​Owned by Canada’s federal government, the Museum of Immigration's mandate is to “... explore the theme of immigration to Canada in order to enhance public understanding of the experiences of immigrants as they arrived in Canada, of the vital role immigration has played in the building of Canada and of the contributions of immigrants to Canada’s culture, economy and way of life.” 

The Museum occupies Pier 21, a National Historic Site in Halifax harbor and one of Canada’s equivalents to Ellis Island: “the gateway to Canada for one million immigrants between 1928 and 1971...[and] the departure point for 368,000 Canadian Military personnel during the Second World War.”   

​We asked Marie Chapman, the Museum’s director, which of the empathetic characteristics characteristics of institutional empathy she felt most resonated for her institution.  Without hesitating, she said “Civic Vision”.

Halifax is a city of 300,000 people and is capital of the Province Nova Scotia, which has a total population of just under one million.  Halifax itself is a major tourist hub for Maritime Canada and the Museum itself is a tourist attraction, located adjacent to a cruise shop pier.  However, it takes its civic role seriously, in building a local community culture rooted in curiosity rather than judgment: “Hearing someone’s accent means they can speak another language, while I can’t,” Marie says. “I have always said, I want elementary school kids to go to school, open up their lunchboxes and not be singled out or teased.”  

While Nova Scotia has significant histories of non-white peoples going back over four centuries of immigration and thousands of years of First Nations history, the province does not reflect the diversity of the rest of Canada: over three-quarters of Haligonians (Halifax citizens) have ethnic origins in Great Britain or France compared to about 37% of Canadians (2006 Canadian Census).  The Museum, therefore, works hard to be as inclusive as possible and is home to a cadre of volunteers reflecting surprising diversity in their ages, gender identities and cultures. After all, Chapman says, “With the exception of our First Nations peoples, Canada is a nation of immigrants.  People get to be who they are in Canada, and people immigrate here to do that.  It is really important to have this diversity in our institution so people can walk in and see it for themselves”. 

PROGRAMS
The Museum is closely involved with many local cultural, immigrant and settlement organizations, all of whom need year-round places to perform, meet and display, and the Museum provides free spaces for all of these purposes; for Halifax’ diverse communities, the museum is a civic “front porch”.  The Museum works hard to reach out beyond regular museum-goers and hosts a wide variety of on-site and outreach programs which attracts a diverse cross-section of the community, often from demographics which are not regular museum visitors.  “As the director, it is very cool for me to go into a room during one of these events and not recognize anybody there!”, Marie says.  Offerings include talks, book talks, films, spoken word, hip-hop, and other cultural performances.  For Black History month, the museum hosted a “Dueling Piano” performance by a father and son duo, who wove their musical performance with reminiscences of immigrant life in Toronto.  

The Museum hosts nearly a dozen different educational programs on empathetic communications, citizenship, cultural identity, the immigrant experience and historical research.  ​Marie speaks passionately of how people who lived the immigrant experience are the “real experts” on the subject, so the Museum relies on them – both within the Museum’s staff, and more so with community leaders and partners – to develop and lead programs. “With our programs, we try to frame the conversations, and get the conversations going.”

A hallmark program that reflects the Museum’s community role is its Community Presents series, an ongoing outreach program empowering local cultural groups and heritage organizations to tell their own stories by creating their own museum exhibitions, supported by Museum staff.  Two recent examples include: 

Mosaic: Identity and Community Connection, led by a mixed media artist and anthropologist, created an opportunity for immigrant and migrant women to collaborate in making art and create an exhibit “that would enhance the participants' identity, sense of place, belonging and community connection”.  This project was the first involvement with a museum for most of the participants and it reflects the Museum’s close community relationships, among them the Immigrant Migrant Women’s Association of Halifax; it has been such a success that it will now travel.     

The No. 2 Construction Battalion , created by the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia, commemorated the overseas departure of the No. 2 Construction Battalion, the first and last all-Black Canadian Army unit.  Canadians have remarkably little knowledge of their country’s black history.  Nova Scotia’s black history stretches back to 1605 and includes slavery until it was outlawed in 1833.  Black communities established settlements around the province and continued to experience discrimination in all forms, including Jim Crow.  Until the No. 2 Construction Battalion was raised, blacks were prevented from enlisting.  Marie says, “We love to do these projects...we have space and some expertise in creating exhibitions and logistics.  This gives the community the opportunity to have conversations on their terms.”  ​

EXHIBITS
The Museum also hosts traveling exhibits and develops its own temporary exhibitions on themes of immigration and diversity.  It recently hosted Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary Times: Italian Canadian Experiences During World War II, which uses some of the museum’s 900+ oral histories to describe the experience of Canada’s Italian community, deemed “enemy aliens” by the Canadian Government” starting in 1940; those considered most “dangerous” were sent to internment camps in Alberta, Ontario, and New Brunswick for up to five years.  Safe Haven:Canada and the 1956 Hungarian Refugees commemorates the Canadian resettlement of 38,000 Hungarian refugees who fled their homeland under the Soviet invasion, many of whom passed through Pier 21 in Halifax.  

