13 YW: Our museum is very much working to encourage open-mindedness and diverse representations of cultures and voices. This is daunting, as it is unfamiliar territory for many people, but we understand it’s a path that we have to embrace. It’s not only a matter of survival for museums—we need to think and behave in ways that reflect inclusive principles in order to continue to thrive. Art has the power of shaping viewpoints, especially among young people who are so receptive. So as a college museum in particular, we can afford to be daring and experimental, and to lead the way in the social movement around inclusion and equity. Thoughts on the museum’s physical space, and its influence on your work? YW: I firmly believe that the physical space of a museum prescribes how the institution is perceived—how it prioritizes its collections, how it conditions the visitor experience, how it conveys explicit and subtle messages about cultures, and so on. SCMA’s building embodies the early 21st-century aesthetic and philosophy in the sense that it’s very accessible and it’s very clearly artic- ulated. While it provides structure and clarity, the pitfall in today’s context is that this vertical setup of four floors sitting on a modest footprint easily invites a hierarchical reading of the space and a potentially misconstrued agenda of privileging painting and sculpture—largely Western European and American—on the top two floors. This, however, is not the message that we would like to convey to our visitors. As a team, the curators have already been talking about how to shake things up a bit in the collection galleries, for example, by broad- ening our presentation of art of the ancient world by incorporating Chinese Tang dynasty tomb figurines and Gandharan Buddhist sculpture. When we have a special exhibition now on the first floor, we highlight works of art in the other galleries as they relate to the special exhibition’s theme. This way, the entire museum space becomes more fluid and interconnected, breaking down barriers and preconceived categories. EC: It’s been a fun challenge to get to know the contemporary galleries and video and new media gallery. We’re so lucky to have a dedicated black box space to showcase our collection of time-based media, which is the largest in Western Massachusetts. Soon after I arrived, I worked with the exhibitions team to change the entry to the video gallery so that it felt more welcoming and was more visible to visitors and we’ve had positive feedback from staff that they’ve noticed more visitors electing to enter. I’m also excited to imagine what we could do with some of the more challenging spaces, such as the two-story-high contemporary gallery with its windows into the first-floor galleries and the lobby. Our spring 2019 exhibition, Plastic Entanglements: Ecology, Aesthetics, Materials, will be one opportunity to do that because there are a few artworks that will be hung from the ceiling, making them visible from the lobby. SB: It’s exciting to see how the space has transformed since I was an undergraduate. The reconfiguration of the contemporary galleries has been particularly exciting, and created a large open space that’s perfect for programming. We’ve utilized that space during our new Thursday-evening hours to host yoga in the galleries and an open mic night inspired by the Un/American installation, among other activities. It’s nice to see students using that space in a new way. DC: I also appreciate that we are physically connected to the art department and Hillyer Art Library, as well as being neighbors to College Hall. To me, that demon- ABOVE: Associate Educator Taiga Ermansons AC ’03 leading an Open Eyes Gallery conversation in 体 Modern Images of the Body from East Asia