Groundbreaking book on Caribbean Museums takes Dr. Daniela Fifi on international tour

Trinidadian-born art and museum scholar Dr. Daniela Fifi says she will shortly embark on an international tour to promote her new publication, “Critical Issues in Caribbean Museums.”

Dr. Fifi told Caribbean Life on Thursday, May 15, that the tour will launch on Tuesday, May 27, at Western Washington University in Seattle and will include additional locations throughout the US, the Caribbean, and the United Kingdom through the fall of this year.

Dr. Fifi said “Critical Issues in Caribbean Museums” was released in April by Routledge Press, a leading publication house in the academic humanities. It is one of the first books they have published on the subject of Caribbean museology.

“It examines issues around how the Caribbean museum sector, as a unique cultural entity, can better serve its publics through pushing boundaries, sharing best practices in the challenges they face, re-creating conversations around Caribbean cultural and social histories and remaining vital and relevant in today’s evolving societies,” said Dr. Fifi, a former winner of the President’s Scholar Award from the Pratt Institute and the Samuel H. Kress Interpretive Fellowship Award from Columbia University – both in New York,

She said the book is “a labor of love,” inspired by her commitment to the Caribbean —” not as a geographical space but a cultural one.”

“The book reflects the aspirations of a collective vision from museum professionals across the Caribbean on the full capacity to which Caribbean cultural institutions can positively impact the lives and knowledge of the people they are meant to serve,” Dr. Fifi said.

“It is intended for anyone who loves culture, museums, and the arts and may hold a particular interest for researchers, professors, graduate students in culture and heritage, as well as museum professionals,” she added.

Despite the book’s title, Dr. Fifi quickly points out that, “rather than being a critique of the Caribbean museum sector in any way, the focus is on critical analysis of factors that can support the sector’s innovation, creativity and growth.

“Criticality, within any discipline, is an interrogation into vital aspects of a field for evaluating and resolving biases in a structured way,” Dr. Fiji said. “Through the analysis exemplified in ‘Critical Issues in Caribbean Museums,’ those of us in the field can consider alternative modalities of engagement, evaluate and improve best practice, and anticipate potential future consequences.”

Dr. Fifi said she authored and co-authored four book chapters with leading museum professionals in the Caribbean region.

She said her authored chapter focuses on developing formal and museum education, her area of expertise.

Other chapters relate to curatorial conversations on Caribbean art, Dr. Fifi said. This is the first book I have ever edited with a series of co-authors, and, ultimately, my collaboration skills were tremendously bolstered during this process,” said Dr. Fifi, revealing that she discovered her passion for art as a teenager growing up in her native Trinidad and Tobago.

She said painting, photography, and pottery classes precipitated a move to art school at New York’s Pratt Institute, where she graduated with a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts (BFA) in communication design before transitioning to Art and Museum Studies.

She holds a master’s in art gallery and museum studies from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom and a doctorate in art and art education from Teachers College, Columbia University.

She is currently editor-in-chief of Viewfinder, an E-Journal of the National Art Education Association, and a global independent consultant.

Dr. Fifi said she is also preparing for her next project, “The Mind Of The Museum,” which will be a multidisciplinary extension of her current book.

“Utilizing lectures, podcasts, and international art exhibitions, the project will address the challenges and victories that Caribbean museums face emerging from post-colonial independence into new forms of self-actualization,” Dr. Fifi said.

Following its launch in Seattle on May 27, she said the book tour for “Critical Issues in Caribbean Museums” moves on to A House For Artists in London in July; The Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, CA in Augus; Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in September; and the Barbados Museum and Historical Society in Bridgetown, Barbados in October.

Dr. Fifi said other tour dates and venues are pending, and will be announced in due course.

“Critical Issues in Caribbean Museums” is available at  https://www.routledge.com/Critical-Issues-in-Caribbean-Museums/Fifi/p/book/9781032493121.