Abstract:
Museums are seen to be shifting towards an increasingly participatory structure, and museum
staff are always looking for new ways to engage community-based audiences. This capstone
research examines ways that museums support community engagement through polysemic
meaning-making opportunities, specifically in relation to Alaskan source communities,
suggesting that polysemic meaning-making can take place through collections-based
programming, resulting in ongoing relations through these spaces of contact. These concepts are
examined through the lens of capstone course work, bolstered by an extensive literature review.