I thought this was a great article, and relevant for for example myself as a museum employee. The questions that the article proposes are relevant for us and something that we work and struggle with when we display the art pieces that we have in our collection and when we decide to host a temporary exibition or purchase new art. The institutional legacy (yes we are a musuem in Europe that has a great part of or original collection donated by rich upper class collectors) of the museum and the narratives that were presented in the past and that we present in our exibitions should be scrutinized and questioned, it is part of our job as an institution.
"At its core, an art museum is essentially a narrative of empire."
The museum that I work with has a large collection from our country's period of national romanticism, the ideas of nation and the narrative that this collection potentially displays are not only something worth thinking about but something that the museum is very aware of. Specially since we live in a contemporary society with increasing nationalist tendencies that at times uses culture/art as a tool for their political and oppresive agenda.
"No matter how intricate or well researched a palimpsest—at any cultural institution—it will never solve the problem of perspective. We can never escape ourselves or the times in which we live. Maybe this is the best we ever do—and maybe that’s fine. Maybe seeing museums as deeply flawed but instructive monuments to that attempt at understanding, rather than as definitive catalogs, is the best way to allow them to teach us about ourselves. Sometimes, we need the reminder not to believe something just because it’s written on the wall."
I think this last paragraph is very interesting and something to keep in mind, specially as a museum employee.
I don't really understand the Princeton argument. Even if the degree of the author is unethical, how is that relevant to criticizing something? We are allowed to criticize and scrutinize things even if we are ourselves part of it, or come from it. I'm not sure if you are implying the biblical idea of "he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone" here, but if so, then nobody would be able to criticize anything.