Becoming Civic Museums: Creating and Cultivating Participative Audiences

Abstract

This research project seeks to understand how the Departments of Education and Public Programs in three art museums across Spain and the U.S are changing to promote equitable dialogue, collaboration, and programming that is relevant to citizen and community organizations. The aims of this project are to identify the differences and commonalities of the emerging practices in each institution, to engage in a cross-cultural dialogue about the strategic lines, and to disseminate the outcomes of this research to academic and professional communities globally. This project has been guided by the following research questions: What is, in the eyes of museum professionals, the emerging role of the art museum of the 21st century? What strategies are three Departments of Education and Public Programs across Spain and the US developing to foster civic engagement? What determines successful participation in each context and what conflicts have manifested? I have also paid attention to the following categories: Strategies, Work Culture, and Nature of Collaborations. In Strategies I look at the methods developed in order to promote and sustain partnership and collaboration. In Work Culture, I focus on the shifts that are taking place in the mission and internal organization.Lastly, I pay attention to the ways in which museum staff and community members experience collaboration and what they identify as successes and challenges. Data has been collected in Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia (Spain), Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (U.S), and Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History (U.S).

Presenters

Almudena Caso
Student, PhD, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

Details

Presentation Type

Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Theme

Visitors

KEYWORDS

Museums, Visitors, Diversity, Education, Stakeholders, Participation, Access, Localty

Digital Media

Videos

Caso: Becoming Civic Museums (Mp4)

Downloads

Caso: Becoming Civic Museums (MP4)

Almudena_Caso_Presentation.mp4