“What do you want to know about outer space?”
This was the question that the Carnegie Science Center asked Pittsburgh communities before developing their award-winning Mars: The Next Giant Leap® exhibit. The Science Center designed the exhibit around their communities’ answers. Today, the exhibit is incredibly popular because it talks about science through the interests and concerns of its visitors.
Modern museums are transforming into storytellers for their communities. To tell our stories well, museums must bring community voices into the planning process for exhibits. While most museum staff understand the importance of community engagement, many still struggle to make it happen. Learning a whole set of new skills and processes can feel overwhelming, even for the most capable and experienced museum professionals. Just getting started can feel like an impossible hurdle.
But, getting started doesn’t need to be intimidating. We just need to ask the right questions. At the 2024 ASTC conference, I joined Marcus A. Harshaw previously from the Carnegie Science Center, Jaap Hoogstraten from the Field Museum, and Fran Mast from The Morton Arboretum in leading a workshop about collaborating with communities on exhibit design. We facilitated a brainstorm with workshop participants to identify what they wanted to learn about community engagement. Then, we answered a few of their many questions and gave them an exit survey to assess what they learned. Through this process we discovered that many museum professionals share the same core questions about engaging their communities. The good news is that helpful resources already exist to tackle these common challenges.
Below are some of the common questions museum professionals ask, accompanied by my favorite resources for answering common questions about community engagement. I hope this list of resources can help jump start your community engagement process.
And, If you are looking for guidance beyond the resources below, come check out “The Beginners Guide to Community-engaged Exhibit Design” workshop at the 2025 American Alliance of Museums’ Annual Meeting. I will be co-facilitating with Monica Chadha and Ginger Stanciel of Civic Projects. I’d love to see you there!
“Every museum is struggling with very similar and overlapping problems, it seems like it might be the field itself that fundamentally struggles to share authority and include the community” - Workshop Participant
How might we get buy-in from colleagues who initially disagree with community engagement? How might we get our organization to slow down our exhibit design process enough to get meaningful input, especially when there are fires?
In Tools and Approaches for Transforming Museum Experience “Statement of Values,” pp 10-13 and “Institutional Process,” p. 26, the Cooper Hewitt Interaction Lab walks you through the changing role of museums and helps you figure out if your institution is ready to start engaging your communities.
In the Mass Action Toolkit, “Inclusive Leadership: Avoiding a Legacy of Leadership,” pp. 73-88, Chris Taylor defines what inclusive leadership looks like, explores why inclusive leadership matters for museums, and shares practical steps to build leadership skills at your institution.
In Museums Involving Communities: Authentic Connections, “Chapter 6: Learning About the Museum and Learning About Oneself,” pp. 59-91, Margaret Kadoyama provides an academic deep dive into how museums are changing the way they work with their communities and introduces how a museum needs to change before starting meaningful community partnerships.
“Buy in happens at all levels. Trust each other’s skill set and desire to make meaningful changes together.” - Workshop Participant
How might we define who is a part of our community more clearly? What is appropriate to ask from our communities, especially members of historically disenfranchised groups?
In “What Is Community Engagement?” Penn State gives a short definition of community engagement.
In “Defining What ‘community’ Means for US & Our Organization,” Mike Murawski dives into the many different definitions of “community” that museums can use.
In The Participatory Museum, “Chapter 5: Defining Participation at Your Institution,” Nina Simon discusses community engagement as a spectrum from contribution, to collaboration, to co-creation.
How might we identify the community members you will engage? How might we approach the community to begin with? How might we build trust with community members?
In “Designing for Engagement: Five Steps for Co-Creating Exhibits and Programs with Your Communities,” Bryan Markovitz and I give a quick introduction to how to get started with community engagement in exhibit design.
In “Museum & Community Partnerships Collaboration Guide,” pp. 8-19, Catherine McCarthy and Brad Herring summarize what a successful community partnership looks like. Then, they introduce how to begin a partnership – and keep it going.
In “Toolkit #1 Connecting to Communities,” Tool #1 p. 12, Tool #3 p. 14, Tool #13 p. 28, and Tool # 15 p. 30, The Creative Museum project gives you short “how-to” guides for getting started with community engagement. Each tool is already tested, based on a project that another museum has already done. The tools have quick tips for identifying your communities and partner organizations, finding your common interests, and brainstorming projects.
