How Do Museums Resist Censorship? episode artwork

EPISODE · Feb 24, 2026 · 1H 1M

How Do Museums Resist Censorship?

from Zócalo Public Square · host Zócalo Public Square

Museums tell America’s story. Exhibit by exhibit, they acquire, study, preserve, and interpret art and artifacts for the public, offering proof to bolster thoughtful interpretations of our national truths. But they haven’t always done so freely. What can museums do when the state imposes revisionist history on them? Can curation be a form of self-censorship? Is censorship ever good? And what have museums done to protect their freedom of expression and the separation between art and state? Featured guests: Devon Akmon (Director, Michigan State University Museum and Chair of the Board, American Alliance of Museums) Ann Burroughs (President and CEO, Japanese American National Museum) Hamza Walker (Director, The Brick and Co-Curator, MONUMENTS) Hamza Walker will discuss how museums resist the erasure and revision of our history and culture, and what this means for how we document our shared past, present, and future. This program is co-presented by Zócalo Public Square, Japanese American National Museum (JANM), and The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Visit www.zocalopublicsquare.org/ for more programs, interviews and essays.

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Feb 24, 2026

Museums tell America’s story. Exhibit by exhibit, they acquire, study, preserve, and interpret art and artifacts for the public, offering proof to bolster thoughtful interpretations of our national truths. But they haven’t always done so freely. What can museums do when the state imposes revisionist history on them? Can curation be a form of self-censorship? Is censorship ever good? And what have museums done to protect their freedom of expression and the separation between art and state? Featured guests: Devon Akmon (Director, Michigan State University Museum and Chair of the Board, American Alliance of Museums) Ann Burroughs (President and CEO, Japanese American National Museum) Hamza Walker (Director, The Brick and Co-Curator, MONUMENTS) Hamza Walker will discuss how museums resist the erasure and revision of our history and culture, and what this means for how we document our shared past, present, and future. This program is co-presented by Zócalo Public Square, Japanese American National Museum (JANM), and The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Visit www.zocalopublicsquare.org/ for more programs, interviews and essays.

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This episode is 1 hour and 1 minute long.

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This episode was published on February 24, 2026.

What is this episode about?

Museums tell America’s story. Exhibit by exhibit, they acquire, study, preserve, and interpret art and artifacts for the public, offering proof to bolster thoughtful interpretations of our national truths. But they haven’t always done so freely....

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