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.