“Meaningful relationships go a long way, especially when the entire staff is of the same mind to advance those relationships to meet your institution's goal.” - Workshop Participant
How might we use an exhibit project to build the foundation for a longer term relationship with our communities?
In Community-Based Curation A Toolkit for Expanding Narratives and Changing Practices, “Stages of Community-Based Curation: An Iterative Process,” pp. 21-23, Marianna Pegno, Christine Brindza, Patricia Lannes, Kristopher Driggers, and Cecilia Garibay give a short summary of the entire community-based curation process, emphasizing that it is a circular process that is constantly changing.
In their Community Tool Box, “16. Sustaining the Work or Initiative,” the University of Kansas walks through a short step-by-step guide for sustaining a partnership between a nonprofit and a community.
How should we structure the exhibit design process to best engage communities in the process? What kinds of feedback are we looking for from our communities? How does working with a community impact a project’s budget and timeline?
In the Community Issue Exhibition Toolkit, “Step 3: Develop the Project Together,” pp. 25-39, Lauren Benetua, Nina Simon, and Stacey Marie Garcia give you a comprehensive and short step-by-step guide for co-creating an exhibit with a community about an issue that impacts them personally.
In “A Toolkit for Co-Created Community Engagement Projects,” pp.16-25, Edward Adonteng, Louise Doherty, Priscilla Okoye, and Eric Tang list 12 tips for co-creating exhibits with communities, based on the case study from the Migration Museum.
In Community-Based Curation A Toolkit for Expanding Narratives and Changing Practices, Marianna Pegno, Christine Brindza, Patricia Lannes, Kristopher Driggers, and Cecilia Garibay walk through the entire process of community-based curation, based on case studies from the Tuscon Museum of Art.
Are there examples of successful partnerships from other museums? Are there examples of mistakes others have made that we can learn from?
In the panel discussion “Centering Native Voices at the Field Museum,” Ryan Schuessler, Rita Pyrillis, Debra Yepa-Pappan, and Doug Kiel talk about how exhibit developers and Native American community members co-created the Native Truths at the Field Museum.
In Mass Action Toolkit, “Sharing Authority: Creating Content and Experiences,” pp. 105-124, Christine Lashaw and Evelyn Orantes walk through how the Oakland Museum of California collaborated with community members on two different exhibits.
In “Museums as Predators,” I talk about the common mistakes that museums make in their community engagement processes.
"You don't have to totally create the wheel…many places have been through/iterated on this process and you can use their experience to guide you own” - Workshop Participant
How do we know if our engagement was successful for our museum?
In “Thinking Evaluatively: A Practical Guide to Integrating the Visitor Voice,” Jill Stein, Marianna Adams, and Jessica Luke walk through different exhibit evaluation methodologies and give quick tips for evaluating exhibits without engaging professional evaluators.
In “Evaluator Competencies for Professional Development,” Larry Bell and Barbara Butler discuss the skills and knowledge you need to become a great evaluator. They Include a self-evaluation and a bibliography.
How might we create partnerships that benefit communities and not just museums?
In “When You’re the Researcher and Participant: The Benefits of Collaborative Research,” Hannah Heller introduces how you can collaborate on research to evaluate exhibits and with your communities.
In “Evaluating Community Engagement: An Evaluation Guide and Toolkit for Practical Use,” Deloris Vaughn gives you a short and comprehensive step-by-step guide for evaluating a community engagement project.
In Principles of Community Engagement, “Chapter 7: Program Evaluation and Evaluating Community Engagement.” pp. 163–82, Meryl Sufian and her colleagues provide a deep dive into different evaluation methodologies, explore the pros and cons of each methodology, and give you sample evaluation questions.
Whether you're new to community engagement or need a quick refresher, I hope this guide has given you the practical tools you need to succeed. The guide gathers resources covering the essentials: getting institutional support, defining your community, starting engagement work, and evaluating exhibits. While this guide isn't exhaustive, it's a solid starting point for your journey.
Looking ahead, our field needs all of us to gather more resources in two key areas. First, we need more strategies for building lasting community partnerships that survive beyond a single project. Second, we need better ways to evaluate exhibits in collaboration with our communities. As museums get better at true collaboration, documenting and sharing these approaches will help all of us better serve our communities.
Want to share how you've used this guide? Drop me a line at hello@lucicreative.com.
