Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

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 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?

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.

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Participatory Museum Arts History 53

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

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.

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Museum Program Participatory Community 49

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.

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Model Active Activism Activities 98

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."

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Question Participatory Museum Vietnam 49

Museum 2.0

MARCH 10, 2010

This is the first of a four-part series on the behind-the-scenes experience of writing The Participatory Museum. Overview: Stages of Development and Participation Types The Participatory Museum was written over a 15 month period that began in December of 2008. Tags: Book: The Participatory Museum. Shift the tone of the book.

Participatory 21

Participatory Museum Statistics Process 21

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

DECEMBER 15, 2014

And pop culture icons, from basketball players to rock stars , are making highly visible commentary with their clothes and voices. Yet our posts contain similar phrases such as “21st century museums,” “changing museum paradigms,” “inclusiveness,” “co-curation,” “participatory” and “the museum as forum.” Where do museums fit in?

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Museum Blogger Cleveland Missouri 52

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

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 23, 2014

They give high-energy, interactive tours of the Metropolitan Museum and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). When the opportunity to design my own two-hour museum adventure at the American Museum of Natural History presented itself, I jumped at the chance. Today on Museum 2.0, an interview with Dustin Growick.

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Museum Interview New York Interaction 55

Museum 2.0

MAY 24, 2011

When I worked briefly with the Balboa Park Online Collaborative to conceptualize a mobile phone-based game to connect visitors to the park to its cultural institutions and history, I knew Ken would be the perfect person to make it happen. Lesson: what myths are working for you in your game or participatory project?

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Lesson Game San Diego Design 49

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 7, 2010

Our archeology did not aim to uncover the hidden voice of my grandmother, but instead to begin an ongoing practice of recreation. Over time the movement and arrangement of things trails a layered aesthetic that convey histories and narratives of changing communities passing through this unfolding three-story artwork.

Collaboration 36

Collaboration North Carolina Museum Artist 36

Connection Cafe

NOVEMBER 8, 2017

It is made by many; it is open, participatory and peer-driven.” From the Arab Spring to Black Lives Matter, from the Ice Bucket Challenge to the Woman’s March, many of today’s most effective movements are less about single charismatic voices and more about the power of the chorus. Technology. How we live our lives. My Passion.

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People Structure Influence Voice 25

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 Nina Simon ’s Participatory Museum , I felt sad about all the visitors whose voices (and post-it note comments) weren’t honored.

Museum 21

Museum Work Social Media Alternative 21

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." It requires trading a certain history for an uncertain future--a nerve-wracking prospect no matter the situation. Fabulous!" "But This is incredibly scary.

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Audience Museum Oakland Participatory 40

Museum 2.0

JULY 20, 2016

I never felt like I stumbled into the gallery where no one else dares to tread (as I often feel when I enter the dioramas in many natural history museums, or the period rooms of art institutions). That work showed in the human voices and stories throughout the museum. All were given value.

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Museum Audience Music Arts 20

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

MAY 29, 2009

Two weeks ago, I conducted a participatory exhibit design workshop with staff at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. While most of the voices represented are positive about a "Smithsonian 2.0" Tags: participatory museum professional development.

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Slides Process Video Open 20

Museum 2.0

MAY 15, 2008

We have a show coming up right now about synthetic biology, where engineers are building life forms that are new to existence, new to the history of life. 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?

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Conversation Arts Museum Voice 20

Museum 2.0

JUNE 2, 2010

Kathleen McLean (Independent Exhibitions), Dan Spock (Minnesota History Center), and Kris Morrissey (University of Washington) all shared thought-provoking and useful insights on visitor participation in museums, but Mark Allen and Emily Lacy brought down the house with their bluegrass rendering of the Machine Project and its engaging, quirky work.

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.

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Authoring Platform Museum YouTube 42

Connection Cafe

NOVEMBER 1, 2018

Showing voice. And fast forward to the story now, this is the largest crowd funding campaign in the history of the world. So, talk about Giving Tuesday as an example of new power. I mean, it’s amazing and some of the things that are happening are not about money. They’re about people just showing who they are.

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Social Game Model Fun 22

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.

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Slides Participatory Museum Children 20

Museum 2.0

MARCH 27, 2009

There is no dissonance between the museum’s formal voice and laminate and the visitors’ pens and paper. But the design of Side Trip really allows those stories to flourish, both through creative acts like the poster-making and light show and through participatory expression on the rolodexes and the Youtube-a-phone.

Denver 21

Denver Museum Arts Remix 21

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. And I think the fourth and fifth are bizarre and ungenerous to visitors.

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Museum Photo Policy Open 54

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 2, 2008

at the Brooklyn Museum , Tech Virtual at The Tech , and MN150 at the Minnesota History Center. (By But enough of these experiences have convinced me that the participatory museum is not a fringe concept. We need more advocates, more voices that can help navigate (and lead!) There is funding. There is interest.

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Museum Voice Minnesota Participatory 20

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 25, 2009

Rabinowitz commented that "as a 40-year veteran of history museum interpretation, I can say that I never learned so much from and about visitors." By simplifying and personalizing the design technique used for the institutional voice, visitors felt like they were part of a natural conversation with the institution.

Design 31

Design Goal Difference Platform 31

Saleforce Nonprofit

MARCH 8, 2022

In partnership with women’s rights funds, sport for development organizations and feminist sport activists, Women Win launched the ONSIDE Fund — a participatory grantmaking mechanism that rapidly mobilises unrestricted resources for girls and young women-led organisations and groups through a pooled fund.

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Costa Rica Game Change Uganda 111

Everyaction

OCTOBER 5, 2016

The Digital Media and Learning Conference is meant to be an inclusive, international and annual gathering of scholars and practitioners in the field, focused on fostering interdisciplinary and participatory dialogue and linking theory, empirical study, policy, and practice. It is our turn to make history. General / #NI16 / @netimpact.

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Conference Calendar DC Washington 111

Museum 2.0

MARCH 6, 2019

While I originally wrote this post to advocate for more participatory practice (i.e. 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. If the museum isn't in control, how can it thrive?

Authoring 44

Authoring Share Museum YouTube 44

Connection Cafe

APRIL 9, 2015

Find ways to empower your supporters to be the voice of your cause. More than any other event in the history, this campaign gave food for thought to many who were critics of slacktivism and clicktivism. It is open, participatory, and peer-driven. New power operates differently, like a current. It is made by many.

Fundraising 20

Fundraising Offline Blackbaud Social Media 20

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 25, 2008

I didn't grow up staring open-mouthed at natural history dioramas or wandering through art galleries. There are many parallels between free-choice learning and participatory design. BUT we won't acknowledge their voices and their meaning. They are active and awesome. My story is about radical educational philosophy.

Museum 29

Museum Alternative University Education 29

Museum 2.0

JULY 17, 2008

But there are other times when the message isn't simple, and in those cases, visitor voices can help strategically shape multi-dimensional exhibitions. It can be uncomfortable or downright limiting to declare yourself and your single voice the authority on a complex or multi-faceted topic. We also talked to historians on staff.

Interview 21

Interview Minnesota Museum History 21