Dynamic Dialogues by Pooja Shah by Pooja Shah

DYNAMIC DIALOUGES exploring museum

community relationship

by Pooja Shah

guided by Ryo Yamada

Acknowledgments

I would sincerely like to thank my supervisor, Ryo Yamada and Tom Flint without whose guidance and encouragement this study would have not been possible. I am thankful to Ryo for his very patient guidance and to Tom for always inspiring to tell a story through your design and process.

My sincere thanks to all the people who made this journey possible.

To all the professors and school for the most valuable guidance through one year

To introducing me to the field of design in the UK

to the batchmates who made the journey fun and memorable

to my flatmates turned family

to all my friends for truly being my buffer, handling mid semester crisis and being the loudest cheerleaders

Ilaria Casini and Roseanne Tye: Engagement Officer at EP

Stuart Smith Gordon: Exhibition Designer at NMS

Kristie Jamieson,Tom Flint, Sarah Taylor, Stuart Smith Gordon, Ryo Yamada

John Ennis, Journeys in Design

Lastly and most important, to my structural system, my family for always being supportive, motivating and helping me find my way

Yohana, Acacia, Amir, Natalia, Rejane, Kelsie, Caitlin, Cat, Mhairi, Chloe

Moulik,Mukesh and Varsha

Heer,Deepanshi, Vedant, Sakshi, Vishnu, Dhruvi, Bhakti, Chinmayee,Manav,Shreya, Naman, Aayushi, Nidhi R, Dad, Mom, Taller brother Krish, Dada, Seva, kaka,kaki Nana and Nani

Introduction

Defining Terms: What does the term museums and community mean? Museum and Community History: A timeline Understanding and Learning about One’s Museums: Case Studies Creating an Engagement plan

Conclusion References

Dynamic dialogues: exploring relations between museums and community, is an initiative looking into the interdependency of museums and community on each other. Museums serve as repositories to showcase cultural heritage and diversity while providing education and communities provide audience, resources and contextual relevance that sustain the museum. It is essential to explore the relationship for enhancing the relevance of museums and cultural spaces in today’s times and fostering healthier communities who are main occupants and reciprocals of society.

This was conceived as a MA dissertation for the course Heritage and Exhibition design studied at Edinburgh Napier University. This dissertation is underpinned by five of the following sections

Defining Terms: What does the term museums and community mean?

It delves into understanding what these terms mean individually and contextually within the cultural setting.

Museum and Community History: A timeline

This section examines the historical relationship between museums and communities, tracing how this relationship has evolved over time and the factors that have influenced it.

Understanding and Learning about One’s Museums: Case Studies

This section dissects two distinct case studies in terms of their approach and the context that they are associated with. It studies how these cultural spaces have successfully incorporated community engagement into their exhibition. These examples provide practical insights of understanding real life impacts and challenges of such practices.

Creating an Engagement plan

The final section focuses on an action plan devised (as per the study carried out through this research) for organizations to strategize and enhance museum- community relations. It includes recommendations for organizations to implement their individual initiative, measure their impact, understand their challenges and keep adapting or sustaining their museum community relations.

It is important to note that the framework/ guidelines are not exhaustive and are just the first step in building this initiative. This initiative aims to keep proceeding further over the time with the culmination of new theories and techniques for contemporary practices within museums and cultural institutions.

Chapter 01 Defining Terms: What does the term museums and community mean?

Firstly, it’s essential to define the word community in general and what it means followed by understanding what is means with respect to this discussion. People may have different ways of thinking and understanding for the word “community”and hence it’s important to provide a preface to get adapted to it contextual terminology within this discussion.

The term community is widely used across various disciplines including sociology, anthropology and museum studies. It comprises of multiple interpretations reflecting its complexity and the context it is used in. In general terms, a community is acknowledged as a unit that shares common belief,interests or geographical proximity.

Community through Locality: The long established idea of community is they are bounded by a geographical proximity through a neighborhood or a close physical territory where they belong and interact regularly.

Community through Social Interactions: The idea of people coming together through common interest, generating social relations fostering a sense of identity and belonging.

Community through ties: Certain belief and faith that tie people together for mutual support or even agendas towards society for establishing collective belonging within the society

Interestingly, all of this is capped by a common term known as “belongingness”, which is one of the core aspects of understanding the communities.

Community as used here is about the experience of belonging. We are in the community each time we find a place where we belong (block,2008).

A thorough understanding of this concept and looking at ways in which we can provide an experience that foster belongingness, will greatly enhance our comprehension of museums- community relationships. A sense of belongingness is a sense of feeling included. When people come together and feel a sense of belonging , it encourages them to be more involved and take responsibility and contribute towards society. It aligns with understanding that people have values worthy enough to shape the society and bring in social changes. This will lead to understanding oneself and its community better to build a healthier society.

