turning outward: museums and libraries as sites for community innovation and revitalization

“Turning Outward”: Museums and Libraries as Sites for Community

Innovation and Revitalization

Chris Siefert, Children's Museum PittsburghLeilani Lewis, Northwest African American Museum

Gerry Garzon, Oakland Public LibraryMargaret Kadoyama, Margaret Kadoyama Consulting

Community Anchor• An organization (often a large employer

such as a university or hospital) that is an active part of neighborhood revitalization. Museums and libraries that are community anchors strive to create a better quality of life within communities.

Community RevitalizationMuseums and libraries developing long-term and

complex relationships with community members – focused on resolving local issues and making a measureable impact in communities

• Physical revitalization • Community-building• Bringing together partners for collective impact

“Turning Outward” • An approach developed by The Harwood

Institute for Public Innovation• Focuses on turning outward – toward one

another• Engages people in community

conversations and action about community issues

• Rooted in post World War II federal initiatives that morphed in the 1960’s thru 1980’s with Community Action and Comprehensiveness

• Focuses on housing, economic viability, social services, community safety, education, health

• Issues for success: – Never enough money – Accountability– Ability of participating agencies to

‘pivot’

COMPREHENSIVE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT and COLLECTIVE IMPACT

COMMUNITIES KNOW BEST – INTERRELATED PROBLEMS REQUIRE A DISCIPLINED APPROACH

• Community Anchors – we offer expertise, political leadership, facilities, and sometimes funding that can be mobilized in support of community change

• Contribute to Quality of Place / Quality of Life – broader social goals including:– Cultural development– Place-making– Improvements to social well-being– Workforce and business development – Health of residents

WHY SHOULD WE PARTICIPATE

NEIGHBORHOOD SCALE – EXTENDED REACH – BENEFITS ACROSS SECTORS

1. Physical Revitalization: construction and renovation requires engagement with the community and creates economic value, provides direct services, generates traffic beneficial to local commerce, and helps boost community reputation

2. Community Building: conveners, lead discussions, facilitate events, exchange ideas, provide resources and referrals

3. Collective Impact in Services Delivery: build partnerships, shift decision making towards the group, become community centers, create programs and services which increase the educational, physical, social, political and economics benefits to neighborhood

HOW DO WE PARTICIPATE

OUTWARD FOCUSED – COMMITTED TO THE COMMUNITY - COOPERATION

• Provide innovative museum experiences that inspire joy, creativity and curiosity.

• We provide the highest quality exhibits and programs for learning and play.

• We are a partner and a resource for people who work with or on behalf of children.

MISSION

ART - DESIGN – COMMUNITY - INNOVATION

Design Competition 2000Winner for Children’s Museum Expansion

Koning Eizenberg Architecture

2004 Expansion

ART - DESIGN – COMMUNITY - INNOVATION

In House Partners

• Pittsburgh Public School – 2 Pre-K Head Start Programs

• Reading is Fundamental

• Saturday Light Brigade

• Allies for Children

• University of Pittsburgh Center for Learning in Out of School Environments

Pittsburgh’s Northside

Downtown

East End

Southside

West End

Neighborhood Involvement

Children’s Museum

Numerous organizations – Lack of connectivity

BUHL COMMUNITY

PARKAT

ALLEGHENY SQUARE

Former Library

Building

CBP PROJECT LAUNCH: 2007

The Charm Bracelet ProjectCHALLENGE to take on new and different possibilities and partnerships outside of the typical

RESOURCE and NETWORK for each other and for other organizations

VISION for ‘street level activity’ through collaborative programs in “everyday space”

UNDERPASSA public art gallery

Kim Beck – Blue Skies, 2011

Allegheny Public Square

Children’s Museum

Aerial View: 2011

Ohio Street and Federal Street

Existing Conditions

Historic Imagescirca 1920’s circa 1960’s

Community Day in the Park July, 2007

Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture

Hood Design

La Dallman Architecture

Garofalo Architecture with PSLA

Klavon Design Associates

WANTED

Building• Circa 1890• 45,000 square ft. • National Historic

Landmark• First commissioned

Carnegie Free Library• Hazlett Theater physically

part of the original building [Approx. 25,000sf]

• Neighborhood “touchstone”

OPEN HOUSE EVENT AUGUST 2013

Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, in partnership with other community organizations, seeks to renovate and redevelop the historic Carnegie Free Library of Allegheny into a multifaceted community learning, arts and research center.

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PHASE I - STUDY SKETCH AT STUDIOS: FORMER STACKSForty Eighty Architecture

http://press.etc.cmu.edu/

http://press.etc.cmu.edu/

Thank You!

