Open Forum

I have served as a Museum Educator, Curator of Education and  Head of Education and Interpretation programs for 12 years now.  I recently rejoined the AAM community, as I believe that this is a place where members truly want to serve and empower the community; however, when I received my first "Museum" magazine, my attention was focused on theParting Thought article of Ford. W Bell, DVM. 

Within the first paragraph, Bell sites Museums as essential societal institutions. In the second ...museums are first and foremost educations institutions.... Museums simply never miss an opportunity to inform, to engage and excite. Third paragraph...they are preservers of our country's and humankind's greatest heritages: cultural, scientific and historic.....institutions dedicated to finding new and better ways to serve and strengthen communities.

I became a museum educator solely for the purpose of empowering and building communities, and I have worked with all of the genres of museums that Bell sites above; however, I have still yet to encounter a museum that is not dedicated specifically to serve as an specific "cultural identity" institution, serve the members of the community that are in most need of positive interaction with museums.  I have worked in Missouri, where believe me, there is still that magical line of segregation of communities, and the title I schools, primarily consisting of "people of color" are most definitely overlooked because the primary stakeholders do not want to make the monetary commitment to create consistent programming that serves to include and engage this demographic; however, I am not limiting this comment to Missouri, I have seen this at practically every institution I have served, and believe me, it has broken my heart.  I talk with children about "African American" or "Japanese American" art and artists, and these children cannot even grasp what this terminology actually means....and why are most of these demographics considered "minorities" as this seems to be such an antiquated term referring to race; and have we not moved beyond the distinction that we are all one race - which is human.  And if we refer to artists as African American or "other" than why do we not use the term "euro-american" as most of us are certainly not indigenous to this country. 

I love museums for their capacity to be institutions that empower the entire community, but I do not believe we have reached that level of understanding or participation at this point. Yes, the Museums that are developed to inform the community about cultural diversity are certainly doing their best, but, are the Museums that are not dedicated to this mission really fulfilling the mission of empowering the community - which means all members of the community and not just the one's that can afford to visit the museum.

I hope that someone can prove me wrong, but after 12 years, I am almost ashamed of our progress and do not believe that we Museums are Institutions that empower the community, we only empower a certain demographic - and I am astounded at the lack of process we have made as a whole.

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Cynthia Scheuer
Clarkston MI
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Hello Cynthia,

Thanks for this post. It definitely resonated with me and, while I am not certain that my museum (the Wagner Free Institute of Science in Philadelphia) fits exactly what you're looking for, I do think that we are attempting to do a lot of the things you cite below that museums can do to serve disadvantaged communities. 

We consider ourselves first and foremost a science education institution. We were founded in 1855 by a man named William Wagner - he was a "gentleman scientist" who believed that science education should be open and accessible to all people. So he started this institution to provide free science lectures but was also a museum to house his personal collection of natural history specimens. We believe the lectures and collection were open to everyone (across race, gender, and economic status). 

Fast forward 160 years and we still have the same mission today and put our educational work before our work as a museum. That includes keeping everything we do FREE for all (including school field trips) and spending most of our money on educational endeavors for both children and adults. For instance, we have a program called GeoKids that is an in-school science education program operating in 5 nearby public schools, which happen to be extremely depressed public schools because we are located in North Philadelphia - a place that, since the mid 1900's, has been predominantly black and low-income. 

Speaking of our neighborhood - because of where we are and our being free, a large portion of our audience does tend to be disadvantaged, and we feel very strongly that this is important because it aligns with our mission and it helps us have more of an impact in our immediate neighborhood. 

So - I guess I see us as an educational mission with a museum, where everything we do is free and educational and meant to be accessible to all people, because we believe that everyone has a right to science education. There is a lot that we struggle with as we straddle many different worlds, museum, educational institution, historic landmark, etc. We are also extremely small and hidden and tend to get overshadowed by some of the larger institutions in our city. We do partner on initiatives but we simply don't have the manpower and funding to be able to scale our programs to a place where they can have citywide impact. But I think we do a good job in our local radius and are always trying to do better. 

I'll be interested to hear from others as well. 

Best,
Cara

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Cara Scharf
Program and Communications Manager
Wagner Free Institute of Science
Philadelphia PA
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-03-2015 04:30 PM
From: Cynthia Scheuer
Subject: Are our museums assisting in the education of the disadvantaged school children?

