The Modern Nonprofit

MAY 1, 2024

Embarking on Your AAPI Heritage Month Journey Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, celebrated every May in the United States, provides an important opportunity to honor the history, culture, and achievements of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Be sure to recruit knowledgeable facilitators.

Celebrate 59

Celebrate Education Fundraising Culture 59

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 20, 2013

The majority of our public programs at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History are created and produced through community collaborations. Every time we collaborate, we learn new ways to improve our process, organization and communication. We realize collaboration differs greatly for each individual and organization.

Collaboration 55

Collaboration Community Tools Museum 55

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

Visitors bond and bridge through participatory experiences at MAH. To apply the results of my analysis to produce a community-driven program design specifically for implementation at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (the MAH). You can download and read the full version of my thesis here.

Museum 49

Museum Program Participatory Community 49

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 13, 2011

The best participatory projects are useful. The participatory activity in question is part of the new Unfinished Business gallery, a room in which the museum engages with a contemporary issue related to the passion and work of Jane Addams and the historic Hull-House activist residents. It is this station that grabbed my attention.

Participatory 44

Participatory Museum Action Experiment 44

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

I meet them doing research in the archives, collaborating on cultural festivals, and contributing stories to exhibitions. The whole process of being interviewed for the story made me question the stories we tell and words we use to describe participatory work. What is the metaphor for participatory arts? Not a crowd. The circus?

Journal 54

Journal Participatory Museum Community 54

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 24, 2014

Inspired by Stacy, I wanted to share some of the work we are doing at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History to clarify what we mean by engagement. In early 2014, we developed a set of five engagement goals: Relevant, Sustainable, Bridging, Participatory, Igniting. IGNITING : Inspires excitement and curiosity about art and history.

Goal 48

Goal Museum Evaluation History 48

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. Despite its long history, few researchers studied the use and impact of citizen science until the 1980s.

Model 98

Model Active Activism Activities 98

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 7, 2010

For years, I've been fascinated and a bit perplexed by the Elsewhere Collaborative , a thrift store turned artists' studio/living museum in Greensboro, North Carolina. In 2003, my collaborator Stephanie and I began an excavation, declaring nothing for sale. George will respond to comments on this post and is also reachable here.

Collaboration 36

Collaboration North Carolina Museum Artist 36

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 25, 2012

Stacey has been collaborating with local artists to produce a series of content-rich events that invite visitors to participate in a range of hands-on activities. A few weeks ago, the MAH Director of Community Programs, Stacey Garcia, came to me with an idea.

Participatory 50

Participatory Active Activism Activities 50

Museum 2.0

APRIL 26, 2018

One that has found remarkable success is California’s Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. The second half covers our work at the MAH (and by implication, at other "scrappy small museums") to collaborate with community members to co-create institutions for people of diverse backgrounds. Conference sessions on reaching young people.

Audience 49

Audience Washington Museum Intergenerational 49

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 11, 2012

I'm incredibly proud of all the staff, trustees, volunteers, collaborators, visitors, and members who have made this happen. Our team focused this year on just three things: making the museum more comfortable, hosting new participatory events, and partnering wherever possible. They all have in concert, and they build on each other.

Audience 47

Audience Museum Participatory History 47

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 8, 2014

Last month it was cardboard boxes for a collaborative opera. Last summer it was beach chairs for a history exhibit. But on another level, the wishlist is the most participatory part of the newsletter. At any given time, we are on a hunter/gatherer mission for an upcoming project at our museum.

Newsletter 35

Newsletter Museum Participatory History 35

Museum 2.0

JULY 23, 2013

We are hiring for a School Programs Coordinator to wrangle the 3,500+ students and their teachers who come to the museum every year for a tour and hands-on experience in our art and history exhibitions. How can we invite students to collaborate with us the way we do with community partners and visitors?

Program 39

Program Museum Work History 39

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 29, 2012

In particular, we want exhibition collaborators--artists, researchers, historians, collectors--to understand our goals and how we intend to steer the exhibition development process. We knew internally that we wanted our exhibitions to become more interdisciplinary, more participatory, and more responsive to audience needs.

Museum 38

Museum Artist Participatory History 38

Museum 2.0

JULY 17, 2012

But we've just compiled all our attendance data for the past year at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (our fiscal year ends on June 30), and several people have written to me asking for the numbers behind our turnaround. A big festival with 50 collaborators and 1,000 visitors might rate a $250 budget.

Museum 47

Museum History Arts Artist 47

Museum 2.0

JULY 11, 2012

I get excited about a lot of things in my work at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. Ze Frank is a participatory artist who creates digital projects that are explicitly about creating and enhancing authentic interpersonal connections. The scale and scope of participation in A Show is extraordinary.

Museum 45

Museum Participatory Artist History 45

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 11, 2015

INTERNSHIPS If you want to join us in Santa Cruz for more professional learning, consider an internship at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. We''re offering internships this summer in: Participatory Exhibition Design. Help take the participatory elements of this permanent gallery to the finish line. Community Programs.

