The Use of Public Consultations in Planning a Participatory Museum

The subject of this article is the use of public consultations in the process of planning a participatory museum. The authors start by mentioning current discussions about participation in culture and debates among museum curators, culture experts, and sociologists concerning a new type of museum. In this context, they present Nina Simon’s idea of a participatory museum, which is a theoretic frame of reference for the long-term activities of the Józef Piłsudski Museum in Sulejówek, an institution desiring to establish a modern participatory museum in a certain social context. At the end, the results of the public consultations are presented. The data shows that one condition for the creation of a participatory museum is an effective, institutionalized, interactive system of communication. Three areas connected with the local community in which the museum could develop participatory projects were also indicated: the joint creation of memorial sites, community integration, and exhibition and educational activities