You should now be in the space to think most creatively about your museum, project ideas and community partners.
The Museums Association agreed a definition of a museum in 1998:
‘Museums enable people to explore collections for inspiration, learning and enjoyment. They are institutions that collect, safeguard and make accessible artefacts and specimens, which they hold in trust for society.’
This definition includes art galleries with collections of works of art, as well as museums with historical collections of objects. However, how your museum (or museums you are familiar with) embody this definition may vary.
How we define a community is more fluid, and in many instances will be defined by the community itself and so it is important not to be too fixed in how you and your museum see a community – it is more about how the community sees itself.
Thinking about the benefits for both the museum and the community partners and exploring what that might mean in terms of projects is at the heart of the next three sections. We begin with Community Centered Practice.