Museum 2.0

JUNE 10, 2020

Nina Simon, Lauren Bentua, and many others would host us in the halls of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art. Is it the hierarchical structure of organizations? As a self proclaimed solutions oriented positivist I have been trying to overcome my helplessness by identifying promising ideas around change. What are their names?

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Museum Map Structure System 29

VQ Strategies

OCTOBER 7, 2022

Designed to assist and support an organization (and most commonly hospitals, museums, libraries, and arts organizations), these groups historically focus on raising funds, sometimes manage the volunteer corps, and nearly always maintain their own governance system. Lessons from the Field.

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Structure Volunteer Model Leadership 98

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 15, 2019

The Western Museum Association was kind enough to invite me to speak on a panel about engagement at their annual meeting in Boise. Phillip’s early remark about museums was an invocation for everyone. As an outsider, he immediately saw that museums were operating “under a business model that doesn’t work.”

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Museum Audience Conversation Associations 30

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 20, 2017

El Museo Reimaginado is a collaborative effort of museum professionals in North and South America to explore museums' potential as community catalysts. I'm generalizing grossly here, but for the most part, I find European museums to be conservative. I find North American museums to be risk-averse.

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Museum America South America Participatory 40

Connection Cafe

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

The following post was originally published on the Center for the Future of Museums blog. On Wednesday, August 8, over 300 museum professionals joined CFM director Elizabeth Merritt and Seema Rao, principal of Brilliant Idea Studio , to explore self-care in the museum workplace. But effort and efficacy are not the same.

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Museum Culture Professional Training 21

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 17, 2012

When I started this blog in 2006, I made a multi-media introduction to the concept of "museum 2.0" Venue as content platform instead of content provider: the museum becomes a stage on which professionals and amateurs can curate, interpret, and remix artifacts and information. The museum gets better the more people use it.

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Museum Artist Remix Professional 47

Saleforce Nonprofit

AUGUST 20, 2021

The same historical and cultural structures that have held back diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in so many aspects of our lives are also mirrored in much of the nonprofit sector. All it took was one idea, and a ton of hard work to push the needle towards equality for women of color. Change Organizational Culture.

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Strategy Fundraising Philanthropy Nonprofit 81

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 4, 2015

For me, the early stage of writing a book is a treasure hunt--an excuse to seek out new examples and ideas that strengthen the story. Each of these women push the boundaries of cultural institutions in different ways, with digital and physical manifestations. She writes about race, history, parks, culture, and politics.

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Culture Work Museum New York City 20

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 18, 2013

This August/September, I am "rerunning" popular Museum 2.0 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. I''ve spent much of the past three years on the road giving workshops and talks about audience participation in museums.

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Museum Question Participatory Evaluation 45

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 9, 2010

Jasper Visser and his colleagues at the not-yet-physically-open National Historisch Museum of the Netherlands have impressed me with their innovative, thoughtful approach to developing a dynamic national museum. Last weekend my museum presented itself at the Uitmarkt in Amsterdam. I believe it worked brilliantly.

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Museum Comment Experiment Participatory 34

Museum 2.0

MAY 6, 2016

Five years ago, I left the consulting world to take the helm at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (MAH) at a time of crisis and change. We have spent the past three years planning and raising money for a project to build a creative town square for our city on the front porch of the museum. I bridle under too much structure.

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Museum Director Arts History 20

Museum 2.0

JUNE 1, 2010

You can join the conversation in the blog comments, or on the Museum 2.0 Like many museum and library professionals, I am enamored of the idea of cultural institutions as “third places” – public venues for informal, peaceable, social engagement outside of home or work. This is the only post written by me, Nina Simon.

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Place Discussion Culture Museum 41

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 1, 2018

I was at an informal talk by a visitor research professional from a large American art museum. Cultural institutions are willing to change to attract new audiences. When the MAH was changing aggressively, we embraced Elaine Heumann Gurian's idea of "the museum of and." I remember the exact moment when I snapped.

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Museum Audience Slides Press 40

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

APRIL 1, 2013

It takes you through the technologies and tools for each channel for different goals and offers up lots of case studies from organizations such as National Wildlife Federation, Red Cross, AARP, Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, American Museum of Natural History, SEIU and others. The book offers some recipes for culture change.

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Campaign Online Chapter Model 97

Museum 2.0

MAY 3, 2010

Last week, I attended Structure Lab , a half-day workshop on legal and financial structures for ventures for social good. The Structure Lab is set up as a "game" in which you explore cards in various categories (values, assets, financing, etc.) to better articulate what you are really trying to do with your project concept.

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Structure Model Social Profit 31

Museum 2.0

MAY 11, 2010

While it hasn't happened here in awhile, a new Museum 2.0 Many museum and library professionals use the concept of the third place to describe the idealized vision of a cultural institution as a place for community use and civic engagement. For four weeks starting June 1, each Tuesday there will be a Museum 2.0

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Museum Place Library Discussion 25

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 2, 2013

George Scheer is the director and co-founder of Elsewhere Collective, a fascinating "living museum" in a former thrift store in Greensboro, NC. In this post, George grapples with the challenges of balancing the care for a museum collection with that of contemporary artists-in-residence who are constantly reinterpreting it.

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Artist Museum Proposal Participatory 49

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

MAY 7, 2010

Source: Share Your Ideas. Nina has written a fantastic book engagement called The Participatory Museum. Most of my work involves museums, but these categories can be useful in any project that involves user participation. Note from Beth: I first encountered Nina Simon through her awesome blog back four or five years ago.

