Conversations about Museums and Healing with Lonnie Bunch and Krista Tippett

Museums have long been referred to as secular temples that encourage transformative experiences, community building, and enlightened awareness. Now that the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art, are closed to the public, the role and expectations of the museum have shifted. We must consider new perspectives as we look to the future. Our worldwide pandemic, rising xenophobia, and increased acknowledgement of systematic racism and its countless victims all demand that museums adapt. How do we as an institution respond to the needs of our community and take part in the worldwide healing process? Specifically, as stewards of a museum that is largely devoted to Asian and Middle Eastern art, how can we use our knowledge and collections of religious and cultural artwork to enact change, promote tolerance, enable empathy, encourage intercultural encounters, and shape conceptions of ourselves and others?

An interview with Secretary of the Smithsonian Lonnie Bunch will kick off the program. Krista Tippett, journalist and founder of the On Being podcast, and Chase Robinson, director of the Freer and Sackler Galleries, will then join moderator Sabrina Motley, director of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, for a live-streamed discussion.

This event is made possible through generous support from the Lilly Foundation Religion and Cultural Institutions Initiative.