Tina R. Nolan

From the Margins to the Center: Recommendations for Current and Aspiring Educational Leaders.

Abstract Tina Nolan presents a call to action for current and future leaders to assume a new role as change leaders for the museum education profession. This article puts forth a series of recommendations and strategies for repositioning museum educators from the margins of their institutions to the center. Included among these recommendations are literature suggestions, guiding questions for self-reflection and journaling, and group activities intended to offer a new lens from which to view the profession.

From the Editors-in-Chief

One of the rewards of editing JME is working with authors and guest editors who are willing to address current issues in the field. They ask questions, they propose solutions, and most importantly, they provoke us all to work together to find answers. In this issue our guest editors, Melissa Williams and John Anderson — both educational leaders in the field of zoos and aquaria — looked to the wider field of social science to understand how museum educators might be better equipped to answer a new call: preparing visitors to leave their institutions as empowered actors in creating a positive future. Everywhere we look it seems that people across the globe are wrestling with how to affect positive and sustainable change. From political unrest in Egypt and Turkey to economic strife in Brazil and Greece; from environmental catastrophes like Superstorm Sandy in the United States and rising floodwaters in Alberta, Canada, to massive protests on issues such as school closings in Chicago and immigration reform in Washington, there is a call emanating from the masses that systemic change is needed. Now. The guest editors’ theme of engaging visitors to create positive futures builds on earlier articles published in JME. Back in the spring of 2010 we released an issue entitled, “Museums, The Public and Public Value,” 1 in which Dr. Carol Ann Scott introduced readers to a framework for understanding the role of the public in creating public value. Scott expands on the concept of the public as co-producers in a new book, Museums and Public Value: Creating Sustainable Futures. 2 (Look for a full review of this piece in a future issue of the JME.) In it she wrote: Audiences are demanding a new relationship with museums. Increasingly, people expect to author their own experiences and to engage in agenda setting. This implies a role as co-producers with significant

History Repeats Itself: American Museums in a Time of Recession. Will We Ever Learn?

We have reached a critical period in the American museum, as anyone confronted with a budget can tell too plainly. It is impossible for us to continue as we have done in the past. The public is no longer impressed with the museum and is frankly bored with their inability to serve it. The people have had their bellyful of prestige and spending of vast sums of tax-levied or tax-exempted funds for the interest and pleasure of the initiated few. We must stop imitating the Louvre and the Kaiser Fredrich and solve this purely American problem in a purely American way.

The JME Announces New Format and Submission Guidelines

Guest editors will edit a themed section of the JME. Those interested in submitting a proposal to guest edit a section of the JME must follow the guidelines already established (see below for guidelines), however the number of articles in a guest edited section has changed to 46, plus an introduction by the guest editor. Each JME issue will feature the guest edited themed section on the cover of the JME as well as in the Introduction from the Co-Editors-in-Chief.