Museum compass 29.

Title: Community based participatory management in museums

Edited by Ibolya Bereczki, Magdolna Nagy

The issue is downloadable here.

 

Introduction

The EFOP-3.3.3-VEKOP-16-2016-00001 project, titled Museum and Library Development for Everyone, launched on 1 February 2017 for a period of 36 months, with a budget of HUF 2 billion, was implemented by the Museum Education and Methodology Centre of the Hungarian Open Air Museum in partnership with the Metropolitan Szabó Ervin Library as a consortium partner. The project consisted of two distinct components. The development of libraries was titled My library, whereas the component Our Museum was dedicated to the training of Hungarian museum professionals, particularly in the area of learning innovative approaches to school education and deepening partnerships with public education.

This publication summarizes the results of the Our Museum development.

The Museum and Library Development for Everyone project is the second part of a ten-year development process. Building on the results of the Museums for Everyone project 2008-2014, which laid the foundations: in addition to methodological development, training, research and publications, we focused on the need for museums to develop as many museum education programmes as possible which teachers can integrate into the curriculum, and so that schools could become aware of the educational services of museums and use them as primary out-of-school educational venues. The programme has yielded significant improvements, triggered numerous new knowledge transfer processes and a change of attitude. The changes are reflected in both an increase in the number of workshops and the improvement in their quality. A process has also been initiated which specifically addresses disadvantaged groups with limited or no access to museum content.

The main goal of the project component of Our Museum was to continue the change of approach, to extend it to new areas, to develop new methodologies based on research and to promote their use and application. We deemed it important both museum professionals and educators to move beyond their traditional way of thinking and also in their practical approach: to consider museums as an additional means of supporting education effectively and with novel approaches of museum education when dealing with specific areas and competencies to be developed. They are encouraged to form closer cooperation with educational institutions and offer programmes to meet the special needs of both teachers and students; to develop solutions for the development of digital competence, to ensure the inclusion of disadvantaged people, to reduce early school-leaving, to pave the way to talent development; to provide assistance to students in vocational education to familiarize them with trades and professions and to educators to utilize the museum’s digitalised collections in their work. The professional background of the above is ensured by the project’s methodological guidebooks, model-value pilot programmes, further trainings and publications.

In addition to strengthening the educational role of museums, the project also aimed at increasing the standard of service and visitor-centred operation. Research and methodology have been developed for the operation of service-providing museums, and a wide group of experts have developed criteria systems for child-, school- and familyfriendly museums. One of the most important professional, methodological and strategic impacts of the project was the creation of a museum quality management framework to promote quality-oriented operation, and the development of a methodology to improve internal processes in three areas: volunteer management, school community service and quality assurance of museum educational activities.

The research results were primarily published on our printed and electronic surfaces, first and foremost in the Múzeumi Iránytű (Museum Compass) series and the Staféta Füzetek (Pass the Baton!) series, which present the results of the pilot projects, as well as our online publications for educators. The projects results will also be published internationally in full-text translations, which will allow access to several volumes of the Museum Compass series electronically on our homepage www.mokk.skanzen.hu. The project also provided an opportunity for museum professionals to gain experience in foreign museum conferences and study tours, as well as to present the results of the project at conferences abroad. Attending lectures abroad and international conferences organized in Hungary serve as means for the sensitization of Hungarian experts to good practices abroad and encouraged the adaptation of those.

The museum coordinator network played a major role in disseminating the project. The workshops held several times a year in different museums focused on three of the methodological improvements: in 2017, the opportunities of museums to support vocational education in Hungary and Austria were examined. In 2018, opportunities to support disadvantaged and disabled people with special museum tools and contents were explored, and in 2019 the topic of the service-providing museums was studied in theory and in practice both at home and by taking study tours abroad. The experiences of the workshops and the tours were not only integrated into the daily activities of museum coordinators but were also passed on in self-organized events for educators and museum professionals.

In order to facilitate the understanding and application of new methodologies in museums, the developments were not only drafted in theory, but they were also tested in practice. 19 museum institutions have developed museum education programmes, each linked to a new methodology which can serve as a model for other institutions. In order to test adaptability, the institutions participating in the pilot projects had to involve an additional (so-called “mentored”) museum, and help them adopt the programme developed by them. 38 museums have experimented with new methodologies through the pilot projects that way. The pilot project entitled KultúrBónusz (CultureBonus), the 20th pilot project realized in Northern Hungary and the Northern Great Plain region, introduced a methodology to facilitate the inclusion of disadvantaged children to 35 museums. In addition, the Museum quality management framework has been tested by five museums of different sizes and classifications.

The project sought to encourage museums to build relationships with both trainee teachers and students in higher education. Our goal was to provide students with a broader opportunity within the system of higher education to become familiar with the museum contents supporting education and to learn modern museum pedagogical methods. In addition to the methodological recommendations for further developing the relationship with higher education, the pilot projects also serve as good practices, with the mandatory element that students from a higher education institution had to be involved in the design or implementation of the programme. During the implementation, the range of institutions involved has widened, as besides students from teacher training universities, science and art students also became our partners.

One of the objectives of the priority project was to train professionals in the cultural field within adult education, and relied on our series of training courses for teachers. The topics were closely linked to the methodological development of the project, and in addition to the research results, they also provided excellent examples of practical applications. Our training offer was made attractive by the “charm of the museum venue”, we also conducted on-site training sessions as a new element of the project, taking into account the local characteristics and special needs of the museums launching the training. We developed a new training methodology (modular training1 ), unique in the whole cultural field, in order to broaden the knowledge of museum leaders and improve their strategic and managerial thinking and practical management skills. The options offered by the modular system have also greatly contributed to the ability of candidates to complete the 120 hours of training with modules of their choice, following a basic section.

Significant results of the three-year museum project in numbers: we have accredited ten types of training for museum professionals and two types of training for educators, and developed one training course to provide methodological training for practitioners. We worked with 130 trainers in 51 in-person and blended courses and three e-learning courses. We also published 12 online training materials. 315 teachers and 457 museum professionals have attended our courses so far.

Ten methodological issues have been published in the Museum Compass series so far, the pilot projects are presented in 20 , with 5 volumes for teachers. 25 professional implementers and 21 coordinators travelled to 16 foreign museum conferences - in addition, we organized four study visits for museum coordinators and one for professional implementers. Museum Coordinators organized 410 events to inform museum professionals and educators. 80 museums have declared in writing so far that they would adopt one of the methodologies developed in the project. Although the project will end on 31 January, 2020, its results will determine the direction of Hungarian museum development in the long term.

In this volume we present the most important research and methodological results of the museum component of the Museum and Library Development for Everyone project, with the express aim of presenting the role, impact and practical application of each area even after the closure of the project.

Dr. Ibolya Bereczki Magdolna Nagy