At the National Museum of Fine Arts

Today at the National Museum of Fine Arts we started to discuss ways that we can work with communities on public programs. As always happens when museum people get together, there was lots of energy and animation around ideas for all the things we'd like to do, together with communities, in our museums. A trickier issue that we touched on, but perhaps need to think and talk about more, is how we reach out to communities. How do we actually get people to come and participate? We may be convinced of the benefits that can come about through communities and museums working together, but do people 'out there' share this conviction and see tangible benefits for them and their communities, enough that they will be motivated to actually take part in a project? How do we break down barriers, like perceptions about who has expertise, or who belongs in museums? How do we actually find communities and start forming meaningful relationships?

Graeme spoke about the dangers of making assumptions in our approaches to communities - I fear that we are often not even aware of when we are making assumptions. So, I've been reflecting on the importance of taking time, of listening and of asking questions. The most exciting thing about today was seeing everybody do these things in the group work this afternoon. If we think of our Vietnamese colleagues as a new community we are working with - the community of workers that make up the very vibrant museum culture we are encountering here in Hanoi - then I think we are all finding that listening and asking questions are the essential first steps in establishing relationships. Having to take time to hear each other, establish common ground, check that we understand each other, not expecting that we all think and feel the same are all heightened in the situation of not speaking the same language. It's a powerful experience to feel unsettled, even disorientated and reminds us of the value in entering into community engagement activities with open minds.

Jo Besley