This is very much where museums and exhibitions play a crucial role. Museums and exhibitions stand at the crossroads of preserving culture ,heritage and narratives that are essential for understanding the past and future of the society. It also serves to establish societal norms that shape the present and the future of the society. They are not just building but organizations that can provide an experience that is visually appealing to attract more and more audiences and convey meaningful messages to and for the society. This could be made successful by providing educational opportunities that provide visitors of all age groups with various experiences to keep them engaged and motivated in visiting these cultural institutions. It could be stated that the educational role of museums within the core experience is crucial is fostering community engagement. This symbolises the symbiotic relation between the museum and its community.

However the concept of community within the context of museums has been evolving continuously to encompass a broader range of understanding. Communities within museums can be seen as stakeholders at various levels which includes but does not limit to following groups as identified during the research.

Community through Locality: individuals and residents who live in the vicinity of the museum often visit museums as cultural hubs for entertainment, education and social activities.

Community through Culture: people that share a common heritage or cultural background, who view the particular museums or exhibition under a certain light are often considered as one of the primary audiences. This could include ethnic group, immigrant groups.

Community through Education: Museums and exhibitions primary goal is to provide educational experiences and an environment of learning. Students, educators and learners who utilize museums and exhibitions as field trips for learning and educating become another primary community who look forward to interactive experiences.

Community through Professionals: Museum scholars, researchers , artists and creators form a huge part as a community who exhibit their work and look for future collaboration.

Community through Support Staff: Museum staff, volunteers and even donors and patrons form a community . Staff and volunteers look for gaining experience to assist their skills for their individual progress while donors and patrons look at participation into development of museums through a financial point of View.

By recognizing these various communities and addressing their needs can enhance relevance and impact, creating exhibitions that are more inclusive and engaging for all. It is very well understood that these categories of communities change as the category of museum/ organization changes and it is very important to identify the right groups of communities that fit your institution. This is further explored in the case studies section.

diagram1 showing circle of community

Museum and Community History: A Timeline Chapter 02

Museums- community engagement has seen a lot of emphasis with a continuous evolution through years since the 1980’s. This long term development has significant impacts on how the role of museums have fundamentally shifted to shape the cultural and social landscape of the society. They have grown from just buildings to cultural institutions that offer a holistic experience to its visitors and in a broader sense to all its involved communities. These shifts in the role of museums have significantly urged them to recognize and take responsibility of not only preserving and presenting culture and heritage but offering a space to foster dialogue, inclusion and social cohesion.

The journey of museum - community engagement has been marked by several key milestones and theoretical shifts, each contributing to the way museums function and relate to their communities today. Starting through 1980’s, museums began to move away from the top-down hierarchical approach to today’s time where museums are being redefined as community hubs. This evolution of museum- community relationship over the past few decades, is a journey of inclusiveness, participation and social relevance- which forms the important aspect of involving community.

This section traces the advancement of museum relationships with communities, highlighting key milestones and theoretical shifts from 20th century to present times.

Early 20th century: The Traditional Model

In the early 20th century and before , museums were seen as repositories of art, culture and history preserved and collected in a certain way that signifies its importance. This traditional model often refers to the ‘temple’ model where objects are positioned in a static manner defining museums as the authoritative keepers of knowledge. The engagement of its communities within museums and exhibitions was highly passive. The way museums exhibited and provided education was done in a top - down hierarchical manner suggesting a dictated approach then an offering of a choice. Here the curatorial team of the specific museum held the power in deciding what was significant and how it should be interpreted and displayed. This emphasized the importance of the objects displayed without looking at the broader social and cultural context. This leads to reduced chance of interpretation by visitors, forcing them to accept a certain piece of information following universal narratives. These narratives are usually Euro centric , reflecting colonial and imperial perspectives.

This is well addressed in Tony Bennett’s seminal works on museum and cultural institutions reinforcing national identities and cultural hierarchies. His analysis particularly in ‘The birth of museum: History, Theory and Politics, examines the role of museums as instruments of state power and ideological control, to promote a cohesive and idealized version of historical narratives. This brings a lot of focus on how museums transfer knowledge and education and how it affects the building of society. This could be still seen in natural museums such as the British museum and Louvre museum that display artifacts and artworks that celebrate culture and historical achievements of their respective nations.

Without any significant changes, Bennett’s analysis would still remain relevant as contemporary museums grapple with issues of inclusivity, multicultural representation and decolonization. This reinforces the need of engaging with communities where museums represent broader groups, polyvocal narratives and leaving space for individual interpretation.

Mid 20th Century: Subtle Shifts

The mid 20th century saw subtle to significant changes in the museological field due to social and cultural shifts through the civil right movement, decolonization and awareness of social inequalities. This prompted museums to reconsider their role and responsibilities beginning with community involvement. This is governed by Duncan F Cameron arguments into making museums more democratic and participatory. can be particularly seen in his seminal essay titled “The museum, a temple or the Forum” published in 1971 that proposes a transformative vision for the future of the museum. The use of metaphorical words temple and forum highlights two fundamentally different views to look at museology practices. Unlike the temple model where museums are regarded as sacred spaces holding authority over knowledge and expecting visitors to be passive ,

the forum model advocates for democratic participation and functions as public spaces for dialogues and exchanges. In this model,it not only preserves and showcases history by also creating spaces for contemporary social issues by encouraging visitors as active participants. This leads to involving various communities and stakeholders of the museum. Duncan’s advocacy for a more democratic and participatory museum has been a significant part in the evolving relationship between museum and its communities.

