How can your museum help end poverty?

Today is Blog Action Day. The topic is poverty. Blog Action Day is about getting bloggers to discuss one issue, to change the conversation and get people talking. I'm so on board with that. So a celeb blog (like Perez, which yes I read, don't judge me) could discuss Brangelina and others who are attempting to make a difference in the world.  A blog about politics can discuss policies and such that can help. But what can a blog about museums discuss?

Much is made of the importance of museums to society. Museums provide a place for contemplation of aesthetic wonder, for learning about the past, and for imagining the future. Ideally, museums provide resources to the community, educate citizens and offer opportunities for engagement with others. But can museums help alleviate basic problems? Can museums have an impact on poverty and hunger? You all know the answer - of course they can!

So, here are some ideas, off the top of my head...with some links.

The Tenement Museum has amazing community programs that help address poverty through dialogue and education. The most powerful programs  target school children. One program leads students through a discussion of class bias, and another teaches about substandard housing, and encourages students currently living in substandard conditions to report violations to the housing authority. These programs empower people to seek ways out of the cycle of poverty and oppression. 

The Workhouse, in the UK, chronicles a solution from the past.  While many of us would shudder at the idea of the workhouse today, we cannot forget that the minds behind the idea meant well.  Programs help visitors relate past and contemporary issues of poverty and welfare. 

One program idea I've had for a while would involve working with groups like Spatulatta or Young Chef's Academy to teach kids and families to create easy, healthy, cheap meals. Food is expensive, and increasingly so. Parents dont have time or energy to cook. My own spouse grew up with this model. Mom's tired from working overtime. Food is expensive, and there are only two of them, so, its cheaper and easier to hit McDonalds than to make a meal. The problem there is that you set up kids for a lifetime of drive-thru dining - which leads to nutritional deficiencies, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity and overall poor health. Museums, while teaching basic nutrition, should help teach families about budgeting, cooking small meals that can be reheated, and making healthy snacks. They should help families embrace local markets and learn to clip coupons.

In the same vein, many museums are located in urban areas, but areas with green spaces. Most museum campuses have some sort of green space available. How great to turn an unused patch of land into a community garden? Families can work their patch to plant veggies that they can then harvest and eat. Too many tomatoes? The museum can teach the science of canning or freezing. Or better yet, partner with a food bank and donate the proceeds. 

Many museums host resource fairs. The Children's Museum of Indianapolis hosts an annual back to school festival. This festival offers visitors a chance to have vision and hearing screenings done, as well as get basic immunizations. All at low or no cost. In addition, we partner with Backpack Attack to distribute school supplies to over 20,000 children in our local area. 

Offer classes - as a children's museum we tend to focus on kids, but parents need classes too. We have recently begun hosting basic finance classes. We also host computer classes through our local library branch. Offer babysitting certification. Teach parenting skills to young parents. Offer resources for foster and adoptive parents. Offer opportunities and respite for those caring for elders. 

Discounts - no one should ever be barred from your museum because they cannot pay. If they will not, thats one thing, but if they truly want to come, there should be a way. Offer programs, opportunities, free days, etc, to allow everyone to have access.

Most importantly though, museums can help by working at the roots of poverty. Help your visitors understand that poverty affects people in every city in the world. Help children and families recognize consumerism and the problems it causes. Help them understand that people living in poverty are not lazy, nor are they stupid. Help them understand that barriers to education cause a cycle to exist. Stop promoting the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" mentality that if you want something enough you can do anything.  Stop promoting the myth of the meritocracy. Start the conversation about why this isnt true. Help visitors appreciate the opportunity to learn, to get good health care, and to have a hot meal and warm bed. Help grow compassion and understanding. Help them name the prejudices and biases that keep people locked in poverty. Help empower them to seek justice and stand up to those who would keep the cycle of poverty going.  Show examples from the past and connect them to the present and future. Bring about understanding.

Museums educate. That's what we do. We can host free nights and give things away until we are blue, but unless we educate people - both those in poverty and those who believe they will never be touched by it (especially those who believe they will never be touched by it) then we will not break the cycle.

OK, soapbox done. Carry on.

Blog Action Day, 08

Tomorrow, October 15, is Blog Action Day. The topic for 2008 is poverty. What to write about? I've a few ideas percolating. We'll see what comes out, eh?