As a collecting institution, the Museum focuses on intangible or digital-born and digitized items, including oral histories, written stories, and digital archival materials on historical and contemporary immigration, refugee and displaced person themes, in addition to the history of Pier 21 itself.  This includes a growing oral history collection of over 1200 interviews with immigrants, immigration officials, soldiers and others associated with Pier 21.  This growing cultural resource augments the Museum’s existing historical immigration and genealogy research resources.  

Marie says, “We’re a museum of immigration, so some of this comes naturally to us”, yet she recognizes that building institutional empathy is an ongoing journey.  Marie appreciates how the Rubric provides the opportunity for institutional self-assessment and planning.  

The Empathetic Museum Group condemns unequivocally the beliefs and values of the white supremacist, neo-Nazi, neo-fascist groups that demonstrated in Charlottesville, VA this past weekend. While we recognize the deep historical roots underlying the choice of Charlottesville for these demonstrations--the connections of UVA to the system of slavery through its founder, its construction, and its use of slaves to serve students in its early days; the existence of active KKK groups in the city during the 1920’s, and a KKK demonstration in the city just a few weeks ago; the erection during the Jim Crow era of statues honoring the Confederacy and its cause--there is no excuse for the hate, bigotry, and violent attacks perpetrated by these individuals. 
 
We encourage museums and museum-related organizations to consider their roles as anchor institutions in their communities; as carriers and nurturers of American culture to use their roles and voices in the civic space to call attention to the racism underlying the Charlottesville demonstrations, to provide historical context for public understanding of the forces at work here and in other parts of the country, and to provide safe spaces in which these contentious issues can be discussed and comprehended.

We thank museums and associations--including Monticello, The US Holocaust Museum, AASLH,  and The National Civil Rights Museum--that have made statements concerning the rallies.  We have seen that the St. Louis community chose the grounds of the Missouri Historical Society, a safe and inclusive space, on which to hold a weekend vigil. We encourage other museums to join as they can.    

We offer our heartfelt support and counsel to museums as they seek to play a responsible role at this time. 

Excerpts from our recent interview with Lori Fogarty, Executive Director, Oakland Museum of California:
​
 "We have been on a continuous and conscientious journey toward being an empathetic organization for the past ten years – In the past decade, our major first step was the reinstallation of all of our collection galleries of Art, History and Natural Sciences (90,000 square feet in total) with the explicit goal to create welcoming, accessible, and relevant experiences for our very diverse audience. More recently, we have embraced programming that is designed to be responsive to urgent, vital issues – often with direct Oakland connections, but with broader national implications, and often highlighting current topics within their compelling historical contexts. This approach was most in evidence with our recent major exhibition, "All Power to the People: Black Panthers at 50," linking the founding of the Black Panther Party in Oakland in 1966 with current issues of racial inequity and Black Lives Matter."

Here, OMCA exemplifies Civic Vision and Institutional Empathy as they prescribe an empathetic identity for the museum, and highlight individuals seen in the Oakland community through museum exhibition. They embody the voice of their community by interviewing and incorporating real individuals connected to their collection, modeling an Institutional Body Language. As with any museum shift, the museum faced some tough decisions and challenges regarding this new gallery upheaval:

"This journey hasn’t been without its challenges. Early on, with the reinstallation of our galleries, we definitely had some staff resistance to our approaches and had to make difficult decisions about leadership for these projects – including replacing some key positions. At this point, I believe our staff knows what they’re signing up for when they join the Museum and most of the nay-sayers are no longer employed here, either by their own choice or with encouragement for them to find a better fit. Having true employee commitment to this kind of work is essential and that definitely means making some hard decisions."

OMCA has also become an advocate for their community as they show Timeliness and Sustainability by reacting to political changes that directly impact their visitor:

"Beyond temporary exhibitions, our Gallery of California History has many moments linking current issues with historical moments. Most notably, we recently reinstalled the section of the gallery devoted to the Japanese American internment when a specific ethnic group was singled out for persecution, and have linked this tragic moment in our nation’s history with Trump’s call for a “Muslim Ban.” Similarly, we have a section of the gallery titled “History Now” where we linked the Syrian Refugee Crisis to the refugee crisis that took place in the wake of the fall of the Ottoman Empire close to 100 years ago. In this same space, we recently made links between the Dakota Access Pipeline and the genocide of Native people in California."

