Sometimes the code is not-so-secret. Consider the museums, parks or historic sites you've been to that have a long sign listing all the things you can't do. But consider the other coded messages museums convey:
- This is a museum for you only if you already know the story--for experts only!
- This is not a place for families
- This is a place for families and not quiet contemplation
- This museum tells a story about people who you'll never be like
- This museum finds room for all kinds of people in its stories
- We love technology
- We hate technology
- We think visitors are an inconvenience
- We really hate change
- We keep our good stuff hidden away
- We think you'll learn best if you see all our stuff on display
- We hope you'll ask questions
- We're scared you'll ask a question we don't know the answer to
- We're scared of our neighborhood (I think of big fences here)
- We value the past as distinct from the presence
- We value the past as it connects to the present
- We value your opinion
- We welcome everyone
And how can you discover what messages are encoded at your museum? Take a staff walk-though or use a version of a secret shopper. Invite community members of all types to visit, on their own, unannounced and share their perspectives with you.
2 comments:
Great post, Linda. I learned a lot about secret codes when I spent time with Diane Miller and her team at the St. Louis Science Center, where they are working to involve low-income African-American teens with the museum. The teens and staff constantly run up against their own secret codes as they negotiate their involvement.
I recommend trying this out by visiting a place where you feel uncomfortable--the codes will be more obvious to you--and then go back to your museum with someone who feels uncomfortable there. You'll be more receptive to seeing (and hopefully addressing) the nastier implications of the secrets.
Thanks Nina--and was great to go back to your post, which I must have missed--the comments were particularly interesting. Part of my thinking about this has been really shaped by my time in Ukrainian museums, where the code--and the language--are sometimes still very new, strange and confusing to me. Wonder if a museum could develop an exhibit about the secret codes it--and communities it works with--embed in places and objects?
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