Abstract
This paper is a PhD research project developed with the school of Writing, Publishing & the Humanities at Bath Spa University. The project is a cross-comparison research project between the three museums of The Roman Baths (Bath, UK), M-Shed (Bristol, UK) and LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes (Los Angeles). With the comparison of community engagement, representation and internal management practices, this project shows the value of sharing knowledge of engagement practices between museums. The approach of this research involves three participant groups, Museum Professionals, External Professionals and Community Members, where all participant groups are treated equally and are interviewed with the same questions on engagement, representation, and museum development, resulting in each museum receiving an evaluative report on current community practice. By using this approach, the project seeks to identify how greater community involvement within self-evaluation processes can help museums develop a more strategic offering toward sustainable community development. The result of this work indicates that to achieve better practices of community engagement and representation museum professionals need to be better equipped when working with communities in a more facilitatory way, whilst being able to articulate their successes for further support and funding. Finally, the project concludes with a toolkit and best practices designed for museum professionals when developing more collaborative and sustainable methods of community engagement, representation, and self-evaluation.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2023 Special Focus—Museum Transformations: Pathways to Community Engagement
KEYWORDS
MUSEUM AND HERITAGE MANAGEMENT, COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT, EQUAL ACCESS, FACILITATION
