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 Community Participatory 49

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 Arts Award Artist 94

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

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 Community Museum Participatory 54

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 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

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 Arts 48

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 Museum 45

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 Arts Change History 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 Project 45

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'

Social 55

Social Museum Arts Program 55

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 Community 55

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 Evaluation 49

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 Participatory Artist History 38

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 Participatory Charlotte 55

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

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.

Museum 49

Museum Artist Participatory Proposal 49

Forum One

JUNE 6, 2024

Think like a musician Those who have played music in a band or orchestra or sang in a choir understand the profound impact of an engaged and participatory audience. Design Strategies for Long-Term Trust One powerful strategy is to create immersive and interactive experiences that invite participation and collaboration.

Design 68

Design Create Storytelling Interaction 68

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 San Diego Learning Design 49

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.

Museum 35

Museum Newsletter Participatory History 35

Museum 2.0

MARCH 4, 2015

This week marks five years since the book The Participatory Museum was first released. I thought the pinnacle of participatory practice was an exhibit that could inspire collective visitor action without facilitation. Over the past four years, I''ve been running a small regional art and history museum in Santa Cruz, CA.

Participatory 20

Participatory Museum Empowerment Facilitation 20

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 Evaluation 45

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.

Open 41

Open Museum Platform Participatory 41

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 Arts 29

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.

Community 43

Community Reflection Online Museum 43

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 Social 47

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 History Culture 49

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

MARCH 28, 2012

At the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (MAH), we've started experimenting with a "community first" approach to program development. We asked the whole group to brainstorm communities/constituencies who they thought could make a stronger connection with art, history, and culture.

Program 49

Program Community Design Museum 49

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.

Museum 32

Museum Participatory Professional History 32

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

JUNE 5, 2006

Robert Newman: On the History of Oil (Robert if you are listening - I want to adopt ten babies to help run our idyllic post apocalyptic farmstead. I would love it if my i_like_to_watch tag was adopted widely so that the collaborative filtering aspect of tags could help me separate wheat from chaff. A girl can dream can't she?)

Feeds 50

Feeds Tag Green Brain 50

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 28, 2010

Every once in a while I come across a project I wish I could have included in The Participatory Museum. The partnership was a manageable starting point for future collaborations. While the museum and the school didn't have a strong history of collaboration, this project seemed reasonable enough to try. it's a Secret! ,

Children 46

Children Museum Create Project 46

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

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 Social Museum 50

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 Community Create Childhood 45