Offline audience engagement examples

In my previous post, I highlighted some great examples of online engagement that museums have carried out this year.

But what about those audiences who can’t (for a range of reasons) engage with culture and heritage online?

Below is a round-up of examples I’ve come across, that again I hope will inspire others. In most cases, the cultural organisations have partnered up with at least one community organisation to help them deliver the project/programme on the ground.

During the lockdown in Holland earlier this year, people could sign up to receive a 5-10 minute phone call about a work of art from The Lisser Art Museum. “Viewphone” involved calls every Friday afternoon to people who had signed up, from all employees “from curator and cleaner to bookkeeper and director”. Here’s a review from someone who tried it.

The University of Cambridge Museums have shared a detailed blog post on how they adapted their Dance and Time programme, which pre-pandemic involved residents from sheltered housing visiting the museum or community spaces for gentle movement and discussions about artwork. The blog talks through how the team adapted the programme to work during lockdown, with conference calls in small groups that followed a similar format to the in-person sessions for familiarity, and print-outs of images having been sent out in advance.

1960s-inspired mindfulness activities in one of Heritage Doncaster’s activity packs

Heritage Doncaster’s History, Health and Happiness programme has been delivering a range of activities, including:

• a monthly 28-page activity pack for adults with collections information and puzzles, reminiscence and mindfulness activities, distributed through existing partner organisations, food banks and through their social prescribing teams

• Doncaster’s Five Minute Histories (audio recordings that provide immersive experiences and recreate true events through storytelling and sound effects)

• sending participants postcards and letters.

The team has also had mental health awareness training to enable them to better support participants and look after their own mental health, building in the opportunity for regular reflective practice to decompress and mindfulness too. Thanks to Victoria Ryves, Programme Manager at Heritage Doncaster for sharing details with me.

In a recently announced project, Leeds Museums and Galleries have partnered with arts organisation Skippko and older people’s support network Armley Helping Hands. Older people are being encouraged to spot and identify the birds they can see safely from their windows at home. Participants will also receive specially- created packs posted to their home to inspire the group to create their own pieces of ornithological artwork that will be displayed at Leeds Industrial Museum in future, and view videos of birds from the taxidermy collection at Leeds Discovery Centre to be inspired by.

The Association for Suffolk Museums worked with Suffolk County Council and museum partners across the county to create Summer in a Box - 1,600 family activity packs that were distributed to children receiving free school meals from the Suffolk Virtual Schools list.

Some of the contents that went into the Summer in a Box activity packs in Suffolk. Image from The Association for Suffolk Museums

The Museum of London produce monthly activity booklets with ideas for sensory reminiscence activities distributed through food banks and older people’s organisations (as well as being available online). They also run a monthly chat with an artist which people can ‘attend’ by telephone as well as Zoom.

Minnesota Historical Society, partnering with the Hallie Q Brown Community Centre in the USA, ran History at Heart, bringing wooden hearts and instructions to the elders and students in the community who wrote messages on them. The hearts have then formed an outdoor exhibit that has toured around the community.

Image of one of the #HistoryAtHeart displays by Jeni O'Malley, senior exhibit designer at The Minnesota Historical Society

If anyone has come across any other examples of inspiring, meaningful and successful offline engagement that museums and heritage organisations have been running in these trying times, I’d love to hear about them.

Thumbnail image: Photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash.