what will the museum of the future be like?

Museums and Community Relevance - exemplary efforts?

I just posted a new discussion on the "Museums Fostering a Culture of Sustainability" group and thought that the larger Museum3.0 forum might be interested. The posting goes like this... "There are many museums that are trying to be relevant to their communities. I am hoping that colleagues will post short descriptions about which museums have made exemplary forays into this realm of community relevance. Please describe your experience and, if possible, please identify the measures of assessing this relevance (e.g. qualitative or quantitative; individual, group or community; etc.). Thanks."

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Permalink Reply by Peter Gale on March 23, 2012 at 1:01am

Hi Doug. As your question implies, there are many ways that a museum can be relevant to their communities, and there are many communities. Two or three things come immediately to my mind (and probably more later!).

First, I have found that audience surveys (with in-house and online visitors) are helpful.

Also, a collection item, or idea, that relates to the communities, in some ways, and is presented so that it is seen or understood in a currently relevant way, can be an attraction.

Creating a presentation that provides an unexpected or unusual museum experience (e.g. presentations with unique music offerings created specifically for them), or a presentation that stimulates personal experiences, while also representing the institution's information, intentions, and values, have been important.