Case study 4: Grow the next generation of museum visitors by connecting with 4–8 year old kids
Team:
Writer, illustrator, editor, designer, printer, publisher, education team, curatorial team, development team, registrars, museum shop staff
Situation:
The most popular permanent exhibit at PEM is the Yin Yu Tang House, an 18th century Chinese house from the Huizhou province in China that was disassembled, transported to Salem, and reassembled “piece by piece” by Chinese carpenters and artisans at PEM.
Opportunity:
Give voice to writers, illustrators, and children who are not generally represented in trade book publishing.* Piece by Piece, featuring a Chinese American girl, will be the first in a series, with future books planned featuring Native American and African American characters.
“Taken together, books about white children, talking bears, trucks, monsters, potatoes, etc. represent nearly three quarters (71%) of children’s and young adult books published in 2019” (Cooperative Children’s Book Center, 2019 survey).
Strategy:
Commission Susan Tang, a Chinese American writer, and Justine Wong, a Chinese Canadian illustrator, to collaborate on the story. Bring them together in the Yin Yu Tang house and let them spend time collaborating on the story of Emmy, an Asian American girl who learns how to experience loss and makes important connections with her past and her family.
Work included: Travel to the Bologna Children’s Book Fair to research trends and connect with international publishers.
Collaborate with public relations, education, interpretation, curators, registrars, and the museum shop to develop programming, acquire the original watercolors for the book, and plan a book launch.
Launch a social media campaign that included video interviews with the author and illustrator, and online activities that can be done by parents and kids at home.
Impacts:
A creative way of disseminating work that aligns with PEM’s core values while connecting with new audiences. A tactile story that encourages exploration and appeals to multiple generations. A book launch during the Lunar New Year celebration that is attended by hundreds of families. A collaboration with the Pao Arts Center in Boston’s Chinatown.