The document summarizes a 4-day tour of 9 museums in Denmark to evaluate whether they are relevant, engaging, and participatory. It discusses the social role of museums in effectively engaging communities and addressing societal challenges. It questions the relationships between museums and their audiences, and whether museums embrace difficult topics and include diverse voices. It observes aspects of the Danish museums visited like their architecture, signage, exhibitions, and handling of difficult subject matter. It raises whether museums demonstrate social responsibility and whether the public's input is marginalized or central. Finally, it questions what it means to be Danish.

1. Tour de Denmark
4 days, 9 museums

2. Maritime Museum of Denmark
Kulturemuseet Spinderihallerne
Museum of Copenhagen
Naturama
Trapholt
National Gallery of Denmark
Welfare MuseumTojhusmuseet
Montergarden

3. The central question of the tour:
Are Danish Museums…
relevant, engaging and participatory?

4. Young
people
engage in
deliberation
and debate
at the
British
Museum
Social relevance

5. The social role of the museum…
“The fundamental question is – what social institutions exist to address
these challenges, recognizing the growing ineffectiveness of
government bureaucracies and the wreckage of the corporate profit
agenda? …Museums, it is argued, are one of the few social institutions
with vast potential for proactive and effective community engagement.”
Robert R. Janes, (2010)
Museums in a Troubled World:
Renewal, Irrelevance or Collapse?

7. My central concern is purpose…
• What are the relationships
• how do we connect with our audiences, and
when, and what's the role?
• 'where's the peopling?'
• 'is it being driven by people?'
• 'how do we embrace the uncomfortable?'
• opinion, narrative, views

8. And so to Denmark…
…and a series of questions

9. And observations…

10. What‟s the relationship between people and the
museum?
When I say „people‟, I am deliberately not saying
• Visitors
• Users
• Audience
• Learners
• Or „clients‟…as I‟ve heard here…
Language is very revealing…if we are moving to a partnership
with the public, then the language we use to describe what we
do has to reflect that…

11. So, Number One…
Signage and Danish minimalism…
Can I find the museum?

12. OK, what does the architecture tell me?
Impeccably good taste! Gorgeous, inventive
buildings…Maritime Museum, Montergarden, Trapholt...
Question: Does the building have a relationship with the location
or what‟s inside?

16. What – and who – is the museum for?

17. What – and who – is the exhibition for?

20. Is it possible to take a
…and include not only more
but contradictory voices

22. Can the museum face up to difficult subject
matter?

25. Does the museum demonstrate that it has a social
responsibility?

29. Is the public‟s input marginalised or central?

30. And finally?
What is it to be Danish?

31. Map charting the spread of elected xenophobic parties in Europe as of 2013. When
viewed on a map, the growth of the far-right is striking. Green refers to countries were
a xenophobic party is in government, while grey means none is in power. Copyright
James Mayfield/GeoCurrents.

32. “The time has come for a particular „museum agenda‟, predicated on
greater awareness of the world and the social responsibility that
accompanies this awareness. Museums are some of the most free and
creative work environments in the world, and there are few
organizations which offer more opportunities for thinking, choosing and
acting in ways that can blend personal satisfaction and growth with
organizational goals...[But] Not surprisingly, society is not even
cognizant of the museum‟s unique potential, much less demanding its
fulfilment.”
Robert R. Janes, (2010)
Museums in a Troubled World:
Renewal, Irrelevance or Collapse?