Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 18, 2012

I feel strongly that there are huge issues with racial and ethnic diversity in museums and arts organizations that deserve a million more posts. One was a conference on pushing our practice in art museums. In library- and museum-land, the participants were 80-90% women. This is a problem. That's why I wrote this.

Arts 54

Arts Problem Museum Open 54

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 6, 2012

I'm thrilled to share this brilliant guest post by Marilyn Russell, Curator of Education at the Carnegie Museum of Art. This is a perfect example of a museum using participation as a design solution. Our colleagues in the Museum of Natural History were eager collaborators. I hope more museums do things like this.

Museum 45

Museum Arts Problem Design 45

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

This morning, I checked in on the Pocket Museums on our museum's ground floor. After I took down all the "kick me" and "kick it" post-its covering the Pocket Museum title label in the men's room, I realized that this is the perfect example of an A-to-B test for gendered response to a participatory museum experience.

Museum 47

Museum Difference Examples Participatory 47

Forum One

MAY 13, 2022

Her technical and management experience working with many of our clients, such as the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and The Elisabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation , has informed the way that she supports staff and sets up systems for success. Jeff Traynor , Forum One’s Chief Operating Officer.

Virginia 88

Virginia Volunteer Mentoring History 88

Museum 2.0

JUNE 12, 2013

TCG is the industry association for non-profit theaters, the way AAM is for museums. Given TCG''s multi-year Audience (R)evolution initiative, I took the opportunity to write a new talk about what revolution has looked like at our small museum in Santa Cruz. We heard again and again that the museum was cold and uncomfortable.

Museum 55

Museum Learning History Arts 55

Tech Soup

DECEMBER 11, 2012

ska, an art historian interested in museums, education, and new technologies. She has created educational mobile apps for teaching art history and is the organizer of the Polish edition of Free Arts Day. In this article, I will describe a few of the basic problems related with creating mobile applications.

Application 60

Application Mobile Beginner Museum 60

Forum One

JANUARY 3, 2023

More and more, we’re seeing mission-driven organizations identify opportunities to partner with other organizations to centralize previously disparate data sets to connect the dots to help solve industry-wide problems. Making content more accessible than ever.

Trend 88

Trend Museum Digital Integration 88

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 15, 2014

This week, my colleague Emily Hope Dobkin has a beautiful guest post on the Incluseum blog about the Subjects to Change teen program that Emily runs at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. Subjects to Change is an unusual museum program in that it explicitly focuses on empowering teens as community leaders.

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Change Teen Museum Arts 45

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.

Museum 45

Museum Question Participatory Evaluation 45

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 9, 2011

Two weeks ago, we inaugurated a Creativity Lounge on the third floor of our museum. It's a little living room in a lobby area that invites people to lounge on comfortable chairs, leaf through magazines and books related to art and Santa Cruz history, and generally hang out. Lisa was thrilled that her work was on display at the museum.

Museum 51

Museum Arts History Participatory 51

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 8, 2015

You are the leader we are looking for if you see the combination of social good and businesslike management as the answer to pressing problems throughout the world. Benetech is hiring new Vice Presidents for our Global Literacy and Human Rights programs. To be successful, our leaders have to be bilingual in speaking tech and social good.

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Technology Social Literacy Uganda 100

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.” We need to change.

Museum 30

Museum Audience Conversation Associations 30

Bloomerang

MAY 11, 2021

Well, that is not a problem if you know Simone, who speaks fluent French! Here are a few photos of a few of the myriad of fun activities we had from the Welcome Banner to Indy to visiting the Art Museum to Symphony on the Prairie at Conner Prairie to celebrating a birthday! Simone was absolutely one in a million!

France 133

France Captivate Picture Indianapolis 133

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 10, 2008

In the final installment of Museum 2.0’s s four part series on comfort in museums, we get down to the basics: creature comfort. So for this last piece, we look at going the other way: making museums more physically comfortable. And on the walls, my friend explained, was art from the museum itself. There was funky music.

Museum 30

Museum Arts Denver Design 30

Museum 2.0

JUNE 12, 2012

Helene Moglen, professor of literature, UCSC After a year of tinkering, the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History is now showing an exhibition, All You Need is Love , that embodies our new direction as an institution. So many museum exhibitions relegate the participatory bits in at the end. The Love Lounge I LOVE.

Participatory 51

Participatory Museum Arts Interaction 51

Twenty Hats

MAY 3, 2021

It was time to face the problem head on and explain the situation using direct words and examples. Lisa Marie Porter, MA, CVA, has been working in Museums in the public sector since 2001. Instead, avoiding the issue and being round-about gave her have more gusto. Lisa Marie is the Volunteer Manager for the NMNH Volunteer Program.

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Relationship Leadership Museum Volunteer 73

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

DECEMBER 16, 2010

Last month, I heard a talk by author Jonathan Salem Baskin about his soon to be published book, “ Histories of Social Media.&# The book looks at social media concepts and ideas, asks is this really new? The technology tools certainly are, but history provides a context for every behavioral quality of new media.

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Measure Impact Fund Social Media 96

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

FEBRUARY 8, 2011

Museum of History and Industry ( MOHAI) uses social media to engage with Seattle residents whom they would not be able to connect with otherwise and have a say in how history is being interpreted. The video is part of a series of “MOHAI Minute&# videos on Youtube. Give Them A Couple of Practical Tips or Insights To Solve Their Problems.

