Positioning Your Museum as a Critical Community Asset: A Practical Guide - Paperback

by Robert P. Connolly (Editor), Elizabeth A. Bollwerk (Editor)

In this how-to guide, practitioners at cultural heritage venues share their experiences in building sustainable relationships with their geographic and demographic communities. The volume focuses on the practicalities of starting and sustaining educational, advocational, digital and co-creative activities and programs. The thematic essays and case studies discuss strategies and actions museums can employ to build relationships with their communities, while serving as a community asset and resource. Case studies include candid discussions of successes, challenges, and lessons learned with an emphasis on small-to medium-sized institutions with limited staff and budgets.

Author Biography

Robert Connolly is active in the museum field as an independent consultant and President of the Advocates for the Poverty Point World Heritage Site. He has over 25 years of experience in museums and community engagement most recently as an Associate Professor in the Museum Studies program at the University of Memphis and the Director of the C.H. Nash Museum at Chucalissa. His PhD is from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1996. Elizabeth A. Bollwerk is currently an Archaeological Analyst for the Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery (DAACS, www.daacs.org) at the Thomas Jefferson Foundation based at Monticello. She received her PhD from the University of Virginia in 2012.