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Veiled practice: reflecting on collaborative exhibition development through the journey of one potentially contentious object

Abstract This paper examines work with a potentially contentious object – a sculpture called Veil, as part of the Curious project at St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art in Glasgow, Scotland. We will analyse why the kind of conflict which Bernadette Lynch sees as central to democratic practice in the dialogic museum did not occur in this collaborative exhibition development work. The model of museum as democratic space focuses on process, issue-based working, community knowledge and the curator's role as facilitator. These are often theorised as being in opposition to product, an object focus, curatorial knowledge and the curator's role as expert. The article analyses the ways in which we have embraced complexity to negotiate between: museums as safe spaces for discussion and museums as a coercive authority; object and issue focus; community and curatorial knowledge; process and product; and the curator as expert and the curator as facilitator. We highlight that embracing complexity has led to richer interpretation, greater representation of a range of voices and participants, audience development and candid debate around a contentious issue.