Creating Safe(r) Spaces for Visitors and Staff in Museum Programs

ABSTRACT

Visitors come to museums for many reasons, including to learn something new about our world, not specifically to have an emotional response. Visitors unprepared for personal experiences can manifest their confusion in a multitude of ways. Anticipating such reactions, museums must engage in dialogue, to help visitors process emotions and ultimately allow them to reach a place of equilibrium. One of the Museum of Tolerance’s approaches to safety and to creating responsible conversations is a framework developed for both understanding and managing key issues that arise when facilitating challenging conversations. Used in training, this Five Layers of Taking Care reminds us of the many interests and needs of participants and stakeholders involved in a given conversation and the responsibility that museum educators have to approach them with compassion, mindfulness, and skilled responses. The five layers are: the guide, the questioner, the group, the museum, and the world.

KEYWORDS:

• Safe space
• dialogue
• museum
• facilitation
• questions
• group dynamics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

About the author

Mark Katrikh is the Director, Operations and Museum Experience at the Museum of Tolerance. Mark is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Museum and provides much of the museum’s internal training and development. He has a strong background in training having worked in that arena for 13 years. Mark is a member of the Board of Directors for the CA Association of Museums. He has a degree in Business Administration from the University of Southern California and a Masters in Nonprofit Management from the University of Central Florida.

ORCID

Mark Katrikh http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0431-6646

Notes

1. Mancino, “The Museum Profession,” 146.

2. Hede et al., “Perceived Authenticity,” 1398.

3. Mancino, “The Museum Profession,” 149.

4. http://www.museumoftolerance.com/site/c.tmL6KfNVLtH/b.4866005/k.C7BD/About_Us.htm.

5. Edmondson, “Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams,” 376.

6. Bradley et al., “Reaping the Benefits of Task Conflict in Teams,” 152.

7. Blanshay, “Difficult Conversations,” 2.

8. ibid.

9. Wardale, “Towards a Model of Effective Group Facilitation,” 120.

10. Blanshay, “Difficult Conversations,” 2.

11. Hoenig, “Visualizing Trauma,” 348.