Creative Community

In the past decade, museums have made great strides in engaging their communities and becoming active partners in the civic life of their towns and regions.

More recently, however, museums have begun to appreciate that they have the skills to go beyond engaging their communities. Museums also create community.

The museums and communities of Minneapolis Saint Paul offer us excellent examples of how to cultivate and sustain this creative spirit. The museums of the Twin Cities have worked hard at inviting all members of the community to create a place for themselves within the museum, and make it their own. It might be the Walker Art Center’s community-curated summer events, or the Minneapolis Institute of Art’s invitation to local residents to create an original work of art and hang it in a dedicated space at the museum, or the Minnesota Historical Society’s exhibit of a single house that tells the stories of different immigrant groups across generations.

In these and other ways, the museums of Minneapolis Saint Paul also invite people to create a place for themselves in the community, and to make it, too, their own. These museums serve as reminders that in the best of circumstances, guided by a spirit of creativity and inclusiveness, the museum is the community.

For the 2012 Annual Meeting in Minneapolis Saint Paul, we encourage session proposals to explore some of the following questions: In what notable ways is creativity a part of the museum mission? What are the emerging best practices in developing and sustaining creative communities? In the past 10 years, since the 2002 release of AAM’s landmark report, Mastering Civic Engagement: A Challenge to Museums, how have our concepts of community and the museum changed? Is there a definable “community of practice” among museum professionals, and if so, what are its characteristics? And with help from research at AAM’s Center for the Future of Museums, can we anticipate and meet the needs of tomorrow?

As always, we also encourage the full range of session topics, notably those that address the practical, nuts-and-bolts approaches to museum work, how to do our jobs better and serve the public in the most meaningful ways.

Additionally, at the AAM Annual Meeting in Houston, the 2012 SPC Program Chairs discussed key issues or trends in their area of expertise and for the profession as a whole. These ideas were compiled into six broad categories – Audiences, Professional Growth & Change, Technology, Organizational Development, Public Value, and Sustainability/Viability – outlined in the attached document.

The SPC Program Chairs also encourage session proposals that consider the future of museums as well as work in collections, exhibitions, public programming, and other areas of museum operations.

Please contact any of the individuals listed next to each topic if you have questions or would like feedback on your session proposal ideas.