What does it take for museums to move beyond outreach and build relationships grounded in trust, reciprocity, and shared authority? Milena Acosta, Vice President of Audience Engagement at the Japanese American National Museum, draws on extensive experience in museum education and community engagement to explore how museums can engage, listen, and co-create with the communities they serve. The session examines how community knowledge can inform institutional decision-making, how museums can sustain relationships beyond individual projects, and how institutions can build the capacity and agency of staff across roles to recognize their own place in community engagement—even when their work is not traditionally public-facing. Together, these approaches offer a framework for translating institutional values into everyday practices that foster inclusion, belonging, shared ownership, and meaningful participation.

Milena Acosta — Community Engagement from the Inside Out