Museum 2.0

AUGUST 25, 2016

Most participatory projects were short-term, siloed innovations, not institutional transformations. Interestingly--for good and ill--this transformative funding program coincided with a national funding crisis in the arts in the UK. Bernadette Peters' provocative 2011 report, Whose Cake is it Anyway? didn't mince words. and realistic.

Museum 20

Museum Participatory Resource Place 20

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

I''m glad to see coverage about art museums involving visitors in exhibitions. There are many curator and museum director voices in the article, but not a single quote from a visitor who engaged in one of these community projects. The metaphor for traditional art museums is the temple. Projects participatory museum'

Journal 54

Journal Participatory Museum Community 54

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 5, 2013

Our museum in Santa Cruz has been slammed by those who believe participatory experiences have gone too far. We always knew that the inclusion of participatory and community-centered practices in arts institutions was controversial. To me, the backlash against participatory and community-centered experiences is not surprising.

Participatory 53

Participatory Museum Arts History 53

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

Visitors bond and bridge through participatory experiences at MAH. There were times when coordinating a fire art festival while researching social capital theory made me want to burn my computer. I learn a ton from her every day and wanted to share her thinking--and her graduate thesis--with you.

Museum 49

Museum Program Participatory Community 49

NTEN

NOVEMBER 4, 2014

As we try to raise support for 2015, we wanted to share the impact of your donation from last year, from the voices of our scholarship recipients. Today, we want to introduce you to Leah Horn , Director of Marketing and Communications at the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF). What is your organization''s mission?

Donation 64

Donation Share Impact NTEN 64

Museum 2.0

MARCH 17, 2010

This is the second in a four-part series about writing The Participatory Museum. Several hundred people contributed their opinions, stories, suggestions, and edits to The Participatory Museum as it was written. Several said things like, "I was curious to see how this kind of participatory, collaborative approach would work in practice."

Participatory 32

Participatory Museum Process Experiment 32

Museum 2.0

APRIL 7, 2009

Which of these descriptions exemplifies participatory museum practice? But the difference between the two examples teases out a problem in differentiating "participatory design" from "design for participation." In the first case, you are making the design process participatory. In the second, you make the product participatory.

Participatory 27

Participatory Design Difference Museum 27

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

MAY 7, 2010

Nina has written a fantastic book engagement called The Participatory Museum. A third argues that the project won’t be truly participatory unless users get to define what content is sought in the first place. I’ve been using these participatory categories to talk about how we’d like users to participate in different projects.

Model 98

Model Active Activism Activities 98

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 18, 2013

Originally posted in April of 2011, just before I hung up my consulting hat for my current job at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. In 2008 and 2009, there were many conference sessions and and documents presenting participatory case studies, most notably Wendy Pollock and Kathy McLean''s book Visitor Voices in Museum Exhibitions.

Museum 45

Museum Question Participatory Vietnam 45

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 9, 2017

Hosted by a sound art collective, Ultra-red, the 2015 event promised "to investigate listening as a political activity and to interrogate the stakes of participation in neoliberalism." When should you turn down the invitation to share your voice? There are many ways for voices to get chopped and twisted.

Participatory 20

Participatory Museum Voice Press 20

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

NOVEMBER 3, 2015

It is always challenge to use participatory techniques when your participants are not native English speakers and you don’t speak the language. I thought I’d share a few quick insights and tips that I learned for others who may be preparing for doing tech training internationally and want to use participatory techniques.

Facilitation 50

Facilitation Train Training International 50

Museum 2.0

APRIL 25, 2011

I've seen this line of questioning almost completely disappear in the past two years due to many research studies and reports on the value and rise of participation, but in 2006-7, social media and participatory culture was still seen as nascent (and possibly a passing fad). In 2008, the conversation started shifting to "how" and "what."

Question 49

Question Participatory Museum Vietnam 49

Museum 2.0

JUNE 29, 2011

As a researcher and activist for participation, I've sometimes downplayed the value of this charm because it seems like arsenal for professionals who claim participatory projects are frivolous. "Be My goal is to eventually be surrounded by the voices of our visitors--funny, sweet, demanding--so they can inspire me all day long.

