Museumification and Ecclesiastical Structures

As the hierarchies and systemic structures of colonialism and more broadly, cisheteropatriarchy are interrogated within museum contexts, we have seen a growing demand for museum-oriented representations of new perspectives and histories, particularly of marginalized demographics. The struggle for many institutions comes in the limitations of space, their existing collections, and their existing reputations within the art world more broadly. I propose an alternative method to platform community-centred art spaces through the museumification of existing public heritage structures, in particular, that of churches and ecclesiastical buildings, and that the legacy of colonial Western ecclesiastical buildings can be interrogated and re-purposed within new frameworks through focus on intentional and non-hierarchical community involvement. Using two examples, the The North American Black Historical Museum and The Iglesia Santa Clara Museum, I will examine the reuse of ecclesiastical spaces for museums and other forms of community art space as a form of cultural heritage preservation.