Museums and Community Centers

Value and Obstacles

UCLA, Fall 2013
TEP Community Inquiry Project

Anya Bergman
Sonya Lee
Sarah Patterson
Jean Yang
Kristen Wilks













Key Research Question

Our interests in the relationships museums and cultural centers have with local families
began with one of our group members conversation with her guiding teacher. When asked what
the guiding teachers opinions were regarding the needs of the students and their families in her
classroom community, she said that they had all the basics except the opportunity to visit
museums and cultural centers. The teacher tries to compensate by taking students on as many as
ten field trips a year through grants and donations. However, families as a whole were still left
out of those experiences. From this conversation, we began to research the importance of
museums for students and families were able to form two research questions for our
communities:
1) How does the community view museums and cultural centers?
2) What are the obstacles to accessing these sites?

Scholarly Research and Background

Scholarly research on the importance of museums highlights the power these institutions
hold in educating the community, but particularly youth. Allison Wickens discusses the role
museums can play in early childhood to help children explore and make sense of the world.
Additionally, Wickens shows that by visiting museums during early childhood, students are more
likely to become lifelong museum-goers. (95) By building comfort with museum environments
at an early age, children are more likely to reap the benefits of museum education and utilize it
later in life. A recent New York Times article cites research that students who visit a museum on
a school tour are far more likely to return to the museum later on with their families than those
who do not go on field trips. Not only are they more likely to return, but their knowledge of art,
tolerance, and historical empathy are greatly improved, especially for students coming from
minority, rural, and low-income backgrounds. The authors of the article conclude that, visiting
an art museum exposes students to a diversity of ideas that challenge them with different
perspectives on the human condition. (Kisida, Greene, and Bowen) Wolf and Wood remind us
of the importance of scaffolding childrens experiences in museums to provide them with the
most meaningful learning experiences possible. This means understanding families motivations
for visiting museums and bridging the gap between parents intrinsic attitudes and beliefs about
learning and how to design experiences to elicit family learning and engagement. (31)
Museum education research shows not only the power of museums to educate, but also
their capability to empower visitors. Anderson and Williams advocate that museums reorient
themselves toward a goal of not just educating people about their collections, but give visitors
the tools to think about their own lives in relation to those collections. They push for museum
education to empower actors in the story of creating a positive future. (256) In this way,
museums can see their educational aspects playing a part in the social justice of visitors,
especially youth. Elizabeth Duclos-Orsello discusses the importance of a shared authority, or a
collaboration between the museum and the community, colleagues, or non-museum partners in
highlighting exhibits that address social justice. She grounds her argument for shared authority in
the work of Paulo Freire, who called on us to consider that we are stronger and better able to
effect change by embracing potential co-creators who add their wisdom and experiences to our
own and provide a new lens through with to consider our work and our goals. (123) Duclos-
Orsello calls on museums to act as agents of social change, and to draw on the assets and cultural
capital of communities to better meet social justice goals. This collaboration is highlighted by
Barron, who discusses how art education by a museum in New Orleans gave students the
opportunity to reconnect with their community following Hurricane Katrina. By collaborating
with one of the new charter schools, students were not only able to reconnect with the
community, but they were given the chance to orient themselves as young artists and storytellers
on behalf of the community.
Interviews

