A Message to Our Community in the Wake of Charlottesville

Our hearts go out to our colleagues and the communities reeling from the events of this past weekend. The work we do as museums is critical to challenging and changing the way we think about our collective histories and how we push forward in these trying times.
Read our full response here.
Visitor-centered. Civic-minded. Diverse.
​Inclusive. Welcoming. Responsive. Participatory.

The qualities of 21st century museums are impossible without an inner core of institutional empathy: the intention of the museum to be, and be perceived as, deeply connected with its community. 

But how?

Assuming an empathetic institutional stance has little to do with sentimentality or inappropriate emotionalism. Instead, just as empathetic individuals must have a clear sense of their own identities in order to perceive and respond effectively to the experience of others, the empathetic museum must have a clear vision of its role as a public institution within its community. From this vision flow process and policy decisions about every aspect of the museum- audience, staffing, collections, exhibitions and programming, social media, emergency responses - all the ways in which a museum engages with its community(ies).

Institutional empathy must live at the core of our museum practice – exhibition and new media design; inclusive and diverse exhibition design and programming in terms of race, ethnicity, accessibility, and sexual orientation; immediate and effective responses to crises in the local community.  ​
Upcoming Conferences: ​
​See you in Austin!  We're headed to AASLH with our The Empathetic Museum: Beyond Playing Nice workshop.  (Tuesday, September 9)  
New Honor Roll honoree:  ​The Oakland Museum
Professional Development Workshops:
​The Empathetic Museum Maturity Model is an effective tool for concrete and actionable growth based on the collective research of our team of museum colleagues. Learn more about our workshops and contact us to schedule a conversation.
Empathy: the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner.
​- Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2013)