Well, maybe not the whole world, but the new world of museum exhibits strives for a democratization of content.  Let me explain...

Building on the opening plenary discussion I sat in on a session about change, community, and collaborations.  The panel presenters focused on strategy and planning for museums and exhibits, and I confess most of the key messages were predictable ones we focus on regularly here at Canada’s History. The general trend is toward broadening content, encouraging greater user-engagement in the selection and presentation of that content, and generally providing a level playing field for all sources of content.

As a publisher and as a content provider of history, we know that our content needs to reflect the interest of the audience it serves. We know that younger audiences interact with content differently and that the type of content they are looking for is rapidly changing. It’s evident that all cultural institutions need to find ways of adapting to those changes, and rethinking our approach to programming that actively engages our audience makes infinite sense. Striking the right balance between entertaining and informing the audience is nothing new, but the complexity of that challenge is increasing particularly within our museums.

The session spanned both the theory and process of planning for greater community involvement and collaboration and highlighted the Haida Gwaii Cultural Centre as a good case study. Nika Collison and David Jensen shared their perspectives as the curator and designer for the museum (or Storing Space as it is referred to on the website) respectively. The eight-year long process of community consultations and engagement has resulted in a very different kind of museum space. One that the community feels more invested in because they know individual members who appear on a display board, or who crafted parts of the exhibit, or perhaps most importantly, because the way the space has been developed, and the way the information is communicated is much more resonant with the way things are in every other aspect of their life. Collison admits that initially she had a perception of museums as being foreign and inaccessible, but being part of this project has opened her mind to what museums are all about.

The message from Claudette LeClerc, Executive Director of the Manitoba Museum was the same. Although premature to talk about the projects in detail, she referenced two community-led exhibits currently in development in which the biggest challenge for the museum staff has been releasing control to the communities empowering them to set and shape the content and messaging for the exhibit.

Marc Mayer provided another reference to the Musée d’Art Contemporain extremely popular program to showcase some of Montreal’s best new musical groups and performers in their space, drawing and building an audience that may otherwise never have darkened the doorstep of the gallery.

While each initiative presented was dynamic, engaging and worthwhile, I began to wonder if anyone was thinking about strategies for providing a broader context for these various collections and exhibits. It seems to me that diversification without any framework to connect them risks the unintended consequence of further fragmenting and potentially marginalizing the value of these investments, both new and old. This is particularly true for historical and heritage presentations.

Context, in my view, isn’t to be viewed as a bull whip but rather a compass. It’s an essential component to helping the whole of your audience answer the timeless questions that we all need to answer “why is this here? “why do I need to know this?” and “why should I care?”