Museums as safe spaces or comfort zones — some thoughts
Contribution, collaboration and co-creation are different levels of participation that museums can facilitate, according to Nina Simon’s classic Participatory museum (2010). And as museums open up for participation around collections, documentation, program activities and exhibitions, a key ingredient is trust. With trust contribution, collaboration and co-creation is possible. If museums are perceived as safe spaces for contribution and collaboration, if the audience trusts the museum, it is possible to achieve real social impact in society.
Trust — a prerequisite for collecting vernacular photography
Two years into a three year research project Collecting Social Photo which I am running together with Nordic colleagues — a project with the goal of sharing insights about collecting contemporary vernacular photography in museums and archives — one conclusion has emerged: In order to be able to collect contemporary photography museums need to open up for contribution, collaboration and co-creation around photography collections. There is a need for successful outreach, and at the heart of outreach there must be efforts of building trust and developing museums as safe spaces for conversation and collaboration. For strategic and practical reasons these efforts can not be separate from other initiatives around trust and inclusion in museums. But what do we mean by trust and safe spaces?
Museums as safe spaces
Listening this morning to the Museopunks recent podcast Episode 31: “Are Museums Safe Spaces for Unsafe Ideas?” with Elaine Gurian, museum consultant, and Suse Anderson, Assistant Professor, The George Washington University Columbian College of Arts & Sciences, made me realize the urgence of talking about trust and the relationships we build with museum audiences. This is a conversation that we need to have across time within museums and across departments.
What do we mean with trust, inclusion and building safe spaces? Elaine Gurian argues that inclusion means that everyone is welcome, and that
“seeing each other, observing the humanity of others, is a foundation for safe spaces.”
A safe space is where somebody can enter and leave without feeling threatened in any way.
This might sound obvious to most of us but in reality there are several issues involved. The museum-audience relationship is inherently that of power and being aware of this is fundamental when we discuss trust. And, as Elaine Gurian points out, museums are most often perceived as private spaces, not the public spaces they ought to be (or that they think of themselves as!). Museums think their offerings are of value in the public sphere. However the audience still needs to pass some requirements to enter the museum space. Entering a private space does for example require confidence. There are many barriers to museums, both physical and systematic that in the end make it difficult for people to enter and participate. And here Elaine Gurian asks us to compare museums to the transformation of libraries, a space where most people wouldn’t hesitate to enter nor feel threatened in.
She continues to raise important questions around museums as safe spaces:
How can museums bridge the gap between strangers that don’t know each other. How do we discuss conflict? How do we heal a country? Can we create a framework against polarization? How do we include people who we don’t agree with?
And she also offers some solutions:
The museum object is a fundamental data point. The object is a fact, and everything about it is an opinion. We need layers of alternative stories and the object could be used as data to construct new stories. And we need to include all voices right from the beginning, avoiding “the moral stories of good guys and bad guys.” Elaine Gurian concludes that there will not be a perfect solution, we will not achieve perfection. But we will need to make the effort.
And from my point of view, one way of including more voices is to facilitate contribution of vernacular photography to museum collections.
Building trust for a documentation project
A project that has recently inspired me is the “På plats i Östberga” (“On site in Östberga”) by the Stockholm City Museum in Sweden. This documentation project took place in the Östberga in Stockholm in 2016–2017, a suburb that from the start in the 1960s was partly cut off from its surroundings by limited local communications. It was built as part of the ambitious public housing programme implemented in Sweden between 1965 and 1974, The Million Programme (Swedish: Miljonprogrammet).
The City Museum performed during the project a number of inclusive activities such as collecting, co-creation of an exhibition and even producing a typeface together with young students and designers. A large group of museum staff with different competencies were involved. To reach a successful result building trust was fundamental as well as working long term with the inhabitants of Östberga. With a broad range of activities some with a long lasting effect, achieving social impact through inclusion was a rewarding result.
Avoid creating comfort zones
I have in previous blog posts suggested that museums to a large extent should take a step back from producing exhibitions first, and instead explore other options that might evolve into a number of activities that may or may not include exhibitions. I still firmly believe this is a necessary step to change the role of museums in society and to achieve social impact. I believe projects such as the “På plats i Östberga” is a great example of how museums could create larger impact in society. Initiatives like this is also necessary in order to collect contemporary vernacular photography.
We (museum staff) need time and space to understand and agree on the notion of trust and safe spaces, to develop sustainable relationships with audiences, to build trust and to develop inclusive work methods and activities in safe spaces within or outside the museum walls. Doing this we can avoid creating comfort zones fit for private spaces, where only a few audience groups feel welcome and at ease. Instead we can actively work to become a public space where alternative stories are treasured and well managed, and where participation is a natural ingredient.
Creating a framework with facts and an ongoing conversation between staff and participants as a foundation is a good start. To this we should add multiple touch points, a diversity of activities and multiple ways of engaging and participating. Then museums can open up for contribution, collaboration and co-creation not just as occasional and temporary projects but as a core activity of the museum. Once trust has been stablished on both sides, participants and museum staff, there is room for co-creation and and even for museum staff to take a step back and let the audience take the lead.
These thoughts will be further elaborated after feedback from brilliant colleagues in the museum sector, and after reflections and discussions to be developed in upcoming initiatives involving collecting social digital photography.
