I've appreciated these comments about involving community voices in museum
curating. I'd love advice on a project I'm trying to develop that would
involve older adults in some choice and labeling of objects. (FYI, only
this year have I begun interning in a museum education department and taking
courses in Museum Studies. I do have an MA in History from Stanford and six
years experience teaching high school and adults...but I'm still new to the
museum world. I also work as a personal historian...so the opportunity to
offer older adults reminiscence activities surrounding museum objects is
appealing to me.)
Here are the basics of my idea. Any suggestions would be greatly
appreciated!
We plan to work with 3 or 4 local museums and a group of 10-12 adults from a
retirement community's independent living program. The participants will
meet twice weekly: during one of those weekly meetings, participants will
travel to a different museum for tours and reminiscence activities; on the
other weekly session they will do other reminiscence work leading up to and
following up on the museums to be visited. With the assistance of each
museum's Curator of Education, I will develop reminiscence activities that
are structured around the involved museums' displays, exhibits, time
periods, and mission statements.
We have several possible end results in mind. Some of them include:
* Participants will develop one reminiscence activity into a 2-3 page
personal history story. These stories will be shared publicly (possible
ideas: sent to the local paper; aired on public radio; included on museums'
websites; integrated into museum displays).
* Participants can create reminiscence "Outreach Kits" for the involved
museums, learning more about their collections and acting
as "curators" as they decide which objects to include and the information to
be included with the objects;
* Particpants' reminiscences can contribute to one of the museum's exhibit
on life stages; and
* Participants put on a "storytelling" event for their families and friends
in a culminating session for sharing their reminiscences.
The first three ideas which would, to an extent, allow the older adults a
voice in the museum's exhibits and resources. Any suggestions?
reservations?
Also, I am trying to structure a pilot project -- a one- or one-and-a-half
hour session with a group of members of the retirement community we hope to
work with -- in which we can do a number of brief reminiscence activities,
but also get their feedback on the project. If you have had any experience
with this and have suggestions, please share.
Thanks in advance for any ideas!
Lisa Halverson
==================
Lisa Rampton Halverson
HM: [log in to unmask]
www.taylorandlisa.com
WK: [log in to unmask]
www.longlineoflovememoirs.com
and www.bloomingtonArts.info
PH: (812) 335-0738
"The greatest gift is a portion of thyself."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
----- Original Message -----
From: "Barrett, Justina" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2006 9:22 AM
Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] "community curators"
> Dear Marieke,
> I too love the idea of community curators; I think it is vitally important
> for museums to design exhibitions that ask visitors to make meaning of the
> objects, rather than authoritatively telling the visitor why something
> matters (evaluations that are always embedded with so many cultural
> assumptions, etc etc etc.)
> The Atwater Kent museum, Philadelphia's history museum, opened an
exhibition
> last year called The Real Thing and Why It Matters. From their
collections,
> the curator, Cynthia Little, pulled a wide variety of objects, and asked a
> wide variety of professionals, specialists, to comment on the object. For
> example, the owner of a candy manufacturing business talked about an early
> 20th century tin candy mould. Some of the specialists did include
curators.
> Also, each object had its standard tombstone label as well, so visitors
> could still learn those vital stats if they so chose.
>
> I believe you can contact Cynthia from the Atwater Kent's website:
> www.philadelphiahistory.org
>
> Best of luck,
> Justina
>
> Justina C. Barrett
> Getty Museum Educator for the American Art Planning Project
> Philadelphia Museum of Art
> Box 7646
> Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19101-7646
> (215) 684-7390
> (215) 236-4063 (fax)
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
> Behalf Of Marieke Van Damme
> Sent: Monday, February 27, 2006 5:08 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [MUSEUM-L] "community curators"
>
>
> 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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