Late 20th Century: The participatory turn

By the late 20th century, museums already adopted the idea of involving community and progressed into making visitors as active participants in creation and interpretation of exhibitions. This could be understood in Nina Simons influential book “The Participatory Museum” published in 2010 where her concepts significantly shaped contemporary museum practices through inclusivity, community engagement and introducing interactivity into the museum spaces. Key developments through this are community curation and public programming.

Community curation emphasis on collaborative approach to ensure inclusion of diverse voices perspectives making exhibitions more relevant and reflective to the communities they are served for whereas Public programming places an emphasis on workshops, lectures and interactive activities within museum spaces for visitor’s participation in diverse ways. Both these strategies, allows visitors to gain knowledge through multiple mediums of their choice and advocating towards the idea of giving the ownership to the communities of the museum.

21st Century: Museums community hubs

The present time,21st Century, has witnessed a profound transformation in relation between museums and communities. Museums now , instead of just buildings to show phase history are regarded as institutions that are vital to community, contributing social cohesion, education and cultural understanding along with its primary purpose.

Having said this and knowing that we as communities have gone through significant changes in way of living during pandemic to post pandemic, museums have also adapted to these changes by going digital and giving rise to virtual exhibitions. There has been a particularly important change in how museums are conducting engagement through social media and other platforms that reach out to audiences worldwide. Museums have also taken into account creating community partnerships within their localities, schools and other community groups vital for the museum operations.

These partnerships help museums stay relevant and responsive to the needs of their communities. This has led to establishing themselves as community hubs which along with showcasing relevant exhibitions, they by addressing social justice problems including

racial inequality, climate change , LGBTQ+ rights and many more. By hosting exhibitions and events on such issues, museums are positioning themselves as agents of social change rather than just as repositories of art , history and culture.

This is where the conversation goes further into redefining museums and gallery spaces and understanding what they really stand for and how best can we offer its resources to its public and communities.

diagram2 showing timeline of museum community relationship

Understanding and Learning about one’s Museums: Case Studies Chapter 03

the forum model advocates for democratic participation and functions as public spaces Followed by a thorough understanding of the terms - museum and community and its evolutionary relationship, it is time to focus on particular aspects of building museum and community relationships with studied cases and derived actions and processes.

Understanding and learning about one museum through analysis of case studies provides a profound exploration into the multifaceted aspects of museum community dynamics that form the cultural landscape of these institutions. Museums and cultural spaces are not monolithic entities, they vary in sizes, their structure , mission and the communities they represent. All these cultural institutions are shaped by its historical background, geographical location, visitor demographics and its mission towards the society. Hence it’s important to understand the concepts of museum and community through specific case studies with specific data of their background and context to uncover the strategies and practices that are essential to employ and promote community involvement.

Both the case studies listed below provide a detailed, contextualized look into how the studied cultural institutions navigate their responsibility and adapt to contemporary social needs. The case study is underpinned by three of the following sections:

•Understanding the exhibition

•Understanding the impact on community engaged or represented

•Understanding the challenges of the cultural institution

Case Study 1

Whose gallery is it anyway? - at Edinburgh Printmakers

Methodology: Interviews with their Community Engagement Officer and community involved in creating the exhibition.

Understanding the exhibition

The “whose gallery is it anyway?” The exhibition offered a thought provoking showcase that delved into concepts of ownership, accessibility and community participation. The exhibition challenged the traditional norms of what a gallery really is and thereby redefined the role of the galleries in present times. The exhibition encouraged visitors to showcase their art , prompting viewers to consider who has the right to access and display art and how this decision impacts the broader communities. This approach gives people and communities an agency over the space ,creating a sense of belongingness. It encourages people to nurture their relationship with the organization, exchange dialogues and see a willingness to participate rather than a mandate. It gives an experience that is intimate and personal. Below are some of the ways EP managed to achieve engagement for this exhibition.

Inclusivity and Accessibility:

*to note here both these words are to describe a person’s mental ability rather than physical.*

The exhibition emphasized making art accessible to all, regardless of any socioeconomic backgrounds that they belong to. It opened a dialogue in redefining gallery spaces through conversations that contribute into the shared heritage that the organization holds. It included free admission, outreach programs and collaboration with local community groups. By involving people from various backgrounds for the creation and the curation of the exhibition, EP ensured that a variety of voices were heard and multiple perspectives were represented.

For ensuring that museums and cultural spaces are inclusive, it is important to have accessible environments not just physically but also mentally which allow visitors to engage with exhibits and programs, regardless of their physical, cultural, cognitive or intellectual needs.

