Nancy Proctor on Museum Innovation and Community Co-Creation

In 2017, Nancy Proctor, the founder of the MuseWeb Foundation and director of the Peale Center in Baltimore, addressed attendees at a Meet the Media Guru event in Milan. She introduced Behere, a platform utilizing geolocation to enhance audience engagement, drawing inspiration from the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street initiative, which offers traveling exhibitions to smaller towns across the U.S. These exhibits incorporate local narratives and artifacts. Proctor highlighted the importance of this approach in strengthening community capacity for cultural preservation. She also pointed out the crisis facing museums due to diminishing relevance and urged for improved listening and mobile technology to encourage public involvement. At the Peale Center, she is focused on adapting to a post-Internet landscape and criticized superficial diversity initiatives.