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.

Reflection 43

Reflection Community Museum Participatory 43

Museum 2.0

MARCH 28, 2008

Being a trusted source of information can be a barrier that keeps us from sharing content with visitors that might be more contemporary, more ambiguous, more contentious--information that may not be trusted. It makes us uncomfortable with opening museum content up to comment, tagging, and alterations by visitors. Be personal.

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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.

Museum 29

Museum Difference Participatory History 29

Museum 2.0

JULY 31, 2013

It feels like a real gift to myself (and hopefully, to you) to schedule all this content now and not have to worry about it when my baby is born. 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.

Museum 35

Museum Participatory Reflection Conference 35

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.

Participatory 51

Participatory Museum Blackboard Game 51

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 14, 2009

I used the example of two very different exhibitions that solicited visitor-contributed content: Playing with Science at the London Science Museum, and MN150 at the Minnesota History Center. I worked on one project in which the client institution thought they wanted unfettered teen expression.

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Project Museum Teen North Carolina 22

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?

Museum 21

Museum Professional Service Participatory 21

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. One thing you''ll notice when you walk in is a ton of user-generated content. comfort creative placemaking cultural competency design interview participatory museum'

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Green Interview Share Community 20

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! Some of the most interesting questions included: how do you verify the accuracy and authenticity of visitor-contributed content?

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Slides Participatory Museum Children 20

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.

Denver 21

Denver Museum Arts Remix 21

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 25, 2009

I'm not talking about guiding content; I'm talking about guiding form. If your goal is to encourage visitors to perceive themselves as partners in the content co-creation experience, make room for their thoughts sooner rather than later. Tags: Talking to Strangers design participatory museum usercontent interactives.

Design 31

Design Goal Difference Platform 31

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. We had only eight people doing everything related to content and programming at the museum. Many people focus job application cover letters and interview content on what they've done so far.

Museum 52

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. In many cases, once the final project is launched, it's hard to detect the participatory touch. Not every participatory process has to scream "look at me!"

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Participatory Process Museum Children 48

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 7, 2008

For many museums, visitor research--how people use the museum, navigate exhibits, and understand content--may be an equally important arena in which to adopt groundswell listening techniques. There may be confrontations between the institutional listeners (often in marketing) and the content developers (who may not believe what they hear).

Museum 20

Museum Teen Second Life Discussion 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. Give people the exhibition but not the debates about content development. How do we resolve this? This approach is straightforward.

Process 20

Process Share Philadelphia Arts 20

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 18, 2008

Several libraries have started to offer gaming nights where you can drink soda and play Wii to your heart's content. 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?” I don't think so.

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Museum Hosting Model Community 22

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 3, 2009

While there is much talk about supporting participation and making museum content relevant, the word "community" hangs like a poorly-defined carrot on a shtick. 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.

Community 22

Community Museum San Diego San Francisco 22

Museum 2.0

MAY 16, 2007

The recent flurry of restrictions that has sent teens fleeing? I want to see more multi-person exhibits, more prompts for discussion about content, more tools to facilitate connecting wtih other visitors whose interests are similar or in some way useful to your own. Tags: participatory museum visitors. The irritating design?

Museum 20

Museum Myspace Facilitation Social Network 20

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 18, 2008

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

Comment 20

Comment Tools Museum Conversation 20

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

The sensibility is the content and the style with which the engagement happens. 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.

Voice 42

Voice Los Angeles Denver Museum 42