Community Engagement

Public libraries have transformed themselves from mere book-lenders into hubs of social and economic activity.  In a recent column, journalist Neal Peirce details how libraries are adding new services ranging from lending gardening tools and hosting chess club meetings, to providing job search assistance and English instruction.  Peirce quotes Partners’ president Robert McNulty regarding the transformation:

"Central libraries, notes Robert McNulty of Partners for Livable Communities, can be “the great good place in the city” — as a literacy, Internet and special film center, or as a place for lectures, for local performing arts and exhibitions. Or as a coffee house. Or as an information center for visiting tourists, or a safe place for kids."

Long considered by many as the center of high society and fine art, museums have established themselves as the elite foundation for what many museum directors proudly describe as the, “cathedrals of culture.” In vibrant metropolises, urban museums have sought to find a composite group of high class patrons amongst the density and heterogeneous nature of the city. Up until recently, museum collections sought out only the most exclusive and rarest of art as a top priority in the agenda held by longtime directors. In the current era, however; a major trend has occurred amongst many of the directors who are facilitating new programs that allow each institution to provide a focused area for creating a multicultural setting in the local community.

America’s public libraries, fast turning themselves into “one-stop shops” for digital job searches, appear to be staging one of their great historic transformations.

Planning and public service provision have not always been open to constituent input at all stages of the development process. The past few decades, however, have brought increased public desire to provide input, and technology has further helped to facilitate this participation in more efficient and effective ways.

Nassau County, NY with its growing immigrant population, has witnessed a 107 percent increase in Hispanics since 1990.  Recognizing the local demographics of their community are rapidly changing, the Nassau County Museum of Art has created a new outreach program to both attract and to serve this growing community.  Nassau County Museum of Art collaborated with Queensborough Community College’s adult literacy program for English language learners to create Culture and Literacy through Art (CALTA).