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| Old Courthouse and Museum, St Louis MO |
The tragic
events in Ferguson, Cleveland and Staten Island have reverberated across the
country and elicited a wide range of responses from individuals, groups, and institutions.
Moved to respond to those events, the issues they raise, and the actions they
have sparked, a group of museum bloggers coordinated by Gretchen Jennings,
collaborated on a blog posted December 11th on Museum Commons and elsewhere, including here on Museum Notes.
Since
then, members of this group have been both energized by the responses of
individuals as well as puzzled, if not downright disappointed, by the limited
response of many museums and museum associations in addressing the range of
issues these events raise–race relations, injustice, unchecked police
brutality, income and educational disparities, and movement toward positive change.
While frustrating
and disheartening, this lack of action is, unfortunately, not surprising. These
events are tragic and complex with relevance that ripples across local communities
and national values. Responding to them in a meaningful way is challenging to
say the least, a point clearly made by two questions raised repeatedly recently: should museums respond? and how should museums respond?
In the past
few days, I have visited websites of 40 museums including museums in the
Ferguson-St Louis area, Staten Island, and Cleveland, in 16 states, and including
science, cultural, history, natural history, art, and children’s museums to get
a sense of how museums are addressing issues raised by events in Ferguson. Nine
museums listed activities and events, posted blogs, facilitated conversations, or
are collecting related artifacts; they are listed below. One museum’s blog post
has since been removed. Some websites had no portal or link to an
activity, event, or position paper; at least it wasn’t labeled clearly enough
for me to find it.
Some of the
30 museums not highlighting events or blog posts are ones where I know a staff
person has spoken out in emails and social media or has reposted one of the statements on
their blog. This suggests a basic challenge of balancing personal
perspectives with institutional positions.
Clearly some
museums are practiced and comfortable in this space of action, community engagement,
and healing. No doubt others are interested and feel a sense of responsibility, but are
inexperienced and unprepared to engage. All must balance a sense of urgency with
readiness to actively engage and do well for their communities and for themselves.
From reflecting on my sampling of museum websites, reading blog posts, and
following twitter feeds, I think many museums are struggling with how to
balance the pull of being both Nice + Necessary.
The Pull of Nice
+ Necessary
Museums are nice. Lovely spaces, full of rare,
fascinating, and often beuatiful objects, they are pleasant settings for spending time with friends
and family. Places of inspiration and celebration, museums offer memorable
experiences. Their missions express concern and an interest in the people of
their town, city, or region. Every museum’s website in my sample highlighted holiday activities and
special events; assured convenience on the busiest days of the year; urged year-end
donations; and promised wonder, magic, and fun. Every museum, even the ones
hosting Town Hall Meetings or posting statements presented itself as nice.
Whereas being nice focuses on fostering good will,
being necessary actively fosters
public good with an interest in long-term tangible outcomes. Necessary refers to the positive, recognized change a museum contributes
to its community–its children, youth, and families, their well-being and
prosperity. Based in a deep knowledge of a community, being necessary is a long-term commitment requiring solid groundwork and trust earned over
time. Visible community impact differs for each
museum reflecting community priorities. Impact may focus on a commitment to resolving issues that prevent a child’s growing up healthy, safe, smart,
and successful at home, school, and in the community; to inspiring social justice and positive
change; or to being integral to a more robust regional ecosystem
around health and well-being.
Increasingly, museums are expected
to–and want to–demonstrate their public value. The call to action from across
the field is a current expression of that expectation. At the same time, the
limited responses from museums express the very real challenge many museums experience
in finding meaningful ways to be necessary–especially
when the moment calls for it with urgency.
Admittedly
the concept of Nice + Necessary alone is not sufficient for a museum to suddenly
take action around a complex and pressing set of issues. It may, however, provide
a frame for museums that believe our country’s cultural and educational infrastructure has an
active and thoughtful role in bringing people together, facilitating conversations,
shaping agendas, and moving toward a positive future but that are uncertain about how to
go about it. While they may lack clarity about where to start and are unprepared to engage constructively
at this moment, many museums are
undoubtedly determined to be prepared to engage thoughtfully from an earned
position of community trust around an inevitable future issue or crisis.
