WELCOME!!

Thank you for enrolling in Art, Whiteness, & Empire: The Art Museum as an Imperialist Repository

This is the first course in BCI's five-course certificate program that focuses on the following areas:

• Art Museum History: Understanding how western art museums developed as cultural repositories of colonialism.
• Counter-Hegemonic Approaches: Learning how to identify traditional museum practices that are rooted in racist principles for points of potential rupture and transgression of institutional “norms.” Enabling students to better identify and overcome obstacles to their ideas & professional methodologies.
• Ethics and Equity: Approaching collection & exhibition development, and overall museum programming, with a critical lens that fully and tangibly engages target audiences. These learnings will present ethical and best practices for success in presenting projects that center historically marginalized communities.
• Connection to Practice: Experience practical and real-world applications through analyses of case studies and a practicum course that allows students to learn from experienced anti-racist curatorial practitioners.
• Community Impact: Engaging communities through curatorial approaches that position collective care within frameworks of social and racial equity. 

Note - The Certificate Program will launch in Spring 2026.



As such, this course critically examines the role of whiteness as an enabler of European colonization, focusing on how Western art museums emerged as cultural instruments of imperialism and colonialism. It explores how this historical legacy directly shapes the pressing challenges museums face today. Through a comprehensive framework, the course defines whiteness and colonization, analyzing their specific roles within the contexts of museum collections, exhibitions, interpretive practices, the art market, and institutional policies concerning staff and visitors. Furthermore, it introduces anti-racism, tracing its roots in Indigenous and Black intellectual traditions, while equipping students with the tools to integrate these approaches into their own professional practices.

The course also provides strategies for navigating institutional systems deeply rooted in imperialist histories. By rejecting the traditional tendency to treat colonization as a tangential issue that detracts from the grandeur of Western art collections, this course adopts a radical reframing, highlighting European imperialist ambitions and colonialist actions as the fundamental drivers behind the development of collections and museums.

Each module includes multiple lessons that contain a list of learning objectives specific to the topic and activities planned for its week. In addition to completing readings, watching video lectures and participating in class discussion (via the comment section underneath the course materials), students are expected to complete a series of short-term and long-term assignments throughout the duration of the course. Please take some time now to review the expectations and requirements for these assignments, and share any questions or concerns with the instructor. These module objectives are designed to promote student achievement in meeting the overall course objectives.

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Recognize & examine the ways in which Western imperialism & colonization has been embedded in art museums.
• Identify traditional & current museum practices that are rooted in racist thinking and colonial & imperialist histories.