Never again: how do you live up to a lofty mission like this?

Image taken from Vatican News (Photo: Agence France Presse)

Back in a 2014, in a post called “In circles”, I wrote that “Apparently, we don´t value human life equally, so all European countries in the United Nations Human Rights Council may abstain (all of them!) from the vote to open an enquiry regarding alleged violations of human rights in Gaza; apparently, some ‘never again’ situations are justified, so our governments may continue supporting and selling arms to the Israeli government; apparently, each case is a case and everything depends, so there are some ‘never again’ cases where we, common citizens, may reserve the right to be more ‘balanced’ or neutral.”

Ten years have passed since the publication of my post. And before that, there were some more decades of history in this ‘never again’ case concerning Palestine. Despite this long history of abuse (to say the least), when recently, at an international conference, I asked a colleague from a Holocaust Museum in the Balkans (one with a “never again” mission, of course) how they were coping with the situation in Gaza, she started answering by saying “But Hamas….”. I think my brain blocked with regards to what was said after that. These two words echoed loudly in my head. It is comfortable to think that all this started on the 7^th of October. And it is truly disappointing that Holocaust museums are looking for this kind of comfort.

One of the experiences that has marked me the most as a human being was the final part of my visit at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in Washington, the one called “How to prevent a genocide?”. It helped me understand that everyone can do something, at their own scale. I think the first two steps were 1. Be informed and 2. Let others know. This is something I can do, for sure. But the USHMM doesn’t. Or rather, in order to be more precise, it doesn’t do it when it comes to Israel/Palestine. The museum considers that the Holocaust was preventable “and that by heeding warning signs and taking early action, individuals and governments can save lives. With this knowledge, the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide works to do for the victims of genocide today what the world failed to do for the Jews of Europe in the 1930s and 1940s.” Should one consult the 2023-2024 report on “Countries at risk of mass killings”, part of the Early Warning Project, they will find no mention of Israel/Palestine. There never was one. Some people might understand this, might justify it. I don’t. Not when a museum tells me it exists to “inspire citizens and leaders worldwide to confront hatred, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity”.

Mohammed Salem, World Press Photo of the Year 2024.

I often write and talk about the mission of cultural organisations and how worrying is the fact that many, too many, do not have one: a short, clear and concise statement regarding their main purpose, the reason they exist. I also often think about those who have one and cannot live up to it. Both situations are equally damaging, but only the latter makes a cultural organisation accountable in society. Perhaps this is also why many organisations avoid having one…

A week ago, I attended a debate at Culturgest, Lisbon, with playwright and theatre director Tiago Rodrigues and Susana Gouveia, collaborator of the Portuguese Red Cross and responsible for coordinating the psychosocial support response. “Caring in a state of emergency” was the subject of this conversation. In order to create the play “Dans la mesure de l’ impossible”, Tiago Rodrigues spoke to several humanitarian workers of the International Committee of the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders. These people’s work is to provide care where it seems impossible, namely armed conflicts, refugee camps or places affected by natural disasters. One of the things that impressed Tiago Rodrigues during the conversations with these workers is that, despite all the hardships and frustrations they experience, they express an enormous level of satisfaction in what they do, which he closely associates to the fact that they have a clear notion of their mission. A bit before that, Susana Gouveia had shared with us how important it is to work for an organisation whose values one shares – as well as to leave, when that is not the case anymore. How important it is to know an organisation’s mission and values in order to decide whether one wants or doesn’t want to collaborate with them. I exchanged looks with the colleague sitting next to me. How many cultural workers can say the same?

Photo: Maria Vlachou

This morning, I was reading the American Alliance of Museums newsletter. The sentence introducing the first article drew my attention: “How do you live up to a lofty mission statement like ‘invite everyone to celebrate art forever’?”. I went on to read a beautiful and inspiring article, “Extending the invitation”, written by the Speed Art Museum director, Raphaela Platow. This was a rich account of the concrete efforts the museum has made to “cultivate a culturally welcoming museum” – in other words, cultivating an accessible, inclusive and relevant museum, one that cares for its community.

In the cultural sector, as in any other, we absolutely need the kind of orientation a mission statement brings. For all the reasons mentioned above, and for many others, rather more practical. Perhaps the most important reason is so that we may be proud and happy in what we do, so that we know why we do it, so that we can get out of bed every morning and go to work with a purpose that goes beyond completing some tasks. It is that same mission statement, though, that will help us understand when we cannot be proud of the organisation we work for, when we should feel ashamed, when we should hold ourselves and others accountable, when it is, perhaps, time to leave, to move on. These are hard and very demanding times for all of us.