This paper explores the narratives of participants in museum community engagement projects in Scotland. Emphasis is placed on how taking part in museum community engagement projects can have a positive impact on the participants' wellbeing. This qualitative study employed a dialogical research strategy, which involved careful and mindful…

This case study traces the initial investigations in developing a culturally responsive intervention in museum education and curation entitled Elusive Desires. I explore the ways in which curatorial and pedagogical work in an art museum may disrupt traditionally held notions of "Canadian art," the archive, and belonging. Embracing an…

In this article, the tree is used as a metaphor for the birth, nourishment, growth, stress, pruning, resilience, and regeneration of decolonial work to indigenize museum education. At the center of this work is Indigenous peoples, perspectives, and ways of knowing and being. This principle has guided the work of the authors who assert that when…

Museums are complex, intersectional informal learning spaces that are situated in a distinctive positionality of power, social trust, and colonialism. For many people, they serve as community spaces that empower the imagination and connect intergenerational learning, while simultaneously functioning as prestigious institutions for research and…

Trauma infiltrates all of society -- including museums. For guests, the trauma may lie in the context of the visit or what they bring with them from their everyday lives. Staff can develop trauma through daily interaction with stressful content or secondary trauma through interaction with traumatized guests. During the COVID19 pandemic, trauma…

In the twenty-first century, museum learning has shifted with the world's social climate, exploring new approaches to engage the public with collections. This text reframes the museum art educator as an activator and how they can utilize concepts within Afrofuturism to decolonize hegemonic white cultural institutions and Eurocentric epistemes.…

Museums are a place of experiential and inquiry learning for young children. We know that children's experiences at museums can provide novel opportunities to interact with rare artefacts, can extend concepts explored in early childhood curricula and encourage knowledge sharing with families. Research on the efficacy or outcomes of museum programs…

The Smithsonian Institution's public narrative often glosses over the United States Exploring Expedition (1838-1842), the historic endeavor led by Charles Wilkes that seized over 4000 specimens, artifacts, and human remains throughout Asia, the Pacific Islands, and the western coasts of the Americas, which later became the foundation of the…

Teen-centric programs have proliferated in art museums across the U.S. and much of Europe, and scores of these programs target young people--and youth of color, specifically--as a way to grow museum audiences and relevance to a diverse public. However, few studies examine how teen-centric programs impact the youth involved and how they make sense…

There is more to know about children's play and learning in public spaces, including the long-term benefits of exposure to established play spaces such as children's museums. Nested within an 18-month mixed-method longitudinal study, this qualitative descriptive study sought to understand how children aged three to five years develop and learn…

The experience of visiting a museum exhibition is inherently visual. Although blind and partially blind people are increasingly offered some access to collections through audio and tactile content and inventive and accessible programming, these initiatives are infrequent and often assume that the goal is to replace or compensate for the visitor's…

This article describes the Miniature Exhibition Project, a collaborative project involving two intimate, at-home, miniature exhibitions curated by the co-author, Beatriz Asfora Galuban, for the co-author Asami Robledo-Allen Yamamoto. These miniature exhibitions were made to study disability, empathy, and friendship and were intended to reclaim and…

This article engages crip theory and concepts from Critical Disability Studies to frame museum education through critical access and disability justice to center disabled, Mad, and neurodiverse audiences in public practice. The authors introduce and define key concepts and ask questions to cultivate "liberatory access" for museum…

The development of accessible elements in museum exhibitions is an important pursuit that needs a well-defined process. Educators at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, working with accessibility professionals and blind or low-vision user/experts, discovered the value of co-designing tactile models with the people who would eventually…

This case study of an art education program for medical students examines the efficacy of different types of content and modes of delivery. Through the delivery of art analysis, art history, sculpting, and life drawing seminars, art educators were able to teach empathy, observation, and flexible thinking to first-year medical students. This…