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. It is great to feel more of a part of the museum!" "All

Museum 45

Museum Arts Problem Design 45

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

APRIL 4, 2010

He is Deputy Director for the Contemporary Jewish Museum , and an expert in using social media in a museum setting. We were lucky enough to have a fabulous space for the workshop in the Contemporary Jewish Museum. Here are some reflections on the instructional design: 1. I said yes. Photo by James Leventhal.

Social Media 95

Social Media Reflection Social Media 95

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

FEBRUARY 13, 2007

I hope to share some simple and fun ways to create "shoulder-to-shoulder" instructional media for the panel on Screencasting at NTC I'm doing. How do you create good instructional media in a reasonable amount of time and do a good enough job that helps people learn something by viewing it? and follow the instructions.

Screencast 50

Screencast Tag Instructional Instruction 50

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

Good instructional design to create an environment for peer dialogue begins with good on boarding and for people to connect with something they already know or believe. So, one of the things I highly value about instructional design is the time and space to reflect on what worked and what didn’t work.

Reflection 127

Reflection NTEN Change Facilitation 127

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 28, 2013

Earlier in 2013, I was amazed to visit one of the new “Studio” spaces at the Denver Art Museum. The Denver Art Museum is no stranger to community collaborations, but we’ve been dipping in our toe a little more deeply when it comes to developing permanent participatory installations. Does it matter?

Denver 35

Denver Museum Arts Collaboration 35

ASU Lodestar Center

DECEMBER 13, 2011

Musical Instrument Museum. This pairing speaks directly to my passion for the arts – my day job is as manager for individual giving at the Musical Instrument Museum , and I serve on several music-related boards, as well as perform as a flutist and singer. Maureen Baker , Manager for Individual Giving.

Phoenix 75

Phoenix Arts Museum Arizona 75

Have Fun - Do Good

OCTOBER 4, 2011

When I signed up to participate in the Girl Effect Blogging Campaign, I wasn't sure how I would contribute, but when I connected with Carinne Brody at an International Museum of Women event a couple weeks ago, I knew she would be a wonderful person to talk with us about the connection between girls' education and global health.

Sri Lanka 68

Sri Lanka Education Interview Somalia 68

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

JULY 2, 2012

The curriculum integrates the use of technology, for all aspects of instruction and managing the school. It was designed for learning – almost like an exhibits at any children’s museum in the US. There are computers and large monitors in each classroom, Internet access, and of course, the software development.

India 105

India Education Software Learning 105

Museum 2.0

MARCH 3, 2007

But I’d been scribbling notes for an art museum label post for awhile, and then yesterday, the NY Times had a review of a new show at MOMA, Comic Abstraction. MOMA has standard art museum labels. When I asked an art museum educator about this (“How should I look at art?”) The review was harsh. Is this enough? I’m begging here.

Museum 30

Museum Arts Artist Audio 30

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 16, 2010

How do you find your way around a multi-faceted museum? I spent some time playing with this question last week at the Milwaukee Art Museum, a large general museum that is moving toward redesign of the permanent galleries. The instruction becomes a kind of social object that gives people something to talk about.

Experiment 44

Experiment Lesson Learning Museum 44

Museum 2.0

MAY 31, 2011

Last week, at the annual meeting of the American Association of Museums in Houston, I was honored to chair a fabulous panel on empowering museum staff to take creative risks ( slides here ). Beck beautifully described her entry into museum work. What kind of support do you need to be confident about taking a risk in your work?

Denver 55

Denver Museum Oakland Arts 55

The Verge

NOVEMBER 1, 2021

You can seamlessly pull up translations for any street sign or instructions for any task. Some locations are replete with helpful holographic instructions, while in other places, neglect and poor connectivity make them few and far between.

Phone 142

Phone Virtual Facebook Camera 142

Museum 2.0

MARCH 24, 2010

This is the third in a four-part series about writing The Participatory Museum. This post covers my personal process of encouraging--and harnessing--participation in the creation of The Participatory Museum. I asked a few people I trust who are not museum folks to read the third draft. Check out the other parts here.

Participatory 33

Participatory Museum Process Experiment 33

Forum One

JUNE 18, 2024

When I was working in-house at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, we leaned on an external accessibility partner to help us train our internal teams on best practices. Use clear labels and fieldsets, provide instructions and error messages in a way that is accessible to all users, including those using screen readers or assistive technologies.

Accessibility 104

Accessibility Design Guidelines Alternative 104

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

JULY 1, 2009

Submitted by Nina Simon, publisher of Museum 2.0. I’ve had it with museums’ obsession with open-ended self-expression. And yet many museums are fixated on creators. Museums see open-ended self-expression as the be-all of participatory experiences. You are handed a pre-mixed color and a brush and a set of instructions.

Participatory 50

Participatory Experiment Museum Teen 50

Museum 2.0

JULY 24, 2012

When we talk about making museums or performing arts organizations more participatory and dynamic, those changes are often seen as threatening to the traditional arts experience. Museums no longer showed human horns alongside historic documents; theaters made differentiations among types of live entertainment. I can't wait.

Greece 51

Greece Arts Participatory Industry 51

Museum 2.0

MARCH 16, 2009

I’ve had it with museums’ obsession with open-ended self-expression. And yet many museums are fixated on creators. Museums see open-ended self-expression as the be-all of participatory experiences. First, exhibits that invite self-expression appeal to a tiny percentage of museum audiences.

