L. Reynolds (MA MUSE) & A. Greenberg (AH PhD) Conduct Symposium Workshop

5.8.2015

Lena Guerrero Reynolds & Alyssa Greenberg: "Facilitated Dialogue Workshop for the 21st Century Museum Professional"

Lena Guerrero Reynolds (MA candidate, Museum & Exhibition Studies '16) and Alyssa Greenberg (PhD candidate, Art History) co-conducted their “Facilitated Dialogue Workshop for the 21st Century Museum Professional” at the 38th Annual EIU HAPA Symposium.

The Historical Administration Program Association (HAPA) of Eastern Illinois University (EIU) presented its 2015 symposium on April 10-11. This year's topic was "Museum Education in the 21st Century." The keynote speaker, Tim Grove (Chief of Museum Learning, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C.) attended and participated in the "Facilitated Dialogue" workshop.

The workshop aimed to equip museum professionals with strategies for catalyzing conversation and active engagement with both museum staff and the broader public. Highlights included:

  • A brief historic overview of the development of the practice of facilitated dialogue in museums
  • Characteristics, competencies, and functions of a dialogue facilitator
  • Strategies for designing dialogue questions and for developing a dialogue curriculum
  • Facilitation strategies and techniques
  • A hands-on “Goofus and Gallant” style training activity

 

Workshop Statement:

The contemporary museum has transformed from a site of passive reception into a site for dialogue: for Stephen E. Weil the museum is no longer about somebody but for somebody, and for Duncan F. Cameron, the museum is no longer a temple but a forum.  From the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum in Chicago to the Peace Institute of Cambodia in Phnom Penh, museums are replacing monologic gallery tours with community dialogues, teach-ins, and participatory activities.  Through these experiences, museum visitors and facilitators co-create connections between the historical and the contemporary, and engage in conversations that move towards action.

 

About the Facilitators:

Lena Guerrero Reynolds began her museum career as a docent at the Chicago History Museum for two years before joining the education team at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum from 2012 to 2014. Lena is currently a graduate student in the Museum & Exhibition Studies program at the School of Art & Art History, with a concentration in History and Gender and Women’s Studies. She is also a Graduate Assistant at the Rafael Cintrón Ortiz Latino Cultural Center at the University of Illinois in Chicago.

Alyssa Greenberg is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Art History at University of Illinois at Chicago and a recipient of the University Fellowship and the Dean's Scholar Award. Her research interests include museum curriculum and pedagogy and the museum as a site of activism. She is a community organizer with the UIC Graduate Employees Organization and a former education assistant at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum. She received a BA from Oberlin College in 2009 and an MA from the Bard Graduate Center in 2011.