Reaching-Out: contemporary art and sustaining learning communities in the art galleryLearn what aid the community needsand fit the museum to those needsJohn Cotton Dana (1917)Pam Meecham Institute of Education, University of Londonp.meechamioe.ac.ukThis paper argues that building sustainable learning communities in museums, art galleries and cultural centers will require a holistic overhaul of the institution rather than just develop work with outreach itself. Such an overhaul will require consideration of building, display, education and outreach. Creating a learning institution that has the needs of diverse, sometimes conflicting, communities at its core, as we have in England, may mean adopting more heterodox museum approaches. Such changes present challenges to naturalised notions of authenticity, evidence and even a reconsideration of learning itself: research is key here. This paper also argues that art collections should be, on and off-sites for learning, going beyond being historical relics or contemporary fetish to become a source for future employment (Stanley 2007: 1). Art is currently being used to create cultural renaissance in disenfranchised communities, this paper argues however change can only happen if organizations adapt and innovate beyond their traditional remit as the authoritative voice, to include increased agency from within communities themselves. I am taking as my guide the American John Cotton Dana (1856-1929) a pioneer of museum and gallery education who was organizing outreach programmes before the First World-War. For Dana stewardship, pedagogy and recreation were key to a museums success. Opened in 1909 his Newark Museum emphasized the ordinary and the everyday, rather than the rare and precious. Dana famously displayed domestic ceramics from the dime store: none of which cost more than 25cents to demonstrate that beauty was not the preserve of the wealthy elite. His museum, unburdened by the weight of a permanent collection, would remain relevant to the citizens of Newark and not be for an educated elite but rather for the general citizen and not the subject expert. He wanted to avoid becoming a storehouse to please and educate curators rather than to entertain and instruct the public. Entertain is important here and a recurring theme of this paper.The manifold ambitions of the museum sector over the last fifteen years are clearly signaled in the frantic building, rebuilding and refurbishment of museums and art galleries across the globe. The not uncontroversial, international cultural franchises of museums to outposts whether Tate to St Ives, Cornwall or Guggenheim to Spain, bear witness to international, national and local reinvestment in museums and art galleries as indicators of cultural ambition. More than mere talisman of cultural capital and signifier of permanence in a rapidly changing global world however, the museum is also lauded as an agent of social change and key to community development. Often a precondition to post-industrial urban regeneration programmes, the great shape building or recycled power or railway station proffer kudos and tourist revenue at the same time as acting as markers of progress. Similarly the ubiquitous virtual museum, gaining a fillip from the development of Second Life, is not merely an alternative museum site but is firmly attached to a mantra of digital democracy, empowerment and user-generated knowledge. And yet there are tensions in this urge to build high-profile museums and develop meaningful relationships with local communities. The arrival of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao provides a salient example: after the hype was over surveys of local residents in Bilbao whilst recognising the economic impact and value for the middle class minority, found little value attached to the museum in terms of quality of life, social cohesion, regional identity or governance. After an initial boom, visitor numbers amongst locals is declining (DCMS 2004:13) DCMS was the Department for Culture, Media and Sport . In contrast to Bilbaos acquisition of an iconic, large-scale cultural facility, Barcelonas far more successful cultural programmes emphasised the characteristics of each of its districts and attempted to continually refresh its offering to both visitors and inhabitants (DCMS 2004: 14). The two approaches taken in Spain might alert us to the potential pitfalls and benefits underlying strategies for regeneration that make naturalised assumptions about what and who comprise communities and crucially what constitutes legitimate culture.I want to draw on the history of Liverpool, a non-metropolitan area and my own personal involvement with the city since the1980s to see how effective and sustained change can take place against the grain. Regeneration can be defined as the positive transformation of a place-whether residential, commercial or open space-that has previously displayed symptoms o