How Do Museums Resist Censorship?

Museums tell America’s story. Exhibit by exhibit, they acquire, study, preserve, and interpret art and artifacts for the public, offering proof to bolster thoughtful interpretations of our national truths. But they haven’t always done so freely. What can museums do when the state imposes revisionist history on them? Can curation be a form of self-censorship? Is censorship ever good? And what have museums done to protect their freedom of expression and the separation between art and state? Featured guests: Devon Akmon (Director, Michigan State University Museum and Chair of the Board, American Alliance of Museums) Ann Burroughs (President and CEO, Japanese American National Museum) Hamza Walker (Director, The Brick and Co-Curator, MONUMENTS) Hamza Walker will discuss how museums resist the erasure and revision of our history and culture, and what this means for how we document our shared past, present, and future. This program is co-presented by Zócalo Public Square, Japanese American National Museum (JANM), and The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Visit for more programs, interviews and essays.

You can listen to How Do Museums Resist Censorship? online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

How Do Museums Resist Censorship? is an episode from Zócalo Public Square by Zócalo Public Square.

This episode is 01:01:05 long.

This episode was published on Feb 24, 2026.

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