COMMUNITY PROCESS
Learn about the Wing Luke Museum’s community-developed model for creating community-centered exhibits, programs, and events
COMMUNITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE (CAC)
THE STORY BEHIND THE STORIES
What does it take to create exhibits and programs at Wing Luke Museum? For The Museum the nuts-and-bolts “how-to” starts with the “why.” Values inform actions. Relationships grow over time. Commitments are made with the long-term in mind.
Community members have been coming together to do this work for over 20 years. We’re honored to steward this community-developed, community-based model. Our values direct what we do and how we do it. They impact every decision and interaction, sometimes in very subtle ways. Our values inspire us to keep going through even the most challenging periods.
OUR VALUES: COMMUNITY-BASED HEART
People give us meaning and purpose. Relationships are our foundation. We desire community empowerment and ownership. To do this, we have found the following: The work is labor intensive. The work requires flexibility. We willingly relinquish control.
TOP 10 PRINCIPLES FOR COMMUNITY-BASED WORK
Community-based work must be rooted in relationships of trust and respect.
Community-based work requires a safe, comfortable environment to express ideas and share experiences.
Community-based work requires listening, flexibility, agility and patience.
It is democratic in nature – not top-down, and not a funnel for input.
Community ownership of their stories enables communities to hold and use them towards their own self-determined purposes.
Opportunities to learn abound in community-based work.
Community empowerment results from bringing together diverse people within communities who might not otherwise connect and collaborate together, increased community pride through increased visibility, development of professional skills and resources within the community from grant writing to educating to publishing and more.
Community-based work draws together communities and creates deep engagement and connections within as well as to the broader public.
Community-based work creates a safe place to speak your story and your truth.
People get involved in heart-felt work, doing something that they believe in.
COMMUNITY-BASED EXHIBITION MODEL
More information about the community process is outlined in our booklet “Community-Based Exhibition Model.”
Copies are available on our online store or over the phone.
Wing Luke Museum accepts exhibition proposals from the community throughout the calendar year, through the end of December. In the new year, we then review submitted exhibition proposals with our staff and begin the process of setting our exhibition schedule. Generally, we try to have our exhibition schedule planned 4-5 years in advance. This can be a long process, but we will follow up with you as decisions are finalized. Thanks in advance for your patience.
The Wing Luke Museum is nationally recognized for our community-based exhibition model. In 1995, the Museum received the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) National Award for Museum Service on the strength of its cutting edge work in fostering broad-based participation in the development of exhibitions and programs.
With each exhibition, we bring many community members into the development process, and integrate oral history gathering and a range of multimedia techniques into our installations. Please note that if your exhibition is selected, the Wing Luke Museum will work with you to determine the best ways to integrate our community-based process and bring in the rich stories, experiences and resources from community members. To that end, we welcome proposals and ideas that are open-ended.