News Update on Regional Museum Education Groups (MERs)

Network News Fall 2008
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News Update on Regional Museum Education Groups (MERs)
By Julia Rose, West Baton Rouge Museum, Port Allen, Louisiana and Board Member, MER

The Museum Education Roundtable (MER) has been creating a database of names and contact information of regional MERs from around the globe since summer 2007. The huge response to our call via email, website, and blog demonstrates that new interest in MER is growing in a variety of ways. People have asked to be included in the regional MER database, how to join MER, and for names and contacts of museum educators in particular locations.

It has become apparent that MER needs to develop more ways to continue this successful endeavor, to better develop on-line rapport with MER members, and to make use of the growing database. The membership committee and the publications committee have some thoughts about these issues. If you are interested in working on the regional MER project or have ideas about how MER can help your regional group, contact Julia Rose at JuliaRose4@gmail.com.

We now have contact with 66 regional MERs in the United States, and 5 in other countries.

Around The Table…
The majority of the regional MERs that we’ve identified so far are groups with informal leadership, monthly meetings, and no group dues or formal membership procedures. They describe their meetings as friendly events that empower the museum educators in their region by networking and developing collaborative projects. Often, members of regional MERs work together to produce teacher conferences and teacher resources. It is exciting to report that the regional MERs, many of which include fewer than 15 members, discuss museum education issues at their roundtable meetings. They share literature, ideas, and resources and hold lively discussions about theoretical issues and best museum practices. MER’s Journal of Museum Education’s articles have served as discussion topics and resources at more than one regional MER meeting.

Museum educator, Jill Bennett, put it best when she reported on the Bath & North East Somerset Museums Group in the U.K., “The group members are keen to be seen as a cohesive body who do not act in competition with each other but work together to celebrate the diversity of the collections we have in the area.”
On the Regional MER Tables…
From Wichita, KS, Susan reports, “Lately we have been discussing how to get links to our museum education offerings included on the public school system web site so that teachers can find and use our services more conveniently.”

From Hamilton, Canada, Janice Smith reports, “Our aim is to promote discussion around issues having to do with social relevance and museums, galleries, historic sites, and parks.” And Chris Castle reports on several round table discussions including “I know what I like = I like what I know ... Talking about experiences with artworks” that focused on adult learners.

From Boston, MA, Amy Peters Clark reports, “The Greater Boston Museum Educators’ Roundtable discussed Digital Spaces in the Museum: Teens, Tagging and More. The group heard from Emma Fernandez on the Poss Family Mediatheque, a hybrid between an exhibition gallery and an interactive multimedia resource for learning, emphasizing that this dramatic space redefines the role of an on-site technology-based educational facility. Rosanna Flouty and Joe Douillette presented ideas for new media after-school offerings for teens in the Paul and Phyllis Fireman Family Digital Studio. GBMER offered members an evening of art and networking at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.”

Joining the Table… Newly Listed Regional MERs

• Global Museum Social network at http://globalmuseum.ning.com/
• Kane-DuPage Regional Museum Association, Western Suburb Chicago
• Association of Chattanooga Museum Educators, Tennessee
• Heritage Education Professionals, Portland/Salem Oregon area
• Pinellas County Cultural Affairs Education Consortium, Florida
• Wichita Area Museum Educators, Kansas

The Museum Education Roundtable
P.O. Box 15727, Washington, D.C. 20003
info@mer-online.org, www.mer-online.org
tel: 202.547.8378, fax 202.547.8344