At Mia, we believe in the “power of art to inspire wonder,” to connect us with something bigger than ourselves. One of the many things that sparked my early fascination with art is how a painting or sculpture could transport me to a different time or place and allow me to see things from another’s viewpoint or perspective. When engaging with art, we bring our own worldview and experience, and an artwork can ignite conversations and learning about others’ ideas, values, and cultures.
But that sense of shared humanity is often lacking in our world today. The failure to understand other people’s point of view is exacerbating prejudice, conflict, and inequality. If we wish to develop not only a more equal society but a happier and more creative one, we need to look outside ourselves and attempt to identify with the experiences of others—to empathize. This critical skill allows us to connect with others who might seem different, to become more aware of our commonalities. As the philosopher Roman Kznaric explains in his 2014 book Empathy: Why It Matters, and How to Get It, empathy “has the power to transform relationships, from the personal to the political, and create fundamental social change.”
Yet we’re moving in the wrong direction. Researchers have recently tracked a widespread decline in empathy in the U.S., especially among college students. These findings suggest how imperative it is to develop new strategies to address the growing empathy deficit in this country. As the researcher behind the college-student study noted, “We need empathy to inspire a next generation of global citizens who are mindful of our shared humanity.”
A conversation at Mia with artists (from left) Abdi Phenomenal, Essma Imady, and Fres Thao, as part of a partnership with Advocates for Human Rights.
For Mia, this is an opportunity. By focusing on initiatives and experiences that bring people together, offer spaces for reflection and contemplation, and provide a platform for sharing stories, Mia and other museums can become more integral and impactful in the lives of our communities. The work has already begun. In our gallery teaching, we are now using perspective-taking exercises, encouraging participants to step into the shoes of someone else—the artist, perhaps, or someone depicted in the artwork—and to learn about the different experiences and viewpoints of the people in their group.
In our programming, we are working with organizations like the Advocates for Human Rights. And we’re bringing in artists in our communities to share their views—through spoken word, poetry, literature, and performance—on issues of race, LGTBQ rights, and immigration. Afterwards, we offer space for conversation, which often brings people from different cultures and communities together and fosters understanding.
In exhibitions, too, we are beginning to bring in different voices and worldviews. In “Martin Luther: Art and the Reformation,” for example, we formed an interfaith panel to advise us and inform our thinking and interpretation of some of the challenging material in the show. The panel members, representing the faiths of Catholicism, Judaism, Islam, and Protestantism, then led an educational session for our volunteer guides and shared their knowledge and perspectives on the exhibition’s audio tour.
To understand the perspectives of others is to be open to new ways of seeing. Museums can encourage this—all great art, after all, is a unique endeavor to understand the human condition. But we need to be open to new ways of seeing and presenting it ourselves.
Top image: Fres Thao speaking at Mia in front of artwork from Cy Thao’s The Hmong Migration series, as part of a partnership with Advocates for Human Rights.