Journal explores role of museums

While graduate students in the museum and exhibition studies program are busy completing their theses and capstone projects, several are also working with the Chicago-based StepSister Press to publish a new journal, Fwd: Museums.

“This journal is definitely inspired by our program, which is an interdisciplinary, critical museum exhibition studies program that has a focus on social justice,” said Sarita Hernandez, a second-year graduate student who edits and coordinates the journal. “Fwd: Museums is a space for challenging, critiquing and reimagining museums and our work within them.”

The program puts an emphasis on exploring the ways in which art in museums can disenfranchise or celebrate minority communities, and the journal aims to illustrate these assessments. The first issue of the journal was released in September and can be purchased on Amazon.

“The theme for Fwd: Museum’s next issue is ‘small’ — small staff sizes, downsizing, small museums, small spaces, feeling small in a big space,” Hernandez explained.

In using art to explore how communities are excluded from or harmed by museum exhibitions, the journal acts as a platform to share stories through a variety of works, such as essays, artwork, reviews, creative writing, designs, poetry, love letters and more.

The deadline for submissions for the second issue is Jan. 5.