MASS Action–Museum As Site for Social Action–is a collaborative project that launched in 2016, centering on the question: How do you transform museums from the inside out? Through a series of public convenings and the creation of a toolkit of resources, this project’s intention is to share the strategies and frameworks needed to align museums with more equitable and inclusive practices.

In our last blogpost of July 2018 (wow, it’s been a while since we had published), Elisabeth Callihan, MASS Action co-founder and project manager, introduced the MASS Action Toolkit published in 2017. In this blogpost, we present you with a new initiative we will be pursuing over the next few months and invite you to join in:

The #MassActionReadingGroup

The #MassActionReadingGroup will be a group of museum enthusiasts, professionals, students, and/or activists who will come together to read and discuss the MASS Action Toolkit chapter-by-chapter over the course of 16 weeks. The Toolkit is made of 8 chapters and 8 accompanying worksheets that help dig deeper into the chapters’ content. Chapters are between 6 to 40 pages, with an average length of 20 pages. …That’s about 10 pages a week, manageable, don’t you think? In addition to the downloadable chapters and worksheets, we will have access to dialogue facilitation outlines that the Art Institute of Chicago’s 2018 MASS Action Organizing Team developed for each chapter! You can use these if you are interested in hosting a reading group with colleagues.

How it will work: Every-other-Monday, we will be “assigned” a chapter and worksheet from the MASS Action Toolkit and meet via Twitter for a 30 minute Tweetchat of the previous week’s assigned chapter. The chapters and worksheets will be posted every couple weeks on The Incluseum Blog, as well as partnering blogs such as Art Museum Teaching. All you have to do is download the chapter with its accompanying worksheet and participate!

Schedule:

• Monday 04/15: Introductions
  • Assignment: Chapter 1 and Worksheet 1
• Monday 04/29: Chapter 1: What We Need to Change and Why
  • 12pm EST: #MassActionReadingGroup Tweetchat: Chapter 1 and Worksheet 1
  • Assignment: Chapter 2 and Worksheet 2
• Monday 05/13: Chapter 2: Moving Toward Internal Transformation: Awareness, Acceptance, Action 
  • 12pm EST: #MassActionReadingGroup Tweetchat: Chapter 2 and Worksheet 2
  • Assignment: Chapter 3 and Worksheet 3
• Monday 05/27: Chapter 3: Organization Culture and Change: Making the Case for Inclusion
  • 12pm EST: #MassActionReadingGroup Tweetchat: Chapter 3 and Worksheet 3
  • Assignment: Chapter 4 and Worksheet 4
• Monday 06/10: Chapter 4: Inclusive Leadership: Avoid a Culture of Leadership
  • 12pm EST: #MassActionReadingGroup Tweetchat: Chapter 4 and Worksheet 4
  • Assignment: Chapter 5 and Worksheet 5
• Monday 06/24: Chapter 5: Interpretation: Liberating the Narrative
  • 12pm EST: #MassActionReadingGroup Tweetchat: Chapter 5 and Worksheet 5
  • Assignment: Chapter 6 (no worksheet this week)
• Monday 07/08: Chapter 6: Sharing Authority: Creating Content and Experiences
  • 12pm EST: #MassActionReadingGroup Tweetchat: Chapter 6
  • Assignment: Chapter 7 and Worksheet 7
• Monday 07/22: Chapter 7: Collections: How We Hold the Stuff We Hold in Trust
  • 12pm EST: #MassActionReadingGroup Tweetchat: Chapter 7 and Worksheet 7
  • Assignment: Chapter 8 and Worksheet 8
• Monday 08/05: Chapter 8: Change-Making through Pedagogy
  • 12pm EST: #MassActionReadingGroup Tweetchat: Chapter 8 and Worksheet 8

Want to Participate?

Sign up here! Join us for a Tweetchat! Siging up isn’t mandatory, but will help give us an idea of who is taking part as we explore this collaborative reading journey together.

Want to make your reading journey even more meaningful? Ask a colleague or peer to participate with you. Teaming up offers many benefits, such as increased motivation, and a sense of community!

Tune in next week as we release chapter 1!