The Participatory Museum by Nina Simon

  • Year2017
  • LanguageRussian
  • Edition3000
  • Pages440
  • BindingHardcover
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Garage publishing program in collaboration with Ad Marginem Press. GARAGE PRO Series

Published in 2010, Nina Simon’s study remains essential reading for anyone interested in museology. It is one of the best practical guides to working with visitors and community members and turning museums into living spaces for education and interaction.

Commonly used in art circles for a long time, ‘participatory’ became a buzzword in art criticism in the 1990s, after Nicolas Bourriaud published his Relational Art, where ‘relational’ was synonymous to ‘participatory.’ If Bourriaud focused specifically on artistic strategies of engaging the audience, Simon looks at the opportunities available to institutions that represent the artists.

The book consists of eleven chapters, each offering a detailed analysis of a particular aspect of the universal experience of participation, which can be recreated at any museum in the world. Simon discusses the basis for collaboration between the museum and the visitor and explains why the visitor should play the leading part in it. She also talks about interactive platforms and how they are created, and analyzes the differences between cooperation with random visitors and cooperation through scientific and research projects.

Due to its simple style and clear structure, diversity of topics and vivid examples, the book targeted at museum professionals might also be interesting and useful for a broader audience. Stressing the fact that humans and human interaction are always of primary importance, Nina Simon argues that a participatory museum does not necessarily require a big budget or advanced technology. In fact, any museum’s team can build an efficient strategy of engaging the public by simply catering for its audience and consulting an experienced museologist.

Author

Nina Simon is a curator and expert in participatory museum experiences. She is the Executive Director of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History and author of The Art of Relevance (2016) and runs the blog Museum 2.0.

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