Overview

This book shows the importance of the Maker Movement for museums and historic sites, and presents a roadmap to building, planning, researching, and using a makerspace alongside more traditional museum programming. It calls for a revitalization of living history, which can be done through makerspaces and the maker movement.

Full Product Details

9781538169018

Table of Contents

Reviews

By rooting living history museums, historic sites, and history organizations within maker culture and examining how makerspaces can (and should!) be a natural fit within the museum ecosystem, Betz demonstrates how the act of 'making' can serve as a gateway for learning as well as a form of research. After sharing an overview of the history and pedagogy of the maker movement and museum education and interpretation, Betz provides a roadmap for building a makerspace, from the ground up, which is supplemented by programming strategies to borrow or build upon and appendices with supplemental materials. He offers a playbook for museum leadership, staff, and emerging professionals seeking to build and sustain 'historic makerspaces.' This book is more than a brief history, critique, and guide - it is a manifesto that embraces 'historic making' as a form of research and practice yielding accessible, experiential lifelong learning and engagement at history museums and organizations.--Juilee Decker, Ph.D., professor of history and director of the museum studies program at Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York Betz makes a compelling case for using makerspaces--usually connected with science museums and STEM education--to make historic sites more dynamic and engaging. Moving beyond historic sites' usual focus on demonstrations and finished pieces, Betz argues that makerspaces enhance empathy, connect past with present, and uncover untold stories.--Donna R. Braden, senior curator and curator of public life, The Henry Ford, Dearborn, MI

Betz makes a compelling case for using makerspaces--usually connected with science museums and STEM education--to make historic sites more dynamic and engaging. Moving beyond historic sites' usual focus on demonstrations and finished pieces, Betz argues that makerspaces enhance empathy, connect past with present, and uncover untold stories.--Donna R. Braden, senior curator and curator of public life, The Henry Ford, Dearborn, MI

Author Information

Tim Betz is a museum professional and educator. He has worked in programming, curatorial, education, and management of small historic sites, including the Red Mill Museum Village in Clinton, NJ, and the Morgan Log House in Lansdale, PA, and is particularly passionate about the ways that hands-on processes and experiences can unlock the past. He also teaches art history at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, in Kutztown PA, where he focuses on the art of the Spanish Empire. Betz applies a spirit of making to education and teaches courses where students learn about art through a combination of hands-on historical making methodologies and lectures, including courses on medieval manuscript illumination and the materials of the Renaissance Italian artist. He is completing his doctorate in history at Lehigh University, focusing on collecting and the material culture of the Spanish Atlantic. Previously, he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available