By Susan Burrows-Johnson, Galt Museum & Archives
As a museum worker, I have been confused
and concerned about the entanglement of social issues and community engagement
in museums. The current literature on
the future of museums directs workers to participate in the community to seek
remedies for injustice and troubles. Following this strategy is full of perceived risks such as mission-drift,
loss of financial support, a threat to scholarship, and insulting activists while
museums join an unsolvable civil society challenge.
Tangling participation and social issues
together as a strategy makes the prediction of the outcome feel difficult and
dangerous. It seems easier to understand
when the museums’ actions are described on two axis. A more explicit description of where a
museum, exhibit, or program chooses to be can be plotted in relationship to the
two choices.
Community engagement is on a continuum of
“little interaction” to “a great deal of community two-way participation”. At one end, the museum is very self-contained. In the middle of the continuum, the museum
seeks the community’s advice. The far
end of the continuum has the museum in a two-way, power-sharing relationship
with the community.
A social action continuum moves from "not
being a change agent" to seeking "a particular change or justice" in the
community. This museum continuum is, at
one end, object-focus to the other end of social issues focus.
