Collaborating with Chicago Urban Communities: The Unforeseen Challenges of Better Museum Practices

<p>This thesis focuses on better museum practices, social justice museums, and the unforeseen challenges that museums encounter when collaborating and consulting with communities. More specifically, this project looks at the National Public Housing Museum (NPHM) and the exhibit <em>Report to the Public: An Untold Story of the Conservative Vice Lords</em> (CVL), which was co-created with the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum. Both Chicago institutions worked with public housing residents and the former CVL, a 1960s gang, to give voice to two often unheard communities. Through an anthropological and museum studies perspective, this thesis summarizes the history of museum practice as well as the history of Chicago public housing and the CVL. By conducting interviews with staff at these museums and referencing published material and unpublished audio transcriptions of interviews, this thesis examines better museum practices and whether or not these museums were able to provide the community a platform to combat common stereotypes and challenge the way people think about both public housing residents and gang members. This project also offers recommendations for both museums in order to help them and other institutions improve the methods they use when working with communities.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters Thesis

Year dc:date.available

2015

Author dc:creator

• Mathios, Dionisia Ann

Contributors dc:contributor

• Christina Kreps, Ph.D.
• Dean J. Saitta
• Rebecca Powell

• Chicago
• Collaboration
• Conservative Vice Lords
• Jane Addams Hull-House Museum
• National Public Housing Museum
• Report to the public
• African American Studies
• Anthropology
• Museum Studies
• Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies
• Social and Cultural Anthropology

Statement dc:rights

• <p>Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.</p>

Language dc:language

en

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/405

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.du.edu:etd-1404