[Épinglé] February 2023 Anglophone Topic of the Month: Working for Museums and Taking Initiatives for Museum Development

Hello everyone and thanks for the topic.......Young people can be involved in the management of museums through creation of youth advisory groups with its membership including youth out of school and work. I believe the said advisory groups can allow to understand the service usage and satisfaction of the young people visiting the museums.

And like it has been mentioned of the capability young people have to design an ideal future African museum, i must say that their active involvement through the advisory groups can help boost their confidence in becoming part of the management of museum institutions and inform future developments and improvement of services in our museums. They can also leverage on attracting youth populations to museum centres.

Young people  as the future museum visitors, they need to be inlcuded in management of museums so that they help to re-design programmes that will continously attract other young people to the museum centres. For instance, museum centres should not just be about appreciation of collections but they should also serve as places of social interaction.

Involving young people in the management of museums, should also start with engaging local young people in the communities with museums. This will help improve on the valueing of resources/collections housed in the museum centres. 

Thank you for posting this great question, which is becoming more and more relevant almost every day, especially given the fact that despite the demographic ratios in Africa between the youth and the old generation, the change and revolution have of late been synonymously related to the younger generation. The question now we may ask ourselves is how we understand the fact that Africa is the youngest continent but is always following behind whenever issues of development and innovation are concerned. The biggest issue is that has to spearhead intergenerational dialogues and remove the gaps between the younger and the older generation. This is a matter to be addressed given the fact that, it is a well-known fact that the African youth's mindset is one the richest mindest globally but then the question of where are we going wrong? is rooted in the existence of intergenerational gaps which hinders the growth of youthful ideas. The conclusion is therefore that youth should start by being instrumental in closing the existing gaps which are limiting the flow and cross-pollination of ideas between two different generations vital for development in African museums. 

Hello everyone. Thank you for bringing in this excellent discussion. As a bank of memories, museums are essential in preserving our history because they are part of our culture. They are a great way to engage young people and nurture their interest in history. 

Young people can be involved in managing the museum by formulating different programmes that will make them feel their part of it. For example, in Tanzania, we have a program known as MUSEUM HUB that unites university students and brings them closer to their museums. This program aims to build a lifelong relationship between museums and young people. Through this program, young people could engage in various museum management discussions in a language that youth could understand. So, through this, young people end up participating in creating a museum environment that appeals to them. This can include interactive exhibits, actualistic studies and opportunities to learn about different topics. 

I have been involved in various projects through this programme, which was very interesting. I used to organize different programes, including the Dar City Tour and Museums Art Explosion in collaboration with the National Museum of Tanzania, where youth from the university of Dar es Salaam where visiting museums and historical sites that are found in dar es Salaam city and every end on the month on Friday they also meet for cultural entertainment. Through all its programmes, young people could learn about their history and chat with museum professionals presenting their views concerning museum activities that, in one way or another, help African design museums and empower them to tell their stories for us all to hear.

Week 2 discussion

What are the career opportunities available for the youth at African Museums ? Tell us about some new skills needed to help efficiently develop museums.