This is really interesting, and I wonder if focus groups can't also play a role in creating object labels that better reflect the audience. Like if you brought in a group of people with diverse ages, backgrounds, etc and had them react to a bunch of objects, recorded their reactions, and used those to influence the questions and facts given in the label? (Or is that too creepy? Haha)
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Great idea! I've been on projects that tried to use advisory committees in a similar capacity. The failure was that institutions would replace the perspectives of community members (often working-class POC) with scholars who "specialized" in said community members' experiences. In fact, one project used a non-local white male scholar in the place of the local elder community activist of color he interviewed! This definitely gets back to what PubComm's activist session was talking about - public historians get the spotlight and credentials while profiting off the intellectual and emotional labor of their "subjects."