but also they view part of their role as documenting the actual people that are there.
00:14:45:18 - 00:15:04:23
Kara
And Micah, you can maybe talk a little bit about the workshops that are part of this project, but part of their effort is to not only do those monitoring efforts, but to locate individuals who may have passed and also any of the belongings that they may have had or that have been found in the absence of a person along the way.
00:15:05:03 - 00:15:24:05
Kara
And they’ve operated cataloging and documenting those really, really, really tragic stories to kind of humanize the fact that these are not just ghost people that we don’t know anything about. Now, these are people that have lives and dreams and hopes and wishes and that they were trying to come across for a better life. And what does that mean?
00:15:24:06 - 00:16:08:22
Micah
The core of the exhibit is essentially a box that the Undocumented Migration Project sends you, and the box contains 3,200 blank toe tags that would ordinarily be tied to the toe of a corpse, and then a ream of demographic data. And the way it works—we built an exhibit around this, but the core is this part of the project where there’s a rudimentary map of the United States and Mexico and the border, and you engage in these workshops where the community comes in, and they transpose the data from this huge, thick demographic report into these toe tags, with essentially people’s names, if they’re known, their cause of death, their age, their origin, their gender, and so on.
00:20:04:05 - 00:20:18:06
Micah
We're sort of the guide, right? We know how museums work. We know exhibits and and programs and the rest, but we're really just holding space for them to come out the other side where they really feel like the exhibit belongs to them, and not just to us.
00:20:18:08 - 00:20:39:22
Kara
And I love that. And that does mean that creating an exhibit and any associated programming, it takes longer for a lot of museums like it's all done in-house, you know, it's with their own collections, cultural resources, depending on what museum, the terminology changes and sometimes things can happen relatively quickly. But this process, things take longer. You need to build consensus.
00:20:39:22 - 00:21:04:18
Kara
You need to have conversations over many, many months, sometimes years, depending on what the topic is and how big you know the problem is as well. And so we've been learning as we've been going through this process, that it takes time to build relationship. It takes time for people, for people to feel comfortable talking to the museum. Because even though we all know we're talking to each other as individuals, we still are a museum and we represent a museum.
00:21:04:18 - 00:21:29:19
Kara
And there's all of this history that stands behind us of what our past practices are, what the industry, what the field has done historically, and that we're trying to change that. But it takes time to work, to earn trust, to know that we're going in a different direction. So we're eternally grateful to all of the community leaders, all of the project developers that we've worked with, consultants that we've worked with to create these exhibits as we move forward, because that's the model for the future for us.
00:21:29:21 - 00:21:51:16
TK
That's excellent. And to that end, I would love to know what role do you see museums playing in, like addressing social issues and fostering dialog about diversity and inclusion? Like what? What is the museum's role in facilitating these types of things? If the museum has this type of role in the first place.
00:21:51:18 - 00:21:54:02
Micah
Here, you want it. Yeah.
00:21:54:04 - 00:22:13:06
Kara
No, no, no. They have they have a lot of well-known have a lot of role. They have. It depends on what it is and what we're talking about. So they may have a large role to play, a small role to play. Museums are part of the colonial engine, the colonial endeavor. We were the marketing firm, the cheerleading arm in a lot of ways, you know, to the victor go the spoils.
00:22:13:06 - 00:22:31:17
Kara
And here are the cultural items and belongings from people who may or may not be vanished. But no one ever defined what vanished meant. And you know that they're no longer here. And I was like, no, they were here. And so museums have this role to play in. I come at it from a unique perspective, being immersed in the world of cultural resources.
00:22:31:17 - 00:23:03:14
Kara
That's where a lot of museums started with their collections. They were built that way. And so a lot of it is sort of unpeel the layers of how the belongings came to us, the pathways that they came to us, and having an honest conversation about what the actual history is and then sharing that with consent, of course, of the community, depending on what it is, because we'll be doing this in concert, in conversation with any of the impacted communities, sharing that out more publicly so that it starts to hopefully change perceptions of what museums can and should be doing.
00:23:03:14 - 00:23:25:12
Kara
Because for the longest time, you know, like Micah was talking about before preserve, protect for museums, which is an important thing, but it's really about the experience and providing access to the information that museums have. And what does the community need from that? And when I say community, that could be the indigenous community and indigenous community. It could be descendant communities, it could be just the local community.