Museum 47

Museum Participatory Comment Sound 47

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

FEBRUARY 24, 2009

I remember in 2005 the Global Voices Summit used IRC as a backchannel -- no so much for people in the room, but for remote participation. How can we use them as a test of how things are going at the conference? How can we play further with the distance between those up there - on the podium and those in the audience?

Conference 69

Conference Reflection Resource Arts 69

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 15, 2014

Schools and other arts organizations are rising to the challenge. Artists and arts organizations are contributing their spaces and their creative energies. And pop culture icons, from basketball players to rock stars , are making highly visible commentary with their clothes and voices. What should be our role(s)? inclusion'

Museum 52

Museum Blogger Cleveland Missouri 52

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 16, 2013

Then again, Saturday was hardly normal at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. This past weekend, in conjunction with our exhibition about Ze Frank's current participatory project, A Show , we hosted " Ze Frank Weekend "--a quickie summer camp of workshops, activities, presentations, and lots of hugging.

Reflection 43

Reflection Community Museum Participatory 43

Museum 2.0

MARCH 27, 2009

This week, the Denver Art Museum (DAM) opened a new temporary exhibition called The Psychedelic Experience , featuring rock posters from San Francisco in the heyday of Bill Graham and electric kool-aid. It’s a thrilling challenge to the traditional form of art museum exhibit design, and better yet, visitors like it.

Denver 21

Denver Museum Arts Remix 21

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 23, 2014

They were “preaching the museum gospel” in NYC via alternative tours at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. We interacted with the art and with each other through dynamic photo challenges, kinesthetic activities, and conversations. I imagine that there are a lot more presumed barriers to break down at an art museum than a science museum.

Museum 55

Museum Interview New York Interaction 55

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 5, 2008

I was captivated by Chris Alexander 's story about participatory online/onsite efforts at the San Jose Museum of Art (SJMA). The comments, which were previously unmoderated, suddenly were overloaded with opportunists who wanted their voice to be heard on the YouTube homepage.

Case Study 20

Case Study Participatory Studies Museum 20

Museum 2.0

JULY 18, 2017

This month, we opened a new exhibition at the MAH, Lost Childhoods: Voices of Santa Cruz County Foster Youth and Foster Youth Museum (brief video clip from opening night here ). it uses art, history, artifacts, and storytelling to illuminate a big human story and an urgent social issue.

Action 44

Action Childhood Artist Info 44

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

APRIL 21, 2015

As the book points out, while fast, frequent, and informal makes it all sound easy, there is an art to it. Sharing has to help spread authenticity, emotion, and point of view. Participatory engagement invites people to answer a particular question or comment on a post. This means sharing stories and visuals.

Digital 50

Digital Strategy Chapter Advice 50

Museum 2.0

JULY 20, 2016

One hundred years ago, John Cotton Dana, founder of the Newark Museum and godfather of modern museums, famously said: “A great department store, easily reached, open at all hours, is more like a good museum of art than any of the museums we have yet established." That work showed in the human voices and stories throughout the museum.

Museum 20

Museum Audience Music Arts 20

Museum 2.0

MAY 15, 2008

After listening to this clip a few times, I wondered: what if museums dropped the authoritative voice, the cultural voice, the friendly teacher voice, and adopted a novice voice? I love the Radiolab experience, but I wonder how much the success of the "novice voice" is contingent on the context of conversation.

Conversation 20

Conversation Arts Museum Voice 20

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

The Leading Change Summit was more intimate (several hundred people), participatory and interactive, intense, and stimulating. I designed this exercise after a delightful experience visiting the Barnes Foundation Museum where the art work is hung on the wall in a way to facilitate pattern recognition and learning about art concepts.

