Keeping History Relevant: Museum Programming

Here at the Gaston County Museum we offer over 15 different on and off-site programs for people of all ages. One of the greatest challenges our education staff faces is how to keep the programs relevant for the different age groups we see while still keeping the material new and interesting. Not only do we see school groups but we do off-site programs at adult day-cares, lectures, family reunions, and basically anywhere we’re asked to go.

Homeschool Living History Day

As the education intern at the Gaston County Museum one of the greatest lessons I’m continuing to learn is how to develop programs and talk to these different age groups. With pre-schoolers I’ve learned to create a structured program with me sitting on the ground and talking to them from their perspective and doing an activity that stimulates their senses and motor skills. At an adult daycare outreach, on the other hand, the audience has no problem sitting and listening to you talk but the program is much better if the lecture is based on something familiar to them so afterwards we can open up for discussion- or even just a walk down memory lane.

4th Grade Program

But what about all those ages in between? Our museum sees 1st through 12th graders as well, all of which have different state standards to follow, are at different points in their curriculum, and have varying interest levels in history period.  Luckily, I’ve observed that one of the things this museum staff does best is adapt their program to their audience.  One instance of this occurred during my second week at the museum during a “From Citizen to Soldier” on-site program for 10^th graders. This program is usually advertised for 3^rd, 4^th, and 8^th graders but can be changed to fit other grade-levels. On this particular day instead of sticking specifically to the program outline, the staff, after learning about what the class was studying at the time, adapted their program to focus on that and cut back on other, less relevant, parts of the program. This taught me not only the importance of reading your audience but being knowledgeable enough about the subject that you CAN change the program when necessary!

This issue of relevancy is not unique to our museum or even museums in general. What does make the museum unique is the staff’s ability to take the history at the site and create a program that is going to be meaningful to whatever audience we see.