While first person interpretation and historic crafts have long been part of the museum world, current movements in the maker movement in libraries and schools have occurred mostly outside of the museum world. Instead, Makerspace in Museums: Hands-On History in Museums and Historic Sites shows the importance of the Maker Movement for museums and historic sites, and presents a roadmap to building, planning, researching, and using a makerspace alongside more traditional museum programming. It calls for a revitalization of living history, which can be done through makerspaces and the maker movement. Highlights include: oWhy museums and makerspaces are a natural fit together oWays to organize and create a makerspace in a museum of any budget oCreating a makerspace and culture of making that is inclusive and for the entirety of the community oStrategies for researching historic making techniques and adapting them to the modern world oCreating meaningful makerspace-centered programming The processes and methods explored in this book will help produce a sustainable makerspace that will help the museum or historic site that adopts it reach new audiences, creating growth and new museums stakeholders. Likewise, through calling for a recalibration of living history through the language of the makerspace, this project calls for new approaches to living history. Thus, it is a call for a disruption to the status quo and a push towards sustainable and meaningful living history.
Tim Betz is a museum professional and educator. He has worked in programming, curatorial, education, and management of small historic sites, including the Red Mill Museum Village in Clinton, NJ, and the Morgan Log House in Lansdale, PA, and is particularly passionate about the ways that hands-on processes and experiences can unlock the past. He also teaches art history at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, in Kutztown PA, where he focuses on the art of the Spanish Empire. Betz applies a spirit of making to education and teaches courses where students learn about art through a combination of hands-on historical making methodologies and lectures, including courses on medieval manuscript illumination and the materials of the Renaissance Italian artist. He is completing his doctorate in history at Lehigh University, focusing on collecting and the material culture of the Spanish Atlantic. Previously, he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania.
