Museum Building: Identity Building

September 23, 2007

In the process of editing my Dearborn documentary, I have come to the section in which I discuss the Arab American National Museum.. and so I have been watching the video of an interview with the museum's director Dr. Anan Ameri. At one point I ask about the role of the new museum in forming an Arab American identity, and Ameri responds quite correctly that the Arab American identity had been around for some time.. and the museum can hardly be said to construct this identity. Her underlying view, then, would seem to be that identities form on their own and then institutions reflect and serve those identities.

I am interested in a more dynamic model of the relationship of personal identity and an institution such as a museum. Quickly we get into a feedback loop in which identity and institutions are mutually supporting. Yes, the Arab American identity has been around, but its self-conception will become more focused and coherent as it receives treatment in a museum, and as this identity category is strengthened, there will be a larger audience ready to patronize cultural institutions. So around and around we go.

An individual's vague sense of how he or she fits into a group will be clarified and strengthened by the experience of a museum. In the Arab American National Museum this identity is clarified by means of four distinct strategies:

1. The development of a broad-based historical narrative. The cultural accomplishments of the people who have inhabited the Middle East are highlighted. Individual accomplishments from a range of cultures and time periods are blended to create a surprising whole. Read: This is a history in which you can take pride.

2. The development of canonical figures is another museum strategy. Who would ever have related Edward Said to Kahlil Gibran? After a tour of the Arab American National Museum these two will appear as figures within a distinct group. The work of a museum is to train people to perceive such a group. The museum thereby creates an intellectual pedigree to which an individual could attach himself or herself.. and find significance.

3. A third strategy is to demonstrate the ways that Arab American identity intersects with broader American culture. In one section of the museum we get a tour of a Lebanese kitchen and other views of everyday life. The message is: this is how the Arab American identity looks. People obviously cook and smoke and gather with family because that is what they know; it comes naturally. Having walked through this museum their personal experience might be more coherent. They would be aware of how their practices fit into a larger group pattern.

4. A continuing connection with Arabs living in the Middle East is encouraged. A traveling exhibit of traditional Palestinian textiles was on (temporary) display when I visited. The Arab American identity is rooted in history but it is also tied to the cultures that still exist and thrive.

These four strategies for constructing and strengthening an identity commitment are on display at the Arab American National Museum.. but they are also four strategies that I think we could locate in many museums. It is no accident that ethnic groups of all sorts feel the importance of building a museum.. and I think we can trace this building urge to an inner need to set up boundaries and definitions for a group identity.