Portal to the Public: Museum Educators Collaborating with Scientists to Engage Museum Visitors with Current Science

Science museums play a role in creating visitor experiences that relate to contemporary issues in science, and in linking audiences to the scientific enterprise and the community of scientists. In the Portal to the Public approach, science researchers are trained by museum educators with experience in inquiry‐based learning, and are then given opportunities to translate their current research for museum audiences. Portal to the Public offers one solution to museums seeking to sustain a commitment to delivering experiences that reflect the dynamic pace of research, and the need to connect local communities to scientific research occurring in their midst.     

Children's Museum Experiences: Identifying Powerful Mediators of Learning

This article reports on a study of young children and the nature of their learning through museum experiences. Environments such as museums are physical and social spaces where visitors encounter objects and ideas which they interpret through their own experiences, customs, beliefs, and values. The study was conducted in four different museum environments: a natural and social history museum, an art gallery, a science center, and a hybrid art/social history museum. The subjects were four‐ to seven‐year old children. At the conclusion of a ten‐week, multi‐visit museum program, interviews were conducted with children to probe the saliency of their experiences and the ways in which they came to understand the museums they visited. Emergent from this study, we address several findings that indicate that museum‐based exhibits and programmatic experiences embedded in the common and familiar socio‐cultural context of the child's world, such as play and story, provide greater impact and meaning than do museum exhibits and experiences that are decontexualized in nature.     

Are Museums Still Necessary?

Museums today face a crisis of confidence arising from two issues: (1) the erosion of a historically unreliable funding base, and (2) a challenge for audience by entrepreneurial elements in the culture. Other issues center on a growing public idea that museum work can be shared by entities such as theme parks and exhibition halls and the perception that education should be shaped as recreation. Museum responses to these problems have exacerbated their vulnerability as unique institutions. Certain dichotomies in the museum world help to explain this situation: (1) professionalism versus the audience, (2) connoisseurship versus the public experience, (3) the centrality versus the peripherality of objects in museums, (4) museums as businesses versus museums as educators, and (5) visitor expectations versus available resources. Resolution of the conflicts requires museums to remember that they are communication systems capable of teaching hard information, to stop emulating the forces that threaten to destroy them, and to pay attention to certain lessons understood in the business world. Museums also must find stable and reliable funding, reinvigorate the museum accreditation program, and pay attention to what museums really exist for. Museums are still necessary only when they function as true museums.     

At Hospitality's Threshold: From Social Inclusion to Exilic Education

Abstract Describing actual museum‐wide events developed for the culturally charged arena of the Brooklyn Children's Museum, this article explores the philosophical and pedagogical double binds that have brought multiculturalism to a political impasse. Museums have strived to be valued resources in an increasingly diverse society. In aspiring to broaden their audience base, their work has shifted from developing educational policies that are “object‐centered” to those that are “community‐centered” — a change of strategy affecting everything from programs to exhibit design. Children's museums — distinct (if not marginalized) from the serious work of the traditional art or ethnographic or natural history museum — know and indeed say in their very name — “children's museum” — that they are for the sake of someone and not about something. They have always already been attuned to the visitor at the threshold.     

A Research Vision for Museums

Abstract The museum family in America is in danger, and perhaps other museum families across the globe are, as well. Management has failed our mission by focusing on outputs like attendance numbers, and audience researchers have failed management by not shedding light on the connections between the pleasure of learning and attendance—or, if you will, between individual gains and a museum’s public value. This research vision for museums looks at how you can make that connection and save museums in their hour of need.     

Function Follows Form: How Mixed‐Used Spaces in Museums Build Community

Abstract This article examines three elements largely overlooked by the museum profession when thinking about community building—space, space mix, and unexpected use of space. It suggests that if museum planners were to pay overt attention to these, they could greatly enhance the community‐building role museums increasingly play. When considering museums and communities, writers in the museum field have focused on broadening audiences, public programs, collections and exhibitions. Physical spaces have been regarded as necessary armature but not as catalysts themselves. There are many subtle, interrelated and essentially unexamined ingredients that allow museums to play an enhanced role in the building of community and our collective civic life. The article describes the characteristics of the Livable Cities Movement and New Urbanism and suggests ways in which museums could encourage these characteristics—and thereby consciously use their interior and exterior spaces to build community.     

The Temple and the Bazaar: Wikipedia as a Platform for Open Authority in Museums

Museums today grapple with the reconciliation of traditional models of authority with the expectation to incorporate new voices in cultural interpretation. At the same time, society is increasingly empowered by a social Web that provides collaboration, connectivity, and openness. This paper frames the dialogue of authority and openness around parallel theories within the museum and technology communities, offering Wikipedia as a platform for facilitating new perspectives in collaborative knowledge‐sharing between museums and communities. Expanding on the metaphors of the museum as “the Temple and the Forum” and the Web as “the Cathedral and the Bazaar,” this essay argues that issues of democratization, voice, and authority in museums can be addressed through Wikipedia's community, process, and its potential as a model for a new Open Authority in museums.     

