Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 12, 2012

This exhibition represents a few big shifts for us: We used a more participatory design process. Our previous big exhibition, All You Need is Love, was highly participatory for visitors but minimally participatory in the development process. Without further ado, here's what we did to make the exhibition participatory.

Participatory 44

Participatory Museum International History 44

Museum 2.0

JULY 20, 2010

Last week, I gave a talk about participatory museum practice for a group of university students at UCSC. Teenagers are often the target for participatory endeavors, and they definitely have high interest in creative expression, personalizing museum experiences, and using interactive or technological tools as part of their visit.

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Social Teen Museum Participatory 49

Museum 2.0

APRIL 7, 2009

Which of these descriptions exemplifies participatory museum practice? But the difference between the two examples teases out a problem in differentiating "participatory design" from "design for participation." In the first case, you are making the design process participatory. In the second, you make the product participatory.

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Participatory Design Difference Museum 27

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. Since 2010 I have seen, again and again and again, how valuable human facilitation is to the participatory process.

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Participatory Museum Empowerment Facilitation 20

Museum 2.0

APRIL 18, 2012

A group in their late teens/early 20s were wandering through the museumwide exhibition on love. When I walked by the first time, the teens were collaging and Kyle and Stacey were talking. I don't know what formed the bridge between the artists and the teens in this circumstance. Kyle had brought his baby with him.

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Community Social Build Teen 42

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 16, 2013

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. Or that we take a group photo together at the end of the day. It was pretty freaking amazing.

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Community Reflection Online Museum 43

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

I've written before about the difference between participatory processes and products , but this question of frameworks and sensibility is more broadly applicable to community engagement strategies. In fact, I find that participatory products are often more likely to reflect a formal sensibility than their traditional counterparts.

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Voice Museum Denver Participatory 42

Museum 2.0

MARCH 28, 2008

Museums aren't the only venues facing this question: news outlets, corporate brands, and educators are also grappling with the question of trust in the participatory age. I'm reading a book of essays about how to teach written by teens. Many of the teens write, "learn with us. It's very relational.

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Participatory Museum Teen Voice 20

Museum 2.0

MAY 8, 2013

Single-speaker lectures languish while lightning talks featuring teen photographers, phD anthropologists, and professional dancers are packed. "Family Art Workshops" suffer from anemic participation whereas multi-generational festivals are overrun with families.

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Social Museum Arts Program 55

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? For this reason, I see history museums as best-suited for participatory projects that involve story-sharing and crowdsourced collecting (e.g.

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Museum Difference Participatory Arts 29

Museum 2.0

JULY 23, 2013

School programs fall within this landscape, and our goal is not to see them as completely separate from the other work we do with youth—Kid Happy Hour, family festivals, teen program—but on a continuum. Most school tours are for intact groups—a single class or grade.

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Program Museum Work History 39

Museum 2.0

MAY 21, 2014

When I look back at some recent projects that I''m most excited about (like this teen program ), I realize that I had very little to do with their conception or execution. Participatory work can be very labor-intensive. In the meantime, here are some. THINGS I''M MOST PROUD OF: Making space for distributed leadership.

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Museum Director Culture History 49

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 1, 2006

Ready to turn your institution into a site of participatory engagement? Want to bring the spirit of this blog to your colleagues and projects? Have an audacious idea but don't know where to start?

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Museum Professional Service Participatory 21

Museum 2.0

JULY 31, 2013

You''re in for a treat, with upcoming posts on creativity, collections management, elitism, science play, permanent participatory galleries, partnering with underserved teens, magic vests, and more. Thank you to everyone who recommended a favorite post from the past or who helped out with a guest post.

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Museum Reflection Participatory Conference 35

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 26, 2008

Now, onto the links: If you have a great idea for a participatory learning project that uses digital tools, the MacArthur Foundation wants to give you money. There's a new Pew Research report on teens and gaming showing that 97% of American teens play some kind of video games (console, online, mobile, etc).

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Fund Museum Teen Social Media 20

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 7, 2010

At the big one, I worked on a small project with teens to design science exhibits for community centers in their own neighborhoods. Now, as a freelancer, my work combines long-term, creatively challenging participatory exhibit projects with lots of little workshops and brainstorming sessions with institutions around the world.

