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publicly accessible and engaging ways. At its most basic, shared authority turns people who would otherwise be historical consumers (visitors and audiences) into participants and co-generators of historical content for public display. Museums who coordinate programs that share historical authority often wish to imbue a sense of democratization to the historical narrative, in contrast to the top-down historical narratives that sometimes emerge in museums. In addition, shared authority projects frequently try to involve communities who have traditionally been disenfranchised or underrepresented in historical narratives and institutions, providing a platform for alternative voices to engage in a public historical dialogue. The role of shared historical authority continues to be debated in the field of
191:(18 Folgate St.) that was restored by Dennis Severs. The house is filled with historic objects alongside modern touches, sound clips of carriages and crying babies, and plates of real food set out each day by the staff. Visitors are encouraged to roam the house on their own, sit down on the furniture, interact with other visitors, and draw their own conclusions. The experience is meant to blur the lines between art and history.
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288:"a shared authority"... suggests something that 'is'-- that in the nature of oral and public history, we are not the sole interpreters. Rather, the interpretive and meaning-making process is in fact shared by definition-- it is inherent in the dialogic nature of an interview, and in how audiences receive and respond to exhibitions and public history interchanges in general.
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between 1888 and 2006. The curators did not want to show patterns or people as part of aggregate groups. Instead, they chose to emphasize singularity and individuality. To accomplish this, the
Minnesota Historical Society built a house for visitors to walk through. Instead of reading large panels
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In each case the institution serves as a catalyst for non-traditional participants to contribute to a body of information presented to the public. The institution uses its resources - e.g. staff expertise, collections, public space - to help non-traditional participants share their contributions in
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with the public. It is argued that this trend toward sharing authority is changing the nature of public historical experience in significant ways. Shared authority removes the hierarchy commonly practiced within cultural institutions. Moving away from a top down approach, shared authority is geared
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and is initially funded through a generous grant from the Henry Luce
Foundation, enables partnerships with local organizations to collect people’s stories on critical issues, such as immigration and homelessness. The truck is fitted with a recording studio, mobile workshop space, and a gallery for
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is considered a landmark moment in museums' assessments of their role as historical arbiters, has expressed, "I don't think people should share authority to the degree that you devalue your own scholarship, your own knowledge. That's not sharing anything. You're not giving what you have. That is
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Despite the interest and affirmation that sharing authority is currently receiving in museum and public humanities circles, there are scholars and practitioners who criticize the practice. Generally, these criticisms are aimed at one of two levels. First, some scholars suggest that the phrase
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creation. Curators controlled the objects in the house, recordings of former residents, and the setup of the space. Without an overarching structure, visitors could wander through at random, co-creating their own narratives. There was no clear beginning and end beyond entering and exiting the
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dwellers. It shares authority by inviting the families of former residents to contribute objects, photographs, documents, interviews, and oral histories to the museum tours. Part of the museum's mission is to address today's immigrant issues. This provides another avenue for sharing authority
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shared authority." The former suggests that historians possess authority and have a responsibility to share it, reinforcing a traditional, top-down view of history. "A shared authority", by contrast, recognizes that traditional historical authorities and the public share in the interpretive and
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policies and the
University of Pennsylvania's expansion in the 1960s. Billy Yalowitz, a theater professor working at the university, invited Penn students as well as student and teacher partners from University City High School—a school built in the former Black Bottom neighborhood—and former
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and social constructivism. Both paradigms reject the concept of a "master narrative" for describing historical events, finding it an inadequate method for representing the multiple experiences and perspectives of individuals involved. Arising from the work of folklorists such as
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pop-up exhibits that features built-in speakers, a flat-screen television, a roll-down screen and projector, and even an outside exhibit wall. Humanities Truck project fellows share historical authority with the communities with which they work.
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of wall texts, visitors had to interact with objects to hear, read, or see the information. Unlike projects in which the content is produced in conjunction with a group of community members, here authority was shared at the level of
218:"Spend extended time inside the Levine and Rogarshevsky apartments and join in a discussion about themes arising from the tour. Share your experiences, thoughts, and family histories with your educator and fellow visitors."
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is an experimental mobile platform for collecting, exhibiting, preserving, and expanding the dialogue around the humanities in and around the
Washington, D.C. area. The project, which is sponsored by
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Using oral and written histories contributed by individuals outside the strictly academic community in conjunction with more traditional scholarly essays, text panels or exhibit labels.
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393:"From A Shared Authority to the Digital Kitchen, and Back" in Bill Adair, Benjamin Filene, and Laura Koloski, eds., Letting Go? Sharing Historical Authority in a User-Generated World
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technologies that allow users to easily create and share content on digital platforms offered historical institutions a variety of new tools to facilitate public participation.
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The need for museums and other historical institutions to "share authority" with their audiences and surrounding communities is rooted in the ideologies of
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Yalowitz, B. (2011). "The Black Bottom: Making
Community-Based Performance in West Philadelphia." in Bill Adair, Benjamin Filene, and Laura Koloski (eds.),
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itself is wrong. "Sharing authority" implies that the process is something museums/archives do rather than something that just "is." In his essay for
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residents of the neighborhood to work together on the telling of the neighborhood's history, ultimately creating "Black Bottom
Sketches" in 1998.
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through public programs that connect speakers with varied backgrounds to public audiences. The museum invites sharing on one of its tours,
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highly problematic. You have to be realistic about your years of experience, what you can give, and what others can give."
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Scholars and artists also worry that sharing authority devalues the hard-won expertise of professionals. The artist
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A museum inviting a community artist to create and install a work of historically inspired public art on their site.
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A historic house tour where visitors are encouraged to explore on their own and draw their own conclusions.
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in New York's
Manhattan district is a good example of how an urban museum can share historical authority
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Filene, B. (2011). Make
Yourself At Home-- Welcoming Voices in Open House: If These Walls Could Talk.
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is an example of a museum in which shared authority is a core component of its programming policies.
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is defined by the premise that traditional institutions of historical authority, such as museums and
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Fred Wilson, Paula
Marincola, and Marjorie Schwarzer, Mining the Museum Revisited: A Conversation.
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Open House: If These Walls Could Talk is an exhibition that was produced by the
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A Shared
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in 2006. The exhibition traced the stories of families in a single house in
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towards collaboration that includes dialogue, and participatory engagement.
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In recent years, Frisch has distinguished between "sharing authority" and "
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Web-based projects that invite and display user-generated components.
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Letting Go?: Sharing Historical Authority in a User Generated World.
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Letting Go? Sharing Historical Authority in a User-Generated World
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Letting Go? Sharing Historical Authority in a User-Generated World
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Letting Go? Sharing Historical Authority in a User-Generated World
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Letting Go? Sharing Historical Authority in a User-Generated World
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The Black Bottom Performance Project is a partnership between the
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Philadelphia: The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, 2011. See
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Adair, Bill; Filene, Benjamin; Koloski, Laura, eds. (2011).
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Community curation - "crowdsourcing" related content from
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Typical examples of shared historical authority include:
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American University's College of Arts and Sciences News
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University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
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Other examples of shared historical authority include
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106:John Lomax
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