Engaging your Community
Case Studies of Partner Sites
These four museums worked with the OMA to pilot the Engaging Your Community toolkit in fall 2015 and winter 2016. These case studies show how each museum made use of the toolkit for thier particular situation.
Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre, Sault Ste. Marie
Museum on the Boyne, Alliston
North Lanark Regional Museum, Appleton
Art Gallery of Mississauga, Mississauga
Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre Location: Sault Ste. Marie Link: http://www.bushplane.com/ Staff: 6.5 full-time Volunteers: 40
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Vision Connecting people of all ages to Canada’s exciting bushplane and forest protection heritage in a world-class museum. Mission Statement The CBHC preserves and tells the story of Canada’s bushplane and forest fire protection heritage and how it has shaped life in northern and remote parts of Canada. The CBHC collects, preserves, exhibits and interprets a collection of bushplanes and related material and promotes public understanding of their significance by offering quality presentations, education programs and visitor experiences in a public museum facility. It also serves as a centre of research and information on bushplane and forest fire fighting heritage. |
Timeline – 5 months Working group self-assessment meeting |
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Working Group Composition & Orientation Reason for Applying:
Self-Assessment The process highlighted the fact that the CBHC was doing a great deal and there were already a lot of existing partnership with other organizations. The Working Group felt that many of their current projects and programs were at least moderately developed, and a lack of formal evaluation prevented them from being Exemplary. While each strategic area was strong overall, there was room in all areas to improve community involvement and engagement. The Self-Assessment process also highlighted the opportunity to review the museum’s mission to ensure that it expresses current priorities.
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Community Consultation Like the other museums in this pilot project, CBHC decided to use a modified version of Option A: Community Conversations from Engaging your Community: A Toolkit for Museums. The facilitation plan was reduced to three hours so that the event could take place on a weekday evening. The facilitation plan was modified as follows:
Community members were invited personally by members of the working group and coverage in the media brought in additional attendees. CBHC sent out a media release that was picked up by both SooToday.com and CTV Northern Ontario . |
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The consultation provided excellent information to the Working Group including the participants’ perception of the values and goals of the community (local history, nature, border town, status quo) as well as the CBHC’s role within the community (events, family, history, innovation, school trips) and what barriers affect the CBHC’s ability to connect with the community (exhibits, location, space, financial, web).
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Action Plan
Impact |
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Museum on the Boyne Location: Alliston Link: http://newtecumseth.ca/visitors/museum-on-the-boyne-2/ Staff: 1 full-time, 1 part-time contract Volunteers: varies based on time of year
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Vision The Museum on the Boyne will inspire curiosity and understanding of the people and events that shaped our communities. Mission The Museum on the Boyne commits to safeguard and illustrate the history of South Simcoe from first settlement to present day. |
Timeline – 5 months Working Group Self-Assessment Meeting
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Working Group Composition & Orientation
Self-Assessment The Working Group identified that the museum needs to improve awareness of its mission, purpose and collections. Many community members outside of New Tecumseth, the municipality in which the museum is located, were unaware that the Museum on the Boyne represented the five municipalities of South Simcoe; they referred to it as the ‘Alliston Museum’. |
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Community Consultation Like the other museums in this pilot project, Museum on the Boyne selected Option A: Community Conversations from Engaging your Community: A Toolkit for Museums. The facilitation plan was reduced to three hours so that the event could take place on a weekday afternoon. The facilitation plan was modified as follows:
Over 30 community members participated in the consultation at the Museum on the Boyne. All five municipalities were well represented by local residents, individuals from the arts, culture and heritage sectors, municipal staff members and members of the press. A Councillor from the Working Group additionally organized a bus to bring community members from his constituency to Museum on the Boyne for the consultation. |
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community (escapism, emotional, entertaining, interactive, resource and knowledge centre) and what barriers affect the museum’s ability to connect with the community (awareness, accessibility, location, hours of operation, funding, relevance).
