Enchanted Futures: Transforming Museum Practice through Relational Curation

MCCHESNEY, Lea (Maxwell Museum, UNM) Enchanted Futures: 
Transforming Museum Practice through Relational Curation. 
Groundbreaking exhibitions are transforming museums around 
indigenous arts. School of Advanced Research collaborated 
with the Vilcek Foundation to mount Grounded in Clay through 
its 60+ member Pottery Collective of artists, scholars, and 
knowledge bearers, debuting at the Museum of Indian Arts 
& Culture before its national tour. The Maxwell Museum’s 
Families in Pueblo Pottery is being developed through the 
co-curation of 20+ Pueblo artists, scholars, and community 
members with museum staff. We explore the relational curation central to these projects: new relationships and relationalities; 
transforming colonial museums into indigenized spaces; the 
kinds of support available; and prospects for museum futures.
lsmcches@unm.edu (T-92)