Marieke Van Damme wrote:
>Hello-
>I was just reading my latest issue of the Curator
>Journal (p. 122) about the Brooklyn Museum of Art and
>the National Museum of the American Indian having
>"community curators", that is, "ordinary" museumgoers,
>write the object labels in exhibits. Has anyone done
>this with success/failure? Is there a place I can go
>to learn more about it? I think it is a great concept
>but I'd like to see who else has tried it.
>
>Thanks,
>Marieke
>
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When we were building the Appalachian Cultural Museum, we thought it
important to deal with the subject of mountain blacks, a subject that
had not been discussed before by museums about Appalachia to my
knowledge. To that end, we identified a family, asked them to select
objects and photographs and write interpretive text. There was a
tradeoff. I am sure that some of what was written was family folklore
rather than absolute fact. And some of the text was longish by museum
standards. But the upside was that visitors got to hear the authentic
voices of the people in the exhibit, people who had heretofore been
ignored by museums.The public liked the exhibit and the family held a
couple of annual reunions in the gallery. As my university is about to
close the Appalachian Cultural Museum, none of this matters terribly
now. But if you think about it, it wasn't too long ago that in museums,
especially in museums of history, everyone - the curators, the
collectors and the visitors - spoke with the same voice. So, letting a
few more voices in doesn't seem like a bad thing, especially if they
have something to say that is worth hearing.
Regards,
Chuck Watkins
The Appalachian Cultural Museum
Appalachian State University
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