A reflection on practice as we reckon with our past
What happens next? Our lives aren’t the same, our families aren’t the same, our world isn’t the same. As we reopen our museums and re-engage our students, what adjustments need to be made? What risks can we take? The need for empathy and understanding could not be higher, so how do we build this into our museum experiences?
“Museums are not neutral” is a very different conversation now than it was a year ago.The same can be said for Trauma Informed Practice (TIP) ; we’ve all been traumatised by the past year. We are at a unique moment in time to use TIP, empathy, storytelling and risk-taking to create a community of problem-solvers in this new landscape.
This session will explore what it means to use empathy as a tool instead of an endgame. It will discuss strategies for using empathy to meet your guests where they are, even if you are in a community that may not agree with your ideology / values. It will challenge you to think of your intentions as space creation and not content delivery.
Facilitator
Co-chair, International Committee of Exhibition Exchange
Washington, DC
United States
Session speakers
Assistant Director, Guest Experience, Old World Wisconsin
Old World Wisconsin, Wisconsin Historical Society
I am passionate about curiosity, exploration, and creating spaces for peoples' stories – fostering critical thinking and stronger communities. Along with my team, we’re redefining engagement and building a training program that delivers world class guest experience rooted in a work culture that mirrors our values, and values people.
As a leader I advocate for the balance between the science and art of our practice.
In my current role I guide the many expressions of the Guest Experience- Experience Design, Evaluation, Education, Historic Landscapes, and Agriculture, the multi-faceted Living History Program, Guest Services, and Tram Operations. For our guests these all must work in tandem to create the day that will be the stuff of memories and meaning.
In 2010, after a corporate career in project management, I turned my focus to education, both formal and informal. I have taught in three different universities, and worked for museums in France, the United Arab Emirates and New York before joining Thanksgiving Point as Curator of Curiosity and Director of Guest Learning and Engagement in 2018. I now put my business experience and my passion for social justice toward my efforts to remove barriers to education and curiosity, in museums and universities alike.
Lately, my work has focused on vulnerability and empathy as means for DEAI.
Co-chair, International Committee of Exhibition Exchange
Washington, DC
United States
I am a museum leader committed to social justice narratives and models of co-creation and co-leadership in both content creation and structural change. I have extensive experience in business development with a global network, focusing on traveling exhibitions and resource exchange. In 2016 I began a conversation on the role of risk in leadership and what that means for museums.
