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.

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9781538169025

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"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. 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. Though makerspaces are frequently associated with STEM programs in the current landscape, museum professional Tim Betz argues that artists and historians have equal claims on makerspace facilities and services. To contextualize his argument, Betz begins with a brief history of making, highlighting its roots in the Arts and Crafts movement of the 19th century. He then looks at how resilient early-20th-century societies, with their emphasis on self-reliance and a do-it-yourself mentality, shaped the current maker models. Betz goes on to introduce his ""Historic Making Manifesto"" as a call and challenge to museum professionals to transform visitor experiences from passive observation to active engagement through tactile learning opportunities. Betz concludes with a pedagogical framework, including notes about space planning and budgetary concerns, for historians and museum leaders to use. Sample worksheets, program documentation, recipes, and project ideas are included as appendixes to facilitate discussions among practitioners. This book will be particularly valuable for museum professionals looking to integrate making experiences into their operations, but it is accessible and will be useful for a broad audience. Recommended. All readers."

"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. 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."

"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.

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