• Recognize and work within your Sphere of Influence

• S T R E T C H

• ADAPTIVE (vs. technical)

• URGENCY – COALITION – VISION - …

• GIVE UP CONTROL• MAKE AN OFFER: YES , AND…

• LISTEN

SKILLS AND ATTRIBUTES

SHARE AGENDAS :: JOIN AGENDASEMBED – COMMIT

Establish a Sense of Urgency

STEPS TO TRANSFORMATION

TOP EIGHT – BUT IN WHAT ORDER???

Create a Succinct, Compelling and Noble Vision

Form a Powerful Guiding Coalition

Communicate Vision for Understanding and Buy-in

Empower Others to Act on the Vision

Produce Short-Term Wins

Consolidate Improvements and Don’t Let Up

Institutionalize Approaches into a New Culture

STEPS TO TRANSFORMATION

URGENCY - COALITION - VISION

1. Establish a Sense of Urgency2. Form a Powerful Guiding Coalition3. Create a Succinct, Compelling and Noble Vision

4. Communicate Vision for Understanding and Buy-in5. Empower Others to Act on the Vision6. Produce Short-Term Wins7. Consolidate Improvements and Don’t Let Up8. Institutionalize Approaches into a New Culture

6 PRACTICES OF MAGNETIC MUSEUMS1. Build Core Alignment

Shared vision, mission, goals sets the course

2. Embrace 360 EngagementInvolving stakeholders in meaningful experiences

establishes powerfully charged connections

3. Empower OthersPeople first, service first activates others

4. Widen the Circle and Invite the Outside InRespect for other perspectives creates shared

ownership

5. Become EssentialIncrease relevance leads to pertinence in daily life

6. Build Trust Through High PerformanceAttract and reward talent

OPEN HOUSE EVENT AUGUST 2013Bells Ringing

Greeters; Check-in with give-aways; Information Tables

Roaming Youth Reporter; Tours

Remarks – Questions – Discussions

Feedback Easel - What are your memories of this place?What are your hopes for this place? What did you see or hear today that you liked? Other Comments:

AUDIENCE FAMILIAR FORMAT - EMOTIONAL AND HISTORIC – ASK QUESTIONS

I need you to be bold

#Ferguson Event August 2014

Colman Building Built in 1907

Pitch Black: African American Baseball in Washington

NAAM Journey Gallery

Debora Moore: Glass Orchidarium

Social Justice conversations with Pecha Kucha Seattle

Inviting Artists, Musicians and scholars in to engage with NAAM

Celebration and the new small museum experience

Black Weirdo Party 2015

Youth Curator Program and Genealogy Lab

Afropunk Party 2014

OAKLAND PUBLIC LIBRARYHow To Best Meet Community Needs: Inside, Outside & Online

Oakland: Protesters gather to oppose police brutality, support Ferguson“The protests Wednesday -- which started at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, the Oakland Main Library, the African-American History Museum and Jack London Square -- were held in solidarity with protests in Ferguson, Missouri, where an unarmed black man, Michael Brown, 18, was shot at least six times by a white police officer on Aug. 9, 2014. In the wake of the shooting, police attempts to deal with angry protesters have come under nationwide scrutiny.”

By Kristin J. Bender and Karina Ioffee Oakland Tribune POSTED: 08/20/2014 05:23:34 PM PDT


Black Lives Matter Protests in Frank Ogawa Plaza & Broadway, December 31, 2014 Some of the marchers attempted to hold a noise demo, in which voices, sound systems, musical instruments and fireworks are used as a means to get the message out. Protesters noted a heavy police presence, with cordons being set up around the march route to keep marchers from venturing out into the city.

Occupy Oakland@OccupyOakland

https://twitter.com/OccupyOakland

https://twitter.com/OccupyOakland

https://twitter.com/OccupyOakland?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw


Saturday January 24, 2015


Listen, Learn, Participate: #BlackLivesMatter Event Series

Posted by Amy Sonnie on Saturday, February 28th, 2015Today, Oakland Public Library kicks off a series of events to foster

discussion on racial inequity in policing, prisons and society.• This week Oakland Public Library kicks off a series of events

on policing, prisons, racial justice and social change in the United States.

• The goals of the series are to foster learning, dialogue, collaboration and action, foregrounding creative, community solutions to racial inequity.

