Peeling the Paint off the Walls: Kelli Morgan on Black Performance and Racial Justice in Western Institutions

In this conversation with editors Hanna B. Hölling, Jules Pelta Feldman, and Emilie Magnin, Kelli Morgan—critical race scholar, curator, educator, and social justice activist—discusses the challenges related to Western conceptions of institutions and their underpinning values. Addressing the colonialist roots of modern museums, Morgan talks about the challenges she has faced as a Black woman in several U.S. American museums; emphasizes the importance of creating change in museum collections (rather than only in temporary exhibitions); considers alternative practices for conserving art and knowledge; and explains her efforts to address these problems in her pedagogy.