If you haven't yet ventured out to see our latest exhibit, Connecting Communities, I suggest you do so!

The exhibit deals with immigration in metro Detroit, by looking at the lives of nine local immigrants. We pair their stories with government-compiled statistical data in an effort to breakdown some misconceptions and negative stereotypes associated with immigrants.

YOU can also have your say in the debate! Visit our Social Media "Dashboard" to find out how your voice can be heard!

If you're camera-shy and/or don't use Social Media you can always comment RIGHT HERE! Think about answering these questions:

1. Do you know who, in your family, immigrated to the United States? When did they come here? Or, are you Native American Indian?
2. Do you think new immigrants should completely shed their native culture and traditions when they come to America? Why or why not?
3. Respond to this statement: America is a nation founded by immigrants and populated by immigrants and their descendents.
4. Why do you think immigration is such a hot-button issue these days?
5. How would you feel if you had to emigrate? What would you miss the most about America? What would you want to take with you?

Your contribution helps shape the exhibit and may appear in the gallery! So visit us often to hear what people have to say and share your thoughts too!

Labels: Connecting Communities, culture, Detroit, Immigration, interactive, Museums, Public Outreach, social media, Temp Exhibits, Temporary Exhibits, visitor participation

Back in February, the Brooklyn Museum collaborated with other leading museums on an inventive month-long initiative called Wikipedia Loves Art. This project sought to illustrate Wikipedia articles through a free, online photo contest. Each of the sixteen participating museums created a scavenger hunt list of subjects for visitors to photograph. Participants added their images to the popular photo sharing website Flickr.com.

This sounds like a great project! I would love to hear what participants thought about it. I imagine a similar project could fit in nicely with our current photography exhibition A Yemeni Community: Photographs from the 1970s by Milton Rogovin. If this sounds like something you might be interested in, then please let us know!

Point your browser to the Wikipedia Loves Art Flickr group to see photographs from the project.

Read reflections on the project at the Brooklyn Museum's blog: Pre-competition, Competition, Almost Done, The Stats.

Labels: social media, visitor participation

Social media is on the rise and it continues to alter the ways in which we communicate and interact. According to a recent Nielsen report, social networking now accounts for almost 10 percent of all online time, making it the fourth most popular activity on the Internet. The growth in this sector is changing the ways in which information is both produced and consumed. This has many implications for museums. For one, museums are utilizing social media as a means to better connect with constituents. These "networking communities", including Twitter and Facebook, afford the opportunity of disseminating institutional information. Second, social media permits museums the opportunity to receive feedback from the public. And third, it is a promising tool for building community; an inherent principle of the medium itself. The real challenge for museums is to create an authentic voice that will connect with an audience that is becoming less susceptible to highly-targeted ads that are deemed an invasion of privacy.

At the Arab American National Museum, we have been spending a reasonable amount of time exploring our social media options. Because we are a community-based museum, the medium has great appeal and seems to be a proper fit for interacting with our audience. Currently, the museum has a profile on Flickr, Facebook, Delicious, and Twitter. Further, we are looking into creating our own social networks for specific audiences that can build on some of our core programs (perhaps a Ning community for artists?).

As we continue to develop our strategies for optimizing these tools, we are open to hearing back from you. Also, please feel free to join us online!

Labels: social media