Transformative Exhibitions and Artistic Practices: Vision and Culture in the Educational Environment of the Museum

Museums have slowly transformed from colonial and national repositories to gateways that offer “global” platforms which aim to invite interaction between people from different ethnic backgrounds and socio-cultural contexts. Here we consider case studies from different settings including: an exhibition that took place at the National Museum in Lebanon in 2018 entitled “Chou Hayda?” which interfaces a pluralistic and collective approach to heritage and the socio-political past in Lebanon, along with the permanent show “Identity: Yours, Mine, Ours” at the Immigration Museum in Melbourne that looks at the question of cultural heritage and multiculturalism. Both exhibitions question ideas of citizenship and belonging as well as thinking about heritage and multiculturalism from different geopolitical angles and demonstrates how museums can play a central role for disseminating knowledge and challenging notions of ourselves and others.