The practical, financial, and social impacts of the coronavirus alongside a national reckoning with racial injustice has increased the urgency to address why, how, and for whom museums exist in the 21st century. For museum professionals, this pivotal question raises another: how might we transform our collective approach to designing museum experiences to better reflect the communities we serve?
Join Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum’s Interaction Lab for the release of Tools and Approaches for Transforming Museum Experience, a toolkit that contributes to this critically important conversation. The toolkit was co-authored by 15 museum professionals, who were convened by the Interaction Lab in Fall 2020 thanks to the support of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. In their current roles, the co-authors represent diverse perspectives from across visitor experience including: curatorial, education, audience research, programming and public engagement, visitor services, exhibition design, digital, and accessibility.