Abstract
Research since the late 2000s has expanded upon the notion of white space(s). More recent scholarship has interrogated the ways in which systemic white supremacy is facilitated by racialized space. However, not all white space(s) are the same, nor do they all operate in the same ways. In previous work, we contended white sanctuaries serve to reaffirm Whites’ perceived ideas about the racial order, often situated in white supremacist logic and normativity. In this paper, we extend our research to examine how white sanctuaries facilitate a sense of belonging for many whites through entitlement. Specifically, we look at patron’s spatial awareness of museum art at the Museo Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC), an internationally recognized museum in the Palau Nacional de Montjuïc, built for the 1929 International Exhibition. The empirical analysis of this study is based on collaborative ethnographic data collected over a three-year period and consists of hundreds of photos and hundreds of hours of participant observations and field notes. The data are analyzed using descriptive methods and content analyses. We identify four types of white patrons based on their levels of comfortability in navigating museum spaces, their sense of spatial awareness, and their levels of consistent proximity to museum art: 1) the art molester, 2) the spatial disrupter, 3) the rule-conscious patron, and 4) the guarded patron. Our findings highlight white entitlement as one way in which museums serve to reify whites’ sense of belonging and their perceived ideas about the racial and social order of society.
Presenters
David G. EmbrickProfessor and Director, Sociology; Africana Studies; Research on Resilient Cities, Racism, and Equity (RRCRE), University of Connecticut, Connecticut, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Museums, Spacial, Whiteness, Sanctuaries
