Museum as the New Town Square: Creating Community

Ryan PaulMuseum CuratorFrontier Homestead Museum

Rachel Stratford Museum EducatorSpringville Museum of Art

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The Town Square: A Place of Community

What is a Community?

• Dependent on the respect of others and their differences• An understanding of individual and

collective pasts• Preservation of representative symbols of

our history

“We must find new ways to nurture the civic ‘we’ instead of our current overemphasis on the individualistic and insular ‘me.’” - Archibald

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Sense of Place

• Tied to our social commitment• Connect people to “preceding

generations” • In our age of on-demand entertainment

we are often connected to other things rather than what’s around us. There is a reason we silence our cell phones during the play and it is not just so we don’t bug the actors. It creates presence within us.

“This is a place to discuss what we have done well, where we have fallen short, and how we can do better. It is a place for coming together and appreciating how we differ and examining how very much we share.” - Archibald

Mission Driven

•Why do we do what we do?• Is our mission to just get people in the

door?• How do we incorporate our mission in our

programming?

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Identifying Community: Audience vs. Stakeholders

Audiences:• Message Receivers• Passive Participants

Stakeholders:• Directly impacted by decisions and actions of

organization• Active Participants• Affect how your brand is perceived• Have direct and indirect influence and interests

on the museum.

Share, Learn, Connect

Someday, sometime, the people next door will be important. We need our neighbors. We should not wait for a disaster to learn their names.

“People create places, and places make people. And that’s what makes a culture.” - Archibald

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Events to Build Community

Ryan PaulFrontier Homestead Museumryanpaul@utah.gov

Rachel Stratford Springville Museum of Artrstratford@springville.org

Contact Information