The Role Of Museums On Community Engagement

Museums serve as a way to connect with the public on a large scale, and the knowledge held within exhibits can be a fruitful experience for those who choose to visit these institutions. Experiencing all that a museum has to offer, no matter how well intentioned, can at times be confusing and overwhelming to the individuals visiting the site. The Smithsonian’s Museum of the American Indian dedicates itself to Native Americans in North and South America, and worked tirelessly with varying tribes to create a new standard. Some visitors and scholars found their work to be successful in design and approach while others found it to be lacking in execution. This institution does not approach Native American history in a familiar fashion; however it does cover an expansive period of time, and produces a great amount of detail while generating powerful emotions.

Museums have long served a purpose as cultural staples. For every museum, big and small, careful consideration is used in selecting its contents. When securing new items for a museum, it is most important to consider public appeal, educational value, and cost-effectiveness.

Being seen as a community leader in the offering of knowledge and learning opportunities, it adds value to the museum and forms a positive attitude among community members towards an organization.

One of those negatives is that the museum is misunderstood, so they have very few visitors. This is bad because the museum cannot present their works of art to anybody. Few people know about the museum, and the people who do know think it’s boring. This is because often people have the stereotype that only traditional people can go to museums. However, by creating advertisements, and by raising money for the art curator so that they can pick art that is more interesting for the neighborhood, people will be attracted to the museum. Also, as a student, my advice is that they need to make the museum more visible because before I did not know that there was a museum in Manhattan that represented the Hispanic culture. However, now that I am doing this work about the museum I have realized that the Hispanic Society of America is very interesting and an incredible museum to know, and because of that, we have to do campaigns and field trips to make the museum more

When a museum has prestige on a national level, they can be under high scrutiny of exhibits or objects displayed by the public. Controversial topics, for example, the Enola Gay exhibit, has left historians hesitant and confused on how to create exhibits with correct history, but also not upsetting any individual who were involved with said history. Historians have a trying task of addressing both sides of a historical event, even though it might depict individuals in an unflattering way. A historian is not allowed to have a bias for events, this could have an impact on the way an exhibit is created. Another point that was brought to light in Bunch’s article was museums have the ability to educate the public, so difficult topics should not be

Another aspect that I found to be very interesting was the way in which each of the museums offered different multimedia formats to facilitate the visitor’s experience with the artwork in display. I noticed that both museums offered applications for smartphones and tablets, free of charge, to assist the visitors with getting the most possible out of the museum. Visiting a museum can be a very distracting task because there is so much to see and without a plan or a navigating system that helps you make your way towards the museum, it can be hard to gain something from your visit. Both apps are accessible to most people and very easy to navigate through. These apps included audio guides, exhibition information, calendars, events and so on. However, I noticed

Cooper states that “museums came to understand that their unique educational ability was that of object-based learning...the possession of objects made museums different” (65). I tend to agree with that statement with some caveats. Firstly, object-based learning can happen without collections. Secondly, is the additional unique opportunity potential for lifelong learning. The museum is a place that can assist, contrast, or provide learning at every stage of a person’s life. For instance, the Mission museums in California are a resource for public elementary school curriculum (Dartt-Newton 97). As people of all ages from the public look to museums as an educational authority, the material presented needs to be as scrutinized as any other

I spent time at three different museums for my service hours, the Bangor Discovery Museum, the College of the Atlantic Dorr Museum and the Woodlawn Gardens Museum. At each I went to a different event and each had their the similarities and differences to each other. I facilitated an event at both the College of the Atlantic Dorr Museum and the Bangor Discovery Museum, which is why I believe there are the most similarities between these two, they were completely different activities, but with the same goal: kids have fun and learn.

In the Robyn Autry article, it mainly focuses on the national conflict of museums mainly focusing towards African American. The author travel to 15 museums around the United States that focuses towards African American. She mainly talks about how the African American were facing numerous hardships in the U.S and how the museum represents those issues to the general public. She believes the way to tell the hardship of African Americans is by exhibiting through a museum. When traveling through these museums she focused towards “centered on three traumatic episodes: capture and displacement from Africa, enslavement, and racial segregation” (Autry 64). The author of the articles wants to show that over time that museums meanings has changed over

Throughout the experience, I learned the importance and care of working with an artifact along with operations within a museum. As I toured Heartland Museum, I witnessed all of the items that are stored behind the scenes because museums only keep a small percentage of the belongings on display. I also learned about the process of creating a display, which includes piecing together many details like attraction, relevance, and of course history. Museums must worry about the community’s interest in the displays. Lastly, I learned about the importance of an artifact by working with some of the items. It is important to handle artifacts with care because of the fragility of the item. After the information I learned at the museum, it was my turn to experience the public

This unique and contemporary event provides patrons with live entertainment, food and drink as they revel in the wonders the museum has to offer. Carrie Martin’s aim is to attract at least 3,500 visitors for the grand opening and maximize profits. Corporate capabilities, competitors, and consumers will be examined to develop an effective marketing plan.

There are opportunities though, and they are good opportunities. I was able to identify three that they should pay attention to and really hit hard on. In today’s economy, people aren’t wanting to spend a lot of money. The recession is making people be a lot more conscious about money. Good news, the museum is free. If marketed properly, this could be a huge way to gain new visitors. Plus, art museums have sophisticated connotations that make people feel smart when they go to them. What better way to spend the day than to go somewhere that is free and feel sophisticated? Another opportunity is that new exhibits could attract younger demographics, pending on the exhibit. This could be tricky though because they want to attract everyone, but older crowds are interested in things that younger generations aren’t. They have to be able to balance the attractions so everyone can relate to it and want to view it.

Royal Ontario Museum is known to be one of the best attractions in Toronto. Out of all the guests, according to the ROM’s exit survey, 71% of guests were families. Furthermore, younger visitors, including millennials, were more general visitors whom came to with no specific purpose. A study from the National Endowment for the Arts found that in 2008 23-24% of the millenials went to a museum once in a year. In 2012, only 18-22% of the millenials did so (GBriff, 2015). The museums are consistently experiencing drop in younger visitors. The ROM, knowing the potential of attracting younger generations, seeks to appeal to the millennials by conducting best and current practice research. The objective of this research is to identify several of the

However, it is also a private space because there are rules and regulations within the museum. As the rule stated, “The museum is not available for parties, job candidate interviews, or other non-educational events.” If the museum is truly a public space, then it would be open for all entertaining events. Moreover, the museum has a fund-raising and public outreach group called “The Friends of the Palmer Museum of Art.” It is an annual membership that provided exclusive benefits for members such as a ten percent discounts at a Museum Store and invitations to “members only” events. Because the museum obtains profit from membership, it is regarded as a private institution. The term “Public Sphere” is more appropriated for the Palmer Museum because it blurs the lines between public and private space. Public sphere is when a private territory overlaps with government and institution territory. It is a place that openly to the public but is owned by government or private institution and has some rules and regulations. Although the Palmer Museum is blurred between public and private space, it is undoubtedly an admirable place in State

The Cambridge Dictionary Online defined museums as “places of study, buildings where objects of historical, scientific or artistic interest are kept, preserved and exhibited”. To The Museums Association, a museum is “an institution which collects documents, preserves, exhibits and interprets material evidence and associated information for the public benefit”. Since 1998, this definition has changed. Museums now enable the public to explore collections for inspiration, learning and enjoyment. They are institutions that collect, safeguard and make accessible artefacts and specimens, which they hold in trust for society. Mike Wallace (1996) categorised museums into four distinct types, namely National Museums that hold collection of