What responsibility do museums have to their community? For children, museums serve as a critical space that allows them to begin making sense of the world, and the ways in which these spaces can shape a child's sense of self have the power to affect that child's self-worth for decades to come.

The five artists in Get That Old Thing Back (LaKela Brown, Jen Dawson, Esteban Jefferson, Yashua Klos, and Nate Lewis) leverage the museological (the study of how museums are organized, managed, and function) to challenge histories, artifacts, and memory in ways that disrupt our understanding of museums as "neutral" spaces. 

Some of the artists choose to make their point via combination, with Jen Dawson's bronze-casted chandelier embodying the freedom and joy of a Black girl's hair, While Nate Lewis interrogates the body and movement as sites capable of holding history. Yashua Klos' hybrid African tribal masks/welding helmets are literally burned with a torch, fusing their histories together. 

Others more directly point to artifacts. By creating physical impressions of objects associated with Black femininity, LaKela Brown makes sculptures that seem to come from the ancient world, prompting us to think more intently about how Black women's cultural production has informed (and continues to inform) history. Esteban Jefferson paints elements of his images in either hyper-realistic detail or with a loose, almost sketch-like feel, forcing us to acknowledge how the care we present something with, often communicates how important we believe that thing to be.