Physical Accessibility: Museums and cultural spaces have well adapted themselves to serve physical disabilities by providing accessible pathways for wheelchairs, seating areas and accessible restrooms designed as per standards to ensure everyone enjoys the museum experience. It is important to ensure universal design, and community friendly layouts to ensure spaces are navigable for individuals with disabilities , families and groups. This has effectively become an integral part of museum designing and is by far achieved by a lot of cultural spaces in today time encouraging more and more participation

Mental accessibility: Physical accessibility is a lot explored, understood and adapted within museum and cultural spaces in comparison to mental accessibility. Mental accessibility refers to a lot of other factors that act as barriers restricting visitors to engage and completely involve themselves within museum and cultural spaces. These barriers often lead to a shift in visitor behaviors making them distant from the exhibits and programs giving a sense of “exclusive” rather than inclusive devoiding a sense of belonging - which is the most important aspect of encouraging community engagement with cultural spaces.Some of the various types of accessibility that can be categorized are as follows

Cognitive and Intellectual Accessibility: It is important to have clear and simple use of language in exhibitions labels and guides for conveying information in a straightforward manner. This can be made even easier with the use of pictorial and visual aids by incorporating symbols and pictures that convey the message to larger audiences including visitors with cognitive disabilities.

The use of interactive exhibits also increases the ability for audiences with intellectual disabilities to engage and actively participate with the exhibits and programs. This could be supported by guided tours and specialized programs that meet the needs of visitors with cognitive and intellectual inability.

Cultural and Language Accessibility: It is important to have exhibits and programs available in multiple languages to accommodate non- native speakers as well. This could be achieved by use of technology and digital media which otherwise becomes difficult to achieve physically.

Moreover, as a cultural space it is important to respect all cultures and diverse backgrounds to include more and more diverse audiences and give them a sense of belonging. This can be further enhanced by having partnerships with local community or organizations to understand the needs and expectations of diverse groups and formulate programs where all are valued and respected.

Social and Emotional Accessibility: As discussed and understood at various levels for the need to provide an environment where visitors feel “belonged”, it is important to have museum programming and its designing in a way that welcomes all, including those with disabilities, diverse cultural and economic backgrounds or varying levels of experience with museums. This is especially supported by staff and volunteers at the museum who ensure all visitors feel included in a way they welcome and make them feel comfortable in the cultural setting which is often considered elite with its “do not touch” policy. It’s important

Collaborating Curating: A very crucial aspect of community engagement is giving the ownership to its visitors. Collaborating curating provides one such approach that aids in transforming the traditional exhibition design into more inclusive, diverse and reflective of a broader range of voices. This shift in ownership opens the possibility for communal acts without any hierarchy (which does not imply there is no structure). This is further explained through the diagram below. It aims to involve a variety of stakeholders,artists, community and other audiences to contribute. This act of co-curating gives them agency, which encourages them to have open conversations and contribute their ideas and insights. This approach democratizes the curatorial practice, allowing exhibition to reflect multiple voices and perspectives, fostering deeper connection within art and society.

Participatory Interaction: The exhibition as developed by co curating also focused on having interactive elements. These interactive elements include ways in which visitors could share their thoughts and responses through writing comments on the wall,having social media campaigns and facilitating group discussion. This approach transforms gallery experience from one way communication to a dynamic exchange of dialogues reflecting communities relation with art and institution. This provides an added layer of participation from communities making them feel valued and worthy of their knowledge.

Educational Programs: Another very important aspect of enhancing community involvement is by providing educational opportunities at different levels.EP took various initiatives such as talks, panel discussion and hands on workshops to help demystify the art world and encourage active participation from the community

These programs aim to foster a deeper engagement of communities within the organization by a give and take strategy. During these programs, communities were encouraged to contribute on ideas and programs that they were willing to seek. This again breaks down the hierarchical structure, promoting lifelong engagement of communities with the organization.

Understanding its impacts on the community

Empowerment and Representation: By providing an inclusive environment where any individual, irrespective of their socio e-commerce background, EP created an empowerment wave within individuals and groups who might feel marginalized or excluded from the art world. This approach ensured that a wide array of experiences and stories were represented making it relevant and resonant to local audiences visiting the exhibition.

This takes me back a German incident where Peer Voss, an artist in his own right, had been working at the Bode Museum for several years. During this time, he had access to the museum’s galleries and its artworks. Voss, feeling his own work was on par with the pieces he regularly installed, decided to hang one of his paintings in the museum without permission. His painting was hung among the museum’s collection of 19th-century artworks, blending in with the other pieces to the extent that it went unnoticed by both visitors and staff for a period of time.

Discovery and Consequences

The painting remained on display for several weeks before it was discovered by a museum curator. When the unauthorized artwork was traced back to Voss, the museum’s management took swift action, resulting in his immediate dismissal. The museum cited a breach of trust and professional misconduct as the reasons for his firing.

On policy notes, probably it was the organization’s call, but this leads to us thinking on “the ownership of the gallery”

Building Connections: The exhibition served as a fantastic opportunity to build connections across various fields and exchange dialogues throughout a large range of communities involved. These relationships can lead to further collaboration and strengthen the local and cultural ecosystem.

Moreover a very important aspect of engaging and building connections within a local gallery can foster social cohesion. The context and the environmental setting here, play a very crucial role as it encourages the community to think and act a certain way This conversation and acceptance of multiple perspectives give a sense of belonging among participants.