• Last Saturday, we kicked off with the Al Jazeera America documentary film Ferguson: Race and Justice in the U.S. produced by Sweta Vohra of Fault Lines held at our Martin Luther King Jr Library. The film explores why black communities feel targeted by law enforcement in Ferguson. Following the film, Michael Bell of InPartnership Consulting facilitated a rich and important conversation with attendees helping them to recognize and appreciate cultural differences.

http://oaklandlibrary.org/events/martin-luther-king-jr-branch/ferguson-race-and-justice-us-film-followed-community-discussion


The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

Isabel Wilkerson is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, whose first book, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration, has won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work. This excellent, never before comprehensively documented study of the myriad numbers of American Blacks quietly leaving the South for Freedom in the other States, is told primarily through the stories of three who left. The quoted narrations immediately put the reader into a world of a constricted and oppressed people, yet is permeated with hope and supplemented with the massive scope of the exodus and how it has changed our nation for the better. The migration started in World War I, and ended in the 1970s.This story has the best of history and literature, being beautifully written and exhaustively researched, putting immediate, real stories in the perspective of the unstoppable journey to Freedom.Join us for what should be a fascinating discussion of a ground breaking work.

Tuesday, March 17, 6:30-7:30pm. Lakeview Library, 550 El Embarcadero


Octavia's Brood: Creating Futures Where Black Lives Matter

Join us for a transformative dialogue on science fiction and social justice with the co-editor of Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories From Social Justice Movements.From Oakland to Ferguson, today’s activists dare us to imagine a radically different society. Yet, whenever we envision a world without war, prisons and injustice, we are engaging in speculative fiction. We are writing a future we’ve never seen.In the tradition of author Octavia Butler, Octavia’s Brood explores the connection between science fiction and radical imagination.Co-editor adrienne maree brown will share stories and questions to help us imagine and create a more just future.

About adrienne marie brownadrienne is a 2013 Kresge Literary Arts Fellow writing science fiction in Detroit, and also received a 2013 Detroit Knight Arts Challenge Award to run a series of Octavia Butler based science fiction writing workshops. Learning from her 15 years as a social movement activist, she approaches Octavia’s work through the lens of emergent strategy – strategies rooted in relationship, adaptability, and embracing change. adrienne helped launch a network of reading groups for people interested in reading Octavia’s work from a political and strategic framework, and is building with the Octavia E Butler Legacy Network to extend Butler’s work. www.adriennemareebrown.net

Wednesday, April 22, 6:00-7:30pmAfrican American Museum & Library, 659 14th Street

http://encore.oaklandlibrary.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb1990846__SOctavia's%20Brood__Orightresult__X7;jsessionid=0A5287C8DC5966828472D235E3EC5976?lang=eng&suite=cobalt

http://www.adriennemareebrown.net/


• In January 2016, OPL will host a public program with Professor Jennifer Eberhardt who has been working with the Oakland Police Department (OPD) over the last year on analyzing their Stop Data.

• Additionally, she has provided implicit bias training for the OPD Command staff and Supervisors

• OPL will host the program to foster community engagement around Dr. Eberhardt’s findings on police stops in Oakland. The focus of this event is to make this academic research accessible to the general public, particularly to communities that have been most impacted by racial profiling.

• OPL will partner with community organizations or ensure outreach and to help foster community dialogue about solutions.

• OPL is working with the Rosenburg Foundation which is a current advisor for the Oakland Community Safety Planning Advisory group, to help shape this event, moderate and/or help us design the best process for public discussion.

Fostering Community Engagement

• Listening attentively

• Respect• Empathy• Patience• Follow-through• Being accountable

• The commitment to put in the time and resources needed over the long term

• The courage to go into the community and listen, many times – to be present

Skills and Attributes

Your Chance to Participate

• Tell your partner about your most memorable museum visit and what made it so memorable

OR• Tell your partner about your most recent

museum visit, what went well and what didn’t go so well.

• Bergeron, A. & Tuttle, B. (2013). Magnetic: The Art and Science of Engagement. Washington DC: The AAM Press.

• The Harwood Institute http://www.theharwoodinstitute.org/how-to-turn-outward/

• Libraries Transforming Communities Community Conversation Workbook http://www.ala.org/transforminglibraries/sites/ala.org.transforminglibraries/files/content/LTC_ConvoGuide_final_062414.pdf

Resources

http://www.theharwoodinstitute.org/how-to-turn-outward/

http://www.ala.org/transforminglibraries/sites/ala.org.transforminglibraries/files/content/LTC_ConvoGuide_final_062414.pdf



Chris Siefert [email protected] ext 227

Leilani [email protected] ext 108

Gerry Garzón [email protected]

Margaret [email protected]

Our Contact Info

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turning outward: museums and libraries as sites for community innovation and revitalization

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