Inclusive Practice in the Art Museum: Writing for Audiences and Artists

In 2017 the exhibition Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power opened at Tate Modern, London, and toured to five venues in the United States. The exhibition initiated a period of critical reflection around the language we use to discuss identity, and the stories we tell about art and artists. In the years since Soul of A Nation opened, Tate has strengthened its commitment to telling inclusive stories of art. The development of the interpretation for the Tate Modern iteration informed several Tate initiatives that encourage greater consideration of language and a more inclusive approach to interpretation. Major societal shifts during this period, including international protest campaigns from #MeToo to Black Lives Matter, have highlighted the importance of culturally inclusive narratives and community-derived language. At the same time, the often polarising reception of this work has led to debate around roles and responsibilities of art museums across the globe.

Taking Soul of A Nation as its starting point, this project brought arts and museums sector colleagues from the United Kingdom and the United States together to discuss approaches to interpretation that centre audiences and artists, considering inclusive program, content and practice. It delivered two workshops, followed by a Call for Papers, and culminating in special issue of Tate Papers and a panel discussion.

Objectives

The project asked what, if anything, has changed in the seven years since Soul of a Nation helped shape interpretative frameworks to discuss the Black Arts Movement in the US and, more broadly, art that expands the European art historical canon. Museum Interpretation colleagues from US and UK organisations will be encouraged to share their experiences developing inclusive content and consider: ‘where are we now and where do we need to go?’

It aimed to

• strengthen museum interpretation practices, ensuring that exhibition narratives are more inclusive, audience-centred and reflective of historically excluded perspectives​
• develop and disseminate new research through a Call for Papers; generating new scholarship that challenges existing narratives and centres historically excluded voices in American art discourse​
• focus on implementing structural changes within institutions by distilling and disseminating best practices for inclusive museum interpretation

It additionally asked

• How do we tell their stories without instrumentalising their identities/biographies?
• How might the political/historical contexts of the UK and the US enable or restrict dialogue?
• How should institutions take on the labour for this work while acknowledging the many movements who declare ‘nothing about us without us’?

Workshops

Colleagues working in interpretation, curatorial and audience engagement at the Soul of A Nation touring venues (and beyond), came together to consider the impact of the exhibition on interpretation practice in the UK and the US, and how interpretation, and the art museum sector more widely, has changed in the years since the show first opened.

Presentations and themed discussions considered how museums have a responsibility to tell culturally inclusive stories of art, facing both internal and external pressures in the process. How might interpretation practice address the complex expectations placed on museums today?

Workshop presenters

Zoé Whitley, independent writer and curator. Organising co-curator of Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power at Tate Modern in 2017, alongside Mark Godfrey and with Priyesh Mistry

Oriana Elisa Gonzales Associate Educator of Interpretation, Research, and Digital Learning at The Museum of Modern Art, New York City​

Barby Asante, artist, curator, and educator, working in social practice, film, performance, collective writing, and the creation of transformative spaces for ritual and healing. Lecturer in Fine Art Critical Studies at Goldsmiths College, University of London​

Cheryl Finley, Walton Endowed Professor and Director, Atlanta University Center Art History + Curatorial Studies Collective, Spelman College​

Fiontán Moran, Curator: International Art, Tate. Fiontán is a member of Tate’s North America Acquisitions Committee and the curator of Leigh Bowery!, Tate Modern, February–August 2025

Inclusive Practice in the Art Museum: Writing for Audiences and Artists was funded by Terra Foundation for American Art