The mitigation of protests and activism in our museums

• In Event: Cultural Criminology

Abstract

Museums are a popular venue for protests and activism, as evidenced by a long history on a variety of topics. Last year a flood of climate protesters chose the world’s most famous art pieces to draw attention to the devastating results of climate change. To make their case and emphasize urgency, they threw all sorts of liquids on the most prominent of paintings by Van Gogh, Monet, Vermeer, and several others.

Our session will start with the shortest of overviews on recent events and insights on (climate) activism in museums. Though our presentation will leave room for a philosophical view on the role of museums and the impact of freedom of speech, we will quickly focus on the challenges for museum security personnel. We will report on our own experiences: he Ghent Museum of Fine Arts in collaboration with the Ghent Local Police provided a tailor-made training for museum guards on how to prevent, predict, and mitigate any damaging attempts of activists inside the institution.

In April of 2023 we organized a training session, a TTX and an FTX to raise awareness among security guards, to provide additional resources, and to strengthen their position as safekeepers of our mediagenic works of art. From this training we will highlight a best case scenario (where the guards were able to predict and prevent such an attack) and a worst case scenario (where the activists succeeded and their pictures flooded the media). We then show what we believe are the most valuable preventive and protective measures that can be taken to avoid the worst case scenario. And finally, we close this presentation with some recommendations that cultural institutions can take into account when implementing in the short or medium term.

Author

• Kim Covent, Lokale Politie Gent