Creating a Third Place for Collaboration: Museum and Art Community Network

It is widely believed that museum and art professional networks are useful to professionals’ capacity development and networking. However, how these networks unite and create space for collaboration, and whether they are beneficial and accessible to larger professional communities has not been thoroughly examined. My literature review revealed the need for creating a new mechanism for professionals to collaborate and exchange openly. Thus, in this paper I propose an alternative solution to the existing need, to develop a Museum and Art Community Network (MACNET). The suggested solution of creating the MACNET derives from the identified issues of museum and art professional networks: American Alliance of Museums, International Council of Museums, International Coalition of Sites of Conscience and Open Engagement. I found that social media sites, such as Facebook and Nextdoor, proved to be more engaging, participatory and accessible than traditional networking venues. This finding suggests a different model of operation and collaboration. Therefore, given the beneficial nature of the online opportunities, I suggest the model of network that will use the accessible structure of social media to help promote and engage the larger museum and art community with each other