Our Colleagues,Our Selves: Modeling Museum Worldviews in the Process of Change

AS museums respond to changing forces in our increasingly complex world, we who must make the changes find ourselves in the throes of discomfort and even conflict with formerly comfortable colleagues. We blame those on opposing sides of our views as obstinate, ignorant, or self‐serving. Why then does change invariably engender conflict? This article explores the underlying factors — the world‐views that each of us brings to the table — and presents a model of archetypes that hints at where museum professionals might fit. The aim is to expose the existence of fundamental differences in how each one of us approaches change so that we can navigate through disagreements, retain professional relations, and contribute positively to our museums.     

THE CHANGING NATURE OF MUSEUMS

Abstract This informal essay explores the changes natural history and science museums may encounter as their purpose, foundation, and patronage evolve from this histroical era to the next. The historical circumstances—scientific, social, and economic—that brought forth the great museums of the world no longer exist. In their place is a new public context that shifts attention from museums whose business is objects to organizations whose business is information. At the same time, the economic‐survival mechanism of museums is shifting from grand philanthropy to innovative development programs and market‐sensitive commercial endeavors. Meeting the needs of the next generations of visitors and cultivating the next generation of funders will not be simple. Massive changes in the social fabric of the nation will soon demand new kinds of institutions that play new roles in society. Museums that meet this challenge will not simply be competing with other sectors of society for public attention and funds. Future success will require the fundamental reinvention of museums so that their purpose is obvious and their mission is clearly aligned with the needs of future generations.     

University Natural History Museums: The Public Education Mission

University‐based natural history museums are specialized cultural institutions that serve diverse constituencies. On one hand, these museums promote scientific research and collections through the work of curators and students and must advance the universities' missions. On the other hand, they must provide exhibition and public programs for the local community, or if they are a state museum, serve the citizens of the entire state through these activities. The challenge for university‐based natural history museums is to achieve a balance among their activities and services, given available resources. In the twenty‐first century, university natural history museums must further adapt by promoting social awareness of topics such as biodiversity and fostering learning in informal and formal settings. The Florida Museum of Natural History, an official State museum located at the University of Florida, is a prime example of a comprehensive university museum with a broad spectrum of programs that promote and enhance learning activities.     

“异化”与“创新” ——当代科技类博物馆面临的挑战与对策

自然史博物馆是公共博物馆初创时的主要形态,其后发展演变出多种形态。本文通过分析国际科技类博物馆发展历程及其背景,指出科技类博物馆的实质是构建和传播理性科学知识,其存在意义是奠定人作为世界主体的现代社会的知识基础;科技类博物馆呈现显著的发展阶段性,其收藏价值、组织目标、社会作用相应调整和改变。在此基础上,本文认为当代科技类博物馆需要坚持构建和传播理性知识的信念,拓展成年观众群体,鼓励观众参与科学研究过程,服务所在地地域发展需求。     

Cultivating Connectivity: Folklife and Inclusive Excellence in Museums

Today there is a growing global awareness of the need to address issues related to the safeguarding and use of both tangible and intangible heritage. By engaging with communities in the documentation of local cultures—especially their folklife, or in other words, their traditional intangible cultural heritage—museums can create collections that will serve as foundations for museum research, exhibitions, and programs that have more resonance with and relevance for those communities. Interactions of these kinds—in particular those of the Smithsonian's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and the Michigan State University Museum, home of the Michigan Traditional Arts Program, as well as collaborations between the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and the Great Lakes Folk Festival, and other programs around the world—have served as important platforms for public discourse about a variety of issues and have produced programs and exhibitions both at home and around the world.     

NAGPRA: Effective Repatriation Programs and Cultural Change in Museums

A survey of museums in the United States sought to identify evidence of broad impact on the organisational culture and practices of museums in their relatioships with indiginous peoples as a result of the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act 1990 (NAGPRA). NAGPRA establishes a process for the repatriation of human remains and other specified items held in museum collections to Native Americans who can prove they are lineal descendants or members of tribes which are culturally affiliated with identified items covered by the legislation. Effective repatriation programs are characterised by: * a genuine belief in the primary rights of indigenous people in the management of their cultural material presently held in museum collections; * a commitment to greater collaboration between the museum and indigenous people in the management of scientific research and public programs pertaining to items of indigenous cultural heritage; * practices which are indicative of an organisational culture which acts in ways which go beyond the minimum requirements of the legislation. Our research shows that museums are engaging in consultation with indigenous people in the management of collections of indigenous cultural heritage, and that this engagement is influencing conservation strategies. Museums espouse goals which promote external consultation, the involvement of indigenous people in their activities, respect for the cultural goals of indigenous people and a commitment to increasing public awareness of indigenous cultural heritage and social issues. However, only in the areas where NAGPRA has mandated it should happen—collections of human remains and secret/sacred material—is there evidence of communication and consultation, commitment of resources and sharing of authority with indigenous people consistent with the outcomes intended under NAGPRA.     

