Miriam,
Last year we worked with a community advisory group to help us prepare to host a travelling exhibit on racial and ethnic stereotypes--also our first explicitly tackling this issue--and they were incredibly helpful in numerous ways: connecting us with people to participate in programs and events; helping us prepare for any negative responses; and identifying training for staff and volunteers. We recruited as many group members as we could from different racial and ethnic communities, kept the agendas focused and respectful of their time, and kept the face-to-face meetings to three 1 1/2 hour meetings. One of the most important things the group members really helped us with was anticipating strong negative reactions and helping us talk through how to defuse difficult situations. In the event, by the way, we were pleasantly surprised at the overwhelmingly positive responses from visitors, but we were more confident *because* we had planned for the worst.
Best,
Liz Stewart
Renton History Museum
Renton, WA
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Elizabeth Stewart PhD
Director
Renton History Museum
Renton WA
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-04-2018 11:22 AM
From: Miriam Machado
Subject: First LGBTQ exhibition
Hi, we are planning our first LGBTQ exhibition titled Art after Stonewall and we are thinking of creating a focus group to help us design programs that will create dialogue and educate our community.
We want to discourage negativity, suggestions?
Miriam Machado
Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone