Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences
Kronburg Castle and Danish Maritime Museum
Helsingør, Denmark, 26-27 May 2014
MUSEUMS: Knowledge, Democracy and Transformation
Organizational Change Within Participating
Institutions Related to the Citizenship Project
George E. Hein
Professor Emeritus
Lesley University
[email protected]
http://george-hein.com
Large, bold project: major goals for institutional change
and relatively short time to accomplish them
Project team meeting, 29 May 2013
Citizenship Project includes three major categories
of activities:
At each museum:
Internal
Institutional change:
More collaborative,
(democratic),
progressive
External
Institutional activity:
Expand audiences,
create new programs,
reach new audiences
Although these are different categories of activities;
each impacts the other
Across museums:
Collaboration
Among participating
institutions
Institutional change is an integral component of this
project
‘’Museums and Cultural Institutions as Spaces for Citizenship
focuses on what these institutions can offer in developing active
citizenship for present as well as future users and for the
institutions’ understanding of self in a socially responsible
societal perspective.1
1Museums
and Cultural Institutions as Spaces
For Citizenship, (n.d.) p. 1. Excerpt from
the original Application for funding
to the Danish Cultural Ministry.
“. . .what these institutions can offer in developing
active citizenship for present as well as future users”
The public element of the Citizenship Project expanded
audience, Inclusivity, etc. is popular today.
One example (of many)
Prof. Amareswar Galla
What do we know about institutional change?
• Difficult
• Takes a long time
• Hard to recognize barriers
• Requires significant commitment and drive
• Requires a strong driving force:
funding, leadership, necessity, etc.
(Not much written about museums)
Griffin, D.J.G. (1987), Managing in the Museum Organization I. Leadership and
Communication. Museum Management and Curatorship , Vol. 6, [4], pp 387-398.
Janes, Robert R. http://museumstudies.si.edu/millennium/proceed5.htm
Korn R. http://www.randikorn.com/docs/transforming_to_what_end.pdf
Matelic, Candace A. “Understanding Change and Transformation in History
Organizations,” History News, vol. 63, [2], 2008, 7-13.
McCall, Vikki and Gray, Clive. (2014) Museums and the ‘new museology’ : theory,
practice and organisational change. Museum Management and Curatorship, Volume
29, [1]. 19-35.
Pew Charitable Trust http://www.pewtrusts.org/uploadedFiles/wwwpewtrustsorg/
Summaries_-_reports_and_pubs/pamc_overview_0704.pdf
Theory for “democratization” in museums: Institutional
change moving towards more democratic practice
Museums are educational institutions
Goal for any educational institution is to bring about change in
its audience; in the public is serves.
If that goal is serving that public in a manner that promotes
inclusivity and democratic practice, then it is essential that the
educational institution examine its own practice and become
as democratic as possible.
Factors that limit democratic practice
• Tradition
• Invisibility of discrimination
• Unwillingness to take risks
• Understandable desire for keeping status quo and
convenience
(Cannot assume that institutions in a nominally democratic
society are as democratic and inclusive as possible.)
Dewey’s analysis, a model for promoting democratic practice
in educational institutions
“Ethical Principles Underlying a Theory of
Education,” 1987.
Dewey discusses how students can learn to
become responsible members of a democratic
society; how curriculum must be related to life, rules
of behavior must model outcome desired, etc. “We
must take the child as a member of society in
the broadest sense and demand whatever is
necessary to enable the child to recognize all
his social relations and to carry them out.”
“[Considered from a moral, ethical standpoint] it is obvious that
modifications in results or products must flow from changes in
the agent or doer. If we want to get different things done, we
must begin with changing the machinery [organization] which
does them.”
“As time went on, it became clear that this experiment in
education required experimental administrative methods. . . .
Instead of a group of persons who planned on paper a program
which they then required a staff of teachers to teach to pupils,
these experimenters were confronted with a different problem.
The aid of the teachers (as well as the pupils) was a
fundamental and primary requisite to even the theoretical
formulation of an educative program. Indeed, such an
experiment in education as this could not go on except through
a group of persons all of whom were intellectually and socially
cooperating in a constantly developing educational plan.
Katherine Camp Mayhew and Anna Camp Edwards (1936)
The Dewey School, reprinted New York: Atherton Press, 1966, p. 10-11.
“In dealing with principles underlying
school activities, it is easy, especially
after a lapse of years, to read into a
statement of them what one has learned
in subsequent experience. Another
danger more serious and more difficult to
avoid lies in the gap between any formal
statement of principles and ideals
and the way things work out in actual practice; in the temptation
to idealize the latter by assuming a greater conformity with
theoretical principles than is attained. . . .The principles stated
were not intended to serve as definite rules for what was done
at the school. They furnished a point of view and indicated the
direction in which it was to move.
John Dewey, quoted in Mayhew and Edwards,
The Dewey School, 1936, p. 11.
My conjecture: In practice, in this project external (audience
related) activities were the primary influence on changing
internal structures and values
At each museum:
Internal
Institutional change:
More collaborative,
(democratic),
progressive
Across museums:
Collaboration
Among participating
institutions
External
Institutional activity:
Expand audiences,
create new programs,
reach new audiences
1. Expansion of pedagogic training for staff that interact
with public (Olga Dysthe’s significant contribution)
Dialogic approach (emphasis on process)
for Phase 1, (school groups)
• Training in dialogue expanded and applied
internally and between institutions
• Include more staff:
part-time educators, art teachers, guides
front of house? Others?
• Resulted in more collaboration
From one educator and curator to more
Larger teams working to develop exhibitions
Inevitably leads to more prominence of educative experiences
and communication/ explanations/space allocation.
Intended for broader audience, not only content experts.
Can lead to more democratic/participatory work including larger
segment of museum staff working collaboratively
2. Modification and expansion of exhibition/program development
process
Add community voices (focus groups), not only scholar/art
historian/ scientist
What interests the public? General answer: something with which
they can connect without expert knowledge
Recognition of visitors: who they are, what categories they may fit
into, how they use the museum.
Can lead to public input into exhibitions/programs even public
curated exhibitions or, at minimum, parallel communication
methods of expert and others.
KØS
J. F. Willumsens
Københavns Museum
3. Special activities become more common
Drawing in a museum for the general public
Statens Museum for Kunst
ARKEN
DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA
4. Expansion of programs within the organization
Royal Theatre program:
• Program Staffing: from one person to five in one year
continual growth to include more than 10 staff
• Participatng units: from instrumental (orchestra) only
to include opera, ballet, theater
• Increased participation of range of artistic professions
working wth students: set designers,
costume makers, dramaturge,
• Increase and expansion of active participation
of young people in creative artisitc activity—
one group of srtudents developing a complete
opera to be performed in June 2014
5. Programmatic expansion
(Physical)
4.a. use of grounds, public
space as well as exhibit halls
4.b. workshops, concerts,
community days—
DesignMuseum
Nikolaj
4.c. Sending materials, exhibits to schools, community centers,
hospitals, etc.
J. F. Willumsens Museum
5. intense engagement with specific groups
5.a. Danish Language schools SMK, Arken, Design Museum,
Thorvadsen
5.b. small groups of young people leading to some paid positions
SMK
Arken Museum for Modertne Kunst
J. F. Willumsens Museum,
Køvenhabns Museum,
Nikolaj Kunsthal,
Thorvaldsens Museum,
(This reminds me of YouthALIVE! From ASTC in USA.
See http://www.astc.org/resource/youth/
and an article, Snyder, C. “The Legacy of YouthAlive”)
5.c. Others?
6. Staff diversity
But, staffs are not very diverse (yet).
Anatolien Kulturdage 2013 finder sted på Rådhuspladsen
d. 1.-2. Juni. . .
http://pin.vents.com/event/147296768785412/anatolien-kulturdage-2013
Small steps can indicate significant change
It is like having a Trojan horse inside the museum,
challenging us with many practical situations to deal with,
demanding a very high degree of cooperation and
communication across the organization, and surely
pushing boundaries and changing our self-understanding
as an institution.
We decided to regularly meet across departments and in
due time before each new exhibition to discuss and realize
initiatives that might engage a divers audience and result in
more learning and a more inclusive approach for everyone.
We are still struggling to actually involve each other often
and early enough in the planning process of projects and
exhibitions but we are definitely working on it.
The biggest and most important challenge was to get the new
colleagues formally employed by the museum. The first time
you are employed in Denmark, there are so many forms to be
completed, and the entire administration is not really geared
for this.
One important effect of the project is new ways of collaborate
in-house developing exhibitions and activities. We now work
together across divisions and professional skills from the very
beginning of a project. I really think it's a major success and
something that improves both our exhibitions and education
program.
But our challenge is to ensure that every single staff member
understands what citizenship is and why we as a museum
and cultural institution choose that concept.