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Model Activities Active Activism 98

Museum 2.0

JULY 10, 2018

The museum was in huge financial trouble. But I also had a more immediate problem: I had no idea how to lead a staff meeting. I had no idea what to do. My expertise was on inviting strangers to participate in public settings like museums. I had just started at the MAH as the new executive director. First names only.

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Hosting Arts Help Museum 31

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. There are many amazing community representatives from business, arts, education, and social services who connect us to powerful ideas and partners. It was an evening meeting with beer and chips.

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Program Community Design Museum 49

Museum 2.0

APRIL 11, 2017

This is the sixth in a series of posts on the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History ( MAH )'s development of Abbott Square , a new creative community plaza in downtown Santa Cruz. John would run Abbott Square Market , a multi-vendor food and drink business, adjacent to the plaza, adjacent to the museum. Money is on the table.

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Technique Museum Exercise Structure 29

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 28, 2009

What role does “promoting human happiness” play in the mission statements and actions of museums? That’s the question I’m pondering thanks to Jane McGonigal and the Center for the Future of Museums (CFM). Earlier today, the CFM offered a free webcast of Jane McGonigal’s talk on gaming, happiness, and museums.

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Museum Game Structure South America 21

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. These are unpaid part-time and full-time opportunities to help design public programs, develop new uses for the museum, perform visitor research, and pursue unusual projects.

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Museum Participatory Arts Attitude 34

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 22, 2012

At the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, we take our interns seriously, give them real responsibility, creative challenges, and meaningful work opportunities. Second, and highly experimental, is the Museum Camp Internship. And of course, much more to come about Museum Camp in the months to come.) and the cycle continues.

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Participatory Museum Photography Unconference 37

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 2, 2011

And that's what this post is about--how we advertise the culture at our organizations (or not) when we offer new positions. I had a bit of a wakeup call about internships last month at an "emerging leaders" lunch event at the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums conference. I wanted freedom and responsibility. We might never get there.

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Museum Student Participatory Structure 35

Museum 2.0

APRIL 1, 2009

On Monday, I gave the keynote at the Museums in Conversation conference in Tarrytown, NY. Greed, because creative greediness motivates us to hunt down and steal the best design techniques the world has to offer, and generosity, because giving those great ideas and applications away is the only way to change the larger cultural landscape.

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Museum Conversation Columbus Local 20

Museum 2.0

MARCH 27, 2013

I've written about different structures for participatory processes (especially in museums), and recently, I've been interested in how we can apply these structures to the design of public space. Their ideas were delightful, and their contributions shifted the conversation about what family-friendly really looks like.

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Design Participatory Children Museum 49

Museum 2.0

MAY 13, 2008

I once asked Elaine Gurian how museums can change. Here's the problem with both of these ways: they require circumstances that are outside of most museum employees' control. Here's the problem with both of these ways: they require circumstances that are outside of most museum employees' control. There's no client, no cash.

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Museum Place Model Project 31

Museum 2.0

APRIL 25, 2011

I've spent much of the past three years on the road giving workshops and talks about audience participation in museums. The Museum 2.0 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.

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Question Participatory Museum Evaluation 49

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. For years, I’ve been associated with the idea of “visitor participation.” We had incredible success transforming our institution into a vibrant cultural center.

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Build Community Museum Artist 20

Have Fun - Do Good

SEPTEMBER 6, 2006

Family structures around the world are changing, yet mothers are most often the parent who will stay at home with young children. Share your stories on motherhood with us, and discuss your ideas on better maternal healthcare worldwide. Clothes can express a part of who we are or the culture we represent.

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Museum International Story Music 40

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 4, 2015

In pop culture-land, relevance is all about now. If people on the street are talking about X, the museum should be talking about X too. I used to work at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, CA. Our mandate was to be the museum of Silicon Valley--not of its material history, but its pulse of innovation.

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Content San Jose Museum Miami 20

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 9, 2020

Half of this job is talking people out of bad ideas.” Early in my career, I would hear bad ideas or be asked to share something I knew could potentially have backlash, and while I did make suggestions, I didn’t truly speak up and say, “Hey! We see and hear the conversations that play out across platforms and between audiences.

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North Carolina Social Social Media Voice 20

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 19, 2016

We believe that partnerships build a stronger museum and a stronger community. We were seven people in a room, laser-focused on making the MAH a community gathering place and cultural center. Like most museums and nonprofits, we have a donor database. The reality is that growth has meant more structure. SALESFORCE.

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Collaboration Tools Build Organization 20

Connection Cafe

SEPTEMBER 4, 2019

In early 2019, Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh’s Engagement team, one arm of the Advancement and Community Engagement department, lost nearly every mid-level manager. Instead of just plugging the holes and bailing water, maybe what you need to be more effective is some structural reorganization. and “What are our priorities?”.

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Change Museum Leadership Fund 21

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 12, 2009

The conventional wisdom on museum memberships is that they are "one size fits many" programs whose primary benefits are free entrance to the museum and insider access to exhibition openings. But what about all the other people who love your museum? Want to know how the Brooklyn Museum is answering this question?

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Museum Audience Program Artist 24

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

AUGUST 12, 2009

About three months ago Beth Kanter wrote about the Crowdsourcing of Vision at the Smithsonian Museum. Many nuances and constraints have been applied to Surowiecki’s original ideas, and examples advanced wherein the ideas work more or less effectively. That's where this post about crowdsourcing came out of it!

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Aggregator Model Leadership Method 82