Community Organizing in Museums with Oliver Merino

Cultura Conscious

What can museums learn from the work of community organizers? Oliver Merino discusses his work with the Latino community at Levine Museum of the New South, a history museum in Charlotte, NC.

He shares with me what he thinks is the importance of history museums in contextualizing current events, how he approaches leading and organizing through listening, how important it is for museums to have people who speak from the community, rather than about them, and the ways white supremacy lives even in progressive institutions.

Born in Guerrero, Mexico, Oliver Merino moved to rural North Carolina at the age of ten with his family. A graduate of Johnson C. Smith University, where he studied history, Oliver has worked with and advocated for immigrant communities across the country. As program coordinator at Levine Museum of the New South, he worked on developing collaborations with the Latino community and designing programs to reach diverse audiences. Oliver currently works at Legal Services of Southern Piedmont in Charlotte, NC as a paralegal advocate.