When you are beginning to engage with new community partners and members you will be building a relationship from the ground up. This may mean that you both start with small ideas and as the trust develops and as the benefits become clear these ideas may grow.
Your museum needs to put itself in this picture, as a contributor and supporter of these local aims. Of course, as a museum, you have a rich resource to inspire and relate to partnership work – your collection and your museum and your museums’ specialist skills. But you don’t need to start with a BIG idea!
- Perhaps you are a curator who wants to work with local people to enhance your knowledge or interpretation of a collection they are connected with?
- Or perhaps you work in museum catering, finance or outreach and would like to employ local young people without museums studies degree?
- Perhaps in the current environment, you might be motivated to offer a civic space for communities that have lost one through the coronavirus lockdown period.
The following exercises help you explore what these ideas might be from your museums perspective, but these should be used to explore what is possible and to develop them in partnership.