Action Plan Impact |
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North Lanark Regional Museum Location: Appleton Link: http://northlanarkregionalmuseum.com Staff: 1 Volunteers: 20 |
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The North Lanark Regional Museum is owned and operated by the North Lanark Historical Society with the goal of collecting, preserving and displaying the history of Mississippi Mills. Timeline – 6 months |
Working Group at their Self-Assessment meeting |
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Working Group Composition & Orientation Reason for Applying:
The Working Group was confident that current visitors to the museum were having positive and enriching experiences. In particular, people interested in genealogy or local history praised the museum staff member and volunteers who consistently went above and beyond to perform research, locate objects and provide explanations. The Working Group identified the museum’s strengths as its personal connection with visitors as well as the museum’s focus on local people and their stories. |
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Community Consultation Approximately 48 community members participated in the three hour consultation hosted by the OMA and the North Lanark Regional Museum Working Group at the Almonte Old Town Hall. Many paid staff and volunteers from the local arts, heritage and culture sector were in attendance as well as community members and municipal staff members. The Working Group selected Option A: Community Conversations from Engaging your Community: A Toolkit for Museums. The facilitation plan as outlined in the toolkit was modified as follows:
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The consultation provided excellent information to the Working Group including the participants’ perception of the values and goals of the community (preserving the soul of Almonte, collaboration, community inclusion, connection and passion) as well as the North Lanark Regional Museum’s role within the community (information, creating/continuing local narrative, personal stories) and what barriers affect the museum’s ability to connect with the community (isolation, accessibility, funding/capacity, branding).
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Action Plan After comparing the results from the self-assessment meeting and the community consultation, the North Lanark Regional Museum Working Group identified areas of alignment and misalignment which informed their selection of three ideas: branding, a human library program and developing social media. These ideas will deepen the museum’s relationship with the community and overcome some of the barriers identified by consultation participants.
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The Working Group recognized the importance of responding to the community’s suggestion of relocating the museum’s collections, programs and services to a new space. They advocated for the existing location due to its many benefits to both visitors and museum workers. These include: parking, outdoor space, a sense of historical place, adequate storage space and reasonable maintenance costs. The Working Group also identified that by working on the museum’s brand, the human library program and social media, they would be overcoming many of the barriers associated with their existing location.
Impact |
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Art Gallery of Mississauga Location: Mississauga Link: http://www.artgalleryofmississauga.com/ Staff: 8 Volunteers: 80
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Mission Engage. Think. Inspire. This phrase opens the dialogue at the AGM. The Gallery connects with the people of Mississauga through the collection and presentation of relevant works from a range of periods and movements in Canadian art. Expressing multiple ideas and concepts, this visual art translates into meaningful cultural and social experiences for all audiences. The AGM employs innovative education, artist projects and other forms of dialogue to advance critical enquiry and community connection to the visual arts. The Gallery carries out its Mandate to bring art to the community and the community to art in accordance with professional museum practices set to North American standards . |
Timeline – 6 months Working Group at their Self-Assessment meeting
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Working Group Composition & Orientation The Working Group at the AGM was originally composed of three volunteers, one community member from a partner organization, and two staff members, but an additional staff member was hired part way through the project. The group was a mix of people who had long relationships with the gallery and some who were very newly involved, but all members were enthusiastic to make sure that the AGM builds on its successes and engages with the diversity of audiences in Mississauga. Reason for Applying: Self-Assessment By brainstorming on current programs, the Working Group found that the gallery was already actively reaching out to a variety of audiences with activities that are designed to be inclusive and low or no cost but could be improved in future through formal evaluation. For those who already engage with the AGM, the gallery is perceived as friendly and inclusive through the actions of its staff and volunteers. |
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Community Consultation - Visioning Session The consultation was originally set for late January 2016 but was moved to April 2 due to potential organizational changes at the Art Gallery of Mississauga. The AGM had started talking with City of Mississauga officials about a feasibility study to consider an expansion. The AGM decided to explore how the Engaging your Community consultation could contribute to the feasibility study and strategic plan as it was an opportunity for community members to reflect on the gallery’s existing space, activities and services as well as ideas for the future. After several talks between the AGM, the OMA and the facilitator, an agenda for the consultation was confirmed. It borrowed some elements of structure and content from Engaging your Community: A Toolkit for Museums while incorporating new content that AGM requested. Most importantly, while some of the activities were modified, the intention of the consultation remained the same: for the AGM to hear and learn from a wide range of community members. It was important to create opportunities for participants to provide organic input into the vision of the Art Gallery of Mississauga in 2020 including opportunities, strengths and potential programs and services. The facilitation plan had the following structure:
