What is Community Engagement and Why is it Important?

A Google search on “community engagement” yields many, many different results.  Principles of community engagement, strategies for increasing community engagement, organizations that focus on leadership and community engagement -- the list goes on and on. But what is community engagement, really? Though specific definitions vary, community engagement is typically described as the process of forming a mutually beneficial, ongoing partnership or relationship between an institution and its surrounding communities.

So what role does community engagement play in museums? The Colchester + Ipswich Museums in Ipswich, UK consider community outreach and community engagement an important part of their core vision and values. On their website, they do an excellent job of explaining why community engagement is essential in museums:

“As part of the process of attracting new audiences it is necessary to have more inclusive and accessible services, and ones that reflect the diverse histories and stories of the whole community.  A way to produce more inclusive services is to directly involve the community in helping to develop and deliver a particular project or service, display or exhibition.  This helps bring about a feeling of ownership, break down initial perceptual barriers as well as creating a better end result.  Empowering the community to play a part, to continue to be involved and to have an influence on service development can only be of benefit to a publicly funded organisation.”

Our group's blog posts will focus on the many ways in which museums are involving different communities through their programs, exhibitions, and events. We will present case studies, look at how museums are engaging specific audiences and communities, and discuss some of our own personal experiences as students in the Museum Education Program. To kick off our blog about community engagement in museums, we thought that we could each share what community engagement means to us:

Joo Lee: Actively engaging the community has become very important as museums have evolved. Its survival and growth had been previously depended on the elite and had been closed off to the public. Now the museum relies on the support of its community for its survival and has taken on a different role. By focusing on the importance and the benefits to its community, it better advocates for our museums.  This blog will focus on successful case studies analysis of why they worked and what the  museums are doing now to reach out to specific audiences. building a strong relationship with the community strengthens trust and provide a sense of  ownership of the museum in which museums rely.

Julie: To me, community engagement is all about building relationships -- with individuals, with other institutions or organizations, and with the community as a whole. I believe that education and open, honest dialogue each play a major role in achieving these kinds of sustained relationships.

Kaitlyn: Like Julie, I believe community engagement is about building relationships. Museums must take a special effort to nurture the connection between groups that visit the site often, in addition to those that visit less frequently. Hopefully, by making a conscious effort to support all members of the community, they will encourage diverse audiences to participate in programs, events, etc. This participation between and among groups is an important component of community engagement.

Shadayna: I  agree with  the statements already written by my fellow colleagues. I believe the two most important factors of  community engagement within the museum setting  is establishing trust  with communities and providing an open environment for diverse visitors and discussions. Once a museum achieves these two factors they will  continuously have new and loyal visitors for the museums duration.

Yi-An: Like those had been said by our group members, community engagement is every effort made consciously by the museums, to get the communities museums might be involved with most comfortably engaged. Both providing a welcoming environment and atmosphere for a diversity of visitors, and have diverse members from the communities join the design and display of the exhibitions and programs are very important. To me, I honor the idea of having community representatives engaged from the early stage of program, exhibition and education development. The input of community members can no doubt lead to a more successful community engagement. The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Multicultural Audience Development Initiative is an example of increasing community’s awareness of the museum’s programs and collections.

As we close this post, we invite you to consider your own definition of community engagement. Feel free to comment and share your thoughts!