Museum 2.0

APRIL 14, 2011

As of May 2, I will be the executive director of the Museum of Art & History at McPherson Center in Santa Cruz, CA (here's the press release ). This is a big change for me--professionally and personally--and I'm thrilled and humbled by the opportunity to take on this position in the city I call home. Dear Museum 2.0

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Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

MAY 26, 2015

Designing A Participatory Hook for a Virtual Meeting. One thing I noticed during the meeting is that I was sitting more than I normally would because of the video and the cultural norm having the video on the whole time. How have you changed your organization’s meeting culture to be better? Design must comes first.

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Facilitation Virtual Arts Participatory 50

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 1, 2012

Last week, Douglas McLellan of artsJournal ran a multi-vocal forum on the relationship between arts organizations and audiences, asking: In this age of self expression and information overload, do our artists and arts organizations need to lead more or learn to follow their communities more? Here are three of my favorites.

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Arts Museum Artist Tucson 45

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 30, 2013

Earlier this fall, I read this headline: "Stanford study: Participation in a cultural activity may reduce prejudice." When the music video was focused on Mexican culture, the researchers found that the white and Asian participants demonstrated a decrease in prejudice against Latinos, both immediately after the activity and six months later.

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Measure Arts People Museum 47

Museum 2.0

APRIL 26, 2018

One that has found remarkable success is California’s Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. Simon knew something had to change. “We We changed our museum by reorienting on our community and really saying we exist to be of, by and for you, and to help build a stronger community.” The impact was dramatic.

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Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

OCTOBER 25, 2011

Note From Beth: Yesterday, I attended a convening called “ Beyond Dynamic Adaptability ” for arts organizations about cultural participation in the arts. The system of making and distributing documentary films is changing rapidly. Guest Post by Vincent Stehle.

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Guatemala Movie Artist Award 93

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 15, 2014

When basketball players are offering more cogent commentary on racial issues than cultural institutions, you know we have a cultural relevance problem. Things must change. Museums are a part of this educational and cultural network. Schools and other arts organizations are rising to the challenge.

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Museum Blogger Cleveland Missouri 52

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.

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Museum 2.0

JANUARY 11, 2012

For years, I'd give talks about community participation in museums and cultural institutions, and I'd always get the inevitable question: "but what value does this really have when it comes to dollars and cents?" Our long-standing donors and board of trustees have been amazingly enthusiastic about the changes at the museum.

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Audience Museum Participatory History 47

Museum 2.0

JULY 17, 2012

But we've just compiled all our attendance data for the past year at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (our fiscal year ends on June 30), and several people have written to me asking for the numbers behind our turnaround. I promise--after this post, I'll stop writing about this. actively sought out community needs to respond to.

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Museum 2.0

JANUARY 4, 2010

It's rare that a participatory museum project is more than a one-shot affair. The project's implementation keeps changing, and I can't decide whether it is getting better or just different. Wikipedia Loves Art, Take One The first version of Wikipedia Loves Art first took place in February 2009.

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Wikipedia Arts Museum Images 40

Have Fun - Do Good

OCTOBER 30, 2009

NEWS This week, Echoing Green partnered with Jobs for Change on a new Be Bold Podcast. 29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life Filling the Well: Giving to Yourself Join My Village: Ladies Home Journal Do Good Challenge Make Someone's Day: Write a Letter Whew! It's been a been a busy few weeks!

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Los Angeles Green Gift San Francisco 40

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). Yes and no.

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Question Participatory Museum Evaluation 49

Museum 2.0

MAY 2, 2012

Today is my one-year anniversary as the executive director of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. We went through a dramatic financial turnaround and redefined our relationship with our community through a series of experimental participatory projects and new programmatic approaches. Everyone made sacrifices.

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Museum Director Participatory Culture 55

Museum 2.0

MAY 21, 2014

I''ve now been the executive director of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History for three years. We work hard to name and build our culture in many ways. Institutional culture is something I never really understood before and I am now completely fascinated by how it can shape work. Naming our goals and our culture.

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Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 2, 2013

Proposals involve sculpture, performance, participatory-projects, videos, and installation that use and respond to the museum’s collection. This past July, artist Guillermo Gómez proposed to restore a piece of art. Both objects and art-objects would be part of this continuing transformation and evolution.

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Artist Museum Proposal Participatory 49

Museum 2.0

JUNE 1, 2010

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. I closed this book wondering: are cultural institutions really interested in being third places? Facebook discussion board here.

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Place Discussion Culture Museum 41

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 24, 2012

To that end, our exhibitions are full of participatory elements. Riding the art couch through downtown Santa Cruz with two visitors and a dog while blasting the Jackson 5 was one of the highlights of my year. Visitors can comment on how we can improve or what they would like to see. Happening Couch. Here's a picture of it in action.

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Platform Open Museum Participatory 41

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 27, 2017

It felt like change was breaking through. This argument became one of the foundations of The Participatory Museum. Traditionally, museums and cultural organizations offer programs. This is the participatory platform model. It advances our theory of change, by empowering locals and bridging their diverse communities.

