The Rise of the Therapeutic Museum : Decolonization and the Crisis of Knowledge

Omtale

This book considers when and why respite rooms, emotional support brochures, well-beingguides, psychological consultants, and care days become common features in the museum ofart. Kraynak poses and answers this question, arguing that under its rightful ambition todecolonize––i.e. to rectify past and present inequalities–– the museum of the Global North isgradually replacing a commitment to knowledge, teaching, and learning with a focus uponcare, healing and well-being (the “therapeutic”). While this transformation might appear, onthe surface, benign, culturally familiar, and politically desirable, the author counters thesepresumptions probing the history and implications of “the therapeutic museum.” Here,curatorial attention shifts away from the art on view and onto the spectator, who the museumimagines as a precarious psychological subject, and primary source of meaning. Externalforces–– new forms of knowledge, encounters with difficulty, even an engagement with art––are treated as a potential threat. As a result, the therapeutic museum not only encourages thebeholder to turn inward, but in so doing deflects attention from or scrutiny of its ownpractices and systems that perpetuate inequality. Among these are the ongoing legaciescolonialism’s epistemic violence, which elevated the knowledge and aesthetic traditions ofthe Global North while suppressing those of the Global South. In contrast, the book proposesa “pluriversal” (versus universal) museum that maintains the political necessity ofknowledge, and views pedagogy as a path to emancipation. Emphasizing epistemic justiceand the moral right to learn during a time when such freedoms are increasingly under attack,the book makes a powerful case for questioning rather than romanticizing the therapeuticmuseum, which it ultimately reveals to reinforce rather than challenge dominant power. This is an important intervention that is essential reading for researchers and scholars in ArtHistory, Visual Studies, Museum Studies and Cultural Studies.