Becoming a Service Provider through Partnerships and Sustained Engagement: Developing Programs with Immigrant and Refugee Audiences in Art Museums

Abstract

When working with immigrant and refugee audiences, art museums can be unique sites of engagement, healing, and language acquisition through art-making experiences and in-gallery activities. Furthermore, museums can close the gap between service provider and cultural institution by building sustaining relationships rooted in long-term collaboration among organizations, audiences, and community-based programs. The Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block (TMA) began working with refugees in 2010 through partnerships with local organizations serving refugees affected by trauma, torture, and traumatic dislocation. In the fall of 2016, with the support of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, TMA began to expand programs with immigrant and refugee audiences through a multifaceted initiative called Network Connections. With examples from this initiative, this article will explore how art museums can position themselves as service providers, supporting how immigrants and refugees acquire skills necessary to thrive in their new community.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 6 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.