CRIDE (‘Heart’ in Old Irish) stands for ‘Critical Decoloniality’. It is a network that was established in 2019 comprising cultural, educational and societal stakeholders. By decolonizing pedagogical and curatorial practices, CRIDE aims to transform the museum and the university into institutions that can adequately answer to contemporary societal challenges of inclusion, diversity and openness.

Our present historical context is marked by numerous initiatives that demand a decolonial transformation of European and more broadly Western(ized) societies. The museum and the university are two key institutions that have shaped images of modern Western societies. These institutions have a crucial role to play in contemporary societal transformations. They are in need of more adequate analytical frameworks to turn the demands for decoloninization (of research/teaching/curatorial practices and knowledge transmission) into concrete practices.

Museums and cultural institutions have played a key role in the national history of western nations. In countries like The Netherlands, the consolidation of national identities has been inseparable from the formation of the museum since the 19th century. Today, museums and cultural institutions are spaces where the monocultural national identity is confronted with the growing demands of a diverse and plural society. Cultural institutions are important social locations in which inclusive and alternative socialites can be imagined and practiced. CRIDE seeks to achieve a transition in museums from monocultural towards intersectional forms of engagement.

CRIDE is an active network of university researchers and art institutions that aims to design and implement inclusive institutional, curatorial and educational practices. With an intersectional and decolonial methodology, CRIDE asks which processes of exclusion (societal, epistemic and aesthetic) are reproduced in museums and art institutions. The consortium looks at how exclusion happens through current institutional governance policies, curatorial approaches to canons and exhibitions, and their relation to publics and local constituencies. CRIDE is demand-driven, as it responds to the social needs of our diverse societies and concrete challenges that museums face at this historical juncture. CRIDE has been deploying decolonial perspectives in the service of transforming cultural institutions in the Netherlands.

The core members of CRIDE at Utrecht University are:

• Layal Ftouni
• Birgit Mara Kaiser
• Domitilla Olivieri
• Kathrin Thiele
• Rolando Vázquez

The partners that participate in CRIDE are:

• Van Abbemuseum
• Black Renaissance
• CASCO Art Institute
• Centraal Museum Utrecht
• Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art