Crowdsourcing help begged for museum project

I’m using my blog to run a bit of a crowdsourcing project about museums because I think this has some relevance to online journalism thinking too.

The statement below is intended to form part of a funding bid. (Disclosure: yes, of course it’s someone rather close to me, husband the artist/curator Julian Hartley).

But this blogging by proxy does have journalistic relevance. In just the same way news organisations are struggling with engaging audiences, so are museums.

 Feel free to replace the terms “curator” with “editor”, the institution “musem” with another great institution “newspaper” and then let me know whether you think this activity worthwhile, too risky, great, rubbish or whatever.

Btw, @JulianHartley will be tweeting the progress of this project from now on and expect yet another Manchester blogger very soon!

Here’s the description;

Taking its direction from Manchester’s diverse online communities’ search and sharing activity, the Community as Curator project uses these habits as the curatorial frame with which to produce and share digital content specifically created from Museum collections in Manchester. 

 

Online searches and their translation into conversations across social media provides the curatorial context for interpreting the gallery’s collections.

 

As an alternative to the contemporary museological practice of authorial representation, this project situates power in the online constituency.

 
This project recognises that, if a connection can be made between an online users’ interests and Manchester’s cultural heritage, this in turn will facilitate the means for further accessing and engaging in the city’s cultural resources, particularly in those social groups more accustomed to a Flickrstream than a exhibition.   

Community as Curator reflects museums’ concern that the values of their collections are relevant to the diversity of Manchester’s communities – both on and offline.