Museum of Photographic Arts

The Museum of Photographic Arts will engage teens and young adults from diverse and underserved neighborhoods to develop and prototype new learning experiences that are designed to meet the changing needs of audiences. The museum is partnering with the Balboa Park Online Collaborative and Media Arts Center of San Diego to combine digital technology with traditional education models to create relevant, interactive, and learner-centric programs. The project aims to determine what the community wants and needs in learning experiences; expand opportunities for audiences to design meaningful interactivity with the arts; and provide youth a leadership role in developing new ideas for community engagement with the arts. The process will include audience and community surveys, focus groups, participation data from the Teen Exploratory Groups, user testing of prototypes, and independent project evaluation. The project will contribute to the national dialogue on how museums and educators adapt to changing learning and technology models.