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.

Community Engagement in Museums: Partnering and Collaborating with Community Organizations

One way that museums can effectively practice community engagement is by partnering and collaborating with community organizations. In a way, museums can view other organizations as a kind of “audience” to work with when creating exhibitions, developing programming, or holding special events. In the process of building these relationships, museums can further engage various groups and individuals in the community, as well. In fact, if you look at the ways in which museums are currently engaging many of the audiences that we have discussed in class (when I presented on museums who have successfully engaged individuals who are homeless, for example), partnerships with outside organizations or other museums oftentimes play a significant role in this process.

While researching the topic of community partnerships and collaborations, I came across an excellent resource that I wanted to share – a document tilted museum/community partnerships: Lessons Learned from the Bridges Conference, put out by the Philadelphia-Camden Informal Science Education Collaborative and The Franklin Institute. The Bridges Conference (held in June 2008) invited museum/community partnership programs that serve families to participate in a discussion on what it takes to create and sustain successful community partnerships and collaborations. According to the report, “The Bridges Conference was designed to bring together professionals with long-term museum/community relationships, and to offer opportunities to share and develop new strategies to: 1. address the practical issues inherent in funding, developing, and managing museum/community collaborations aimed at bringing science and math to underserved families, and 2. focus on the unique challenges and benefits of collaborating to work with families. Information shared during the conference was intended to contribute to advancing the field of intergenerational learning and informal science as a whole."

Though this conference specifically focused on science museums and community-based organizations that serve families, many of the themes brought up can apply more generally to all kinds of museum/community partnerships, as well. I found the first section of the report, in which they discuss the main points of the conference itself, especially useful. At the end of this section, they list the takeways that came out of the conference with regards to creating successful, mutually rewarding relationships between museums and community-based organizations. They are as follows:

• Take time to observe prospective partners in action, get to know them fully, and consider possibilities for collaboration before leaping into a formal partnership.

• Ensure that partners share common goals. While two or more organizations may have similar or complementary programs and resources, this is not enough to establish a solid collaboration. Unless all parties share common goals, they may wind up working at cross-purposes.

• Carefully construct a mutually satisfactory memorandum of understanding (MOU) that lays out not only the fact of the collaboration, but also detailed information regarding each partner’s rights and responsibilities; any financial agreements; and processes to be followed in the event that one or more parties wishes to end the association.

• Develop clear and regular procedures for communication, which includes opportunities for formal interaction, and social gatherings.

I highly recommend reading the article in its entirety, as it goes into further detail about each of these points and delves into other topics that relate to museum/community partnerships and their outcomes. The article also addresses certain challenges that go along with developing these kinds of complex relationships, and how to handle them. As to-be museum educators, learning about these various aspects of community partnerships and collaborations will help us to create successful and productive community relationships (both on the organizational and individual level) in the future.

I know it is always helpful to see some real-world museum examples and applications -- two museums that I came across that have quite an impressive list and explanation of their community partnerships (and the events, exhibitions, etc. that they have put on as a result) are the The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, CA and the Minnesota Children's Museum in St. Paul, MN. You can see that each of these museums has collaborated with a variety of organizations that might not immediately come to mind when you think of community engagement in museums, including the American Red Cross and local public libraries. One additional resource that I found particularly relevant and useful in terms of thinking about community partnerships and collaborations is Strategies for Long-Term Community Partnerships by Jim Zien.

Before closing this post, I would like to share a quote from another resource I came across in my research. In Community Partnerships, an article that focuses on community partnerships and libraries, Nann Blaine Hilyard explains that, “Partnering with municipal government, with businesses, and school communities, and working with other community organizations has bolstered our claim of being the hub of the community and proven our relevance to those who fund our efforts. I cannot imagine how we would make our case without their support." Though Hilyard is referring to libraries in her article, we can certainly apply this quote to informal education institutions in general. We all know how important it is for museums to remain relevant and valuable to their surrounding communities. Community partnerships and collaborations can help with this by making museums an important, integral part in a network of community organizations.

As rewarding and productive as these relationships can be, collaboration is hard work. I noticed that Lori brought up a good question on a previous post with regards to advocating for community engagement in museums. It is certainly possible that we may meet some resistance with regards to community engagement in museums. I think that much of this goes back to what we discussed in Carol’s class this past summer with regards to best practices in museums. If you look back to Excellence and Equity: Education and the Public Dimension of Museums (American Association of Museums, 1992), #6 on their list of recommendations is to: “Engage in active, ongoing collaborative efforts with a wide spectrum of organizations and individuals who can contribute to the expansion of the museum’s public dimension." I would say that the best thing you could do to help prepare yourself to advocate for community engagement in museums is to be aware of the best practices and standards for museums, learn the current trends in museums as they relate to community engagement, and explore how other museums are practicing community engagement in with outside organizations, groups of people, or individuals in their communities. In general, knowing how to find the information that will prove the value of community engagement for your museum will be beneficial in this process. The evidence is certainly out there!

Feel free to comment and share some other examples of community partnerships and collaborations that you have seen or learned about! We’d love to hear about them. I would also be interested to hear if you have any other ideas of how to advocate for community engagement in museums in response to Lori's question.