MCN2015

In 2016, the National Music Centre (NMC), in Calgary, Alberta will open the home for music in Canada. Driven by a “music festival experience” approach to exhibition development, NMC is also taking a radical approach to content development. Rather than using curators, NMC is pulling from a variety of experts across the country, each with their own perspectives on the story of music in Canada.

In order to capture that varied perspective on music, NMC developed the Stories and Song project. Stories and Song is an initiative that engages a different kind of expert, from kindergarteners to pivotal musicians. Using digital storytelling, oral histories, and a storytelling mobile app, NMC is gathering the stories of music through multiple platforms in order to guide and broaden the scope of exhibition content.

To keep the presentation within the 10-minute time limit, this case study focuses on one such group of experts, K-12 youth. In one facet of Stories and Song, NMC is using digital storytelling to encourage students to become interviewers, journalists, sound engineers, filmmakers, and documentarians to collect the stories of music and sound in communities across the province. NMC provides the resources and technology for students to create digital stories through a travelling road case and, in turn, the stories are collected and shared with NMC for use in exhibitions and archives. This project not only embodies how students should learn in a 21st century classroom, but also how a museum should engage audiences in a 21st century society.

As a first time attendee to MCN, we are excited to network with other, like-minded, folks in the museum and technology world and have the opportunity to share our experience with this project, which is still very much in progress. NMC will share tips on how to engage the non-technology teacher into a technology-based project; how this approach has evolved including results, lessons learned, and plans for moving forward; and how community-based digital storytelling provides exhibitions with unique perspectives. In turn, NMC hopes to gather ideas and engage in conversations with MCN delegates to better understand where this project can continue to grow.