Challenging Norms: whose gallery is it anyway, questions traditional gallery practices, highlighting issues of accessibility, inclusivity and ownership . It encourages critical thinking and dialogue about the role of art in society. It rethinks curatorial authority by involving community members in the curatorial process. Conventional Galleries often cater to a specific, affluent and educated audience , while an exhibition like this, challenges norms to engage a broader and a more diverse audience.

This would also lead to influence policy changes within cultural institutions. Institutions are encouraged to re-evaluate their collections and curatorial policies to address issues of representation and ownership , ensuring that the practice are more equitable and just.

Understanding its challenges within the cultural in Institutions

Resource Allocation: with institutions like this which are publicly funders, it becomes challenging to consistently fund for participatory programs like this. Such programs often require significant resources for material, staff and outreach efforts.

Reaching out to the community and ensuring its involvement is a long process and takes time. Therefore ensuring a long term sustainability of these programs that ensures continuous planning to involve the community for future growth and development is also one of the crucial challenges faced by the institution.

Balancing control: Allowing for community involvement and collaboration can sometimes conflict with traditional approaches which come from a more informed space knowing what to show and how to show such that it becomes relevant to audiences it is shown to. Finding balance between traditional and evolved approaches requires certain structure, standards and careful management. It demands for a delicate balance ensuring the process and outcome are tension free and not deviating from the principles of community engagement.

“As our first act of involving community into an exhibition , we left it quite open without any major rules but soon understood how it lacked a certain structure”

Illari, community engagement officer, Edinburgh printmakers

Engaging diverse audience: continuously reaching out and engaging diverse audience groups could be difficult. It requires continuous effort to build trust and relationships with communities who may not be traditionally involved with these cultural institutions.

This focuses on ensuring cultural sensitivity and appropriate representation of diverse perspectives and communities. This requires continuous adaptation and learning from the institution.

Evaluation: for continuous learning from institutions , it is important to evaluate these programs both quantitatively and qualitative to understand what needs to change and how. This could be complex. For example, Quantitative metrics such as attendance numbers may not fully capture the qualitative benefit such as well being and social cohesion.

Moving forward from stand alone galleries to museum space. One such case study is the Rising Ocean Tide exhibition held at the National Museum of Scotland.

Case Study 2

The Rising Tide - at National Museum of Scotland Methodology: Interviews with their Exhibition Designer Community Engagement Officer and community involved in creating the exhibition.

Rising Tide exhibition held at National Museum of Scotland offers a profound exploration of environmental issues focusing on impact of climate change on the coastal communities. As the exhibition focuses on the impact on communities , it becomes essential to consider people involved and understand the story through their perspectives. The exhibition aimed at including the communities of Australia and Pacific Islands to create the artifacts and installations giving them an opportunity to narrate their story and experiences. The exhibition also highlighted personal narratives and cultural expressions from the local community to generate meaningful dialogue.

Inclusive Representation: The exhibition excels in representing the voices of people directly affected by climate change. It includes contributions from coastal communities of Australia and Pacific Island through artistic installations and artifacts. Master Fisherman Anthony Guerrero’s contemporary woven baskets, George Nuku’s Bottled Ocean 2123 installation and spear points made by Aborginal Men from Western Australia are some of the ways in which communities were included to represent diverse voices of those affected by climate change. The exhibition served as a platform for them to share stories and experiences.

Local and Global Connection: The exhibition showcased works from NMS archives in consideration with local communities from Australia and Pacific Islands emphasizing on international and local connections and providing a holistic experience.

Collaborating Curating: The museum actively involved community members in the creation of exhibitions through a partnership with local artist along with schools and volunteer groups to correlate exhibits and educational material. Workshops and engagement activities were hosted for community members and volunteers to engage with different themes through making of exhibition and installation. These activities facilitated dialogues and allowed for hands-on learning and participation.

Educational Impact: The exhibition includes interactive elements both digitally and physically to engage visitors of all age groups. Various multimedia..Tailored educational programs for schools and other dosed groups ensured that the exhibition served as a valuable resource for information.

Emotional and Reflective Engagement: by incorporating personal stories and narratives, the exhibition created an emotional connection with the visitors. This approach humanized the research data and fosters empathy and understanding. Importance of values like empathy and understanding have been explored further.

Understanding its impacts on the community

Raising Awareness: The inclusive and collaborative nature of the exhibition succeeded in raising awareness amongst visitors. As an exhibition designed by the community for the community it conveys to the visitors more effectively knowing it’s coming from one of them and addressing the issue for the urgency of action.

Empowering Action: The exhibition highlights local and global responses to climate change , empowering visitors to take action with their communities and localities. It showcases successful initiatives and encourages collaborative efforts to address environmental changes.

Strengthening Community Bonds: The exhibition provides a shared experience for communities of island but also for other communities in the world as it conveys a collective message and encourages them to take responsibility. It brings people together for common cause and strengths by actively addressing the need to work as a community rather than an individual.

