Recorder: Anne P. El-Omami, Curator of Education, The Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH

The Museum Education affinity group consistently returned to what they identified as the primary issue: power and authority, its manifestations and constraints, and its impact on aesthetics, taste, value, and history. Museum educators, who must work from permanent collections, do not have the choices afforded classroom teachers in regard to multicultural source materials. Thus, diversity must be achieved by raising issues and challenging viewpoints, rather than exclusively through the imagery and content available.

There were certain areas of disagreement in the group. The first was over whether multicultural education was necessarily "transgressive" or "subversive." The second was that racism, which lies at the heart of issues of power and authority, was not directly addressed during the third Issues Seminar. Last, hiring practices continue to be a source of contention, with some participants insisting that there are not enough qualified people of color to hire, while another group felt that the criteria for designating someone "qualified" was deliberately exclusive and guaranteed few qualified minorities.

Among the conclusions and recommendations made by the group were:

1. Trustees and administrators should provide opportunities for museum professionals to address directly issues of power and authority within the traditional museum structure.
2. Museum education has done the most to raise the issue of diversity in art museums, but the issue often ends there. Systemic changes in the structure and procedures of museums must be initiated to encourage diverse perspectives. Professional arenas must be created to address the need for change throughout the museum community.
3. Museum directors must develop long-range plans to serve as "brokers" of cultural resources to teachers and educational institutions, as well as long-range plans for implementing cultural diversity.

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