Twelfth International Conference on The Inclusive Museum

Abstract

As museums take on the challenge of confronting their historical lack of community engagement and experiment with approaches towards increasing that engagement, schools and training programs must take on the related challenge of educating students to enter a professional field where the skill-sets of community organizing, facilitation, public programming, and outreach are increasingly valued and prioritized. This study details a range of examples from Moore College of Art & Design’s Socially-Engaged Art MFA and MA programs where the curriculum, public symposia, or specific student research have interfaced with the emerging field of community engagement in museums. These include courses that balance the interdisciplinary skills of project management while still offering aspiring curators and educators a grounding in art historical frameworks relevant to their research. Student examples include an action-based research project about the changing role of docents who serve as “reliable narrators” for specific collections connected to their own life and immigration experiences, a project dealing with measuring the role of interpersonal connection in affecting participation in arts programming, and a project dealing with the function of exhibition documentation to connect with real world community engagement practices. The paper also provides an overview of numerous public programs hosted by the department to explore the confluence of four major museums in the Philadelphia area all hiring community engagement and diversity “coordinators” at the same time and the discussion that ensued based on bringing them together to explore the particular dynamics facing these professionals working between curation and education divisions at museums.