Encouraging Dialogues: As an important cause is raised by the community into public space, it encourages the urge to come together, involve experts and other stakeholders to facilitate important conversations about social issues. This is an important aspect of involving community which builds dialogues and helps bridge the gap in knowing social causes and taking collective action - which is one of the key roles of museums and cultural spaces today.

Understanding its challenges within the cultural in Institutions

Building Community Interest and Awareness: The first step to encourage community participation is to create interest and awareness for the topic engagement is intended to. Climate change or other similar topics often lead people feeling overwhelmed and confused on how to approach such a conversation and hence it is challenging to devise ways to emphasize its relevance and significance . Along with that, communities may have competing interests and priorities, making it difficult to encourage them to participate. It is crucial to find ways to encourage communities to participate amidst other societal concerns is essential.

Ensuring Cultural Sensitivity and Relevance: The exhibition aimed to reflect on the experience of communities of Australia and Pacific islands. Hence it’s important that perspectives offered by communities were presented in a culturally sensitive manner. By engaging the specific community but also delivering a global message, it is important to balance the narratives. This needs to be achieved in a way that the communities involved do not feel unheard while the local community also doesn’t feel alienated. The correct contextualizing of the data becomes a challenge but also the main task for museums and professionals involved.

Resource Allocation and Funding: engaging the community effectively, often requires significant resources including funding, outreach , staff , materials and programming. This specific exhibition held at National Museum funded publicly needs to ensure adequate resources are available to maintain and deliver the quality of the exhibition.

It is also essential to balance the community expectations with the goals of the museum, deciding on how much to invest in community engagement versus other components. This also leads to promoting community engagement as a volunteer basis, making them disinterested. This is an important challenge for cultural institutions for projects where they are dependent on the community for authentic exhibition.

Logistical Resources in terms of materials needed for designing and building the exhibition is often uncertain , as working with communities might have on site changes This could be attended with flexible design.

“Quantity of volunteers available. Planning for the unknown final creation, making sure I had sufficient structure to attach it to/fixing methods/space required. Solution was that we created a flexible scaffolding structure that we could add or remove additional beams, which we did have to do.” - Stuart smith Gordon, Exhibition designer , NMS

showing community structure at NMS

diagram4

Creating an Engagement plan: Forming a Framework Chapter 04

After studying and understanding the terms and history of museums - community relationships , it’s time to focus on practical aspects of involving communities within cultural spaces. Enhancing community engagement within gallery and museum settings necessitates a meticulously structured approach that addresses needs and diverse interests of both cultural institutions and communities involved.

This section of the dissertation focuses on guidelines that help in developing a plan of action. It guides on thinking strategically and curates a process that helps people from organizations and other stakeholders make decisions. It aims to form a generic guideline which when put in motion with museum resources and overarching mission, serves as useful guide to foster cultural enrichment and education. As we delve deeper the main questions that are prompted by the author are as follows. This will then lead them into thinking deeply about the organization as per their needs and requirements.

•What does community mean to our organization?

•How does the project we are working for best involve the community?

•What are our resources?

•What are the immediate and future steps?

•What are the achievable ways and so and so forth

Its ideal for organization to make a list of questions, to begin with and answer as they go through the process of achieving engagement within their organization.

1.Defining Goal and Objectives

Purpose and vision

Understand what the word community means to your organizations ,why community engagement is crucial for the museum. It could also be narrowed down every time the museum or gallery space attempts for a new exhibition or there is a shift in program. Align engagement goals with the museum’s mission and strategic plan.

Devising SMART Objectives

Specific Measurable Achievable Relevant and Time Bound

Establishing clear and focused objectives helps guide community engagement efforts and provide a measure for success.

Examples of certain objective could be

Increase local visitors’ attendance by 20% over the next year: This will encourage the organization to offer programs and exhibitions that appeal to diverse communities in their locality. It will also encourage them to develop targeted outreach and marketing campaigns to attract more local visitors.

Establish x New Communities Partnerships: Forge collaborations with local school, cultural organizations and other community oriented fields to co create programs and exhibitions that resonate with more and more audiences.

Host x amount of community- led events throughout the year: empower communities to collaborate and lead more and more exhibitions and programs that reflect their needs and interests. This promotes the cultural heritage of the museum space, along with events such as talks, festivals and workshops.

2.Know your community

Community Assessment

Conduct surveys, focus groups and community meeting to understand the demographics, interests, needs and the expeditions of the community

Gather data on community composition, including age, ethnicity, sociology, economic status and cultural interest.

Stakeholder Identification

Identify key community stakeholders such as local leader, educators , other cultural organizations and community groups. Build a network of partners who can support and amplify engagement efforts

A thorough community assessment and identifying stakeholders by individual organizations, they can develop a database which is well informed and guide them in creating reliable engagement strategies. This also forms a concrete basis to address community’s needs and leverage local partnerships to enhance impact and outreach.

3. Development of Programs and activities

Program Diversity

Formulate a range of programs that cater to different age groups, cultural backgrounds and interests. Include multimedia activities such as workshops, lectures and family activities. Ensure that the program reflects the diversity and is within the cultural interest of the community.

