In this lesson, we will explore the concept of whiteness as a system of possession in art institutions, looking specifically at the ways in which art museums developed through methods of European imperialism and colonization. Whiteness as a system of possession refers to the ways in which white supremacy operates within art museums, shaping the narratives, collections, and practices of these institutions. By examining how whiteness operates as a form of possession in art museums, we can better understand the ways in which racism is embedded in these spaces and work towards dismantling these structures.

As traditional study of both museum and art history treats colonization as an unfortunate aside that detracts from the greater grandeur of western art collections, this lesson applies a radical reframing to museum and art history that demonstrates how European imperialist desire and colonialist action were the actual motivations behind collection and museum development.

Key Lesson Concepts:

• Whiteness as a system of possession
• European concept(s) of Empire
• White Cultural Hegemony
• Development of early European Wunderkammerns

Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:

• Define the terms colonization, imperialism, whiteness, empire, and the functionality of white cultural hegemony.
• Explore how colonization influenced the constructions of early European art collections.
• Examine the art museum's role in European imperialism and its construction and continued maintenance of race, particularly whiteness.
• Develop new ways to think about art objects and the institutions that hold them.
  

Learning Activities

This week's activities include the following:

Readings: In changing our investigative lens to one that centers the positionality of Black and brown people, we reveal the nature of the colonizer and how the Enlightenment and colonial expansion came together to construct race and the art museum simultaneously. This lesson begins with WEB Du Bois's Souls of White Folk, which examines the ways that Europeans enacted colonization and why. In Discourse on Colonialism, Martinican poet Aimé Césaire defines colonization by demonstrating what it is not.

Lectures: A video lecture is included in this lesson to provide more scholarly analysis of and historical context for key points within the readings.

• Lecture 1 - What is Colonization? defines colonization and discusses Du Bois & Césaire's essays.

Quiz: A short quiz is included in this lesson to test your retention of key terms, concepts, and the authors' primary arguments.

Discussion Board: The discussion prompt for this lesson asks you to ruminate on Du Bois's statement: "...whiteness is the ownership of the earth forever and ever, Amen!" What new understandings of art museums emerge when whiteness is understood as a system of possession demonstrated through the Wunderkammer