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Platform Impact Childhood Museum 31

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 9, 2011

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. The area that houses the Creativity Lounge also shows art. Teenagers are curling up with art magazines. People love petting zoos.".

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Museum Arts History Columbus 51

Museum 2.0

MARCH 14, 2017

This is the second installation 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. The MAH fundamentally has two jobs: we bring art and history out into our community, and we invite our community in. We want to break out.

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Public Museum Arts History 27

Museum 2.0

APRIL 4, 2012

You have to care before you want to act, and caring--about the earth, about civil rights, about art--is not a given. I was reminded of this "care, then act" framework when I saw a recent story about a student's experience at a powerful issue-driven exhibition at the Skirball Cultural Center, Half the Sky. age/gender unknown).

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Story Participatory Museum History 47

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

Museums can be incredible catalysts for social change. We can change that by embracing participatory culture and opening up to the active, social ways that people engage with art, history, science, and ideas today. But they're not there yet.

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Museum Open Charlotte Participatory 55

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 27, 2012

Do you consider yourself an "activist" for your organization, avocation, or art form? Sure, I admire cultural organizations that have a strong mission to change education or diversify access or transform the role of art in everyday life, but I'm an insider. A national election is the ultimate participatory project.

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Museum 2.0

JANUARY 18, 2012

Major research studies by the NEA and others demonstrate that adults well into their 60s are highly motivated to participate actively with cultural experiences. There are many participatory experiences that appeal primarily to adults, and they are designed distinctly for adults. But I don't think that theory holds up.

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Interaction Design Museum Participatory 47

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

JANUARY 31, 2007

I met her like ten years ago when I leading training workshops for arts educators, artists, and arts organizations throughout New York State on how to use the Internet. These projects were done nearly ten years ago, but they presage what the social web, participatory media. Meet Susan Silverman. I was teaching Web1.0

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Flickr Professional Participatory New York 50

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? Aren't art museums less open to participation than other kinds of museums?" I was surprised by her question.

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Museum 2.0

MAY 9, 2012

Our curator writes labels about licking the art. And I talked about some of the challenges of finding the right income and expense models for a museum that operates more like a community center than a traditional cultural institution. Merilee Mostov and the Columbus Museum of Art. Participatory art and co-creation on the rise.

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Reflection Columbus Museum Participatory 43

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 22, 2009

What does the word "participatory" mean to you? The various definitions of participatory projects can lead to confusion and misunderstandings. Participation in science research is a good basis on which to develop a framework for participatory models because it is based on a consistent scientific process with many steps.

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Public Research Participatory Report 36

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. They talked about community building.

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Build Community Museum Artist 20

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 14, 2013

Using facial morphing software to change a player''s avatar to a different ethnicity, we fed the game with hundreds of photos that were judged in a "hot or not" type interface and gave players a view of how intelligent, attractive, and trustworthy others perceived them to be as two different ethnicities. as a part of Experimonth: Race.

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Museum Roles Game Participatory 51

Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

AUGUST 18, 2005

Home About Me Subscribe Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology Thoughtful and sometimes snarky perspectives on nonprofit technology IP Tidbits August 18, 2005 Here are a few tidbits I’ve come across in the Intellectual Property arena in the past few days. This is very cool. It’s definitely a thing to watch.

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Open Source Vlog License PowerPoint 100

Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JUNE 29, 2007

Home About Me Subscribe Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology Thoughtful and sometimes snarky perspectives on nonprofit technology Gender, Race and Open Source June 29, 2007 My session on Free and Open Source software and the US Social Forum went great yesterday. But it needs addressing. { Right, right, right.

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Open Source Open Software Music 100

Museum 2.0

MARCH 28, 2012

How do you find out what's important to different communities, and how do you change your plans based on their needs? At the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (MAH), we've started experimenting with a "community first" approach to program development. Six goals for MAH community programs. Then, we went honeycomb-crazy.

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Museum 2.0

JANUARY 13, 2009

A few good links that have been zooming across my screen: A long and incredibly thoughtful piece by Diana Ragsdale about the value proposition of arts organizations in the midst of a "culture change." There's an excellent newish blog, New Curator , focused on the future of museums. If you feel that Museum 2.0

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Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

APRIL 25, 2007

to Change The World. I would love to develop more indepth training workshop or webinar on this topic, geared more for nonprofits and participatory campaigns, perhaps incorporating the Creative Commons Open Content Game. Youth trying to learn new art mediums, they often incorrectly use copyrighted works.they create a derivative work.a

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Remix Mashup PowerPoint Classroom 50

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 14, 2009

How do you overcome institutional resistance to change and uncertainty to do something wild and hopeful? I used the example of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, which has a mission statement that includes unusual words like “bold” and “fearless.” Third, you need to align your idea with institutional culture.

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Project Museum Teen North Carolina 22