Abstract: This case study analyzed the installation of Sam Durant’s “Scaffold” sculpture at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, MN and the subsequent public protests that led to the sculptures dismantle. Touching on issues of cultural appropriation, whiteness, and Art, the study of “Scaffold” illuminates how museums and cultural institutions approach “difficult histories.” Guided by Maura Reilly’s framework laid out in Curatorial Activism: Towards an Ethics of Curating, this study asks institutions to re-evaluate decades long practices that center whiteness, violate community trust in public institutions, and normalize systemic oppression.
Kacie Lucchini Butcher 