Elisabeth Stone, Museum Studies

Name:

Elisabeth Stone

Title:

Professor of Practice

Department:

Museum Studies

Describe your research in about 200 words. 

My work focuses on museum strategies that are community-led, visitor-centered, and participatory; in particular, I am interested in how these approaches are implemented and altered in rural and Tribal museums. As a museum practitioner, my approach is collaborative and participatory, centered on bringing different voices into galleries and providing multiple points of entry into exhibit content. Creating space and support for communities to actively and powerfully engage not only the outcomes but the process of developing museum exhibitions, collections, and interpretation is a key focus of my work. I am interested in how rural and Tribal museums and cultural institutions work within and around the practices developed for and by “traditional” museum models, to create spaces that meet their needs. Through this, I aim to lift up locally-rooted practices and build capacity within communities across New Mexico and elsewhere, to support people in bringing forth their own wisdom and reimagining museums as the places of care and joy that we all need.

What’s the most interesting thing you have learned from a student?

Learners in galleries, classrooms, and conversations have shaped how I think about and approach my work by continually reinforcing the deep wisdom, care, and hope held within individuals and communities. It is an on-going reminder that people are smart and they analyse, critique, and recreate their worlds as they move through them. My hope is to honor that knowledge, spark curiosity, and uplift communities in the ways that they want to be seen and heard in cultural spaces. I also hope that I generate relationships of trust where people will continue to correct, reframe, and enlarge my perspectives, as I continue to learn and grow with the learners I serve, in classrooms and beyond.