Creating Safe(r) Spaces for Visitors and Staff in Museum Programs

ABSTRACT Visitors come to museums for many reasons, including to learn something new about our world, not specifically to have an emotional response. Visitors unprepared for personal experiences can manifest their confusion in a multitude of ways. Anticipating such reactions, museums must engage in dialogue, to help visitors process emotions and ultimately allow them to reach a place of equilibrium. One of the Museum of Tolerance’s approaches to safety and to creating responsible conversations is a framework developed for both understanding and managing key issues that arise when facilitating challenging conversations. Used in training, this Five Layers of Taking Care reminds us of the many interests and needs of participants and stakeholders involved in a given conversation and the responsibility that museum educators have to approach them with compassion, mindfulness, and skilled responses. The five layers are: the guide, the questioner, the group, the museum, and the world.