Celebrating the diversity of institutions in the United States, Latin America, and Canada, Remix aims to change the discourse about museums from the inside out, proposing a new, “panarchic”—nonhierarchical and adaptive—vision for museum practice. Selma Holo and Mari-Tere Álvarez offer an unconventional approach, one premised on breaching conventional systems of communication and challenging the dialogues that drive the field. Featuring more than forty authors in and around the museum world, Remix frames a series of vital case studies demonstrating how specific museums, large and small, have profoundly advanced or creatively redefined their goals to meet their ever-changing worlds.

Contributors: Piedade Grinberg (Brazil), Nichole Anderson (Canada), Dr. James D. Fleck O.C. (Canada), Vanda Vitali (Canada), Lydia Bendersky (Chile), Andres Navia (Colombia), Manuel Araya-Incera (Costa Rica), Oscar Arias (Costa Rica), Alejandro de Avila Blomberg (Mexico), Marco Barerra Bassols (Mexico), Cuauhtémoc Camarena Ocampo (Mexico), Miguel Fernández Félix (Mexico), Demian Flores (Mexico), Teresa Morales (Mexico), Nelly Robles (Mexico), Hector Feliciano (Puerto Rico), Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru), Santiago Palomero Plaza (Spain), Maxwell L. Anderson (United States), Susana Bautista (United States), Graham W. J. Beal (United States), Jane Burrell (United States), Thomas P. Campbell (United States), Erica Clark (United States), Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh (United States), Kristina van Dyke (United States), William Fox (United States), Ben Garcia (United States), Ivan Gaskell (United States), Tomas W Hanchett (United States), Richard Koshalek (United States), Clare Kunny (United States), Stephen E. Nash (United States), Joanne Northrup (United States), Jane G. Pisano (United States), Edward Rothstein (United States), Karen Satzman (United States), Lori Starr (United States), Carlos Tortolero (United States), David Wilson (United States), Fred Wilson (United States), Guillermo Barrios (Venezuela), Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (Venezuela)

About the Author

Selma Holo is Professor of Art History at University of Southern California and Director of USC’s Fisher Museum of Art and International Museum Institute. She is the author of Beyond the Prado: Museums and Identity in Democratic Spain and Oaxaca at the Crossroads: Managing Memory, Negotiating Change and a coeditor of Beyond the Turnstile: Making the Case for Museums and Sustainable Values.

Mari-Tere Álvarez is Project Specialist at the J. Paul Getty Museum and Associate Director of USC’s International Museum Institute. She coedited Beyond the Turnstile: Making the Case for Museums and Sustainable Values and Arts, Crafts, and Materials in the Age of Global Encounter, 1492–1800, a special edition of the Journal of Interdisciplinary History.

Preface and Acknowledgments

Introduction: Panarchy and the Museum

Chapter One. Origins Reflecting on Origins
Selma Holo and Mari-Tere Álvarez, United States

What Legacy Will We Leave on These Walls?
Óscar Arias Sánchez, Costa Rica
A Project to Create a Peace Museum in Costa Rica: A Nation That Abolished the Army
Manuel Araya-Incera, Costa Rica
Rethinking the Spirit of a Museum: Atzompa Archaeological Site
Nelly M. Robles García, Mexico
Lessons Learned in the Principles and Practice of Community Museums
Cuauhtémoc Camarena and Teresa Morales, Mexico
The Museum of Art of Puerto Rico, or, the Reconstitution of a History of Art
Héctor Feliciano, Puerto Rico
Peru Does Not Need Museums
Mario Vargas Llosa, Peru

A Mexican National Museum in Chicago: Integrating Cultures
Carlos Tortolero, United States
The Multinodal Institution: Going Off the Grid
Lori Starr, United States
The Museum of Oaxaca
Edward Rothstein, United States

