Serving Broader Audiences, Museums Engage Communities with Public Spa ce...............................................................................................................................................................pag

Serving Broader Audiences, Museums Engage Communities with Public Space

Many of today’s museum leaders recognize a need to engage more closely with the public, and a related desire to make their facilities and programs more flexible and valuable. In order to achieve these goals, it can be useful to explore new ideas in highly accessible and permeable public spaces that welcome visitors and help evoke a desire to engage. From outdoor plazas to universally accessible interiors, a variety of useful strategies now being implemented serve as case study examples. A few of these can help cultural leaders with varied institutional missions to innovate and better align building initiatives and capital with their long-term visions and programming needs. For example, increasing the amount of indoor and outdoor community space can attract people to museums, where they find expanded opportunities for educational activities and other programs. Just as important, however, are design strategies that facilitate unprogrammed public access, including outdoor gathering areas that turn a museum into an integral part of its neighborhood fabric.

Museum as Community Gathering Space A useful example comes from New York City’s The Studio Museum in Harlem. One of the major goals of its new building project, currently underway and designed by architects Adjaye Associates in collaboration with Cooper Robertson, is to help the fifty-plus-year-old center for contemporary artists of African descent better serve Harlem residents, while also drawing in new audiences. To engage this diverse user group, the new building’s design vision centers on the concept of a “living room” or “reverse stoop” for neighborhood residents and visitors alike.