Museums,Corporatism and the Civil Society

Abstract The prevailing worldview in North America is grounded in the belief that continuous economic growth is essential to individual and societal well‐being. One result of the dominance of this worldview is the rise of museum corporatism, characterized by the primacy of economic interests in institutional decision making. This paper provides a critical overview of the growing dominance of marketplace thinking in museum affairs, and argues that this market‐oriented viewpoint is enfeebling or diverting otherwise competent museums from realizing their unique strengths and opportunities as social institutions in civil society. The meaning and implications of the “civil society” are discussed with particular reference to museums, along with several examples of museums and galleries that are currently playing key roles as agents of the civil society. This paper contends that departing from the status quo of marketplace imperatives opens the door to more creative definitions of museums as social institutions. Rather than becoming more like businesses, museums must exploit their uniqueness, resisting the domination of marketplace thinking, and testing alternative means of achieving meaning and sustainability within their communities.     

The Museum Maturity Framework: A Path to Purpose,Meaning, and Values

Abstract In this paper we synthesize elements of the modern philosophy and practice of organization management and leadership and illustrate their application to museums. The elements of our synthetic theory are a museum's inventory of processes (system of work), the role of its leader/director, and the social structures of the museum. These theoretical elements are placed in a conceptual context called the museum maturity framework, a five‐level developmental sequence in which are organized the paradigms and behaviors of a museum as it matures. The museum maturity framework can help the internal and external analysis and assessment of museums.     

博物馆包容:依据与路径

包容性是博物馆的基本特质之一,尽管博物馆对外也存在排斥行为,其包容性仍在博物馆的发展中不断展现和加强。发挥博物馆的包容性特质,应做到在坚持本馆藏品政策的前提下,做到在藏品的选择上更加多样化,扩大观众服务的受众范围,确定展览主题时更积极地介入社会重要议题,在不断变化的社会背景中发挥其自身功能,以推动社会包容的实现,促进社会公平。     

Museum as Soup Kitchen

In this paper, I suggest that museums have not explored their potential opportunities enough when dealing with their communities under stressful conditions. Each reader, however, should decide when what I am talking about is no longer appropriate for museums in general or your museum in particular. While some museums have moved more in the direction of serving their communities, I am struck by how little philosophical change has actually taken place in most museums after a year into this universal economic downturn. I argue that incorporating a broader palette of social services may make institutions more useful, but at some point these institutions might cease to be traditional museums. My question would be: “Should you care?” I do not suggest that all museums become full‐service community centers, though some might explore that option. Perhaps the question might become: How do we expand our services so that we make museums’ important physical assets of safe civic space and objects useful for tangible three‐dimensional learning into more relevant programs that reach all levels of community, and are rated by many more as essential to their needs and their aspirations for their children?     

Curatorship as Social Practice

This article examines changes that have been taking place in the museum world over the past several decades—changes that have been transforming the social practice of curatorship in museums. We are seeing the emergence of more holistic, integrated and culturally relative approaches to curatorial work that acknowledge the relationships among objects, people, and society, and explore these relationships in social and cultural contexts. Through cross‐cultural comparison, curating can be seen as a form of social practice linked to specific kinds of relationships between people and objects as well as to wider social structures and contexts. This approach allows us to transcend debates over whether or not museums and curatorial work should be either object‐ or people‐focused. One approach cannot be separated from the other.     

Museums and Virtuality

Abstract This paper investigates issues of museums and virtuality. In considering the diverse ways that museums are approaching virtuality, the focus here is on the common ground and shared objectives, rather than the differences between museums and their virtual re‐creations. Put simply, on‐site museums and their online counterparts are merely two ways of exhibiting cultures. In this sense, “virtuality” is a fundamental exhibition practice. The World Wide Web has become increasingly relevant to such core museum tasks as collecting, preserving, and exhibiting. Digitization of objects in digital heritage programs has led to new forms of collection management and unparalleled access to virtual replicas of museum artifacts. This transformation is inspiring new forms of preserving and displaying cultures both on‐ and off‐line. A successful digital expansion will largely influence whether museums can sustain their cultural authority and position in the 21st century.     

Evaluation of Touchable 3D‐Printed Replicas in Museums

The multisensory aspect of the museum, while neglected for many years, is undergoing a resurgence as museum workers have begun to push towards re‐establishing the senses as a major component of museum pedagogy. However, for many museums a major roadblock lies in the need to conserve rare objects, a need that prevents visitors from being able to interact with many objects in a meaningful way. This issue can be potentially overcome by the rapidly evolving field of 3D printing, which allows museum visitors to handle authentic replicas without damaging the originals. However, little is known about how museum visitors consider this approach, how they understand it and whether these surrogates are welcome within museums. A front‐end evaluation of this approach is presented, finding that visitors were enthusiastic about interacting with touchable 3D printed replicas, highlighting potential educational benefits among other considerations. Suggestions about the presentation of touchable 3D printed replicas are also discussed.