Chapter Two. Conserving Reflections on Conserving: Conservation and Conservatism

Selma Holo and Mari-Tere Álvarez, United States
Conservation, Stewardship, and the Future of AMA: Art Museum of the Americas, Part I
Lydia Bendersky, Chile
Stewardship and the Future of AMA: Art Museum of the Americas, Part II
Andrés Navia, Colombia For Whom the Human Remains?
Ben Garcia, United States
Reimagining an Ethical Approach to Museum Collections
Stephen E. Nash and Chip Colwell, United States
Small Museums and the “Cultural Revolution” in Venezuela, 2001–2012
Guillermo Barrios, Venezuela
Repairing a Lost History in Rio de Janeiro: A Challenge for the Twenty-First Century
Piedade Grinberg, Brazil
On and Off the Hill in Los Angeles: Making Connections and Making a Difference
Clare Kunny, United States Art and Beyond: Some Contemporary Challenges for Art and Anthropology Museums
Ivan Gaskell, United States
A Museum Is a Museum Is a Museum Is a Museum: Museums and Networks
Vanda Vitali, Canada

Chapter Three. Uncertainty

Reflecting on Uncertainty and Reform
Selma Holo and Mari-Tere Álvarez, United States

Freeing Up Art Museums
Maxwell L. Anderson, United States
The Arts and Citizens in Transition: A Case Study from the Pulitzer
Kristina Van Dyke, United States
The Contemporary Museum in a New Creative Agenda
Richard Koshalek and Erica Clark, United States
A New “Place” for Museums in the Digital Age
Susana Smith Bautista, United States
The Artist in Crisis: The Artist Embracing Society
Demian Flores, Mexico
Museum Freefall: Excerpts from a Long Conversation at the Getty Museum
Fred Wilson and David Wilson, United States
A Mountain of Broken Mirrors: Museums with a Social Approach
Marco Barrera Bassols, Mexico
The Planet’s Flatulence and the Likelihood of Our Extinction
Alejandro de Ávila B., Mexico

Chapter Four. Renewal Reflection, Renewal, and Rebirth
Selma Holo and Mari-Tere Álvarez, United States

A New Vision for a Treasured Canadian Institution and the Opportunities and Challenges We Face along the Way
James D. Fleck with Nichole Anderson, Canada
What’s the Big Idea? Rethinking the Permanent Collection
Graham W. J. Beal, United States
Reimagining Access to the Met
Thomas P. Campbell, United States
Rethinking Immigrant Integration in the American South: Can Museums Help Communities Address a Major Social Challenge?
Tom Hanchett, United States
A Rebirth: Th e (New) Nevada Museum of Art, a Museum of Ideas
JoAnne S. Northrup and William Fox, United States
Reenvisioning Children and Families into the Museum: Arts for NexGen, LACMA
Jane Burrell and Karen Satzman, United States
100 Years Later: Th e Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Reactivated and Reimagined
Jane G. Pisano, United States
Reinvention: Collector as Custodian
Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Venezuela
Tales from the Ibero-American Museum Network: Realigning the Power
Santiago Palomero Plaza, Spain
Realigning Mexican Museums in Today’s World: Some Proposals for Communication, Development, and Evaluation of Our Museum Institutions
Miguel Fernández Félix, Mexico

Creating Your Own Conversations in a Panarchy of Museums
Our Writers: A Pan-American Highway
Contributors

Reviews

"Reading the essays in this courageous book is like attending a life-changing professional conference and joining a buoyant conversation with a group of brilliant mentors and peers. Taken together, this collection of ideas, opinions, and experiences, ably interpreted by Selma Holo and Mari-Tere Álvarez, argues that museums in the Americas are willing not only to do the hard work to become vital and nimble places that address contemporary social justice issues but also to put words into action."—Marjorie Schwarzer, Museum Studies Program, University of San Francisco

"Selma Holo and Mari-Tere Álvarez bring together thought leaders from around the Americas to share their experiences, desires, and predictions for the future of the museum field. Like a best-practice museum, this book is organized to allow for multiple entry points to address a broad range of inquiries and interests among its readers. It will ignite many more conversations about our field’s leaders and the role museums must play in a civil society."—Melody Kanschat, Executive Director, Getty Leadership Institute

About the Book

About the Author

Table of Contents

Reviews