I'm not sure exactly what Ken Bloom is asking -- and that, I fear, could
be part of the problem.

It seems to me that the first thing you need to do is set some clear
missions and definitions -- for the museum, for the exhibits program,
and for this committee.  We've been working hard to incorporate the
community into planning for some new exhibits here, and I have found the
most success when we have a clear agenda keyed to the panel's expertise.
Asking them to become instant museum professionals and understand the
intricacies of planning, scheduling, developing exhibits and programs is
not realistic.  Asking them to represent their constituencies and
provide insight into specific topics relevant to them, is.

Speaking idealistically, I'd start with the institution defining itself.
Museum, know thyself!  Are you going to focus on serving the needs of
the University art classes?  Focus on exhibits that appeal to / are
relevant to the broader "civilian community"?  Try to do both?

Once you have that figured out, give the exhibits program some clear
marching orders.  Maybe you'll come up with something like "The
permanent galleries will continue to serve the Art Department, but we
will have three travelling shows per year geared towards the public
audience."  I just made that up.  But set goals and objectives for
fulfilling your mission.

Now that you have objectives, bring in community advisors to help
fulfill them.  I'd start modest and concrete.  It's too much to ask them
to develop exhibits, or even review proposals.  But they can look at one
(or several) exhibit ideas, either developed in-house or travelling
shows, and tell you what is or isn't relevant to them, what is or isn't
an issue of concern, and come up with ways of making this exhibit idea
more accessible to their constituencies.

On our exhibit project, we showed our community advisors exhibit
outlines and floorplans, and all we got were a lot of polite smiles.
They had never seen an exhibit-in-progress before, and had no way of
reacting to it.  Then we got specific.  We said "This room will
represent the Philippines by recreating a fishing village.  This section
will use a Filipina as a narrator.  This room will show the damage done
to Philippine reefs by native fishermen.  This section will talk about
overpopulation in the Philippines.  How do you feel about these issues,
and the way they are presented?"  And we got some very good, very
helpful responses, covering a lot of topics which we non-Filipinos
hadn't even suspected.

The same could work for you.  I'm sure your curators and educators will
not be keen to surrender control over intellectual content, nor should
you ask them to.  But if you bounce your content ideas off an advisory
panel, they can help you make that content relevant to the audience you
are trying to reach.

Anyway, this seems to have worked for us.  I'm sure there are many other
success stories out there.

Eugene Dillenburg
Lead Developer, Philippines Coral Reef exhibit
John G. Shedd Aquarium
1200 South Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, Illinois  60605

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