Figuring out which path to take

After a stressful and hectic end to last semester I was excited to see where my research would take me. At the end of last semester I had proposed looking at 3 different case studies to develop recommendations for best practices when handling controversy, specifically through the use of programming. Though I am still looking at developing recommendations for programming when museums face controversy I am focusing solely on Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture. Hide/Seek was a landmark exhibition for the LGBTQ+ community which opened at the National Portrait Gallery in October 2010. A month after it opened the exhibition received backlash for its inclusion of A Fire In My Belly, a film by David Wojnarowicz. The controversy became much larger following the National Portrait Gallery's decision to remove the piece from the show. I won't go in to too much detail as that is what my thesis is for.

Over the break I was lucky enough to be able to look through some of the Smithsonian's press clippings related to the controversy. This research allowed me to delve deeper in to the controversy, where I found that when the show traveled to the Brooklyn Museum the following fall (2011) there was a plethora of programming done to foster a dialogue with the community. This little nugget of information is now expected to grow in to a much larger section of my thesis which will discuss the methods and topics used to develop the programming for the Brooklyn exhibition. As of right now, I am hoping to some how get in touch with someone from the Brooklyn Museum who can provide me with some more insight on the effectiveness of the programming used for the exhibition. I am still working on developing all of the key points and my argument but I feel much more confident and excited going in to the second half of thesis. I no longer look at my research and freeze up, which is probably a good sign.