We need open dialogue about belief and religion

Do museums need to increase their religious literacy? This is the question at the heart of the PhD I have been working on over the past few years, which is an AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership between Tate and Goldsmiths University’s Faiths and Civil Society Unit.

What do I mean by religious literacy in this context or, more appropriately, religion and belief literacy? Public institutions in the UK have a deep connection to religion (Christianity) and belief. Yet in the postwar era – and fast-tracked in recent decades – there has been a retreat of religion in the public and private spheres. This is matched by the fact that Britain is now a society of significant religious diversity. For many people and their communities, religion is a critical part of their sense of identity.

There has been much work on religious literacy within sectors such as health and social care, education and civic engagement, as services navigate the muddled nature of religion in Britain. 

There is data, discourse and even investment in religion and belief in these sectors, yet when it comes to the arts and culture, including museums, it has been left relatively untouched, despite the influential role diversity and inclusion have had within the sector in the past 20 years. 

Many organisations, institutions and government bodies will be able to give datasets on race, gender or sexuality for the cultural sector – but religion and belief datasets are rare. 

Within museums, there is deep knowledge about religion, but this is often through the interpretation of objects in collections that are deemed “religious”. But my research focuses on religion and belief not within the collections, but within museums and galleries as institutions. Through this, I have been exploring this question of what religious literacy in the sector is and whether there is a benefit in increasing this.

My entry point to these broader questions in my PhD has looked specifically at art museums. I chose this to avoid being tangled in the conversations about whether a focus on religion is warranted only when religious objects and artefacts are present in the collection. My second focus has been exploring the wider questions of religious literacy in museums through Islam and the experiences of Muslims in Britain in relation to art museums. 

It is often presumed that my entry point through Islam is due to my faith as a Muslim. While this gives me an insight and experience that I can lean on to explore the question, the framing of Islam and Muslims in Britain within art museums is generated from the sector itself. 

Since the second world war, the biggest and most nationally significant single cultural programme centred on religion has been on Islam – through the World of Islam Festival in 1976. This exemplifies a dynamic that can still be seen today, of a sector that, depending on the vantage point, can be connected to Muslim communities or completely detached.

When I started my PhD, I wanted to develop a tangible and resourced framework for the art museum sector to engage with religion and belief. As I come to my final stretch, from the conversations – both formal and informal – that I have experienced on the journey, it is at this stage where I feel success currently lies. It is to simply encourage the confidence in having open, honest and critical conversations on religion and belief within art museums, and the wider cultural landscape of Britain.

I close with an invitation to anyone in the sector who has thought about these questions of religion and belief in the arts and cultural sector to get in touch for a conversation, as part of my PhD. You can contact me at hvawd001@gold.ac.uk

Hassan Vawda is a doctoral researcher at Tate and Goldsmiths University