MICRO and Citizen Schools’ Makers and Mentors Network recently partnered for a presentation during NACCE’s virtual make/SHIFT 2.0, a Makerspace Ecosystem Summit which brings together the maker community around topics that impact them. As part of the partnership, Maker Fellows were invited to use MICRO’s curation matrix to investigate this year’s summit themes, equity and community, and to workshop their museum ideas. 

MICRO was founded to decentralize the museum model and create increased access to learning and engagement through the building of six-foot-tall museums that MICRO installs in public spaces where people live their daily lives. The MICRO team understands that the impact of museums has been limited, with many voices being left out of the process of canonizing knowledge. 

MICRO DIY is an effort to change that! MICRO DIY is an open source tool that guides makers of all ages through the steps to curate their own museum on a single topic, using materials available to them. Its foundation is built on a core MICRO principle, structured curiosity, a method for asking questions, seeking answers, and verifying the accuracy of what is discovered.

MICRO DIY empowers participants to understand and experience the roles of a decision-maker and curator in a museum. The tool can engage anyone in structured curiosity. MICRO is excited by how the process allows youth and adults to engage in meaningful inquiry through the investigation of an idea that leads to prototyped museum designs. 

Maker Fellows and other members of the Makers + Mentors Network team participated in a month-long series of workshops and collaborative conversations to develop their ideas for a museum. They worked with MICRO’s Creative Producer, Dan Kaplan, who guided the Fellows in using MICRO DIY to workshop and further develop their museum ideas. The Fellows used inquiry questions provided by MICRO to explore how communities are impacted by systems and identify the most inequitable parts of a community.

The process culminated on May 3 during an event in which Fellows presented their museums to a group of 75 attendees, sparking conversations about the ways making can become accessible to more communities. One attendee asked, “How can we create environments that include and welcome people?”

Megan Salgado, a member of the Makers + Mentors Network team from Charlottesville, Virginia, considered the racial inequalities in her community. As she presented her Museum of Confederate Statues to a virtual breakout room, a candle in the shape of confederate soldier Robert E. Lee was symbolically burned. Her goal was to spark conversation about the implications of these monuments still placed in Southern communities.

Gabriella Yacovone used MICRO DIY to investigate inequalities in employment throughout her community. For her, the best part of the project was the collaboration it fostered among Maker Fellows as they worked together to discuss topics, give advice, and reflect. “Through this event, we were not only given the opportunity to showcase our interests as they related to community and equity, but also how we uniquely used this flexible and open-ended teaching tool to conference attendees”, she later explained.

Maker Fellows Lex Rose and Siobhan Shamlian’s collaboration took this concept a step further through the development of a curriculum inspired by MICRO DIY for BoSTEM, a program that aims to connect middle schoolers with resources and experiences that inspire them to pursue careers in STEM. Students were asked to make museums about STEM careers they are interested in using Tinkercad, a simple online 3D modeling program. The students then presented their career museums to each other, prompting them to think about the necessary career paths and encouraging students to think outside barriers. BoSTEM’s STEM Careers Museums will be 3D printed, forming a larger museum that will travel throughout the Boston area. 

Following the break out room presentations, the group reconvened for what became an exciting conversation. With little time left, conference attendees quickly shouted out ideas on how to create similar programs for their students. One attendee explained how the making of museums can be a tool for community empowerment. 

This collaboration highlighted the importance of thinking about our communities and how we may alleviate some of the inequalities that exist within these systems. MICRO strives to provide equal access to fundamental knowledge by reinventing the museum model. Their goal moving forward is to create more museums that accurately reflect community narratives and concerns than museums traditionally provide.

The last year has posed tremendous challenges, highlighted systemic inequities, and revealed the urgency for conversations around equity and building a shared future together. We encourage anyone to use MICRO DIY as a tool of personal empowerment, as well as a foundation for local and national dialogues.

Create your own museum and share it with us on social media using the hashtags #MICRODIY and #MadeMyOwnMuseum.