My book, tentatively titled Fueling Culture: The Extractive Politics of Canadian Museums, examines the outsized role of oil and mining industries in the historical and contemporary practices of Canadian museums. It argues that reckoning with the extractive foundations of the modern museum is necessary to productively confront rising tensions around corporate sponsorship, greenwashing, and the question of decolonization in twenty-first century cultural institutions. Through an analysis of the history and politics of cultural production behind mineral galleries, oil-sponsored exhibitions, and industrial heritage sites, Fueling Culture exposes the inextricable links and cultural complicity between museums and resource extraction in Canada.
Camille-Mary Sharp 