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17. The Marketing Strategies of Deaf Museums

To the Table of Contents

 

Intro Chapter 17

Intro Chapter 17

There is no 'magic bullet', a marketing strategy that will guarantee success for all.

In our survey, we asked the Deaf Museums what tools they use.

17.1 The Marketing of Deaf Museums

17.1 The Marketing of Deaf Museums

Advertising

In our survey of Deaf Museums, we asked our contact persons about advertising: 

"Does your Museum have a website? Do you use Social Media? Do you advertise in other ways?  What - in your opinion -  is the most effective way to get people to visit your museum?

All Deaf Museums that responded had a website and used social media: Facebook and Instagram. Kuurojen Museo also uses print: the magazine of the deaf. The Norsk Døvemuseum also advertises in the local (mainstream) newspaper, when they have a special activity at the Museum. 

The Musée d'Histoire et de Culture des Sourds in France reports that local newspapers often talk about their activities as well as magazines for the Deaf. They also answer our question about the most effective way: "Talk about it as much as possible and make it known by all means, for example during association celebrations, conferences accompanied by flyers, etc."

They also have a number of videos on YouTube about the Museum.

17.2 A Museum Shop?

17.2 A Museum Shop?

The Norsk Døvemuseum  has a small museum shop with selected products, see below.

webshopTrondheimwebshop Trondheim2webshop Trondheim3

 

The Deaf Heritage Centre in Ireland sells mugs with their logo, the Irish manual alphabet, or a photo of Thomas Mahon, see below.

DHCmugs

 

 As far as we know, the Deaf Museums do not sell postcards, calendars, or posters with photos of Deaf events or important people in Deaf history.  In the Netherlands, one can order postage stamps with a personal design. As an award, we had stamps printed with a photo of a statue of Andreas Christian Møller, the founder of the first Deaf school in Norway. They can actually be used - in the Netherlands - and are a nice way of promoting Deaf history or a Deaf museum.

 moller stamps

Books

The Deaf Heritage Centre UK is hosted on the website of the British Deaf History Society (BDHS). BDHS has a webshop that sells many books and journals about Deaf history. 

webshop BDHS

 

17.3 The Brand Strategies of Deaf Museums

17.3 The Brand Strategies of Deaf Museums

Deaf Museums vary in the names that they use for their Museum. In the table below, you can see the names in the national language and in English. 

 Kuurojen Museo

 Finnish Museum of the Deaf
Norsk Døvemuseum

Norwegian Museum of Deaf History and Culture

Norwegian Deaf Museum
Musée d'Histoire et de Culture des Sourds Museum of the History and Culture of the Deaf

 Different names are used on the website of the Museum in Manchester:

  • The Deaf Heritage Centre ( UK)
  • The Deaf Museum and Art Gallery
  • Deaf Museum and Archive
  

The Deaf Heritage Centre (Ireland)

  
Døvehistorisk Selskab 

Danish Deaf History Society 

 Some of these names are stronger 'brand' names than others. The Deaf Heritage Centre in the UK uses a number of different names on its website, which is confusing. It shares one of its names with the Deaf Heritage Centre in Ireland. 

The logos of these Deaf Museums: 

kuurojenmuseologo

norskdovemuseumlogoNorsk Døvemuseum

Logo Musee special Bleu

bdhs British Deaf History Society - no separate logo for the Museum

logoDHC Deaf Heritage Centre Ireland

dovehistoriskselskab Døvehistorisk Selskab 

 

17.4. Websites of Deaf Museums

17.4. Websites of Deaf Museums

Most Deaf Museums in Europe do not have a budget or expertise for professional marketing. One Museum, the Tommaso Pendola Museum in Siena, does not even have a website. The websites of some of the other Deaf Museums in Europe are hard to find, especially for people from other countries.  Some have only limited information.

Below some examples:

Website Norskdovemuseum

On the website of the Norwegian Deaf Museum , you see a video of hearing visitors of the Rom X exhibition - an exhibition for hearing visitors. Some pages are available in English text. The page "Visit us" has a video in Norwegian Sign language:{ modal url=" https://dms04.dimu.org/multimedia/0136MvHUJZAK.mp4?mmid=0136MvHUJZAK"}Visit us{/modal}

Website Musee dhistoire

The website of the Musée d'Histoire et de Culture des Sourds in France (see above) opens with a lot of information, but only in French. Foreign visitors will have to use Google Translate to find the information they want. 

