“They Don’t Hear my Tongue Dance in Arabic”

From Mono to Multi: Multiculturalism & Multilingualism in Museums

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Abstract

Museums are educational institutions that support the understanding of one’s heritage and create dialogue and reflection. As one commentator puts it, “Museums around the world hold some of the most valuable artifacts in existence.” (Mia 2016) However, these artifacts are predominantly Western, with Eurocentric values attached to them. One could argue that, with such a high value placed on Western heritage, museums reinforce a primarily white visitor demographic. Moving forward, museums have to acclimate to the nonhomogeneous population around them. By so doing, the multiple barriers diverse audiences feel when visiting and feeling welcomed in a museum can be overcome, creating safe spaces for visitors to have rewarding experiences. Denisse Brito, the author of this short report, works at the Tucson Museum of Art as the Assistant Curator of Community Engagement.

How to Cite:

Brito, D., (2018) “From Mono to Multi: Multiculturalism & Multilingualism in Museums”, Critical Multilingualism Studies 6(1), 184–189.