The Participatory Museum and its very passionate American author, Nina Simon, are causing quite a stir among museum professionals in the US, especially those who participate in web 2.0 forums.
The attention is well deserved; it is an important book and has the potential to stir up current debates around community engagement here, too.
Simon describes her book as “a practical guide to working with community members and visitors to make cultural institutions more dynamic, relevant and essential places”.
Based in Santa Cruz, California, Simon juggles exhibition design with consultancy, writing, lecturing and running the popular Museum 2.0 blog. Her book may be of less theoretical interest for academics, but her first-hand experience of the subject matter makes it a very convincing read.
The book is organised into two parts. In the first half, which introduces the core principles of participation, she draws on her portfolio career and shares some instructive insights into people’s contributions to social networking websites.
The vast majority of users prefer critiquing, organising and watching existing content; only a small minority invest time in actually uploading new content.
For example, only 0.16 per cent of visitors to YouTube will ever upload a video. Using this evidence, Simon proposes that museum visitors display the same preferences for participation. She recommends that museums “scaffold” experiences to help people feel comfortable engaging in an activity.
For example, a comment board that invites people to select or vote for their favourite object is less daunting than one with blank comment cards. These are welcome suggestions for curators who are keen to widen participation, but have observed that visitors often lack the confidence to engage in open-ended self-expression.
The second part of the book is organised around four models of participation identified by Simon: visitors as contributors; collaborating with visitors; co-creating with visitors; and hosting participants.
These models of engagement are not dissimilar to academic typologies of participation of which Arnstein’s 1969 Ladder of Citizen Participation is probably the best known.
However, in contrast to some museum commentators, Simon does not impose a hierarchy on these different categories of participation with co-curation presented “as the paragon of participatory experience”.
Simon’s tone is less judgemental and more encouraging; she places equal value on each model and provides a very practical table summarising the characteristics of each approach so that museum professionals can judge which are most appropriate for their institution.
The second half of the book also provides practitioners with specific recommendations for how to develop, evaluate, manage and sustain participation in ways that best suit their museum’s mission and culture.
She certainly practises what she preaches – the creation and dissemination of the Participatory Museum is, in itself, an exemplary participatory project.
She used a wiki to write the book, inviting her online followers to edit and comment on the evolving text, and also chose to self-publish (for more about her adventures in self-publishing, look at her blog posted on 1 April).
This transparent approach to publishing is inspiring, but has resulted in an uneven quality to the illustrations and some over-long case studies that would have benefited from rigorous editing. But these are minor criticisms of an excellent publication, which is well structured and timely.
The final text can be purchased as a conventional paperback or as downloadable pdf or ebook from the publication’s dedicated website. The book can also be read online for free and is accompanied by additional case study and reference material. There are many opportunities to review or comment via Twitter, Facebook or on Simon’s Museum 2.0 blog. You, too, can enter the debate.
Hazel Edwards in the museum manager at Discovery Museum, Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums
The attention is well deserved; it is an important book and has the potential to stir up current debates around community engagement here, too.
Simon describes her book as “a practical guide to working with community members and visitors to make cultural institutions more dynamic, relevant and essential places”.
Based in Santa Cruz, California, Simon juggles exhibition design with consultancy, writing, lecturing and running the popular Museum 2.0 blog. Her book may be of less theoretical interest for academics, but her first-hand experience of the subject matter makes it a very convincing read.
The book is organised into two parts. In the first half, which introduces the core principles of participation, she draws on her portfolio career and shares some instructive insights into people’s contributions to social networking websites.
The vast majority of users prefer critiquing, organising and watching existing content; only a small minority invest time in actually uploading new content.
For example, only 0.16 per cent of visitors to YouTube will ever upload a video. Using this evidence, Simon proposes that museum visitors display the same preferences for participation. She recommends that museums “scaffold” experiences to help people feel comfortable engaging in an activity.
For example, a comment board that invites people to select or vote for their favourite object is less daunting than one with blank comment cards. These are welcome suggestions for curators who are keen to widen participation, but have observed that visitors often lack the confidence to engage in open-ended self-expression.
The second part of the book is organised around four models of participation identified by Simon: visitors as contributors; collaborating with visitors; co-creating with visitors; and hosting participants.
These models of engagement are not dissimilar to academic typologies of participation of which Arnstein’s 1969 Ladder of Citizen Participation is probably the best known.
However, in contrast to some museum commentators, Simon does not impose a hierarchy on these different categories of participation with co-curation presented “as the paragon of participatory experience”.
Simon’s tone is less judgemental and more encouraging; she places equal value on each model and provides a very practical table summarising the characteristics of each approach so that museum professionals can judge which are most appropriate for their institution.
The second half of the book also provides practitioners with specific recommendations for how to develop, evaluate, manage and sustain participation in ways that best suit their museum’s mission and culture.
She certainly practises what she preaches – the creation and dissemination of the Participatory Museum is, in itself, an exemplary participatory project.
She used a wiki to write the book, inviting her online followers to edit and comment on the evolving text, and also chose to self-publish (for more about her adventures in self-publishing, look at her blog posted on 1 April).
This transparent approach to publishing is inspiring, but has resulted in an uneven quality to the illustrations and some over-long case studies that would have benefited from rigorous editing. But these are minor criticisms of an excellent publication, which is well structured and timely.
The final text can be purchased as a conventional paperback or as downloadable pdf or ebook from the publication’s dedicated website. The book can also be read online for free and is accompanied by additional case study and reference material. There are many opportunities to review or comment via Twitter, Facebook or on Simon’s Museum 2.0 blog. You, too, can enter the debate.
Hazel Edwards in the museum manager at Discovery Museum, Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums
By Nina Simon, $25, Museum 2.0, Santa Cruz, California, 2010, ISBN 13 978 0 615 34650 2. Also available free: www.participatorymuseum.org
