As a follow up to my Predictions for the future of Museums, I have been thinking about the future of museums. What if there was a place where parents, teachers, scientists,museum professionals, artists, students and experts could all share ideas both on the internet and in person. The “Hub Museum” is such a place.
Hub Museum is not one museum but a new model of a partnership of connected museums. Instead of a children’s museum, natural history museum, an Art Museum, a Science Center, the Hub Museum is all of them! Museum live through attendance and attendance is driven by new programs and exhibitions, the Hub Museum, changes every three months, into a new place and the exhibitions are rotated through all of the fellow hub museums.
Teachers, parents, scientists,museum professionals, artists, students and experts all gather online at “The Hub” portal. Teachers can share lesson plans and review science standards and curriculum, parents can view lesson plans and curriculum. Scientists can answer questions of students, “citizen scientists” can earn “expert” points by answering questions. Students can ask questions and learn from one another and experts. The online presence is fun and relaxed, although the content is in line with California Science Standards and National Curriculum. Same as the sharing of exhibitions the Hub portal is a shared online community amongst museums, parents, teachers, scientists, experts and most importantly students.
Museums become the hub for in person activities, instead of museums trying to individually create exhibitions, they are created through a network of museums all working to the same educational standards and curriculum. Instead of each museum working to separate standards and curriculum, the curriculum of the schools is shared by the museums and museums work in partnership with one another to design and build exhibitions.
Exhibitions are then shared amongst museums, so museums are always changing. Superintendents of schools, teachers and students are aware of the educational content before they visit the museum.
Still the museum is serving a different role than the school, the museum is an informal place for exploration and discovery of the formal education at school.
Instead of the typical museum approach of hiring a “world class architect, hiring a ”world class exhibit designer”, the “Hub Museum” approach, is:
• A “Hub of content” for the museum
• Open Source content, the museum’s content and programs are shared and available for teachers and parents
• Collaborative, the exhibits, exhibit content and programs are shared by several institutions
• Exhibit spaces are easily changeable
• Dynamic, the visitor spaces change every three months
• Transparent, the planning of the institution is shared and available to the community
• The California Discovery Museum will be an amalgam of museums a; Children’s Museum, Science Center, Natural History and Art Museum
• Shared Curriculum