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Museum Ideas Job Project 52

Museum 2.0

MARCH 27, 2009

I saw teens and adults who sat and did this activity for 45 minutes and wasn’t surprised to hear that some people spend over an hour on it. In the more formal poster gallery, I saw many pierced teens listening unironically as their parents enthused about Jefferson Airplane. Projects design participatory museum.

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Denver Museum Arts Participatory 21

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 14, 2009

I worked on one project in which the client institution thought they wanted unfettered teen expression. When they saw the results of that expression, they struggled with the content and eventually integrated it into their project in a way that diminished the teens’ involvement and hard work.

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Project Museum Teen Minnesota 22

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

Museums and other venues are offering special programs for teens, for hipsters, for people who want a more active or spiritual or participatory experience. There's been a lot of innovation in arts programming in the last few years.

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Arts Museum Calendar Music 50

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 Museum Participatory Children 20

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 16, 2007

Sure, it's social, but people stick to their own "pods"--families, teens, adults--and don't diverge or merge. Ideas participatory museum Unusual Projects and Influences visitors. Step 3: a successful "five" is given. Why does this happen? It's not because the boardwalk is a social place. But I'm not so sure of this.

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Museum Participatory Interaction Teen 20

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 25, 2009

There was a wonderful example at the Ontario Science Center in their Hot Zone area, which features several voting and commenting kiosks popular with teens. Tags: Talking to Strangers design participatory museum usercontent interactives. What design techniques do you use to create successful visitor dialogue experiences?

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Goal Difference Design Platform 31

Museum 2.0

MARCH 18, 2015

The people were of all ages--moms with babies strapped to their fronts, six year-olds using skillsaws, pre-teens building robots, teenagers doing homework. For example, the Exploratorium is an extraordinarily participatory museum, but it''s not nearly as participatory as a Community Science Workshop.

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Green Interview Community Share 20

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 7, 2008

When I watch the videos teens created at the Exploratorium and post on YouTube, I see the aspects of the exhibits they thought were most important to share with their classmates. Tags: Book Discussion: Groundswell marketing participatory museum. The experience, the director commented, was so painful that they would never repeat it.

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Museum Teen Community Discussion 20

Museum 2.0

MARCH 30, 2016

Teens advocating for all-gender bathrooms. That means offering clear, visible, appealing participatory experiences that enhance the destination experience. Our entire strategy at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History is rooted in community participation. Printmakers leading workshops. Volunteers restoring a historic cemetery.

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Community Museum Local Culture 20

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 18, 2008

Librarian Aaron Schmidt tells the great story of a game night of Dance, Dance, Revolution at his library in which a teen asked him: “Hey Aaron, can I go upstairs to grab a magazine and book to read?” Projects participatory museum. If not, consider whether this is the right partner and where better friendships might be found.

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Museum Hosting Community Model 22

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 3, 2009

We're always happy for more bodies in the door, but if supporting teens means alienating seniors, there's a problem. Tags: participatory museum inclusion comfort. The problem--one which is not addressed in the article--is that museums have not been willing to cater to new target audiences to the exclusion of their traditional patrons.

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Community Museum San Diego Participatory 22

Museum 2.0

MAY 16, 2007

The recent flurry of restrictions that has sent teens fleeing? Tags: participatory museum visitors. When you think of MySpace, what is the first thing that comes to mind? The irritating design? The bizarre obsession with "adding" friends? Or is it the stalkers?

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Museum Myspace Social Network Facilitation 20

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 18, 2008

In many museums, comment cards are currently the most "participatory" part of the visitor experience. It may be useful if you want to ask "What kind of teen programs should our museum offer?" It's the one place where visitors can offer direct, open-ended feedback on the institution's content and services.

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Comment Tools Museum Ideas 20

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 21, 2016

Every other year, they convene TUPAC, a group of 35 outside advisors, including teens, college students, Temple University professors, artists, philanthropists, and community leaders. They live their mission, working in questions and projects rather than exhibitions and programs.

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Process Share Philadelphia Arts 20