Anastasia Christophilopoulou, ed. Material Cultures in Public Engagement: Re-inventing Public Archaeology within Museum Collections (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2020, 168pp., b/w and colour illustr., pbk, ISBN 9781789253689)

AbstractSimon (2010:187) notes that the purpose of co-creative community projects is “to give voice and be responsive to the needs and interests of local community members; to provide a place for community engagement and dialogue; and to help participants develop skills that will support their own individual and community goals.” This paper explores the role that co-creation currently plays in digital public archaeology and discusses how co-creative methods can inform broader archaeological digital engagement efforts. It begins by placing co-creation in its proper context in order to demonstrate its unique characteristics, its value, and how it complicates approaches used in other types of archaeological engagement projects, such as Open Access initiatives. The discussion then turns to evaluating its impact and the broader need to measure success in digital public engagement projects. A discussion of research from the archaeology and the cultural heritage sectors provides examples of evaluation metrics and methods for assessing digital public archaeology projects. The paper concludes by suggesting that all digital engagement projects can benefit from incorporating some of the principles that are inherently part of co-creative methods but that not all archaeological digital engagement projects should strive to be completely co-creative.

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Public Archaeology, Archaeology and the Public

Developing Effective Communication Skills in Archaeology - Advances in Religious and Cultural Studies ◽

10.4018/978-1-7998-1059-9.ch002 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 17-33

Author(s):

Jeannette Papadopoulos ◽

Rosario Maria Anzalone

Keyword(s):

Public Engagement ◽

Public Interest ◽

Public Archaeology ◽

Archaeological Heritage ◽

The Public ◽

Mass Tourism ◽

Public Property ◽

Evolution Of Communication ◽

New Challenges ◽

Italian Constitution

Public archaeology is a flexible notion with several meanings: public engagement in protecting archaeological heritage, public interest in the results of research, and archaeology as a public service offered by qualified staff. Such a broad range of purposes and approaches involves various professionals and includes new disciplines supporting archaeology and advertising its achievements. Archaeology in Italy has always been public, since 1909 laws establish that underground and underwater finds are State property. The Italian Constitution also includes protection of landscape and cultural heritage among its fundamental principles. Nevertheless, public property of archaeological heritage seems no longer sufficient to make the communities feel as legitimate owner and involve them in archaeological enhancement projects. The increase of protection and promotion activities, the rise of mass tourism, and the evolution of communication strategies are forcing archaeology to face new challenges. In order to be roundly public, archaeology should not lose of sight its present-day public.

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Reflecting on evaluation in public archaeology

AP Online Journal in Public Archaeology ◽

10.23914/ap.v8i1.141 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 65 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Kate Ellenberger ◽

Lorna-Jane Richardson

Keyword(s):

Cultural Heritage ◽

Community Engagement ◽

Public Engagement ◽

Educational Needs ◽

Public Archaeology ◽

Cultural Value ◽

Formal Evaluation ◽

Work Done ◽

Formal Procedures

As heritage professionals, our community-facing projects are embedded in the politics of cultural heritage, and reverberate throughout the communities where we work. The only way to know if archaeological outreach and community engagement are working is to ask stakeholders. Yet undertaking formal evaluation is difficult, with differing expectations and definitions of success, depending on the requirements of funders, the willingness of the participants, and the needs of the practitioners. What do we mean when we discuss successful progress and outcomes for public engagement with archaeology, and how do we analyse these? Are we working towards assessments of our own satisfaction with work done, the satisfaction of the dominant political forms of cultural value, the formal procedures of our funding streams, or the experiential and educational needs of the non-professional with whom we engage?

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Public Archaeology 2015: Letting public engagement with archaeology 'speak for itself'

Internet Archaeology ◽

10.11141/ia.46.7 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Lorna-Jane Richardson ◽

◽

James Dixon ◽

Keyword(s):

Public Engagement ◽

Public Archaeology

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After Life: Engaging Museum Visitors with the Theme of Death and Remembrance

AP Online Journal in Public Archaeology ◽

10.23914/ap.v8i2.153 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 8 (2) ◽

pp. 127

Author(s):

Ben Paites ◽

Emma Reeve

Keyword(s):

Public Engagement ◽

Museum Collections ◽

Public Event ◽

Hindu Temple ◽

Mortuary Archaeology ◽

Museum Visitors ◽

The Public ◽

The Past ◽

Do So

In August 2015, three pottery vessels were discovered in the River Colne in Colchester’s Castle Park. After discussion with the local Hindu temple, these objects were identified as Hindu vessels used during death rites, and subsequently they were entered into the collection of Colchester + Ipswich Museums. These finds acted as a catalyst for an exhibition called After Life, which deployed the wider museum collections, including its archaeological artefacts, to explore through the themes of Body, Soul and Mourning, how people engaged with death in the past and how they continue to do so. This article outlines the public engagement activities conducted during the development of the exhibition, an overview of the exhibition itself, and a discussion of the ‘Death Café’ public event, which took place in the museum during the run of the show. As such, the article offers a case study in public mortuary archaeology in the museum environment.

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Culture, Identity, Difference

Anthropology in Action ◽

10.3167/aia.2010.170208 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 17 (2-3) ◽

pp. 87-104

Author(s):

Paul Basu ◽

Simon Coleman

Keyword(s):

Public Engagement ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

University Education ◽

Public Communication ◽

Museum Collections ◽

Learning Resource ◽

The Public ◽

Strategic Review ◽

The Future ◽

Teachers And Students

In its 2002-3 Strategic Review, the Royal Anthropological Institute reasserted the importance of the public communication of anthropology for the future of the discipline. Two significant venues for public engagement activity were identified: museums and pre-university education contexts. We present an account of the development and piloting of an anthropology teaching and learning resource that bridges these two arenas. Complementing efforts to introduce an anthropology A-Level, the Culture, Identity, Difference resource uses museum collections as a way of introducing anthropological perspectives on topics such as belief, ethnicity, gender and power to enhance students' studies across a range of different A-Level subjects. We reflect on some of the lessons learnt during the process, including the value of developing resources that can be used flexibly and creatively by teachers and students, and the need to approach the museum as a space of encounter, exploration and experimentation rather than as a didactic educational venue.

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Exhibit Design for Architecture

Conservation, Restoration, and Analysis of Architectural and Archaeological Heritage - Advances in Religious and Cultural Studies ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-7555-9.ch008 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 178-202

Author(s):

Cecilia Cecchini ◽

Miriam Mariani

Keyword(s):

21St Century ◽

Public Engagement ◽

Visually Impaired ◽

Architectural Design ◽

Blind People ◽

National Museum ◽

Exhibit Design ◽

Museum Collections ◽

Novel Method ◽

Fact Finding

This chapter introduces a novel method of communication, based on an analytical and analogical fact-finding journey, aimed at comprehending an architectural design for a more extended and inclusive usership, in particular for visually impaired and blind people. The study focuses on the communication aspects of architecture and the methodology considered effective in architectural criticism, with the aim of attaining deep and real understanding of those principles that represent its tangible expression. Starting from an in-depth theoretical fact-finding analysis, the research suggests a slow and completely non-digital exhibition, available to normally sighted, visually impaired, and blind people, and also for an informed and a non-informed audience. The study was carried out with the support of Public Engagement Department of the MAXXI Museum in Rome (National Museum of the 21st Century Arts) as part of the plan for the accessibility of museum collections.

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