 Website Kuurojen Museo

The website of the Finnish Deaf Museum, Kuurojen Museo, shows the online Museum and has only limited information about the physical exhibition in Helsinki. Most pages are available in Finnish, Swedish and English text. Some information is available in Finnish Sign Language

Below, the results of a Google search that we did, October 2022, from the perspective of a foreign visitor: 

Search Term Google's Top Results
Deaf Museum
  • Deaf Museums - Welcome!  https://www.deafmuseums.eu
Deaf Museum Norway
Deaf Museum Finland
Deaf Museum Denmark
Deaf Museum UK
Deaf Museum Ireland
Deaf Museum France
 Deaf Museum Italy  
  • Deaf Museums - Welcome!

 

Of course, the main target group of the Deaf Museums in Europe are visitors from their own country, who will use search terms in the national language. But two conclusions are obvious:

  • Deaf Museums in Europe are not easy to find for people who use English search terms.
  • Our websites, www.deafmuseums.eu and www.deafhistory.eu are easy to find by Google and include links to the national websites of the Museums. 

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Quotes:

  • “One story makes you weak. But as soon as we have one-hundred stories, you will be strong.”
    Chris Cleave in "Little Bee", 2008
  • "As recently as the 1970s, deaf history did not exist. There were available sketches of various hearing men, primarily teachers, who were credited with bringing knowledge and enlightenment to generations of deaf children, but deaf adults were absent."

    In: Preface to: "Deaf History Unvailed, Interpretations from the New Scholarship". John Vickrey van Cleve, editor
    Publisher: Gallaudet University Press, 1993
  • "The UN Declaration of Human Rights states that “Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community”. This is based on the principle that citizens are not just consumers of cultural capital created by others; we have agency and the right to contribute through culture to the wider good of society."
    Source: A manifesto for museum learning and engagement
  • "For many members of the Deaf community their shared history is both personal and social. Deaf people will have gone to the same school, in many cases boarding schools where most of their younger lives will have been spent together, and then met again at their Deaf clubs, Deaf social events, reunions and other more personal events.
    One of the first things a Deaf person will often ask on meeting, before asking your name, is what school or Deaf club you go to. Making this connection is an important part of any greeting, as it will then help an individual to understand what shared history or people in common you may have."
    from: The Cultural Model of Deafness
  • "It was only during the past decade that recognition of the importance of preserving Deaf history has emerged. In the main, Deaf heritage, culture and folklore has been passed down from generation to generation via the medium of sign language and fingerspelling. (..) It is also vital that the history of Deaf people is made available to future generations, especially Deaf schoolchildren as part of their history lessons."
    A. Murray Holmes,  in: Cruel Legacy, an introduction of Deaf people in history, by A.F. Dimmock, 1993
  • “Stories of disability are largely absent from museum displays. Where they appear, they often reflect deeply entrenched, negative attitudes towards physical and mental difference. Research reveals that museums don’t simply reflect attitudes; they are active in shaping conversations about difference.
    Projects created with disabled people show that museums hold enormous potential to shape more progressive, accurate and respectful ways of understanding human diversity. Why wouldn’t we take up this opportunity? ”
    Richard Sandell, co-director, Research Centre for Museums and Galleries, University of Leicester
  • "Opening ourselves to the Deaf community, listening to and respecting them as co-creators and experts telling the stories they want told, makes our practice richer, and has ongoing positive effects for the community.
    These embryonic relationships hopefully encourage Deaf people to feel welcome in our space — it’s their space too.
    For both side, communities and museum professionals, while genuinely, openly and truly committing to working together can be time-consuming, it repays any investment many-fold."
    Corinne Ball: ‘Expressing ourselves’: creating a Deaf exhibition", 2020
  • "Histories have for too long emphasized the controversies over communication methods and the accomplishments of hearing people in the education of deaf students, with inadequate attention paid to those deaf individuals who created communication bridges and distinguished themselves as change agents in their respective field of endeavour."
    from: Harry G. Lang, Bonny Meath-Lang: Deaf Persons in the Arts and Sciences, 1995
  • "This (Deaf) Museum is not intended as a casual show, to be seen once and forgotten. Its pretensions are nobler; it has a humanitarian aim. By its solid and tangible evidences, making history memorable and attractive by illustration, it serves a double purpose: to dispel ignorance and prejudice regarding the deaf, and to raise the victims of this prejudice and ignorance to their true level in society."
    The British Deaf Monthly, Vol. VI (p.265) 1897. In: Deaf Museums and Archival Centres, 2006
  • "Nina Simon has described true inclusion in a museum context as occurring when museums value the diversity in their audience, value those individuals’ potential and contributions, when they actively link those diverse people across differences, and when the organisation reaches out with generosity and curiosity at the core.
    On a practical level this sort of museum practice would see widespread inclusion of people with disabilities in the planning of museum exhibitions, on museum boards and steering committees, and working in curatorial roles."
    In: Corinne Ball: Expressing Ourselves, 2020
  • "Inclusion is moving from “we tolerate your presence” to “we WANT you here with us”.
    Jillian Enright in The Social Model of Disability, 2021
  • "Museums can increase our sense of wellbeing, help us feel proud of where we have come from, and inspire, challenge and stimulate us."
    Source: Museums Change Lives
  • "The Finnish Museum of the Deaf) was founded by deaf people, and, thus, its task has been to strengthen their identity and historical communality.

    Most of our materials have a connection to the key experiences that generations of deaf people have shared. These are important in understanding the past and keeping the collective memory alive."
    In: TIINA NAUKKARINEN, Finnish Museum of the Deaf: Presenting the Life of Carl Oscar Malm (1826–1863)
  • "After all, we are all of us explorers, and we all have much to bring to each other from our own
    journeyings."
    Ladd, P. (2003). Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood.
  • "The Deaf community is international. What binds Deaf people, despite their different national sign languages, is their shared visual communication, history, cultural activities, and the need for a Deaf “space” where people come together."

    from: The Cultural Model of Deafness
  • "What has become clear is that museums don’t just function as custodians of the past anymore; instead, they have embraced their responsibility towards the communities of the present: a responsibility to represent them, to speak to them, and to be open to dialogue with them."
    Tim Deakin, August 2021
  • "An important matter for any minority group is that written documents in public archives are often drawn up by the majority group and do not always reflect a minority as it sees itself. Thus, preserving sign language narration is of the utmost importance and a challenge to those working in the field of Deaf history."
    In: TIINA NAUKKARINEN, Finnish Museum of the Deaf: Presenting the Life of Carl Oscar Malm (1826–1863)

  • the past can hurt

    From: Walt Disney, The Lion King

  • "Until the fall semester of 1986, the history department at Gallaudet University had never before offered a course in the history of deaf people.
    In the 122 years, to that point, since the founding of the university, which was specifically intended for the education of deaf peoples, no one had ever taught a course about this very group of people.
    In all of those years the history department had offered courses on a wide range of topics but never deaf history. "
    ENNIS, WILLIAM T., et al. “A Conversation: Looking Back on 25 Years of A Place of Their Own.” Sign Language Studies, vol. 17, no. 1, 2016, pp. 26–41. 
  • "Deaf people have always had a sense of their history as it was being passed down in stories told by generations of students walking in the hallways of their residential schools and by others who congregated in their clubs, ran associations, attended religious services, and played in sporting events.
    With these activities, the deaf community exhibited hallmarks of agency — an effort to maintain their social, cultural, and political autonomy amid intense pressure to conform as hearing, speaking people."
    BRIAN H. GREENWALD AND JOSEPH J. MURRAY, in: Sign Language Studies, Volume 17, Number 1, Fall 2016
  • "The most significant function of museums is as centres for cultural democracy, where children and adults learn through practical experience that we all have cultural rights. Having the opportunity to create, and to give to others, may be one of our greatest sources of fulfilment. Culture is everywhere and is created by everyone."
    Source: A manifesto for museum learning and engagement
  • "Deaf mute, deaf and dumb, hearing impaired – the choices are many and not without consequences. Words have many meanings, they convey attitudes and prejudices and may hurt, even when used in a well-intended context."
    Hanna Mellemsether, in:  Re-presenting Disability: Activism and Agency in the Museum, 2013

  • “If you do not know where you come from, then you don't know where you are, and if you don't know where you are, then you don't know where you're going. And if you don't know where you're going, you're probably going wrong.”
    Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight
  • "Access to and participation in culture is a basic human right. Everyone has a right to representation and agency in museums, and communities should have the power to decide how they engage."
    Source: A manifesto for museum learning and engagement
  • "And yet, even within a large and, in many ways, traditional organization such as this (Trøndelag Folk Museum, Norway), the museum's encounter with Deaf culture contributed to profound changes and a process, still underway, which challenges our own understanding of what a museum is today, our role in society and our obligations towards more diverse audiences than those we had previously engaged or even recognized."
    Hanna Mellemsether, in:  Re-presenting Disability: Activism and Agency in the Museum, 2013
  • "Beyond works of art and objects, museums collect shared heritage, memories and living cultures as well as what we call intangible collectables."
    Source: We are Museums
  • "Museums can increase our sense of wellbeing, help us feel proud of where we have come from, and inspire, challenge and stimulate us."
    Source: https://www.museumsassociation.org/campaigns/museums-change-lives/