This summer, we are excited to be partnering with our friend Mike Murawski from ArtMuseumTeaching.com to host an Online Book Club centered on the recent book Museums and Communities: Curators, Collections, and Collaboration (2013) edited by Viv Golding and Wayne Modest. As Mike explains on his blog: “we will be taking a deep dive into this collection of essays that explore the complex issues arising from recent approaches to collaboration between museums and their communities.  The authors of this book outline a range of critical pedagogies and present important case studies that ‘challenge us to move beyond shallow notions that both elide the complexity of community identities and make simplistic claims to engagement by museums.'”

 Our goal with this Book Club is to build community among practitioners and explore how ideas forwarded by certain authors and scholars connect with our day-to-day programs and work in museums. We also wish to be challenged to think in new ways and support each other as we try to connect more deeply with diverse segments of our communities.

We would like to invite you to join our inaugural session scheduled for July 8th at 3PM Pacific (6 PM Eastern). To connect with this Google Hangout on July 8th, just come back to this post that day for an updated link to the live Hangout. You can also follow both us (@incluseum) and Mike (@murawski27) on Twitter or join the Art Museum Teaching Google Community for regular updates on this Online Book Club discussions.

For those of you unable to join us on the 8th, note that we’ll be recording the discussions and post them after our Hangouts so you can listen and find out more about the book.

We look forward to talking with you!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the July 8th Online Book Club Hangout. Here is a link to the video archive: