The role of play in contemporary art and culture with the PlayTime exhibition and the PEM’s Present Tense Initiative, which celebrates the central role that creative expression plays in shaping our world today, provide a perfect platform for The Justice Fleet and the Radical Imagination exhibition. Radical Imagination invites the community to come together to imagine new systems and build a world without injustice and oppression. Using reclaimed goods, craft items and miscellaneous art supplies this pop up makerspace will allow people to work in groups to create their just worlds, and then, as a large group, discuss their worlds, the societal structures they built, how those structures challenge or perpetuate social problems and ways we can begin changing our community.

In such divisive times, museums and other cultural institutions can play a pivotal role in the work of social justice by breaking down social constructs within our own walls and communities to create space(s) for audiences to be and to bring their whole selves. Being a museum professional of color and proud resident of the diverse city of Salem, I knew that this experience should not and could not be limited to the PEM audience.

As a predominantly white institution, both in terms of staff and audience, in order to do the work of radical inclusion, we need everyone to have the ability to participate, not just the “typical” museum goer. Having collaborated with PUNTO Urban Art Museum on previous projects, I see this as an awesome opportunity to bring the two museums and our respective communities together. My hope is that this experience will not only bridge the gaps within the greater Salem community, but change the way participants view others, as well as themselves. A culturally rich community with people from all walks of life, we have so much we can learn from one another and create together, if given the chance to do so.