Last year THE TECH won the HIGHEST HONOR April/May 2016 55 IMLS, THE TECH MUSEUM OF INNOVATION an AMERICAN MUSEUM can earn. “When you want to be useful to your community, you focus not on having the right answers to things, but on having the right tools that people can use to solve problems, so that they can do what they value,” he says. That’s a distinction that Ritchie views as a manifesto. “The role of The Tech is not to be a teaching institution, but a resource institution,” he argues. “While we do some teaching, what our visitors bring to the institution is more important than what we give to them.” ROOTED IN C OMMUNITY SERVICE For a man with muscular drive and vision, Ritchie comes across less as a bulked-up Marvel superhero than a quietly persuasive community organizer. That persona and approach, and the value he places on inclusion, seem hardwired. Now 55, he grew up in a religious home in Louisville, Kentucky, where the dominant ethic in his family was finding ways to improve the lives of the people around them. His father, a salesman, volunteered to help create a community ministry to assist lower-income people. His siblings (two older brothers and a sister) were also involved in urban ministries with similar missions. Ritchie helped out, accompanying his mother to deliver food to housebound recipients through Meals on Wheels. “I saw my father, my mother, the whole family doing these things, so it has always been a part of my view that the good But he understands that education in this environment has to be paired with entertainment to keep kids—and adults—engaged. The crash helmet tester delivers in both areas. It’s fun, and it’s instructional. So too are the exhibits Ritchie promotes in the Exploration Gallery, where you shake in an earthquake, navigate weightlessness like an astronaut and view Earth as seen from space. Or in the Social Robot area where you design, build and program a real robot using sensors, controllers and actuators. These and other exhibits challenge visitors to come up with new ideas using their own intelligence, curiosity, and creativity. And that’s just how Ritchie likes it; in his view, the focus is not so much on the technology, but on how people relate to it. “Down here, you discover your own capacity to solve problems,” he says. He hopes people leave The Tech “understanding how wonderful they are.” Science centers, he adds, tend to be attractive to higher income people. “It is very difficult for us to figure out how to break down the barriers to what seem to be fortresses to lower income people. We want them to see that this can be their place. That’s a key challenge of The Tech.” The progress he and his staff have made hasn’t gone unnoticed. Last year The Tech won the National Medal for Museum and Library Service, the highest honor an American museum can earn. A key award factor was The Tech’s dedication to community. Little by little, Ritchie says, The Tech is making technology accessible to one and all. Still, “I’m not content with what we have done thus far.” That’s pure Ritchie, unwilling to settle for good on the path to great. He’s in fine company. Steve Jobs’ obsession with perfection continues to hover over Silicon Valley, emitting a variation on the rays sent down by an intergalactic spaceship to reprogram and elevate human consciousness. Ritchie may not be Jobs—thankfully, some would argue—but his restlessness and ambition are quite in keeping with the Apple founder’s determination to settle for nothing less than singular excellence. Some museums may be comfortable keeping a public space’s version of business hours. Not The Tech, under his direction. At night, The Tech’s rooms are used for activities like hackathons, incubating business startups, creating new community education programs, and social events. To facilitate convenience, interaction and communication, the museum offers a host of tools and materials, such as flexible tables, whiteboards, a 3-D printer, Wi-Fi, a fabrication line, and more. Tim Ritchie accepts the National Medal for Museum And Library Service from Michelle Obama, along with Maria Arias Evans, the principal of Washington Elementary in San Jose.
South Bay Accent - Apr/May 2016
To see the actual publication please follow the link above