Wickens, K. Allison. “Museums and Community: The Benefits of Working Together.” (2012)

This case study of “Listen, Look, & Do,” a multi-visit preschool program at the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum, provides a model for how other history museums can program for young learners in their neighborhoods. In striving to meet local community audience needs identified by annual evaluations, staff created a program that shifted its focus from prioritizing the museum’s content to improving the learners’ experience. While still rooted in postal themes and objects, the program's key benefits to teachers and students emerge from the skill- and place-based modifications we made. This signature program’s structure now informs all offerings developed by the National Postal Museum education department, as it seeks first to be for someone, and second to be about something.