Thursday, October 22, 2009

Are we talking about the same thing?

Step one in looking at civic engagement in museums - define civic engagement.

I dislike buzzwords. Strongly. So, when a word like civic engagement gets tossed around, I want to understand what it really means. And honestly, I'm not sure I do. Seems like for some museums, civic engagement is holding forums and talking about issues and current events. For others, its providing needed services, or serving as a liaison between community and social agencies. For others, its teaching about and celebrating diversity.

Which is making finding children's museums with a visible dedication to civic engagement pretty darn hard.

So, for now - reviewing the AAM work on civic engagement from 2002, along with Margaret Kadoyama's work and some other texts. Really need to hash this out before I start choosing my focus.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Final year, big project

It is officially my last two semesters of grad school. And, as I have 2 major projects and several minor ones breathing down my neck, I've been allowed to do an independent study in lieu of an internship.

I'm working on a survey of civic and community engagement in children's museums in the US. When I first started in CMs, there was lots of talk about "the new town square" and how CMs make kids into better citizens, etc. However, if one looks at the ACM Promising Practice awards for the past few years, you can see that civic engagement has given way to healthy eating and environmentalism.

Not that I have anything against healthy eating or environmentalism.

As is always the case, I ask too many questions. Rather than focus on my survey of what some museums are doing, I want to know why the focus shifted? Was it just too hard to engage communities? Did the funding dry up for these great programs? Or are they still happening under the radar?

Its no secret that funding for "green" initiatives and health related programming is abundant, but other funding is hard to find. Is this why? Its a sad irony that programs that focus on building responsible citizenry fall by the wayside because the current citizenry will only commit dollars to programs that advance their own products, services, or PR.

So, stay tuned for information on what IS happening. Museums that educate about their own communities, that serve small underrepresented groups, that empower the disenfranchised, and more. And please contribute. What does civic engagement in a museum mean to you?