Collaborators

Most museum curators look for collaborators to partner with for fiscal support. I recently stumbled across another blog concerning museums and their collaborators. The blog included clever ideas for how to get the community involved with one's museum. Obviously for our purposes, we had a more limited array of collaborators to choose from, however it is still interesting to see on a wider scale what museums would do on a professional level to maintain and strike up public interest through collaborators.
 One example mentioned was having an exhibit that involves the public directly by featuring industries relevant to the community. Providing open dialogue also allows the public to enter in, or, as the blog calls for, allowing the public to contribute their own artifacts and possibly an oral history to the museum, its a two-way learning experience for the curator and the attendee, as we've been discussing in class.
This was eye opening to me as to ways to involve the public and seeking out support and involvement which ultimately adds value, not necessarily in monetary worth but in many other forms of contribution.
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Many Histories

Something that had been occurring to me in light of our implementation of the exhibit was the sheer number of those in history who perished in the sinking. As we have done research on these unfortunate passengers I had something of regret during our implementation when our participants would choose "poorly", a passenger I knew would not survive the sinking.

There was a vast array of people whose lives have been minimized to just another link in the archives. Each had hopes, dreams of the future, a story cut short by this tragedy. As we went through the faux sinking, I was also able to sympathize greatly with passengers who felt the confusion and fear as life boats began leaving with their loved ones, leaving them aboard to face what lay ahead. It was also interesting to see the reactions of our participants, as to the conditions in the frigid North Atlantic as well as the ultimate fate of their chosen passenger. Obviously this is purely observation, but I believe this helped tie them to the history of the sinking, building a personal connection that is hard to attain from a history book.

I found a video that just shows some shots of the splendor aboard the Titanic as well as what explorers have found it looks like now.

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=remembering+the+titanic&FORM=VIRE3#view=detail&mid=186C748910CB5C71069E186C748910CB5C71069E

The Unsinkable Molly Brownie

"Why brownies?" is a question that plagued the hearts of many of the visitors who stopped at our exhibit during our implementation. Having originally intended to provide Titanic-inspired cupcakes as incentives for engaging with our exhibit, we came to the conclusion that while brownies are an equally delicious, equally popular dessert, they were a much more appropriate incentive because of the Titanic survivor, Molly Brown.

Molly Brown, forever immortalized for her heroism and bravery in the face of the tragedy, is recognized by many because of Kathy Bates' portrayal in the 1997 film. As one of the most famous survivors, a dessert based on her name provided additional informational value and the opportunity to  acknowledge her story as well as the stories of our other passengers.

Re-enactment Appeal

I found this really interesting Master's Thesis regarding the increasing popularity of historic reenactment. Sutithee Guha of San Jose State University argued that people enjoy reenacting because it creates a more personal experience and allows them to live in the moment and connect with narratives from previous time periods. Reenactment also combines aspects of work and play, providing visitors with a platform to have fun and forget their worries while still engaging intellectually in the space.

http://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4700&context=etd_theses

Connection and Participation-Nina Simon

Something interesting I read about was creating a participatory experience for museum go-ers. One key element to this is discussed is to support "multidirectional content experiences". This is different from the traditional museum approach that provides an all-encompassing experience that involves keeping the content consistent for each visitor. The multidirectional experience may sound like a bad idea to those clenched into the traditional ideals for the traditional role the audience plays in participating because its so uncontrolled and people give a lot of different perspectives. However, there is excitement that can come as a result of this for those very same reasons.

The emergence of the web has brought with it the desire and ability to participate freely and connect on a much broader level. Ideas flow freely through blogs, and personal websites. They are highly accessible as far as digitized content and participation. There is a question though as to whether museum attendees even want to participate when it comes to the content of an exhibit. Some might be content to ignore labels and pass through the museum. However this could be due to the preconceived notion that museums are boring, austere places, not for those who prefer social, participatory experiences. This old idea should be thrown out in place of a new approach to participation. Museums should find a way to draw in those who don't believe a museum has value to them. These people are valuable voices that are underrepresented because they just may have a different idea of how a museum typically functions and this causes them to avoid it at all costs.

Meeting the needs of the participants is invaluable to ensure that participation is successful. The three components are:" a plausible promise, an effective tool, and an acceptable bargain (with the participants)." The visitor needs to feel "personal fulfillment", as promised and delivered by staff members of the institution.

Another important objective to this is maintaining clarity between visitor and institution. One cannot expect the public to know your expectations of them if one remains vague, "be creative" well, what do you mean by that? Be specific. Integrate the goals into the presentation to them, there has to be openness for the public to trust the one giving instruction.

Nina Simon Inspiration

          Nina Simon's arguments, as seen in Reinventing the Museum, present very fascinating and unique ideas about the most effective ways to engage audiences in active participation. Particularly, Simon's point about the difference between highly confident participants and reluctant visitors gave me several ideas regarding the interactive exhibit assignment. I think the exhibit could be much more worthwhile and educational experience for visitors if they were given life descriptions of Titanic passengers, varying from first to third class as well as potentially crew members of both genders. Based on these narratives, guests would be asked to rate the passengers by who most deserves to live, replicating a similar, instinctual process that crew members went through during the sinking: deciding, ultimately, that first class passengers carried more worth, both economically and socially, than lower class passengers. Additionally, this selection of passengers will allow visitors a more relaxed experience on which they can spend as much or as little time as they want. It also encourages safe contributions in a manner where information is already laid out for the visitor and they simply have to decide for themselves who they would want to save.

Inspiration outside the Museum

Church services, similar to museum visits, must be organized in such a way that visitors remain attentive to the institution’s message. Churches generally utilize one consistent itinerary for services, requiring all visitors to stay for roughly an hour, singing the same hymns and listening to the same sermon as every other member of the church. Churches, unlike many museums, are able to retain their visitors on a weekly basis, inspiring guests to keep returning in order that they might learn more and become more united with their religion.  

            

          One of the most effective ways in which churches gather visitors is by advertising. Many can be found in the phone book as well as local newspapers where they can, in a brief sentence or two, describe what they are about and what their mission statement is. Additionally, churches work to personalize the experience of going to a service despite a universal service that all visitors experience. The service is expected to reach audiences of all ages and backgrounds by uniting the congregation in their religious beliefs and hope for the future. Congregations are actively engaged in each portion of the service and believe that they need to attend church in order to renew their spirituality each week. They are captivated by the pastor or minister’s message of salvation or extreme compassion.

         Museums should take all of these concepts into mind. If a museum wants to maintain visitors and relevance in society, they need to be able to capture their audience in the same way that many modern churches do. They need to establish a sense of need for their museum, a need for the information inside as well as a need for the message of self-determination, resilience, or whatever themes the institution wants to sell visitors. If museumgoers felt an urgency to renew their intellectual knowledge of subjects displayed at various museums, visitor numbers would increase dramatically and remain consistent from week to week.