Museum 2.0

MARCH 28, 2008

It makes us uncomfortable with opening museum content up to comment, tagging, and alterations by visitors. 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. Many of the teens write, "learn with us.

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Participatory Museum Teen Voice 20

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 History 29

Museum 2.0

MARCH 18, 2015

A couple months ago, I visited a Community Science Workshop for the first time in Watsonville, CA. 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. At that time, we expanded to Watsonville , where strawberries come from.

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Green Interview Share Community 20

Museum 2.0

JUNE 12, 2012

It is multi-disciplinary, incorporates diverse voices from our community, and provides interactive and participatory opportunities for visitor involvement. This post focuses on one aspect of the exhibition: its participatory and interactive elements. So many museum exhibitions relegate the participatory bits in at the end.

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Participatory Museum Blackboard Game 51

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 14, 2009

The end of a conference is often a time of great enthusiasm quickly followed by a gaping maw of inability to act on that enthusiasm back at work. Or maybe education staff are not willing to engage real-time visitors in dialogue around controversial issues. You can see or download my slides and you can watch the video of the talk.

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Project Museum Teen North Carolina 22

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 25, 2009

Many institutions do this unintentionally--by providing post-its or comment books, pens or crayons. I encourage you to share your own rules and thoughts on this in the comments. 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."

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Design Goal Difference Platform 31

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! In Children of the Lodz Ghetto, every data entry is verified by staff in a three-step process as well as reviewed and commented on by other users.

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Slides Participatory Museum Children 20

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 16, 2007

Last week, I wrote about the ways that dogs can be useful social objects --and you had lots of good comments and input. A couple months ago, I rode the Dipper for the first time. Sure, it's social, but people stick to their own "pods"--families, teens, adults--and don't diverge or merge. Step 3: a successful "five" is given.

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Museum Participatory Teen Game 20

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 21, 2016

It is unfinished, unassuming, and whimsical, and at the same time, deadly serious. Every other year, they convene TUPAC, a group of 35 outside advisors, including teens, college students, Temple University professors, artists, philanthropists, and community leaders. You don't have time to convene the community.

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Process Share Philadelphia Arts 20

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 7, 2010

This seems like an appropriate time to share the story. At the big one, I worked on a small project with teens to design science exhibits for community centers in their own neighborhoods. In DC, I worked half-time for NASA as an electrical engineer and half-time for the Capital Children's Museum (now defunct) as a science educator.

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Museum Boston Participatory Job 52

Museum 2.0

APRIL 6, 2011

Let's say you spend a year working with a group of teens to co-create an exhibition, or you invite members and local artists to help redesign the lobby. Community processes are both exciting and time-consuming. In many cases, once the final project is launched, it's hard to detect the participatory touch.

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Participatory Process Museum Children 48

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. Here are three examples of changes you could make: Change the language and presentation of comment cards. What do you want?” It is really hard to listen.

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Museum Teen Second Life Discussion 20

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. Community centers don't ask you to cough up a $20 every time you come to hang out. Be open at times that your "community" is likely to come. Make time for staff to hang out with visitors.

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Community Museum San Diego San Francisco 22

Museum 2.0

APRIL 18, 2012

A group in their late teens/early 20s were wandering through the museumwide exhibition on love. They were in a playful mood, talking about the objects, playing the games, responding on the comment boards. When I walked by the first time, the teens were collaging and Kyle and Stacey were talking.

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Community Teen Build Social 42

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 18, 2008

In many museums, comment cards are currently the most "participatory" part of the visitor experience. There are few, if any, ways to write back and continue the conversation with the visitor who commented. In other words, comment cards aren't effectively organized for use. Enter the internet.

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Comment Tools Museum Conversation 20

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

At one point, he commented that there's a difference between the "framework" and the "sensibility" for engagement. 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.

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Voice Los Angeles Denver Museum 42

Museum 2.0

MARCH 30, 2016

Teens advocating for all-gender bathrooms. If your institution is built for millions of one-time visitors, it is not built for thousands of frequent visitors, and vice versa. We have the opportunity to build relationships with community members over time. The time to get to know folks who walk in the door.

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Community Museum Local Participatory 20