Illustrated Jocularity

If you aren't currently reading "Wondermark," I insist that you start.

Behold today's brilliance:

Click link to see larger. 

I'm a PC - part 2

So, earlier I posted about the Mac/PC wars, and Microsoft's very lame attempt to be cool. Well, as predicted, it went over like a lead balloon. However, if you've seen their new ads, I have to admit, I like them! Rather than trying to be hip and clever, they embrace the fact that maybe they arent as cool, but that more people still use PCs. I love the "I'm a PC and I'm not a stereotype" ads.

The only question remains, did it really take them this long to come out with this rebuttal? They need a new marketing team.

Banned Books Week

Tomorrow marks the start of Banned Books Week. This year I will be reading "The Golden Compass," which I cannot believe I haven't read yet. I'll also re-read "And Tango Makes Three," which is probably the most adorably innocuous book to top the list of banned books. 

So, what are you reading?

Let it be known

That I am terrible at "free writing." Has the world of education and work so destroyed me thus far that when faced with a blank page and free choice of topic, I cannot find a damn thing to write about in a coherent and skillful way? Or have I reached a point where I write like a damn politician, without ever making a statement, but rather arguing both sides until I am blue? Perhaps I am so used to research papers that I feel the need to present compelling evidence and cannot state a damned opinion.

And apparently this makes me angry, hence the use of "damn" throughout.

Perhaps I do need to start creative writing again. Maybe the activities will help build the atrophied muscles.

Next few blog postings will be attempts at "short essays...reflective of...ideas, thoughts, concerns, and interests around the idea of critical museum pedagogy." I swear I am trying.

Designing for Critical Thinking

A short bit on designing for critical thinking/dialogue. Some bits of this were originally part of an article I co-authored for the Fall 2007 issue of Museums and Social Issues. This bit was unfortunately cut, but I feel like revisiting it.

Museums are not classrooms. We hear it constantly; we repeat it constantly. Attempts to bring classroom methods to museums are often met with heavy resistance. Partly this is because many attempts to integrate classroom philosophies into museums fail to adapt to the unique environment of non-formal education. Partly this may be because museums pride themselves on being non-formal, and thus fail to see the value in philosophies based in formal education.

Whatever the reason, I find myself stuck trying to find real ways to effect the goals of critical pedagogy in the museum setting. True critical pedagogy, as championed by Friere and others, requires a skilled facilitator to help participants through the process of learning. In much of the reading so far, it seems that facilitation remains the best way to stimulate dialogue and critical learning. So how can we facilitate, through an exhibit, without a guide or docent?
Exhibits communicate in several ways: through objects, interpretive text and design. So, how can an exhibit, without a single person to facilitate, encourage dialogue and inspire visitors to think critically about their world? What elements of design and development encourage critical thought and dialogue? Conversely, what elements may inadvertently communicate hegemony and positions of power?

In the original incarnation of the article “Can You Do That?,” we included a section on designing for dialogue. I would like to further investigate this concept and find an avenue for publication. I think that exhibit design often gets overlooked in favor of programming, but many museums cannot support long term programming with professionally trained facilitators.

Objects:
• As indicated in the Hooper-Greenhill, “objects do not speak for themselves…objects are spoken.” Every exhibit displays curatorial choices in display. Linked objects, display context, use of images and object display style all communicate to the public. The choice of object displayed can communicate ideas about power and control as well.

Labels:
• Labels are generally the way that museums communicate through exhibits. Labels should strive against being overly didactic and should serve to stimulate critical thinking. As per Lindauer, labels can be used to disrupt hegemony and displace authority. Prompting questions can also serve to stimulate dialogue.

Design:
• Comfort! Critical thinking is uncomfortable. Dialogue is uncomfortable. If you try to combine these with an uncomfortable physical environment, you set yourself up to fail. Soft seating, pleasant lighting, protected spaces, etc, all can lead to enhanced opportunities for dialogue and thinking.
• Placement of exhibits and components is important. What message does it send if an exhibit about this history of communities of color is tucked back in a seldom visited corner? Or if an exhibit on migrant farm workers is displayed in a poorly organized hallway? Likewise, if hegemonic displays are given a place of prominence, it sends a similar message.

More on this to come.