Nyssa Buning, Spark!Lab Network Manager, Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, National Museum of American History (NMAH)
Emma Grahn, Programs and Interpretation Manager, Lemelson Center, NMAH
Tim Pula, Interpretive Exhibits Inventor, Lemelson Center, NMAH
Monica Smith, Acting Deputy Director, Lemelson Center, NMAH
For Spark!Lab and the Lemelson Center’s upcoming interactive exhibition Change Your Game/Cambia tu juego (opening March 2024), our staff is working with two educational psychologists on a research-and-practice study to define, support, and foster audiences’ inventive identities. In this conference session, we look forward to sharing our research learnings to date and our plans for expanding this research through NMAH’s Draper Spark!Lab and the Spark!Lab Network and discussing with participants how our learnings and methods could serve the interests and needs of audiences across the greater Smithsonian Affiliate network. When we collectively foster interactive, learner-centered environments, we support youth as they develop the inventive habits of mind and skillsets necessary to navigate our changing world. But learning looks different in facilitated informal education spaces like Spark!Lab and unfacilitated museum or science center exhibitions. In this session, we hope that the information we share and discuss about the Lemelson Center’s inventive identity initiative can be leveraged by Smithsonian Affiliates to foster inventive identity formation among audiences across an array of educational settings and backgrounds. The ultimate goal is to engage, educate, and empower the public—especially people who have traditionally been overlooked and undervalued in the invention narrative—to see themselves as confident, proactive problem-solvers who can make positive social and technological impacts in their communities and beyond. Breakout rooms will be used in this session.

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Before production on this series, we asked ourselves: How do we authentically connect with and tell the stories of communities who are both underrepresented even within the field of AAPI studies and physically distant from APAC’s home in Washington, D.C.? The answer was a series of virtual community conversations, organized by APAC with the insights and connections of the Arab American National Museum (a Smithsonian Affiliate) and Reel Clever Films, a Detroit-based video production team working on the series. What emerged were six insightful, occasionally emotional, and surprisingly dissimilar conversations that entirely re-shaped the direction of the project, from a biographical focus to a thematic focus.

Speakers will discuss moments of surprising connection, emotion, and even conflict that emerged during these sessions. Attendees will walk away with practical advice for how to organize, facilitate, and use virtual community conversation sessions to create more nuanced, community-grounded work. Panelists will discuss challenges and successes in setting up, facilitating, and attending these conversations, how the conversations will be used in the video series, and how this form of community engagement can be expanded and improved. The session will conclude with practical advice for attendees on how to execute their own virtual community conversations, including how to develop a well-rounded list of invitees, write open-ended questions, manage moments of conflict or high-emotion, and how to incorporate content from these conversations into projects. Throughout the session, attendees will learn how partnerships between Affiliates and the Smithsonian can serve as valuable sources for local perspectives and connections, and how to build networks for lasting community engagement. NO breakout rooms in this session. 

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Panelists will provide brief overviews of the pilot, methodology, and experiences of participation and share what inspired us to participate in the pilot and what inspirations we derived through conversations with colleagues around practices of community building. The second half of the session will be facilitated breakout groups where we will discuss possibilities and roadblocks with each presenter facilitating. Participants will have an opportunity to share their own challenges and learn from how others have worked through similar stumbles. And hopefully it will inspire them to work on building their own different kinds of communities of practice. Breakout rooms will be used. 

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Selby Gardens’ Downtown Sarasota campus is often described as a sanctuary. An oasis. A place to escape the commotion of daily life.

Last fall, Selby Gardens introduced a new program to welcome and better accommodate community members who have sensory sensitivities. Tranquil Tuesdays opens up the Downtown Sarasota campus on select Tuesday evenings for private, complimentary access for guests who are neurodiverse and have sensory-sensitivities, as well as their family members and caretakers. Visitors have the opportunity to enjoy the beauty and peace of the outdoor gardens for an hour of quiet exploration without the usual daytime crowds, noise, and other distractions. This session will provide details on how this program became a reality and the relationships built with community partners who serve sensory-sensitive and neurodivergent individuals. Participants can learn how community partners and relationships were built, how the museum’s infrastructure needed to be developed along with external partners from the beginning, and how this can be replicated in other communities. Selby Gardens and one of their community partners will also discuss how they plan to evaluate Tranquil Tuesdays and share their reflections for strengthening the program. NO breakout rooms in this session. 

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Brandon Linton, Cultural Principal, Loveless Linton, Inc.
Micah Parzen, CEO, Museum of Us (San Diego, CA)
Darrell Jackson, Co-Founder/Trustee, Stealing Culture/Museum of Us (San Diego, CA)
Kara S. Vetter, Senior Director of Cultural Resources, Museum of Us (San Diego, CA)
Orlando Serrano, Project Director, Decolonization Working Group, Center for Restorative History, Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History
This workshop will focus on the necessity, challenges, and rewards of decolonial work. More than 10 years after the publication of Amy Lonetree’s groundbreaking book Decolonizing Museums: Representing Native America in National and Tribal Museums “decolonization” is all the talk in museum circles today. Although still a confusing, loaded, and even prickly conceptual constellation for many, efforts to decolonize are gaining momentum throughout the field.

Unfortunately, such efforts are often met with fierce resistance. This resistance comes from within (trustees, leadership, staff, etc.) and without (donors, visitors, partners, etc.). Even Indigenous communities themselves have cried “foul” based on the continued trauma perpetrated upon them by museums, making the decolonial journey a challenging one, to say the least. As a result, while an increasing number of museums have begun to “talk the talk” of redressing settler colonialism’s harm to Indigenous communities, “walking the talk” in concrete, action-oriented ways has proved easier said than done.

The workshop will share the lessons learned by the Museum of Us on its decolonial journey over the past decade. It will discuss

• why we should all take decolonial work so seriously;
• what it can look like on the ground; and
• how to prepare for the journey ahead.

After attending this program, participants will have a concrete understanding of

• what decolonial work is;
• why it is so important;
• how to set the stage for decolonial work in their organization;
• how to develop an action plan for honoring a commitment to decolonial work.

Breakout rooms MAY be used. 

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This session will focus on two case studies: Girlhood (It’s complicated) at the National Museum of American History and World on the Move: 250,000 Years of Human Migration, a traveling exhibition organized by the American Anthropological Association and the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. NO breakout rooms in this session.

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