In 2020 three museums set out to rethink their museum practice collaboratively: the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (MK&G), the Übersee-Museum Bremen and the Nationalmuseum Sweden. Within the four year NEO Collections project we are developing new digital formats step by step together with our users and critical friends. Trying out new ways of working and methods are as important to us as the results.
While we are already making sense of our process in real time on our blog sharing insights from our journey, we want to go a step further and consolidate all knowledge and insights from the various approaches and the risks we took in trying out something new. By sharing our experience we will let other institutions that are interested in building and experimenting with participatory methods benefit from our learnings. We hope to initiate a culture of transparency recognizing that institutions can gain relevance by learning from each other constantly.
Together with Medhavi Gandhi we are creating a digital toolbox filled with our methods, practical information and advice as well as re-usable templates from practices like conversations with critical friends and heavy users, digital fellowship/residency programs, prototyping and more. The toolbox aims to inspire and normalize an experimental approach towards collections, participatory working and the inclusion of different/new voices. Like this, we want to advance the digital development of museums as a whole and change structures, which is crucial for a long-term digital transformation.
We are applying our approach from the NEO Collections project also to this toolbox: we will further develop this publication together with colleagues and users as we move forward in the project. Right now you find a beta version here.
Do you want to make a difference?
Help us to create a toolbox that suits the needs of the sector. Please sign up via the form below and we will arrange a 20-minute meeting with you or just share your feedback via the form.
As a registered user of Pubpub you’ll also be able to comment directly in this publication. We are looking forward to your feedback!