Reflection 127

Reflection NTEN Change Exercise 127

Museum 2.0

JULY 7, 2010

Most of my work contracts involve a conversation that goes something like this: "We want to find ways to make our institution more participatory and lively." Most museums that offer interactive exhibits, media elements, or participatory activities offer them alongside traditional labels and interpretative tools. Fabulous!" "But

Audience 40

Audience Museum Oakland Participatory 40

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 22, 2009

What does the word "participatory" mean to you? The various definitions of participatory projects can lead to confusion and misunderstandings. Participation in science research is a good basis on which to develop a framework for participatory models because it is based on a consistent scientific process with many steps.

Public 36

Public Research Participatory Report 36

Bloomerang

MAY 21, 2021

The kind of strategic planning processes that I lead are inclusive and participatory which means that the group is consulted, the vision of the group, the energy, we kind of tap into the energy, vision, knowledge, experience of the people who will be doing the work in order to make plans. Where are we not putting our energy? ” Okay.

Video 124

Video Nonprofit San Francisco Question 124

Museum 2.0

JULY 27, 2009

I’ve long admired Improv Everywhere , the NYC-based participatory public art group. For about half an hour, hundreds of people play together, silently, as directed by disembodied voices inside their headphones. The voice tells you what to do –stand up, shake hands, play Twister, make silly shapes—and you do it.

Instructional 21

Instructional Instruction Nicaragua Experiment 21

Museum 2.0

APRIL 29, 2015

These are the slides and notes for the talk I gave at the American Alliance of Museums conference on Monday, April 27 about the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. When I became the director of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History four years ago, I took this work with me. Showing that their voice matters.

Build 20

Build Community Museum Artist 20

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 20, 2009

While the majority of experience-based museums like children's and science museums have unrestricted noncommercial photography policies, many collections-based art and history museums continue to maintain highly restrictive photo policies. There are thriving groups of Flickr users who share photos of themselves imitating art.

Museum 54

Museum Photo Policy Open 54

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 7, 2010

I also learned that the best money in museums for someone who's starting out is in art modeling. After a long day running around a science center, I would show up at the Worcester Art Museum in the evening and make $20 just to stand around and listen to a painting instructor talk about art. I hope this is helpful for someone.

Museum 52

Museum Boston Participatory Job 52

Museum 2.0

MARCH 15, 2010

It's not the extent to which they are participatory. In some cases, that's based on subject matter, as at the Museum of Jurassic Technology or the American Visionary Art Museum. Small museums, which are most likely to cultivate local, distinctive voice and approaches, often have an inferiority complex.

Support 41

Support Museum St. Louis NSF 41

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 3, 2019

As I imagined a world without Nina Simon ’s Participatory Museum , I felt sad about all the visitors whose voices (and post-it note comments) weren’t honored. About a decade ago, I remember reading "Nuns sat here" at the Detroit Institute of Art as the title of a label for a piece of wooden convent furniture.

Museum 21

Museum Work Social Media Alternative 21

Museum 2.0

JUNE 2, 2010

This session was participatory in several ways, including interactive music-making machines in the audience and half the time reserved for Q&A. A few things I learned from the presentations and discussion: Dan shared a useful 4-step mental model for the progression of how institutions move towards participatory engagement.

Slides 22

Slides Museum Los Angeles San Jose 22

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 8, 2008

In these conversations, people often say, "don't expert voices matter?" It lets you be the only expert with a voice. Single voices represented on single labels is not scalable. Ideas participatory museum usercontent. If the museum isn't in control, how can it thrive? We have to change the framing of this conversation.

Authoring 42

Authoring Platform Museum YouTube 42

Museum 2.0

MAY 5, 2009

Visitor Co-Created Museum Experiences This session was a dream for me, one that brought together instigators of three participatory exhibit projects: MN150 (Kate Roberts), Click! So far, most participatory museum design projects are heavily guided by the institution. MN150 will have formal summative evaulation, which is wonderful.

Slides 20

Slides Participatory Museum Children 20

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 2, 2008

Institutions tying their online and onsite activities, as the Ontario Science Centre did when it hosted a YouTube meetup , or the Smithsonian American Art Museum did when they developed an alternate reality game. But enough of these experiences have convinced me that the participatory museum is not a fringe concept. There is funding.

Museum 20

Museum Voice Minnesota Participatory 20