This Is My Newsletter (and now yours) I have been wondering for a while what has characterized most of the last year that I have spent in lockdown for months in a studio by myself in a foreign city and the way my interactions have shaped with the people in my life. As we gradually grew used to losing physical touch and started finding comfort in faces on tiny screens, disruptions across the world continued to remind us of the growing polarity that has manifested in our lives. Having invested the last eight months in whole-heartedly researching how museums can work towards achieving values of climate and racial justice in order to stay socially relevant, I increasingly became uncomfortable with the ways in which the art industry has become economically driven. Whilst imagining and formulating alternate value systems for museums, I developed newly grown faith in the power of empathy as a transformative tool that allows us to build systems and relationships based on care and intimacy. As opposed to virtues of kindness and generosity which often come to us naturally, building empathy is a process and to a large extent, an embodied practice that requires us to unlearn our prejudices and willingness to put aside our differences.
This is my newsletter #25: Najiba Yasmin
This is my newsletter #25: Najiba Yasmin
This is my newsletter #25: Najiba Yasmin
This Is My Newsletter (and now yours) I have been wondering for a while what has characterized most of the last year that I have spent in lockdown for months in a studio by myself in a foreign city and the way my interactions have shaped with the people in my life. As we gradually grew used to losing physical touch and started finding comfort in faces on tiny screens, disruptions across the world continued to remind us of the growing polarity that has manifested in our lives. Having invested the last eight months in whole-heartedly researching how museums can work towards achieving values of climate and racial justice in order to stay socially relevant, I increasingly became uncomfortable with the ways in which the art industry has become economically driven. Whilst imagining and formulating alternate value systems for museums, I developed newly grown faith in the power of empathy as a transformative tool that allows us to build systems and relationships based on care and intimacy. As opposed to virtues of kindness and generosity which often come to us naturally, building empathy is a process and to a large extent, an embodied practice that requires us to unlearn our prejudices and willingness to put aside our differences.