The Museum of Us in Balboa Park is all about sharing inclusive and diverse stories — representing all of us. 🌎
Now, the museum needs your feedback to rework and update the content in an exhibit about race and identity, a reframe the museum hopes will “better reflect the San Diego region and the current national dialogue on race.”
“Race: Are We So Different?” first appeared at the museum in 2011 as a traveling exhibit. In 2015, the museum acquired the display and it became part of its core collection.
Fast-forward to 2023. ⏭️
The Museum of Us tells SDtoday the exhibit is currently in the middle of a “community-driven” project that will modernize it. A 17-member Race Advisory Committee has been analyzing the display since last May, developing its new content.
To help things along, the museum has rolled out an anonymous survey for guests to take at a kiosk near the exhibit now through mid-February. Visitors are asked to rate and reflect on the display, including ways to make it more relevant to both visitors and locals.
People can also sign up for 1-hour interviews with the museum to share a deeper perspective; these contributors will be compensated with $50 and 1-year museum membership. You can get more info about this by emailing the museum.
The committee will evaluate the community’s feedback by the end of February and start drafting the exhibit’s new script, with a goal to have it finalized by the fall.
L. James Haddan, the museum’s senior director of development and external communications, says the project — from content and design development to production — will take 2-3 years to complete.
You can get involved by visiting the museum Wednesday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., checking out the exhibit on the second floor, and answering the survey.
By the way, this isn’t the first time the Museum of Us has sought help from the community to tell important stories. Since changing its name from the Museum of Man to the Museum of Us in 2020, the museum has vowed to “decolonize” by auditing the items in its collection, figure out how they were collected, and reflect those stories in their improved exhibits.
In 2021, those decolonizing initiatives drove the overhaul of the “Maya Peoples: Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth” exhibition, which the museum said was “outdated” and “one-sided.”
The museum tapped Maya community consultants from around the world to reshape that exhibit and last year, the colorful, powerful new version reopened in the rotunda.
The exhibit features a mural by Alicia María Siu designed to be “driven by, and representative of, the Mayan community.” The stories now told through the displays aim to celebrate the continuity of the Maya — past, present, and future generations.
📍 Visit: 1350 El Prado
