IN 1968, thirteen Black security officers and gallery attendants at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art hosted a Black Culture Festival on museum grounds. As a successful piece of community outreach, the event, which coincided with the exhibition “The Sculpture of Black Africa,” was celebrated, earning lead organizer Sergeant William Knight and head of security Sidney Slade commendations from the Los Angeles County board of supervisors. In art historian Bridget R. Cooks’s telling, this cultural intervention led directly to the museum’s hiring David Driskell to guest-curate the major exhibition
Guarding the Art will feature works from the BMA’s collection, across eras, genres, cultures, and mediums, selected by guest curators from the BMA’s Security department. As guest curators, the officers
At the Baltimore Museum of Art, a new show, "Guarding the Art," was organized not by the museum's curators, but by its security staff – people who spend more time with the art on the walls than anyone else, but are rarely asked for their opinions.
A diverse and kaleidoscopic art exhibition, curated by 17 members of its security staff, spotlights the perspectives of employees typically seen but rarely heard.
The museum invited their security officers to curate an exhibition of their own. The result is a show filled with art from the sixth to the 21st century.