Our Perspective

Our Story

We have been practicing adoption in the United States for over 150 years. It affects more people than we think*. Its consequences are more profound than we imagine. It is more problematic than we are told.

At the center of adoption lies a dilemma: it can both help and harm. The outcome depends on how well we understand adoption. Whether people will be valued or diminished through adoption is determined by how clearly we, individually and collectively, see this dilemma and the rest of the adoption story: the conditions that enable it, how it works, who it affects and what impact it has.

How we handle this dilemma is a conscious choice. Countless people have a role to play. Lawmakers, options counselors, social workers, lawyers, adoptive parents, siblings, teachers, therapists, filmmakers, friends, neighbors and so many others can influence whether adoption helps or harms people. The people who are affected by adoption most deeply — adopted people, first/birth parents and adoptive parents — stand at the center. They live the experience. They are our most important guides for understanding adoption. Only they can tell us whether we are helping or harming.

There is no space where all people can explore the whole story of adoption. A space where those who shape it, those who are affected by it, and the citizenry who witnesses it can pause, reflect and consider the choices. The Adoption Museum Project is working to create that space.

* It is estimated that over 60% of the U.S. has a connection to adoption. Through new adoptions, more people become involved every year.

The Need

We have been practicing adoption in the United States for over 150 years. It affects more people than we think*. Its consequences are more profound than we imagine. It is more problematic than we are told.

At the center of adoption lies a dilemma: it can both help and harm. The outcome depends on how well we understand adoption. Whether people will be valued or diminished through adoption is determined by how clearly we, individually and collectively, see this dilemma and the rest of the adoption story: the conditions that enable it, how it works, who it affects and what impact it has.

How we handle this dilemma is a conscious choice. Countless people have a role to play. Lawmakers, options counselors, social workers, lawyers, adoptive parents, siblings, teachers, therapists, filmmakers, friends, neighbors and so many others can influence whether adoption helps or harms people. The people who are affected by adoption most deeply — adopted people, first/birth parents and adoptive parents — stand at the center. They live the experience. They are our most important guides for understanding adoption. Only they can tell us whether we are helping or harming.

There is no space where all people can explore the whole story of adoption. A space where those who shape it, those who are affected by it, and the citizenry who witnesses it can pause, reflect and consider the choices. The Adoption Museum Project is working to create that space.

* It is estimated that over 60% of the U.S. has a connection to adoption. Through new adoptions, more people become involved every year.

Our Contribution

The Adoption Museum Project offers a new way for the public to explore the whole story of adoption: through museum experiences.

In museum space, we can engage in a unique and powerful kind of inquiry. We can see both the big picture and the personal stories and how it’s all connected. We can use all forms of expression — from words, images, sound and movement to objects and data — and the physical environments that hold them. This kind of critical, creative, and collective inquiry can help us open to new ideas, feelings and actions. It can help us to feel seen and valued. Ultimately, this kind of inquiry can help move us towards ensuring justice and dignity for all people involved in adoption. Jane Jeong Trenka writes in The Language of Blood about “the subversive act of noticing things”. Changing adoption, so that it values all people involved, begins with noticing. When it helps and when it harms. The whole story.

The Work

Our work uses museum environments and many forms of expression to consider adoption more fully.

The Whole Story
We look at two distinct but related areas: the big picture and personal experience. The big picture can only be seen when we look at all the forces that shape adoption and how they work together:

• System (laws, policies, money)
• Practices
• History
• Cultural expression (including language, films, books)
• Social forces (including race, gender, religion, economics)

Personal experience of adoption can only be understood when we listen to the stories of people who live it. There is an astonishing diversity of lived experiences. More and more of stories are being told, bravely, through blogs, books, films, solo performances on the stage and more. They are the stories of ethical adoptions that serve all parties, corrupt adoptions that profoundly harm people, and a constellation of experiences in between. Each story is valid, true for that person.

We acknowledge how adoptive parents’ stories have always dominated the discourse about adoption. While more adopted people and first/birth parents have been speaking out, their stories remain largely hidden, oversimplified or distorted. As a corrective action, our work seeks to amplify the stories of adopted people and first/birth parents while creating space for adoptive parents to join the conversation.

Scope
The Adoption Museum Project explores U.S. adoption. Because the U.S. adopts the most children internationally and wields enormous global power, our country’s ideas and practices have an enormous impact on families around the world.

Domestic adoption includes adoptions arranged through foster care, private agencies, lawyers and facilitators as well as kinship, second parent and stepparent adoptions. International adoption includes the adoption of non-U.S. children by U.S. citizens.

Projects
Over time, we will explore adoption through diverse kinds of museum experiences: physical exhibitions, oral histories, objects, performance, art and dialogues and more. This work currently takes place in museums, other cultural venues and public spaces. Online content complements and amplifies our place-based work. When we have enough support, we envision building a physical museum dedicated to adoption.

Our work is highly collaborative. We dream, build resources, create and learn with individuals and organizations in many realms including: adoption, museums and cultural institutions, arts, humanities, and social justice.
Learn about our projects.

Why a Museum

There are many ways to explore adoption. Books, films, and blogs are increasingly available. Adoption agencies, lawyers and therapists are a phone call away. Friends and neighbors have important stories to share. Why a museum?

Museums have unique and powerful qualities that are uniquely suited for exploring adoption:

Physical
In physical space, people can engage with the complex and abstract idea of adoption in a concrete and embodied way. This creates new possibilities for witnessing, learning, reflection, dialogue and creativity.

Private + Public
Adoption is a personal experience that is profoundly shaped by the public (e.g. laws, economics, popular culture, friends and neighbors. Museums create space where both private and public can co-exist.
Inclusive
A free, public museum about adoption convenes an extraordinary diversity of people. They may be family or strangers, engage in conversation or hold silence. Simply occupying the same space can be the beginning of inquiry.
Accessible
Diverse and changing content, from objects to visual art to hands-on programs and dialogues, invites people to access adoption in a way that works for their interests, knowledge and learning style.

Creative
Museums can combine a beautiful physical environment filled with diverse people and all forms of human expression, together with an invitation to wonder, imagine, and feel.
Empowering
A museum empowers people to determine their own experience, both educational and social/emotional, which is particularly important for people who live adoption.
Honoring
While the role and practice of museums have changed over time, this special kind of place still conveys the message: what lies inside this building matters.
Taken together, these qualities help us explore adoption in a completely new way: a critical, creative and collective inquiry.

A Permanent Building

Building a permanent museum dedicated to adoption is part of our long-term vision. This kind of space supports ongoing public access to a topic that is ongoing and ever evolving. It also enables the development and stewardship of a comprehensive physical archive and collection of objects related to the whole story of adoption, which has never existed.

We imagine a beautiful, multi-use space. These are some ideas we’ve had for what’s inside it:

• Areas for quiet reflection
• Informal gathering spaces: library, garden, etc.
• Changing content: exhibitions, programs, etc.
• Permanent content: history, adoption map, etc.
• Archive
• Collection of objects
• Café/restaurant
• Community work spaces
• Residency spaces: artist, scholar, professional, etc.
• Resource and Action center

What can you imagine?