Participatory 20

Participatory Museum Community History 20

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 28, 2011

We've been offering a host of participatory and interactive experiences at the Museum of Art & History this season. I loved Jasper Visser's list of 30 "do's" for designing participatory projects earlier this month. This isn't even participatory. All of them are cheap, mostly simple, and occasionally, dangerous.

Design 45

Design Participatory Learning Instructional 45

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

OCTOBER 25, 2011

The creative process of making films is opening up and the outreach efforts to spark social change through documentary media are becoming much more dynamic and collaborative. The system of making and distributing documentary films is changing rapidly. But that is only the jumping off point for the inquiry.

Guatemala 94

Guatemala Movie Artist Award 94

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 2, 2013

Proposals involve sculpture, performance, participatory-projects, videos, and installation that use and respond to the museum’s collection. In 2003, collaborator Stephanie Sherman and I “re-discovered,” the former store, declared nothing for sale, and began inviting artists to create works using the set, or collection of objects.

Artist 49

Artist Museum Proposal Participatory 49

Museum 2.0

MAY 8, 2013

At the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History , we''re approaching this challenge through a different lens: social bridging. One of our core programming goals is to build social capital by forging unexpected connections between diverse collaborators and audience members. Museum of Art and History programs social bridging'

Museum 55

Museum Social Arts History 55

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 24, 2012

To that end, our exhibitions are full of participatory elements. We actively seek participation and develop structured opportunities for visitors to collaborate with us. To me, this is an example of how the aggregation of participatory practices fundamentally changes the role that an organization has in its community.

Platform 41

Platform Open Museum Participatory 41

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 15, 2012

We've gotten a little more organized at The Museum of Art & History , and we've now released opportunities for summer internships. This internship is for the truly self-motivated person out there with a brilliant idea for making museums more participatory, welcoming, community spaces who just lacks an institution at which to try it out.

Museum 34

Museum Participatory Arts Attitude 34

Museum 2.0

MAY 21, 2014

I''ve now been the executive director of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History for three years. We talk a lot at our museum about empowering our visitors, collaborators, interns, and staff by making space for them to shine. Participatory work can be very labor-intensive. Building an amazing team. Naming fears, too.

Museum 49

Museum Director Teen History 49

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

OCTOBER 30, 2013

I eagerly read about a new social psychology research study in which whites, Asians, and Latinos engaged in a simple collaborative activity--making a music video together. As we start the process at our museum of updating our permanent history gallery, one of our specific goals is to increase intergroup understanding in our community.

Measure 47

Measure Arts People Museum 47

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

We can change that by embracing participatory culture and opening up to the active, social ways that people engage with art, history, science, and ideas today. We seek and encourage collaboration with diverse groups and individuals in our community, and we develop ways for people to contribute in both immediate and long-term ways.

Museum 55

Museum Open Charlotte Participatory 55

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

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

SEPTEMBER 8, 2016

Last week I was honored to be a counselor at Museum Camp , an annual professional development event hosted by the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (MAH). Nina Simon, the executive director of the museum, is an expert in participatory design and fantastic facilitator.

Causes 50

Causes Change Museum Social 50

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 19, 2012

We're looking for an Exhibitions Manager to join our team here at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. This is a highly collaborative role, and we are looking for the perfect blend of strong design skills with a generous enthusiasm for amateur and professional co-creation.

Participatory 32

Participatory Museum Blended History 32

Museum 2.0

MAY 2, 2012

Today is my one-year anniversary as the executive director of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. We went through a dramatic financial turnaround and redefined our relationship with our community through a series of experimental participatory projects and new programmatic approaches. 85% of our visitors attend through events.

Museum 55

Museum Director Participatory Culture 55

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 9, 2010

Recently, I was giving a presentation about participatory techniques at an art museum, when a staff member raised her hand and asked, "Did you have to look really hard to find examples from art museums? History Museums OPPORTUNITIES - History museums are in many ways the best-suited for visitor participation.

Museum 29

Museum Difference Participatory History 29

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 23, 2018

This project wove together many different participatory threads. We commissioned new collaborative artwork. You can download it for free right now. What did we learn? We co-created it from start to finish with community partners. There were over 100 partners. We invited visitors to take real action in response to what they saw.

Issue 45

Issue Childhood Community Create 45

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

MAY 24, 2011

Ken is a game designer and writer who develops narrative, collaborative augmented reality experiences about serious issues. GISKIN ANOMALY is a “historical fiction” game I created for Rich Cherry and the Balboa Park Online Collaborative. Lesson: what myths are working for you in your game or participatory project? Mysterious!

Lesson 49

Lesson Game San Diego Design 49

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 12, 2017

A cheerful curly-haired deli owner stands in front of 30 of us and shares a quote he loves: "Artists live in the present and write detailed histories of the future." It was even more useful to learn how participatory writing visions can be. A vision is a detailed history of the future. This is a detailed history from the future.

Pennsylvania 26

Pennsylvania History Michigan Indiana 26

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

FEBRUARY 20, 2015

government and encouraging participatory democracy. They work together in varied group sizes to consider historic issues, significant moments in the Senate’s history and current policies affecting the country. Kennedy (EMK) Institute to support it in educating the public about U.S.

Game 50

Game Tech Support Module 50