Participatory 44

Participatory Experiment Museum Teen 44

Museum 2.0

MARCH 3, 2011

As one participant said, "the museum feels friendly in a way it usually doesn't." People make the museum friendly, not activities. For example, visitors were invited to add their own secrets to hampers in front of selected artworks and were instructed to write secrets or memories that those specific artworks evoked.

Participatory 51

Participatory Arts Audience Museum 51

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. SETUP Cut your instructions down to as little text as possible. Accolades are more inspiring than instructions. The same is true for paper instructions mounted on the table. They will be impressed.

Design 45

Design Participatory Learning Museum 45

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

AUGUST 18, 2008

I've long believed that museums have a special opportunity to support the community spirit of Web 2.0 This month brings three examples of museums hosting meetups for online communities: On 8.6.08, the Computer History Museum (Silicon Valley, CA) hosted a Yelp! Me: Have you ever been to this museum? meetup for Elite Yelp!

Museum 22

Museum Hosting Community Model 22

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 15, 2009

There are lots of museums (and organizations of all kinds) looking for ways to inspire users and visitors to produce their own content and share it with the institution online. The World Beach Project is managed by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London with artist-in-residence Sue Lawty. The ask is clear.

Project 38

Project Museum Artist Map 38

Museum 2.0

JUNE 25, 2014

A man walks into a museum. Two years ago, we mounted one of our most successful participatory exhibits ever at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History: Memory Jars. There were no written instructions, just a mural that suggested what to do and labels that prompted people for their name and memory. He shares a story.

Participatory 52

Participatory Evaluation Project Museum 52

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.

Museum 21

Museum Structure Game South America 21

Volunteer Hub

JANUARY 4, 2022

You can create a tailored registration page for your volunteers including easy to follow instructions. Check out how these organizations are using VolunteerHub to streamline volunteer registration: Holocaust Museum Houston. Click on the link and they are immediately directed to the registration page. Donner Sang Compter Lebanon.

Retention 87

Retention Volunteer Tips Registration 87

Museum 2.0

JULY 13, 2009

Today I got an early present from the San Francisco NPR station, KQED, which aired a piece on Museum 2.0 featuring me (as well as the fabulous Lori Fogarty of the Oakland Museum of California). This concept has spawned a question I like to obsess over: What would a museum look like that got better the more people used it?

Museum 20

Museum People San Francisco Oakland 20

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

JULY 19, 2006

" What has been going on here is experimentation to understand the possibilities and potential of virtual worlds as an educational , instructional , therapeutic , marketing , and/or collaboration medium. A Museum group is also forming to discuss and explore what museum's can do in SL. So back to last night's events.

Second Life 50

Second Life Reflection Life Avatar 50

Museum 2.0

JULY 27, 2009

The MP3 experiment is an exercise in following instructions. He explains that you will have to follow his instructions to have “the most pleasant afternoon together.” But it’s all founded on these first few minutes, which create an environment of safe progression, clear instruction, and emotional validation.

Instructional 21

Instructional Instruction Experiment Nicaragua 21

Museum 2.0

MARCH 27, 2009

This week, the Denver Art Museum (DAM) opened a new temporary exhibition called The Psychedelic Experience , featuring rock posters from San Francisco in the heyday of Bill Graham and electric kool-aid. It is an incredible museum experience. All of the instructions are handwritten on paper or cardboard.

Museum 21

Museum Denver Arts Participatory 21

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

JUNE 10, 2008

What if witty cultural commentators reviewed museums the way they do music and restaurants? If Anthony Lane turned his cutting tongue from movies to museums? If Stephen Colbert "reported" on museums at times other than during the TV writer's strike? And instructive. It's painful. And revelatory. And painful.

Museum 20

Museum Story Culture America 20

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 11, 2007

This is not an analytical post (primarily); it's an announcement and invitation to join the new project I've been working on with The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, CA. But this is not just for The Tech; our grant mandates that this project be a service to the museum community at large. A contractor, Involve Inc.,

Museum 20

Museum Virtual Tech Second Life 20

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. We made a giant mobile for the center of the museum out of origami birds folded from visitor comments received in the past year.

Participatory 44

Participatory Museum History International 44

Museum 2.0

APRIL 2, 2014

There are many artistic projects that offer a template for participation, whether a printed play, an orchestral score, or a visual artwork that involves an instructional set (from community murals to Sol LeWitt). Song Reader looks back and encourages reengaging in a tradition that fosters participation. That''s expected.

Participatory 52

Participatory Arts Learning Music 52

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. The lawsuit was instructive because it had rules, like a game. We were zooming again.

Museum 37

Museum History Arts Instruction 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. They are accepting films through June 30, though it's only free to submit through June 15th. Submit now!

NTEN 54

NTEN Texas Austin Application 54

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

AUGUST 24, 2016

So, this trip was a gift in terms of getting new ideas for instructional design. As a participant, you can also learn a lot by observing and reverse engineering the instructional design. When you are a trainer, you are a designer and facilitator of learning experiences. Exercise #1: Herding Sheep.

Leadership 50

Leadership Develop Exercise Israel 50