OMCA links their collection to topics that directly impact their visitors. The process of highlighting these sensitive historical facts while connecting them to Oakland and the museum collection places importance on our actions as U.S citizens, while bringing awareness to these issues that affect people within their community. OMCA utilizes “Soft Power” in exhibition and display by providing questions for visitors to consider on the nature of the exhibition and the world’s social climate; questions that link previous historical instances to contemporary political actions. This quality in a cultural institution is imperative. It informs visitors that the institution accepts its community, accepts diversity, and will be a supporter of and for them.

Lori expressed to us how she works with the Oakland community to better serve them through museum efforts. She illustrates core messaging that the museum stands by, and how she implements that in physical expression throughout the museum:

"One of the real hallmarks of OMCA’s work is direct engagement of communities in all aspects of our exhibitions and programming. We often think of our work with communities in the spectrum of three 'C’s' – consultation, collaboration, and co-creation. We are always consulting with community members and leaders as well as with visitors as we test and prototype ideas. For the Black Panthers exhibition, we consulted with dozens of former Black Panthers, writers, artists, scholars, law enforcement representatives and current activists and community leaders.

On the co-creation spectrum, we presented an exhibition last summer called, 'Oakland…I want you to know,' which focused on issues of gentrification in a rapidly transforming neighborhood in Oakland. This exhibition was completely co-created with community members and organizations, facilitated by a social practice artist, Chris Treggiari. The visitor responsive was, again, truly remarkable. One visitor responded:

'I like this exhibit. It’s very Oakland-centric and I live here. We are members of this  community. I like to see other people’s opinions…I’m proud I live here. I chose to live here because of the diversity and the different kinds of things you can find here. I’ve been here for years and it’s changed a lot. I feel a lot of the community – the pain and pride – in this exhibit.'

So, our visitors themselves respond with empathy."

By providing this information to the public, the Oakland Museum of California becomes a vital institution for truth, discussion, engagement, learning and acceptance of diversity. We believe this institution exhibits a Community Resonance that makes it an integral part of the community it serves: past and present peoples, and again highlights Oakland individuals and their stories. Lori also acknowledges the challenges associated with taking a stance on local hot-button issue.

"I’ll acknowledge here, however, that some of our long-standing supporters and volunteers – who represent more "traditional" museum audiences – have raised questions about the topics of exhibitions, the perspectives they represent, and our focus on hyper local issues. I’ve had a number of people ask me: "Are we a museum or a community center?" And my answer is – YES! We remain dedicated to our collections, to serious research and scholarship for our exhibitions, and to presenting outstanding artwork and artifacts – AND to placing the community at the center of the experience. It’s just that our definition of "community" has changed to be much more inclusive and to reflect a commitment to equity. For some more traditional supporters, however, this can almost been seen as our diminishment of our commitment to "their" community. It is a constant balancing act that requires nuance, humility and, hopefully, generosity."

We also asked Lori how reality aligned with her initial expectations for this new approach, and she responded that the overwhelming response from visitors was to welcome the connections and to embrace the opportunity to participate and add their own voices. 

"For example, in the History Now exhibit section related to Native rights and sovereignty, we ask the question: "How is what happened at Standing Rock different – or the same – as what happened in the 1800s?" This question not only elicits responses from our visitors, but also ignites conversations on post-it-notes and index cards between them. Similarly, the section in the History Gallery on the Great Depression asks a series of questions related to income inequality, organized labor, workers’ rights – and the power of art to create empathy – to which our visitors enter into whole conversations on the walls of the gallery."

In this, OMCA provides opportunities for visitor engagement, discussion and contemplation. Museum acknowledgement and instigation is key. OMCA is an “Anchor Institution”, as it has become a safe space for visitors, and even encourages visitors to explore their opinions publicly and with one another. It also provides a literal safe space to share with the community:

"While OMCA has developed and presented dozens of programs and initiatives that I would consider to embody empathy, I believe these initiatives are more profound than ever before, and certainly feel very different to me today than they did even a few months ago. To be precise, the change took place on November 8th, 2016. Our community is hungry now for places to come together, to celebrate diversity, and to have our faith in humanity restored. We produce a weekly evening festival – Friday Nights @ OMCA – that attracts thousands of people to the Museum each and every Friday night with food trucks, live music, family activities, and a full range of programming.  I had a visitor tell me after the election that our Friday Nights feel like an act of revolution.