A powerful new academic work is set to spark vital dialogue on museums. Critical Issues in Caribbean Museums, described as a compelling collection of essays by leading scholars, experts, and practitioners, was officially launched on April 10, 2025, and its accompanying programming The Mind of The Museum launches at the Museum of Latin American Art in California on August 30.

Dr Daniela Fifi, editor and co-author of the book, brings together museum professionals, cultural stakeholders, academics, and policymakers across the Caribbean, United States, and the United Kingdom. The book is the first on research into Caribbean museums and Caribbean global collections ever published by the world leading publishing press Routledge Press, UK.

Co-authored by Fifi and collaborators from across the region, Critical Issues unpacks themes and pragmatic best practice solutions such as community engagement, modes of thinking about pre-Columbian art, and the role of museums in preserving cultural identity.

“Museums pay a critical role to the preservation and education of cultures,” lead author Fifi, a doctoral graduate in Art and Art Education at Teachers College, Columbia University who holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Pratt Institute, New York and a Master of Arts in Art Gallery and Museum Studies from the University of Manchester, UK, says. “This book is an invitation to think together, to act together, and to sustain our shared heritage together.”

The book therefore helps to identify strategies within museology that can inspire meaningful collective engagement with these histories. In the process, it also identifies the hurdles museums in the Caribbean face when telling stories of ancestral oppression. Each chapter presents a new case study, written by five museum professionals and scholars fundamentally shaping conversations on cultural heritage spaces within the Caribbean and the diaspora of Caribbean nations. Using their observations this book coalesces an understanding of the specific limitations Caribbean cultural heritage spaces face and deploys new strategies for maximising their engagement potential.

Critical Issues in Caribbean Museums is written for Museum Studies researchers and museum practitioners, especially those actively engaged in the process of preserving Caribbean cultural heritage, advancing museum development in the Caribbean or in other nations for future generations.

The Mind of the Museum will include:

• Readings from the book

• Keynote by Dr Fifi and co-authors

• Presentations by experts from each participating territory

• An exhibition series

• A podcast series

• A regional panel discussion and Q&A

Daniela Fifi