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The Tenement Museum, like many other museums, identifies itself as an organization meant to educate about the past and infer for the future. Its tours not only reflect a long history of immigration on the Lower East Side, but also serve as a way to provoke thought about the continued role that immigration plays in shaping our national identity. In doing so, the museum presents personal immigrant experiences, which seem to highlight, or perhaps even historicize, poverty.
Issues of poverty in the Lower East Side are still relevant today, yet it seems as though the museum fails to completely address this fact. Its current programs are not intended to raise awareness about those who are experiencing harsh living conditions in Chinatown, but are rather geared towards educating and integrating current immigrants into American society through language workshops, among other informative programs.
In truth, discourse on poverty in the Lower East Side falls beyond the scope of the museum’s mission. It is important to remember that the Tenement museum does not serve as an activist organization. According to David Favaloro, the Director of Curatorial Affairs, “the museum doesn’t necessarily take a stand in a political sense or a policy sense” – its main purpose is to incite discussion. Of course, that is not to say that the museum completely avoids discussions regarding poverty or other current social issues. Rather, the Tenement Museum approaches these aspects of present-day immigration in subtle ways, encouraging people to arrive at their own conclusions. It is their hope that subtly bringing these issues to light, rather than imposing them, will ultimately prove more effective in the long run.