Knowledge 98

Knowledge Seattle Social Media Measure 98

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 29, 2012

Last month, MAH curator Susan Hillhouse and I sat down and wrote an exhibition philosophy for our museum. Here's the short version (read the whole thing here ): The Museum of Art & History is committed to creating exhibitions that inspire our diverse audiences to engage deeply with contemporary art and Santa Cruz County history.

Museum 38

Museum Participatory Artist History 38

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 3, 2019

I love alternative history novels. I was thinking I’d do a few alternative histories of museums for the first post of the last month of the decade. As I imagined a world without the many museum tech projects of the decade, I felt inherently sad about the imagining away the successes that friends and colleagues have enjoying.

Museum 21

Museum Work Social Media Audience 21

Museum 2.0

JULY 27, 2011

We're in the business of finding a solution to this problem. I'm trying to reposition our museum as a cultural hub supporting creative and intellectual community growth. Our conversation made me reflect on the museums that most inspire me from a public service perspective--institutions with missions that stretch far beyond their walls.

Advocacy 44

Advocacy Public Service Homeless 44

Museum 2.0

APRIL 4, 2012

Museums have been grappling with this question for years ( here's a 2007 roundup of such projects ), most aggressively in zoos and natural history museums where staff hope to inspire conservation and in history/concept museums that focus on civic engagement and activism. No small task for a museum exhibition.

Story 47

Story Museum Participatory Project 47

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 25, 2007

We looked at the museum map on the wall. There was a recent post on the ASTC listserv from a museum planning to revamp their wayfinding system. The wayfinding question in museums—or any complex space—is multifaceted. There’s the “I can’t read the map” problem. The “Where was that thing I liked” problem.

Museum 21

Museum Map Experiment Aggregator 21

NTEN

JUNE 21, 2011

The speakers for this panel include: Tracy Fullerton - Electronics Arts Game Innovation Lab Ruth Cohen - American Museum of natural History Elaine Charnov - The NY Public Library Jason Eppink - Museum of the Moving Image Syed Salahuddin - Babycastles Elaine Cohen: The New York Public Library 100 Years of the flagship library in New York.

Culture 52

Culture Game Change Museum 52

Museum 2.0

MAY 9, 2012

Last week, I was in Minneapolis for the American Association of Museums annual meeting. Kathleen McLean led a terrific session called "Dangerous Ridiculous" about risk-taking in museums. Interestingly, at my museum, our team is naturally better at ridiculous than we are at dangerous. I found this idea really powerful.

Reflection 43

Reflection Museum Columbus Conference 43

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 8, 2008

I have a lot of conversations with people that go like this: Other person: "So, you think that museums should let visitors control the museum experience?" Other person: "But doesn't that erode museums' authority?" If the museum isn't in control, how can it thrive? Me: "Sort of." and my emphatic response is YES.

Authoring 42

Authoring Platform Museum Content 42

Museum 2.0

MARCH 7, 2012

While some museums are using the tool in clever public-facing ways , that's not what's happening here at the MAH. At our museum, our programs team is using Pinterest to develop ideas for upcoming community events. We're using it to solve a basic internal communication problem.

Process 51

Process Museum Case Study Aggregator 51

The Verge

FEBRUARY 12, 2022

In addition to the challenges of determining who represents the communities, there is the problem of using the term “cultural heritage” to define what is being protected. That poses yet another problem for communities looking for protections under the law. It’s a problem that’s been consistent over time. Twenty people?

Culture 86

Culture Mexico Law Community 86

Museum 2.0

MARCH 6, 2019

letting museum visitors contribute and collaborate in museums), I now see this as a crucial issue also for more democratic and inclusive practice (i.e. Other person: "But doesn't that erode museums' authority?" If the museum isn't in control, how can it thrive? Me: "Sort of." and my emphatic response is YES.

Authoring 44

Authoring Share Museum Content 44

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.

Question 49

Question Participatory Museum Evaluation 49

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 12, 2012

In the spirit of a popular post written earlier this year , I want to share the behind the scenes on our current almost-museumwide exhibition at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, Santa Cruz Collects. Pocket Museums in bathrooms. The only problem with this element is that the completed quizzes tend to pile up.

Participatory 44

Participatory Museum International History 44

Museum 2.0

APRIL 18, 2017

This is the seventh 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. My museum was being sued over the Abbott Square project. We were reconnecting with family at dinner when the email came in.

Museum 37

Museum History Arts Instructional 37

NTEN

JUNE 12, 2012

The official selections will be announced by the end of July and the festival will take place at the Spirit of Texas Theater at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin, Texas on September 12-14. Submit now!

NTEN 54

NTEN Texas Austin Application 54

Museum 2.0

APRIL 1, 2009

On Monday, I gave the keynote at the Museums in Conversation conference in Tarrytown, NY. I learned to cultivate creative greed while working on Operation Spy at the International Spy Museum, where I was lucky to be working on a project that was so new to us that we didn't have any pre-established models or structures for doing it.

Museum 20

Museum Conversation Columbus Local 20

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 18, 2014

I''ve mostly seen museums employ one of two methods for formal community advisors: Create special "spots" on the board of trustees for certain kinds of community representatives. CON: can feel disconnected from the primary governance of the museum or can feel like a second-class board overall. I struggle with both these options.

Community 39

Community Story Museum Map 39

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. A mature employee knows how to manage up.

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Causes Change Social Museum 50

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 10, 2016

Museum technology nerds: this post is for you. I've been thinking recently about distributed content experiences--ways for people to interact with museum content (art, history, science, etc.) as they make their way through the world outside the museum. At the museum? but none of them are great. Who's tackling them?

Museum 20

Museum Experiment Digital Arts 20