How effective are festvials?

[Sophie Lieberman]

The Australian Museum partners with many different orgnisations to produce sciecne literacy events for schools as part of Science in the Suburbs and Science in the Bush. We are always thinking about the models we use and the expasion of these events to festvials is something that is much debated. How effective are festivals as ways of promoting literacies?

To help us think about this we are hosting Chris Gibson on the 23rd of September and invite others to attend. I would also really welcome feedback through ning....!

Reinventing rural places
The extent and impact of festivals in rural and regional Australia
- A talk by A/Prof Chris Gibson, University of Wollongong

Associate Professor Chris Gibson is part of the Faculty of Science at the University of Wollongong. He has recently published his report on the value of festivals to rural and regional communities as part of an ARC Discovery grant. He will speak to the Museum community at the Australian Museum on Wednesday 23 September, 2009.

[Christopher Edwards]

I think that main purpose of festivals is not so much pedagogical as it is audience building. They are there more to celebrate the community, and put the museum at the center of that community by building off of the social function of the modern museum. Sure, there are small opportunities for learning in those situations, but I think they tend to focus on a very shallow dive approach to learning. But that's okay, I think the idea is to give an audience a taste, to provide a pleasurable event that inspires trust, openness and community and let that be the seed to encourage individuals to come back and pursue more deep diving.