I have served as a Museum Educator, Curator of Education and  Head of Education and Interpretation programs for 12 years now.  I recently rejoined the AAM community, as I believe that this is a place where members truly want to serve and empower the community; however, when I received my first "Museum" magazine, my attention was focused on theParting Thought article of Ford. W Bell, DVM. 

Within the first paragraph, Bell sites Museums as essential societal institutions. In the second ...museums are first and foremost educations institutions.... Museums simply never miss an opportunity to inform, to engage and excite. Third paragraph...they are preservers of our country's and humankind's greatest heritages: cultural, scientific and historic.....institutions dedicated to finding new and better ways to serve and strengthen communities.

I became a museum educator solely for the purpose of empowering and building communities, and I have worked with all of the genres of museums that Bell sites above; however, I have still yet to encounter a museum that is not dedicated specifically to serve as an specific "cultural identity" institution, serve the members of the community that are in most need of positive interaction with museums.  I have worked in Missouri, where believe me, there is still that magical line of segregation of communities, and the title I schools, primarily consisting of "people of color" are most definitely overlooked because the primary stakeholders do not want to make the monetary commitment to create consistent programming that serves to include and engage this demographic; however, I am not limiting this comment to Missouri, I have seen this at practically every institution I have served, and believe me, it has broken my heart.  I talk with children about "African American" or "Japanese American" art and artists, and these children cannot even grasp what this terminology actually means....and why are most of these demographics considered "minorities" as this seems to be such an antiquated term referring to race; and have we not moved beyond the distinction that we are all one race - which is human.  And if we refer to artists as African American or "other" than why do we not use the term "euro-american" as most of us are certainly not indigenous to this country. 

I love museums for their capacity to be institutions that empower the entire community, but I do not believe we have reached that level of understanding or participation at this point. Yes, the Museums that are developed to inform the community about cultural diversity are certainly doing their best, but, are the Museums that are not dedicated to this mission really fulfilling the mission of empowering the community - which means all members of the community and not just the one's that can afford to visit the museum.

I hope that someone can prove me wrong, but after 12 years, I am almost ashamed of our progress and do not believe that we Museums are Institutions that empower the community, we only empower a certain demographic - and I am astounded at the lack of process we have made as a whole.

------------------------------
Cynthia Scheuer
Clarkston MI
------------------------------

I have served as a Museum Educator, Curator of Education and  Head of Education and Interpretation programs for 12 years now.  I recently rejoined the AAM community, as I believe that this is a place where members truly want to serve and empower the community; however, when I received my first "Museum" magazine, my attention was focused on theParting Thought article of Ford. W Bell, DVM. 

Within the first paragraph, Bell sites Museums as essential societal institutions. In the second ...museums are first and foremost educations institutions.... Museums simply never miss an opportunity to inform, to engage and excite. Third paragraph...they are preservers of our country's and humankind's greatest heritages: cultural, scientific and historic.....institutions dedicated to finding new and better ways to serve and strengthen communities.

I became a museum educator solely for the purpose of empowering and building communities, and I have worked with all of the genres of museums that Bell sites above; however, I have still yet to encounter a museum that is not dedicated specifically to serve as an specific "cultural identity" institution, serve the members of the community that are in most need of positive interaction with museums.  I have worked in Missouri, where believe me, there is still that magical line of segregation of communities, and the title I schools, primarily consisting of "people of color" are most definitely overlooked because the primary stakeholders do not want to make the monetary commitment to create consistent programming that serves to include and engage this demographic; however, I am not limiting this comment to Missouri, I have seen this at practically every institution I have served, and believe me, it has broken my heart.  I talk with children about "African American" or "Japanese American" art and artists, and these children cannot even grasp what this terminology actually means....and why are most of these demographics considered "minorities" as this seems to be such an antiquated term referring to race; and have we not moved beyond the distinction that we are all one race - which is human.  And if we refer to artists as African American or "other" than why do we not use the term "euro-american" as most of us are certainly not indigenous to this country. 

I love museums for their capacity to be institutions that empower the entire community, but I do not believe we have reached that level of understanding or participation at this point. Yes, the Museums that are developed to inform the community about cultural diversity are certainly doing their best, but, are the Museums that are not dedicated to this mission really fulfilling the mission of empowering the community - which means all members of the community and not just the one's that can afford to visit the museum.

I hope that someone can prove me wrong, but after 12 years, I am almost ashamed of our progress and do not believe that we Museums are Institutions that empower the community, we only empower a certain demographic - and I am astounded at the lack of process we have made as a whole.

------------------------------
Cynthia Scheuer
Clarkston MI
------------------------------