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On a snowy Saturday, over 200 community members participated in the three hour consultation hosted by the AGM Working Group in the Civic Centre atrium just outside the gallery space. It was a large, diverse and engaged group representing many organizations and stakeholders in Mississauga. Attendance numbers were so much higher than expected that extra tables, chairs and coffee had to be set up. To document the process and to add to the visual impact of the day, the AGM invited illustrator Steve Manale to create a visual record of the process. The consultation provided excellent information to the Working Group. Community members selected fourteen top bold ideas to help the AGM bring art to the community and the community to art. The ideas that received the most votes were:
Action Plan |
Ontario Museum Association – Emerging Museum Professionals Advisory Committee (EMPAC) Link: https://goemp.wordpress.com Structure: Committee of a Non-profit Association Members: 5 OMA Staff Liaisons: 2
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Mission To provide a voice for, empower, support and create a community of emerging museum professionals within the Ontario Museum Association (OMA) and Ontario’s museum sector. To develop succession and sustainability plans that will allow the network and committee to continue beyond the Trillium funding period. In all activities, to work with the OMA to ensure a strong, coherent voice and programs for emerging museum professionals as well as supporting the objectives of the OMA mission and Strategic Plan |
Timeline – 3 months
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Modifying the Toolkit for a Fully Online Process Reason for Undertaking the Process: Self-Assessment The Committee generally agreed that the initiatives that had been created to enhance the OMA conference were the most successful to date because they engaged EMPs with others in the sector while providing programming specifically for them. Integration of EMPs on OMA Council and other committees, the growth of the facebook group, and the regular meet-ups in Toronto were also seen as strengths.
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Community Consultation The Community Conversations facilitation process from the Engaging Your Community toolkit was modified to be completely online to engage as many EMPs as possible. Rather than using one face-to-face forum for consultation, a combination of written submissions and webinars over several weeks were planned to accomplish what would normally happen during one day. Due to the fact that they did not have a good idea of who made up the community they wanted to hear from beyond the membership of the Group of Ontario Emerging Museum Professionals (GOEMP) facebook group, personalized invitations were not feasible in this case. Instead, notices inviting participation from all EMPs in Ontario were distributed in all of the OMA’s communication channels (newsletters and social media) as well as the GOEMP facebook page. |
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The virtual community consultation had two phases: Phase one: March 2 – 15, 2016 EMPs were asked to contribute their opinions about the EMP community and ideas for future activities in an online, collaborative Google document that was open for approximately two weeks. Each person who signed in created a new column for themselves and responded to the questions. 34 people contributed to the document. In order to encourage participation in this process, all contributors were entered into a draw for a 2016 OMA conference registration. Participants responded to the following questions: SECTION 1 Think about the EMP community and respond to the questions below. Q1. What are the values that are core to this community? Q2. What are the biggest issues facing EMPs? Q3. What are your biggest hopes for this community? Q4. How would you describe EMPAC’s relationship with the community? SECTION 2 Identify the assets and barriers within the community. Q1. To you, what are the most valuable assets within this community?
Q2. What barriers to participation do EMPs face when participating in EMPAC and its activities?
Action Plan
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Impact The Engaging your Community process provided a structured methodology for EMPAC to reach out to a broad and diverse audience of emerging museum professionals and other stakeholders. The number of individuals who participated in the consultation gave the committee members confidence that the feedback they received was representative of the community’s needs. |
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The members of EMPAC worked during the summer of 2016 to revise their terms of reference as a committee and in the fall of 2016 recruited new members to join the executive committee of the Group of Ontario Emerging Museum Professionals (GOEMP), an independent volunteer committee with a close working relationship with the OMA. During the transition period, EMPAC committee members organized EMP activities at the 2016 OMA Annual Conference that built on previous years’ successes and introduced new elements like the EMP Conference Survival Guide. EMPAC went into the Engaging Your Community process looking for a way forward and came out with a plan to become GOEMP. By the end of 2016, with a dynamic group of ten engaged committee members, a new website, plenty of enthusiasm, and community feedback to refer to, GOEMP was well prepared to make informed decisions about its future and serve the EMP community in Ontario. |
This initiative is part of the museumsuccession project funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation, an agency of the Government of Ontario.
The museumsuccession Project was developed to strengthen Ontario’s museum sector by enhancing governance, fostering stronger relationships between museums and their communities as well as supporting Emerging Museum Professionals.