I almost always have at least one co-curator when I develop an exhibit and often it is a community member. It doesn't mean the museum curator gives up her expertise but that she  allows the exhibit to be enriched by more than one voice.

Including a community curator can also help in other ways as we interpret artifacts through labels.  We all know our written interpretation should communicate clearly to the visitor.   A community curator can let us know what the visitor expects to know about the object, what the visitor finds interesting about the object as well as being able to add information perhaps only known to members of the community group.


Maria Pascualy, Curator of Exhibits
Washington State History Museum
Tacoma, WA
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 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Dirk Van Tuerenhout <[log in to unmask]>
> Dear all, 
> 
> This past year, the British Museum focused on Africa. There were
> displays speficially designed for this topic. In addition, throughout
> the entire museum additional (very colorful) labels were added to
> permanent exhibit cases. On these labels a person of African origin was
> quoted saying why they had chosen that particular object and what it
> meant to them. It appeared that any given hall might have had two or
> three of these labels. 
> 
> Labels such as these present a valuable addition to an exhibit by
> providing a creative outlet to members of the general public. However,
> speaking as an archaeologist, I am not sure if we should have the
> general public write context labels for archaeological displays. In my
> opinion, people can react in many different and personal ways to an
> artwork, yet when it comes to the context of an artifact, one should
> defer to the notes of the archaeologist who dug it up or the
> anthropologist who wrote down the circumstances under which the object
> was used. 
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Dirk Van Tuerenhout
> Houston Museum of Natural Science
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Kohut, Lauren
> Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2006 8:30 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: "community curators"
> 
> While I'm not familiar with the program at the Brooklyn Museum of Art,
> it is my understanding that the community curator program at the NMAI is
> specifically aimed at using Native Americans as curators -- not just the
> average layman.  The objective is to give Native Americans a voice in
> the display of their cultural materials.  I know this format was used in
> the "Out Universe" exhibit which focuses on how eight different
> indigenous groups interpret the "order of the world."  And in this case,
> the community curators worked with museum curators to develop a cohesive
> exhibit that would show more than just objects in the collections.
> 
> Lauren
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Chuck Watkins
> Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2006 7:57 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] "community curators"
> 
> 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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