Case Study: Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience

      The Wing Luke museum has a long history of engaging their community to co-create their exhibition. They focus on empowering their community members to create exhibitions and tell their own stories on their own terms. The community- based exhibition model they implement aims to integrate community members throughout the process. This is called Co-creating. Co-creative projects are when partnerships are made with participants rather than based solely on institutional goals.

      Their exhibition Sikh Community: over 100 years in the Pacific Northwest came about when museum staff and organizers from the Sikh Coalition conducted an informal outreach to form a committee to direct the exhibition. Sikh coalition is a volunteer organization that began in 2001 to address the misdirected hate and discrimination that the Sikh community faced in the aftermath of 9/11 started. It was made up of 19 people through outreach and conducted oral history with 29 individuals and gathered artifacts, photographs, and documents from 14 individuals and families. By the end there were 75 community members in total helping in creating this exhibition.

Organizational structure of Wing Luke Museum

·         Non- profit organization with 501c3 status

·         Volunteer-run board of trustees currently with 20 members

·         Each member is a member of one of the following committees:

o   Capital campaign

o   Development

o   Finance and capital project advisory

·         16 full-time staff and 11 part-time staff

      Community members participate from exhibition development to design to fabrication and installation, and including exhibition fundraising, publicity and marketing, education and public programming.  The museum aims to put community members in decision-making positions where they are empowered to determine project direction, set priorities, make selections, and guide project execution.

Here is a diagram of their Exhibit team

On a basic level the exhibit team consists of:

·         Museum staff- who are in charge of developing the community vision for an exhibitions and bring it to being. They are the “technical advisors, project administrators and community organizers.”

·         Core community members- consist of 10-15 members who form the Community Advisor Committee (CAC). The members have a direct connection with the exhibition topic and are mostly leaders within other communities. They make the decisions and are in charge of making the main message and encourage participation within the community.   

·         Participating community members- the contribute to the exhibition by:

o   Participating in and helping conduct interviews, translating and  transcribing

o   Artifact, photograph and document loans and gathering

o   General research

o   Outreach

o   Serving as docents, speakers and volunteers.

According to Nina Simons There three main reasons that cultural institutions engage in co-creative projects:

1.       To give voice and be responsive to the needs and interest of local community members.

2.       To provide a place for community engagement and dialogue

3.       To help participants develop skills that will support their own individual and community goals.

For the community the wing Luke museum is an essential community institution because they are part of the process and their voices are heard there is a strong sense of ownership and pride.

Here are some tips from Nina Simon to facilitate co-creation in museums:

1.     Staff members and participants respect each other’s goals and interests in pursuing the project. They should create a set of shared guidelines for what is and isn’t acceptable and expected over the duration of the project.

2.     Staff members should not harbor pre-conceived ideas about the outcome of the project. They should be willing to let the project go in the direction that is of greatest value to participants, within the scope of the project guidelines.

It’s important to think about how to empower the visitors. How can the staff give amateurs the skills and the tools needed to accomplish shared goals?

To give visitors the skills and tools needed to lead their own tours, here are some suggestions to empower them

§  Provide visitors with maps and encourage them to mark their favorite places as they explore the exhibits

§  Ask visitors to assign a theme or title to a collection of their favorite places

§  Post the maps and titles in a central location along with the times when visitors will be available to give the tours they have devised

§  Make available interpretative literature or staff consultations to give tour guides reference materials for their tours

Co-creative projects and the community process that Wing Luke Museum has allows museums to form partnerships and bonds that feed the interests and needs of the community it serves. Engaging the community to become a part of the process in designing programs and exhibition it empowers and give ownership to the participants.