00:23:25:17 - 00:23:40:20
Kara
There's a lot of different ways it goes. But I think museums do have a pretty big role to play, because we had a large role in the creation of the story that we have all been waiting in for the last several centuries. So I think we have a really big, big, big role to play. Micah.
00:23:41:00 - 00:23:44:04
Micah
You know, I think that's great. Everything you said, Kara, I'm with you.
00:23:44:06 - 00:24:16:22
TK
I think it's it's very refreshing. And I think a lot of my listeners are going to feel really happy, if anything, about hearing that, because I think a lot of them have this. There's there's kind of a weight around museums, like you were saying earlier, and it feels really nice to hear a museum say, like, hey, we understand the the dark history of how museums started, but this is what we're doing in order to change that, to not forget the history, but maybe fix in a way as much as possible.
00:24:16:22 - 00:24:31:15
TK
So looking ahead, what are some of the future goals of the Museum of Us in terms of enhancing diversity and inclusion? Are there any upcoming projects or changes that either one of you are particularly excited about?
00:24:31:17 - 00:24:48:19
Kara
Well, I'm going to defer to Micah on issues of where we're going next, because you've got a more birdseye landscape view. I have a pretty high view, but I want to make sure that, you know, the person with the biggest view can can share a little bit more, and then I can kind of slot into where that is if that's okay.
00:24:48:21 - 00:25:14:03
Micah
Yeah. Fair enough. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, Kara mentioned earlier what a slow moving process transforming a museum is, particularly from an outward facing perspective. So the Museum of us, based on our anti-racist and decolonial work over the years and being kind of early adopters and willing to kind of truth, tell and hold ourselves accountable and come up with concrete action plans for how we can do better.
00:25:14:03 - 00:25:42:11
Micah
And now that we know better, we've really become seen as a leader in the field in these spaces. But our visitor experience hasn't really caught up with that leadership. So we still have vestiges of the old at the museum. I mean, we have an exhibit about ancient Egypt that doesn't fit for a wide variety of reasons. Other exhibits have in the process of being reimagined anew, but are still dependent on US fundraising to to support the effort.
00:25:42:13 - 00:26:04:13
Micah
So a major shift is sort of catching up to ourselves along those lines. And, you know, a big piece of that is we we've got some of these exhibits, such as race, are we so different, which will soon become race, power, resistance and change? We've got an exhibit about indigenous Kumeyaay experience on his ancestral, unceded ancestral homeland. We're on.
00:26:04:17 - 00:26:28:20
Micah
We've got an exhibit about colonial harm, focusing on the Maya diaspora and orange origin story. These are exhibits that bring up a lot for people, right? No matter who you are, if you are a indigenous person or a person of color who often hasn't seen their own lived experience, represented in museums in ways that feel good to them, it brings up a lot for you.
00:26:28:20 - 00:26:51:00
Micah
If you're on the other side of the spectrum of you've never had your assumptions challenged about white supremacy, it brings up a lot. And if you're an ally, it brings up a lot to how can I help more? And one of the things we don't do so well is preparing people for that bumpy journey. You know, as an introductory sort of invitation, saying, we're so glad you're here.
00:26:51:00 - 00:27:09:04
Micah
You're obviously a curious person. You know, you're in the right place. Fasten your seatbelts. You know, we're going to bring up some issues that are going to touch some, you know, emotional cords for you. And we hope you'll join us on this journey with an open heart and an open mind. So we need to be better about that.
00:27:09:04 - 00:27:17:21
Micah
And and sort of again, just catching up the the visitor experience to the core values that the museum has evolved in to adopt over time.
00:27:17:23 - 00:27:45:11
TK
That is a fantastic note to end on. And I'm really, really happy that you two were able to be a part of this episode and kind of explain what museums are doing now to change the narrative and really not just tell different stories, but almost like change the perspective that we see when we go into museums. So, Micah and Kara, thank you so much for joining me.
00:27:45:13 - 00:27:47:09
Micah
Thanks for having us.
00:27:47:11 - 00:27:48:05
Kara
Thank you.