We chose HOLA and the families they serve as our primary community because of their
close relationship with TEP, experience with the arts, and span of families they reached as a
mediation site. HOLA community members and staff took us on a neighborhood tour, in which
we learned that one perspective of the museum and cultural centers is that they are learning
spaces as well as recreational centers. Middle school students at HOLA responded that their
families view museums as places parents send their kids to learn something or places we want
to go out to have family time. Many parents found that museums were valuable and had been
very open to past programs that offered them opportunity to go as a group. HOLA parents also
indicated that they would benefit from museums that provided discounted or free tickets on the
weekends, instead of during the week.
In thinking about the possible obstacles to access to museums, we started with an
assumption that families were not visiting because of the high price of tickets. With this initial
belief in mind, we researched for special programs that museums were offering students and
their families in the communities. Through researching articles and conducting interviews, we
were able to come across many free service programs that are being offered. One such program
is through CalWORKs and CalFresh, which provide recipients free access to many LA County
sites. Parents at HOLA mentioned this program but did not have a good understanding of how it
worked. Additionally, the Art and Culture Deputy in one of our L.A. County Supervisor
introduced us to LACMAs Arts for NexGen program which provides children under 17 free
access to the museum, along with free admission for an accompanying adult. She also
recommended that we contact a representative at the Natural History Museum and request free
tickets to provide educational opportunities to families. In addition, we learned that the Getty
Center, Getty Villa, California Science Center, and California African American Museum are
free for all visitors. When asked what kind of obstacles families might face, she said that, two
issues that are potential challenges of [our groups project are] adult admission and [the]
transportation piece.
In addition, the School Programs Developer at the Japanese American National Museum
mentioned that transportation could be one possible challenge that families face when accessing
cultural sites. However, she considered it fortunate that JANM was located right off Metro gold
line in Downtown LA. Through the interview, we learned that JANM also offers a free program
through Target Family Free Saturdays, a Target grant program that is held once every month.
The most helpful and informative interviews were conducted at HOLA itself. When
asked if unaffordable ticket was the greatest barrier for the families from visiting the sites, the
Art Director at HOLA stated, It is not really helpful if we just get free tickets [from local
museums]. Parents need accessible transit areas to get to local museums because many families
in the neighborhood do not have cars that can take them to these sites. She suggested visiting
only local museums, places parents can reach by public transportation.
She also named language barrier as an obstacle that hinders families from actively
visiting the museums. Even when brochures in languages other than English are available,
families might not get the most out of their experience. For a more enriching experience, she
strongly suggested that museums provide families with bilingual guided-tours and culturally
relevant artifacts and display because families who had gone to the museum with them before
felt alienated from the heavy emphasis on European art. Therefore, culturally relevant art and
displays are very important for engaging the parents and students. Lastly, she suggested not
looking at the entire museum but focusing on specific exhibits in order to gain a deeper and more
meaningful visit.
Findings
Our findings break into two components: 1) our own biases and 2) the community of
HOLAs needs towards museums.
Though we did not expect it, our own biases coming into the project became the first
major finding of our inquiry project. When we began to research about museums, we
immediately made the assumption that the possible challenges for access to museums were
pricing and pure ticketing information. Following this thought, we got very excited and
contacted about a dozen museums around the L.A. area about fee exemption programs or free
family days etc. It was only after we talked to the parents, students, and teachers at HOLA that
we realized our initial action plan did not actually meet the needs of that community. We focused
on pure pricing and tickets, but what they need is help with transportation, translation for pieces
in the gallery, culturally relevant exhibits, and guided tours to focus attention. We felt very
fortunate that the community at HOLA were so open to sharing their needs with us as well as
welcoming us to implement an action plan next quarter. Their openness made it possible to
correct our assumptions and push us towards a more fitting action plan. It helped us realize the
importance of getting to know a specific community and their needs before any assumptions or
plans are made. It is a lesson we will be carrying on with us in the future.
Our second finding was the actual needs of the community. Though parents appreciate
free tickets and family days at different museums, one obstacle is having consistent
transportation. Most families do not own cars and their children walk to HOLA, so the best
museum options are local museums in range of public transportation. The second obstacle
involves language. Most families speak Spanish so they would need either Spanish translation of
explanations for art pieces or a tour guide who can verbally communicate ideas to them. The
third obstacle is engaging families with culturally relevant art in particular, to make the
museum experience meaningful to them. Parents feel alienated and disconnected from the
formal art world and would appreciate being directed to special art exhibits or galleries that
value their cultures.
Action Plan

Based on the students, families, and teachers concerns on transportation, language, and
cultural relevant art, we modified our plan for next quarter. First, we narrowed down museums
from across L.A. to local museums that families could easily reach by transportation. Next, we
are asking museums to donate not only free tickets, but special accommodations or tours that are
bilingual. Third, we are seeking out help in different museums that display culturally relevant art
or at least world art instead of European-focused art. Lastly, we are making sure our tours are
guided to help engage the parents as well as the students at the museums.
Right now we are contacting 4-5 museums around HOLA to see if they do 1) offer free
tickets for students and parents in the afternoons or weekends, 2) guided tours in Spanish, and 3)
culturally relevant art that could engage the families with which we are working. Another option
HOLA suggested was bringing a workshop to HOLA, one that the students and parents could
both attend at night or over the weekend. Many museums offer hands-on classes which would be
a great way to get families interested and meet them where they are. We are in contact with both
the director at HOLA and different museums to continuously search for an option that best works
for both. One additional plan we hope to implement is conducting a workshop for parents on the
weekends addressing Access to Museums, where we give information about museums that
have diverse exhibits, programs that offer free or discounted passes, public transportation routes
to the various museums and learning centers, and how to find bilingual tour guides when families
do visit.





































Cited Works


Anderson, J.C. and Williams, M.A. Engaging Visitors to Create Positive Futures. Journal of
Museum Education, 38(3), 256-259.

Barron, K. From Classroom to Gallery: Building Community and Preserving Heritage. Journal
of Museum Education, 37(1), 81-90.

Bowen, D.H., Greene, J.P., Kisada, B. (2013, November 23). Art Makes You Smart. New York
Times.

Duclos-Orsello, E. Shared Authority: The Key to Museum Education as Social Change. Journal
of Museum Education, 38(2), 121-128.

Wickens, K. Allison. Museums and Community: The Benefits of Working Together. Journal of
Museum Education, 37(1), 91-100.

Wolf, B. and Wood, E. Integrating Scaffolding Experiences for the Youngest Visitors in
Museums. Journal of Museum Education, 37(1), 29-38.