Costume Society of America Roundtable: Tackling Tokenism and Diversity in our Museum Collections

Abstract

Collecting and exhibiting fashion in Western museums has traditionally centered around wealthy, able-bodied, mainstream, Eurocentric ideals. Likewise, those working with costume collections have often fit this same mold. As we know, this is not representative of the diverse communities and cultures that these museums serve. The panelists spoke about how they have addressed inclusion in their work—from education, gatekeeping, collection management, curatorial practice, employment, and more. They discussed the difficulties they have encountered and examined some examples of best practices within museums and costume collections