Accessibility

Ensure physical, economic and intellectual access to museum programs and activities. Provide free, discounted , multilingual and ADA compliant facilities. Offer programs at various times to accommodate different schedules. This also helps to run organizations differently throughout the day , providing a dynamic environment for the visitors. It encourages them to visit again and again - getting different experiences.

4.Foster community partnership

Collaborative Projects

Partnering with local schools, libraries , community center and cultural organizations to co create exhibitions,programs and events

Engage members from this partnerships as co curator or advisors for specific projects to ensure relevance and authenticity

Mutual Benefit

Develop a partnership that provide mutual benefits such as shared resources, cross promotion that enhances community impact

Collaborate in grant application and funding opportunities to support joint initiatives.

5. Implement Effective communication strategies

Multi channel outreach

Use a variety of communication channels including social media, email newsletter, local newspaper , community radio and fliers in community centers. It is so important to understand what is the best strategy to reach your current audience to ensure more engagement is achieved. Tailing messages to different audiences segment in way that ensures maximum relevance to them and encourages engagement.

Engagement and Feedback

Create opportunities for two way communication with community members through surgery, suggestion boxes and public forum

Act on feedback and communicate changes or improvement based on community suggestion

6.Provide Educational Opportunities

Educational Programs

Develop educational programs that align with community members that could include guided tour, field trips and through other resources that make them involved with the institution in more ways than one.

Offer lifelong learning opportunities through adult and senior citizen lectures along with hands-on learning for young people. This encourages them to keep coming back to the institution for various activities.

Interactive Learning

Create interactive exhibits and programs that engage with visitors of all ages through intellectually as well as technology to enhance learning experience. It is important to have interactive content that provides experience beyond just viewing the exhibition, giving them a chance to interpret in their own ways , enhancing their own unique individual experience.

Develop multi generational participation through activities that encourage all age groups to participate and create connection with the larger community.

7.Evaluate and Adapt

Continuous Evaluation

Regularly evaluate the effectiveness of community engagement efforts through attendance data , participant feedback and impact assessments. Use quantitative metrics for repeat visitation rates and participant feedback. Use qualitative metrics to evaluate wellbeing and community satisfaction data.

Adaptive Strategies

Be flexible and responsive to evaluation findings. Adjust and modify programs and strategies to better meet the communities needs and interests

Stay informed about community changes and emerging trends to keep engagement efforts relevant.

8. Celebrate and recognize community involvement

Acknowledgment

Recognize and celebrate the contribution of community members, volunteers and

partners and all people involved through public acknowledgment and special events

Share success stories and highlight community involvement in museum communications and displays.

Community centric events

Host events that specifically celebrate community, culture , history and stories through cultural festivals , local history exhibitions and community appreciation days. Inviting community members to plan and execute these event could one more way to enhance their involvement and build connections.

9.Ensure sustainability

Long term planning

Develop a long term community plan over the years that include sustainable practices and resources Integrate community engagement in the museum’s overall strategic planning and budgeting process. It is important to allocate financial resources specifically to community programs.

Resource allocation

Secure funding and resources to support engagement programs through grants, donations and membership opportunities. Invest in staff trading and development to enhance skills in community engagement and outreach . This is crucial to ensure well informed staff are providing the correct information and services to the community involved making them feel comfortable and valued.

10. Promote equity and inclusion

Inclusive Practices

Ensure that all community engagement efforts promote quite and inclusion . Address barriers to participation and strive to create a welcoming environment for all community members. Include diverse voice in planning and decision making process to ensure that programs and exhibition reflect diversity

Cultural competence

Provide cultural competence training for staff to enhance their ability to engage with diverse effectively Respect and celebrate the cultural diversity within the community by ensuring inclusive nature of all programs and exhibitions.

diagram5 showing model of engagement

Through the above framework and above case studies , it is well understood that building community within one organization is a work of building internal capacity. It is important that the museum understands their existing capacity and the additional capacity that is required to match their vision. As the museum plans to launch themselves into museum - community engagement initiatives, it is critical to harness the excitement and plan and consider a step by step action forward. Each step is a way into modeling a new way of doing the same old things differently.

Along with that it is important to understand certain core values that support community engagement in a healthy way. The TREE to ensuring sustainable engagement along with other principles are as follow

Transparency and Trust: Building and developing continuous relationships with community members through consistent , honest and respectful interactions. It is important to ensure that your cultural institution is seen as reliable and dependable for maintaining open lines of communication. This could include sharing of goals, agendas, successes and challenges openly. This will encourage communities to engage while giving them a metric to measure their impact making them feel included, relevant and responsible.

Respect: it is important to show respect for knowledge, experiences and expertise that the community members contribute with your institution. This could be achieved by listening and integrating their feedback within your organization. It is also crucial to approach all community conversations with cultural sensitivity and awareness, recognizing and honoring the unique histories of all groups.

Empathy: The ability to put oneself into the feelings of others and understand their relationships with things that affect them, is one of the core values to adapt as a cultural institution. It challenges once notions and biases which are important to take a conscious control,allowing inclusion of multiple voices, This is especially important when dealing with sensitive topics or traumatic histories. This could be achieved by creating a welcoming and supportive environment where all community members feel comfortable in sharing stories and participating in activities.

