Ivory tower or welcoming neighbor? Engaging our local communities

Abstract

The Yale Peabody Museum is situated in the economically and ethnically diverse urban environment of New Haven. For over ten years the museum has run extremely popular cultural festivals that attract a diverse audience of thousands, but we discovered that attendees rarely came from the city itself. Clearly, having high-quality programming was not enough to attract our local community. To investigate this issue the museum launched a year-long research study to address the following questions: What is the perception that residents have of the museum and what are the barriers to their engagement with the museum? How can we serve visitors from our neighborhood? How does being part of Yale University affect people’s relationship with the museum? Our results were comparable to other studies by urban institutions but there were some differences that are of particular interest to university museums. For example, we discovered that negative opinions about the university were a significant barrier. There was also confusion as to our target audience, and a perception that our programs would not be of interest to “regular” people. University museums need to make considerable efforts if they hope to attract and serve non traditional museum goers – particularly changes in how they communicate and partner with the community. New initiatives at the Peabody include programming for local teenagers, diversity training for frontline staff, new outreach programs, and targeted marketing plans. “Sustainable diversity entails mutuality between the institution’s decision makers and community leaders; ongoing relationships with current and potential audience members ... Sustainable diversity is not: relying solely on outreach work with underserved audiences and offering a heritage month event once a year ...” Eric Jolly, Director, Science Museum of Minnesota, 2002 An urban museum The Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History is situated in the economically and ethnically diverse urban environment of the small city of New Haven. Yale University is the major employer in the city with over 11,000 employees and is the city’s largest real estate taxpayer. The Peabody, like many university museums, is one of the most visible (and visited) parts of Yale and serving audiences outside the university is a fundamental part of the Museum’s mission. However visitor surveys have shown that our current audience is not representative of the local population and, in common with many other museums, the Peabody Museum has a significant challenge in engaging all of the New Haven community. Research has consistently demonstrated that while all people are potential museum visitors the probability of visiting a museum either on a school trip or as a leisure-time activity varies greatly among different groups. Museum visitors are still more likely to be white, middle class and well educated. Significant variables that account for under-utilization of museums by certain segments of the population include socio-economic factors, such as education, income; institutional factors, such as real or perceived institutional bias; and cultural factors, such as the lack of a museum-going tradition in many communities (FALK 1993; JOHNSON & GREEN 1997; JOLLY 2002, AUST & VINE 2007). In particular, studies have found that the single best predictor of museum visiting behavior is education (MCCARTHY & JINNETT 2001). The Peabody visitor demographics are a typical illustration of these issues: 65% of our visitors have a college degree compared to 29% of the New Haven population;