Open Forum

The hosting institution absolutely needs to control the narrative of any exhibits that it is involved in developing.  I have seen your same scenario played out on several occasions and it is not pretty.  Your idea of a MOA is a good one.  It needs to clearly state that the hosting institution will kill any project that it risks losing control over. 

One of the problems of enthusiastic outsiders is that they have no sense of balance as to content, themes, etc.  Whenever I have led exhibit planning groups that include professionals and non-professionals alike, I begin our discussions with this statement: "Input does not always translate into Put In."  This lets everyone know that there is a limit to what can be utilized and that the goal of the exhibition team is to create the tightest, most coherent exhibit possible and that nobody should have their feelings hurt if their ideas end up on the cutting room floor. 

One museum that has a significant track record of successful community-based exhibits is the Wing Luke Museum in Seattle and you can find more info about their process on their website, I believe.

But I'd like to step back and raise some additional questions for consideration when embarking on collaborations:

• why is a narrative the museum's and not the community's?  Do we need control of this?
• what kind of relationships are established before embarking on projects like these?
• how can we effectively approach such relationships as true partnerships rather than token projects, understanding that everyone, museum staff and community members, all different, yet valuable, have skills and knowledge to contribute?
• and most broadly, what does it mean to be a community-based museum and how does traditional museum thinking everything need to shift?

Just food for thought.

Linda