Test blog post

In terms of your spectrum of museum types, are money and donor financing one of the reasons major museums are unwilling to or stymied in their attempts to shed their temple-like characteristics? The NYT just had an article in which the Brooklyn Museum’s traditional members complained bitterly about the rabble the museum was letting in.

Shana, I’m looking forward to hearing what you find out about LESTM’s success in breaking down the temple structure works and if it can be adapted to other institutions. As your practicum progresses, I’d also be interested in hearing more about how the museum reconciles its outreach/activism side with its identity as a museum. How does this work with a $20 ticket price and museum tours that are guided/extremely mediated?

Anna, I’m interested in multi-sensory experiences and I find it puzzling that those are usually marketed towards children.

It’s also interesting to hear about the fine line the USSCM’s educators tread between trying to encourage participation and conveying accurate information. You and Shana have also brought up the good point that your two institutions are tailoring their practices for very specific audiences, e.g. families, immigrants. I’m curious about how institutions like these are able to sustain a forum-like environment while also appealing to different levels of learning.

Welcome - First post

Hi, everyone! I’ve been at my practicum for about a week now. I’m in Atlanta working in the archives division of the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History. Auburn Avenue was the main corridor for black businesses and homes during the Jim Crow era, and the library is just a few blocks from Martin Luther King Jr.’s childhood home. Atlanta has a very active and collaborative cultural heritage community.

I’ll be working on a few projects, mainly focusing on using social media for outreach. I’ve been doing a lot of research into local history, which will be useful for all of my projects. I’m currently processing the papers of Atlanta-born artist Mary Parks Washington, who creates “histcollages,” incorporating archival records into her drawings and paintings. I’m also working with another intern to produce short introductory videos about the library and archives to post onto YouTube.

Finally, the library just received an NHPRC grant to digitize several education-related archival collections. This is the first major grant the archives division has received so it’s using this grant as a template for pursuing and implementing future grants. I’ll use social media tools, such as blogging and Facebook, to expand public outreach for the grant project. I’ll help the archives division integrate this type of outreach into the project workflow so that it can be maintained when I leave as well as be integrated into future projects.