Pushing Much Harder on Necessary
Just as museums have deliberately worked
over time to deliver a reliably nice experience
for their guests, they must work equally hard, or harder, over time to be necessary: to play a meaningful
community role with confidence and credibility and be capable of responding in a timely way. Building capacity internally and developing
credibility externally is a long-term, challenging journey. Clearly, there is
no single thing nor even 7 things to do; no one person nor a single event that creates
change; no one month nor dedicated year of earnest activity that will make a measurable difference.
Nothing less than a whole-hearted, sustained effort, guided by an aligned vision and mission and community outlook;
with committed resources and activities; and support all across the museum from leadership
to the newest hire is essential for relevant and meaningful action to issues
like Ferguson.
Drawing
on suggestions, comments, and perspectives of bloggers and museum
professionals, below are some key factors for museums to become valued and
trusted community resources capable of playing meaningful and relevant roles at
difficult moments. They barely scratch the surface of the work to be done but may take advantage of momentum building in museums.
• A museum
in service to its community. The most basic idea is also the most challenging.
Regardless of its size and prestige, a museum exists to serve its audience
and community. It must maintain a perpetual, alert, and respectful outlook on its community
and the ways in which it can be a valued resource for it. In dynamic environments, external conditions
change and will absolutely change the way in which a museum can and should
serve its community. Furthermore, valuing service to its community must be actively owned
across the museum, be integrated in the museum’s culture, and persist through
changes in leadership and times of scarcer resources.
• A
visible civic role for the museum. A museum’s relevance to its community relies on its doing useful work with great
clarity about the positive
differences in the lives of its community and its members it deliberately
tries to achieve through its activities. A visible civic role is recognized by others and is one a museum can assume relative
to contemporary issues of significance and during a crisis. Although not always
stated explicitly, direction on a museum’s civic role and community connections
emerges from its vision and mission.
• Reflect
the wider community in which it exists. Every facet of a museum can and
should be an expression of its community. Trustees, staff leadership, staff,
volunteers as well as visitors bring varied and diverse perspectives, voices, expertise, and skills
representing the community that enrich the museum. A museum also
reflects its community in its style, the questions that matter, the activities
it offers, exhibitions it stages, how it delivers services, and how it reduces barriers
to increase access to serve the widest possible range of visitors.
• Actively
and respectfully engage with others. Museums need partners, organizations,
agencies, and people with diverse, complementary expertise, skills,
perspectives, and networks to advance their strategic interests and fulfill
their civic role. This involves reaching out and listening to others–without
having ready answers; engaging the community in exhibition planning; training
diverse staff to interact with visitors from diverse backgrounds; and preparing staff
to facilitate
conversations on difficult subjects. It also means
investing the time for building understanding and trust with parts of the
community unfamiliar or distrustful of the museum.
• Build
on strengths. A museum can take a leadership role at
a critical time if it has aligned its long-term strategic interests and
programmatic strengths with the community’s priorities. Contributing something of
recognized value and supporting it with related resources, a museum’s space,
collections, content expertise, etc. are valuable assets. With intention and practice, a
museum may serve as a safe and neutral space where
people with diverse perspectives can come together to discuss charged issues; be
a source of expertise about current pressing events and their historical context;
curate a community art exhibit; or recognize a strength to cultivate and share.
• Learning
at the Core. A museum’s core purpose is learning. While museums do create
learning experiences for its visitors, they also have ample opportunities to learn
with and from their visitors, learn from its communities, and learn from other
museums. Engaging in an open and on-going process of experimenting, reflecting
making connections, a museum itself becomes a learning organization; it frames
new questions that matter, invites staff perspectives, supports dialogue,
encourages reflection, and consolidates lessons at every step of the way. Learning
as it grows, a museum recognizes new territory and learns from both successes
and failures–including lessons from Ferguson.
Posts by Museum Bloggers
Statements by Museum Associations
Museums Responses to Ferguson
• The Magic House, St Louis Children's Museum, took its outreach programs for children to area libraries when school opening in August was delayed following the disruption in nearby Ferguson
Related Museum Notes Posts
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