After an initial clash between MoSH, advocacy groups, tensions gave way to reform

Members of Memphis' LGBTQ community donned their best attire and filed into the Memphis Brooks Museum of American Art for Focus Mid-South Magazine's annual awards show.

Previously thwarted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the awards ceremony on Aug. 26 was the first since 2019. After the first rounds of drinks were had and plates of pasta and salad were assembled, the awards portion of the evening kicked off.

The Memphis Museum of Science and History, or MoSH, nabbed the first honor for Champion of the Year for this year's exhibit Rise Up!: Stonewall and the LGBTQ Rights Movement to Memphis. A complementary component to the touring national exhibit, called Memphis Proud, details Memphis' own LGBTQ history.

MoSH staffers, including Executive Director Kevin Thompson, enthusiastically accepted the night's first honor for Champion of the Year.

The award, though, came amid the backdrop of controversy. And that dustup prompted MoSH to change the policy it has about if and when an exhibit at the museum can be hidden from view at the request of a group renting the space for an event.

A coverup and a dustup

Weeks prior, Thompson authorized a decision to cover up a portion of the exhibit, at the request of New Salem Missionary Baptist Church, according to a statement provided to The Commercial Appeal.

New Salem wanted to rent the event space on July 4th at MoSH, formerly known as the Pink Palace, for a black-tie gala at the start of the Dr. Frank Ray conference, an annual event organized by the church.

The decision to do so initially angered members of a community advisory committee who worked with the museum to curate the Memphis Proud exhibit. The community was comprised of representatives from Focus Mid-South Magazine, as well as LGBTQ social services organizations, including My Sistah's House, OUTMemphis, Love Doesn't Hurt, and the Tennessee Equality Project.

Between July 4th and the Focus awards, initial outrage gave way to collaboration between the community advisory committee and MoSH.

Thompson, who declined to comment on the matter, ultimately revised museum policy.

And a representative of New Salem detailed its own issues with MoSH — but none were based in a disdain for the Rise Up! and Memphis Proud exhibit or the LGBTQ community.

Fallout from a church event based in misrepresentation, New Salem says

New Salem's gala was the start of a three-day annual conference. The church hosts the conference annually, with various seminars that explore topics in ministry.

One of those seminars, said Rhonda Hooks, focused on inclusivity in ministry — including the LGBTQ community.

"This particular exhibit [Rise Up!] had protruded into an area we had slated for guest seating. And we were not made aware of that until the day of the event," Hooks said. As New Salem's chief of staff and general counsel for the, she was in charge of coordination the event with MoSH.

New Salem rented out the entirety of the MoSH building and grounds. Multiple adjustments were needed throughout the museum to accommodate the evening gala, Hooks said.

"To point out one particular exhibit, is not only a gross miscarriage of our intent, it's also just flat out wrong," Hooks said. "When we contracted for the space, there was no exhibit there the entire time we did multiple site visits."

Hooks described working with MoSH as less than ideal.

"Our expectation was that, you know, everything that we had contracted for was going to be in place. And it was not," she said.

Part of New Salem's ongoing work, Hooks said, is outreach to other communities, including the LGBTQ community.

"For us, it's about salvation. It's about people. It's about love, period," she said. "As the Bible says, 'Let he who is without sin cast the first stone'."

After initial confrontation, a change in policy

Following the initial objections raised by the community advisory committee, the next several exchanges between some of the members and Thompson ensued.

The result was a tweaked set of policies around events.

One week before the Focus awards, a solution was reached.

Notably, new event rental contact language that "rentals in the exhibition areas of the main exhibit halls will not be allowed to pipe and drape, but will be allowed to stanchion off exhibit sections," according to emails provided by Ray Rico, executive editor of Focus Mid-South Magazine.

To what extent those changes satisfied members of the advisory committee remains unclear. The language in the provided emails signals satisfaction and continued support for MoSH.

Outside of those emails, members of the committee either could not be reached or declined to comment.

The MoSH episode is occurring at a time in the U.S. when politicians have renewed efforts to criminalize members of the LGBTQ community — particularly trans adults and children.

In the 2022 legislative session alone, 14 bills targeting members of the LGBTQ community were introduced according to legislative monitoring group Freedom For All Americans. Other headline-grabbing laws that criminalize LGBTQ issues include Florida's infamous, "Don't Say Gay Law."

The tension surrounding MoSH's handling of the July 4th gala may have been based in a misunderstanding, but regardless — museums across the U.S. are grappling with a delicate balance between public education, a very real need to secure funding, and a museum's own purported mission.

Professor of Museum Studies Elizabeth Kryder-Reid, who is the director of the graduate program for museum studies, said what happened at MoSH is fairly common.

"There’s an understanding that when spaces are rented out, the educational mission of this space shifts for the duration of the rental," Kryder-Reid said. The job of a public museum is to create a space for conversations. And I think this is something that museums have started tackling and have demonstrated that you can do it in a complex and nuanced way."

To that end, MoSH is currently pulling together a diversity, equity and inclusion committee that will serve as added representation from communities that MoSH intends to highlight in the future.

And having engaged advisory groups, Kryder-Reid said, is one of the best practices a museum can do, as more and more museums move "away from the singular view of the curator," and towards allowing exhibits to form with the help of the communities they serve.

"It’s very much part of what the field is wrestling with," Kryder-Reid said, "and the strongest museums coming out of it are willing to take risks and willing to incorporate failures into their practices,"

Micaela Watts is the access and equity reporter for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at micaela.watts@commercialappeal.com.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis Museum of Science and History and LGBTQ groups work together