Equity: giving community members equality in terms of treatment and opportunities through fair and just practices ,adheres to one of the important aspects of building sustainable communities. It also includes addressing and acknowledging inequities within museum practices and making a consideration to the communities affected or involved.

The 10 step guideline along with embedding these core values into the operations and the working of cultural institutions can foster deep, meaningful and lasting relationships . This framework not only guides the creation of exhibition and program but also helps in recognizing museums as community cantered institutions dedicated to cultural enrichment, education and social cohesion. This was one of the key premises argued in the beginning of this paper.

Following this a very crucial excerpt from “Reinventing the Museum: The Evolving Conversation on the Paradigm Shift by Gail Anderson in 2012 focuses on a tool that captures the way museum shift occurs when a community framework is put in place. This could be understood as a conceptual tool for approaching and evaluating the impact of the community framework or the model on the cultural institutions. This can be found as below:

Concluding: What’s Next? Chapter 05

What does community mean to our organization?

How does the project we are working for best involve the community? What are our resources

The exploration of museum - community relations, with respect to above chapters ,underscores the vital interdependency that the museums and community have on each other. Museums and cultural spaces as evolved over time are not just repositories of history and culture but dynamic spaces for exchange of diverse cultures, learning and social interaction. They provide an environment that allows for conversation to occur and for dialogues to exchange which is preceded by the ability to “show and provoke” than to “tell and instruct.” This leads to a drastic shift in how museums and cultural spaces are seen today. A continuous understanding of how they provide spaces where visitors are active members,doing creative work, performing and learning is achieved .This is termed as dialectical spaces. Dialectical spaces occur between the concrete and the metaphoric, the tangible and the intangible, the particular and the universal (Beck and Cable 2002;Bedford 2001; Weinberg,1994). It highlights the way museums and cultural spaces perform , encouraging visitors to be co creators and participants in designing museums, imposing a strong indication into building a community and designing in alignment of their needs and wants - making them the agent of the space. Communities, as understood are a group of individuals with shared interest and values that facilitate social changes within the society. This highlights the symbiotic relation museums and communities have with each other where museum can serve as spaces for cultural and social expression and communities stand as agent and audience of this process. Therefore it becomes important to understand the complex relationships between museums and communities to foster meaningful engagement with them.

With respect to this understanding,the model (framework/guideline) presented above questions and answers “ what is community, what does it mean your organization and how do you serve them best?” It constantly urges the professionals of the field to be aware of the existing aspects of community engagement while adapting to newer strategies. It is important to keep evolving after every program to accommodate various other aspects of community engagement.

This is a lot and it could take even longer than expected, but it’s important for cultural institutions to start the process of change and accept this a crucial need of present times. It is important for institutions to imbibe this as “how they are” rather than how they do business (Kadoyama,2018). This academic discussion provides the initial steps of starting off with this commitment and as foundations for professionals to begin to understand the process and challenges that come along. The cases studied here are seen in a certain context, trying to provide new solutions to already existing problems by looking through multiple perspectives. This demonstrates there are various ways to carry out the change , develop individual organizations’ missions and understand how best to serve their public and communities. This is just the beginning of my understanding of relationships between museums and communities, therefore while it does attempt to capture certain ideas it moreover a journey to inspire and keep adding other ideas on our way forward. What approaches to change will work and how we learn from past actions and efforts. Over a longer period of time, it is important to aggregate our individual actions into powerful movements.

Refrences

Books

Bennett, T., 1995. The Birth of the Museum: History, Theory, Politics. 1st ed. London: Routledge.

Block, P., 2008. Community: The Structure of Belonging. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Cameron, D.F., 1971. ‘The Museum, A Temple or the Forum’. Curator: The Museum Journal, 14(1), pp.11-24.

Kadoyama, M.,2018 . Museum Involving Communities. Edition (if not the first). Place of publication: Publisher.

Smith, J., 2024. ‘Understanding Community Engagement in Museums’. In: L. Johnson, ed. Museums and Society: Engaging Communities in the 21st Century. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, pp. 45-60.

Simon, N., 2010. The Participatory Museum. Santa Cruz, California: Museum 2.0.

Bibliography

American Alliance of Museums, 1992. Excellence and Equity: Education and the Public Dimension of Museums. [pdf] Available at: https://ww2.aam-us.org/docs/default-source/ resource-library/excellence-and-equity.pdf [Accessed 10 August 2024]

Happy Museum Project, 2016. Woking Museum Case Study. [pdf] Available at: https:// happymuseumproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/HM_case_study_Woking_WEB_ Mar2016.pdf [Accessed 30 July 2024].

NEMO, 2023. Developing Education and Public Engagement in Museums. [pdf] Available at: https://www.ne-mo.org/fileadmin/Dateien/public/Publications/NEMO_ Working_Group_LEM_Publication_Developing_Education_and_Public_Engagement_in_ Museums_05.2023.pdf [Accessed 15 July 2024].