Designing for Creative Lives

Module code: MU7018

In this module we will look at the museum differently. We will focus on public engagement and the role of museums and similar institutions in enriching lives, actively engaging with contemporary social issues and stimulating participation and dialogue with diverse audiences. You will consider the real social effects that museums can have and you will be encouraged to reconceptualise spaces of culture as a continuation of everyday life, and to understand the ways in which cultural experiences are active in the creation of opportunities and possibilities for action and meaning making. The module will enable you to understand how the special conditions of spaces of culture, and the social exchanges that happen in them, open up possibilities for engagement with difficult, political and contentious topics and how the values and politics of cultural organisation can be manifested physically in the visitor experience.

In Designing for Creative Lives you will encounter a vision-led and values-driven approach to the museum. You will see the museum as an instrument of change which possesses social responsibilities that lead to engagement with social justice and human rights. You will consider the emergence of ‘activist practice’ (Sandell and Dodd 2010), and explore how museums can creatively and critically engage with contemporary social, political and environmental concerns. You will also see how audiences can be engaged with through the design of diverse, stimulating, provocative and accessible museum experiences.