Museums are not neutral. How can we work together within and between our institutions to actualize social justice? 

Join this conversation with two co-contributors to the Museum As Site for Social Action (MASS Action) Toolkit and dig into this collaborative resource. Bring your colleagues, share experiences and ideas, and chart a course for catalyzing change at your institution.

Registrants are invited to stay and enjoy the Academy’s NightLife (must be 21+ years, IDs will be checked).

Facilitators:

Evelyn Orantes has dedicated over two decades of her career to creating experiences in museums and informal settings that connect people and celebrate the uniqueness and commonalities of communities. Her consulting approach is informed by her commitment to equity and diversity as well as by her bilingual and bicultural experiences. Evelyn’s process emphasizes collaborative, visitor/user-centered, accessible, inclusive, and participatory practices. Prior to working as a consultant, Ms. Orantes worked at the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) for seventeen years in the Education Department and later in the Lab Center (curatorial and experience design). During her tenure, she focused on designing exhibitions, educational programs, and events centered on meaningful and relevant community engagement for diverse, multilingual, audiences.

Christine Lashaw​ is an Experience Developer and has worked at the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) for almost 20 years, creating exhibits with community members. Her projects include a major reinstallation of the museum’s history gallery, which won an Excellence in Exhibitions award from AAM, and the reinstallation of the museum’s natural science gallery. In 2008, she co-curated ​Cool Remixed​, the first major youth exhibition at OMCA. In 2015, she brought participatory exhibit development processes to the ​Pacific Worlds exhibition ​by​ ​leading a task force of Pacific Islanders from the Bay Area. Currently she is a member of OMCA’s collaborative exhibit development team, where she facilitates conversations and designs activities with diverse, local communities to co-design immersive experiences for visitors. She is committed to engaging museum visitors with exhibits built around voices and stories that reflect their own experiences. Lashaw has a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design.