Abstract:

In the spring of 2006, the residents of Mesa, Arizona went to the polling places to vote on two very important ballot questions that would have greatly impacted the city's ability to levy sales and property taxes. Only the sales tax question passed, and in subsequent months, the revenue generated was not nearly enough to fund all of the city's expenditures. One of the organizations hit the most drastically was the Arizona Museum of Natural History, one of Mesa's most popular museums. This project examines the ways that the museum has attempted to better interact with its community through exhibits and forums, in the hopes of increasing the social capital that residents grant the institution. Because of the position the museum holds within the community, it can provide a unique opportunity to serve as a site of revitalization of the public sphere in Mesa. Exhibits in particular can utilize public memory and its emphasis on the symbolic resources of a community in order to get residents to view the museum in an alternative light. The type of discourse generated in the museum becomes an opportunity to develop talk communities with an emphasis on a particular place for meaning. These moves respond to a common call for museums to fulfill their potential as sites for important public conversations. The project utilizes a dual methodology of rhetorical and ethnographic methods to show the richness of the museum site. Keeping in the spirit of participatory action research, recommendations are made for further action on the part of museum staff members to continue developing as a site for public community discourse in order to revitalize the public sphere of Mesa.