The Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery is seeking to collect people’s “thoughts and imaginings” to help determine its future.
The Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery is seeking to collect people’s “thoughts and imaginings” to help determine its future.
A survey about whether museum exhibits and programs are reflecting our diverse community is available until June 14 on the museum’s website.
The 10 minute online survey at reddeermuseum.com (under Community Conversations, learn more) asks residents to weigh on on how well the museum’s displays and programs are serving and reflecting the community and what can be done to further improve?
As a publicly funded organization, it’s important to be accessible to all Red Deerians, said the museum’s public program manager Tymmarah Mackie. “We want to see if people see themselves here, and have a sense of belonging. We want to know what we can do better, what gaps in the community need to be filled?”
The Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery defines itself as a cultural resource and public space that aims to research, collect, present, and promote knowledge and enjoyment of visual art, material culture, and social history of central Alberta.
In light of these goals, Mackie said museum staff have been meeting with focus groups since February, as well as holding a series of art-based workshops, to hear opinions on how well the museum is doing at representing the diverse citizens of this city and the community as a whole.
Meetings have been held with members of the 2SLGBTQ-plus and newcomers groups, and several more discussions are planned over the next few weeks with members of the Indigenous community, the inter-faith network, as well as the Red Deer Cultural Heritage Society.
Mackie expects the focus group process will wrap up by June 14. Some time will then be spent compiling data over the summer and she hopes a public report will be available by the fall.
The last time the Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery went through this kind of public consultation process was just before the pandemic, so she feels it’s time to do another check-in to ensure the museum is meeting the community’s needs.