Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

AUGUST 11, 2009

Photo by American Art Museum Note from Beth: This week I'm trying to understand crowdsourcing and nonprofits, hopefully with a crowd of other folks. It is an open study/storage facility displaying about thirty-three hundred objects from the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. We are storage, after all.

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Museum Campaign Flickr Arts 92

Museum 2.0

MAY 9, 2012

Last week, I was in Minneapolis for the American Association of Museums annual meeting. Kathleen McLean led a terrific session called "Dangerous Ridiculous" about risk-taking in museums. Interestingly, at my museum, our team is naturally better at ridiculous than we are at dangerous. I found this idea really powerful.

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Reflection Columbus Museum Participatory 43

Museum 2.0

APRIL 26, 2018

The Washington Post covered the MAH's transformation as part of an article about museums engaging new audiences. The whole second half of the article was dedicated to our work: Smaller museums can be especially scrappy in finding ways to connect with the community. It’s something that any museum, of any size, can work toward.

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Audience Washington Museum Intergenerational 49

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

FEBRUARY 18, 2016

Instagram, the popular Millennial photo sharing site, is gaining traction with world leaders, government leaders and nonprofit executive directors. The visual nature makes it a perfect channel for executive directors to engage with their stakeholders. Genuine: It reflects their character, behavior, values, and vision.

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Personal Create Photography Museum 50

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

MAY 23, 2008

Lynda Kelley I'm here in Sydney, Australia and just finished an informal workshop and discussion with Powerhouse Museum staff and other museums. Will post reflections shortly) I met Dr. Lynda Kelly, a blogger and the Head of Audience Research for the Australia Museum. The site is called Museum 3.0.

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Museum Interview Ning Australia 50

Museum 2.0

MAY 22, 2012

Imagine you've just been tasked with developing an innovative, future-thinking national museum for your country's history. Blueprint is the story of a group of people who tried to create a Dutch Museum of National History (INNL). The Museum directors released Blueprint as a showcase for these plans. Where would you start?

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Museum History Netherlands Create 36

Museum 2.0

JULY 1, 2011

I've now been the Director of The Museum of Art & History in Santa Cruz for two months. It really reflects what we're trying to do here to transform our institution into as relevant, dynamic, and successful an organization as possible. Simon is a remarkable "get" for the museum.

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Museum History Arts Work 31

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 20, 2010

Audience segmentation and research has become a hot topic in museums, especially when it comes to crafting appealing offerings that are customized to different kinds of visitors. I sat down with Kristen Denner, Director of Membership and Annual Fund, to learn more about the program's development and the museum's goals for its future.

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Interview Director Museum Arts 46

Saleforce Nonprofit

AUGUST 20, 2021

Workstream priorities should reflect this knowledge. Increased donor diversity results in revenue goals exceeded, and team diversity creates access to new networks and better, broader perspectives among teams. By executing on DEI initiatives, individual nonprofits and the sector at large will shift power dynamics in fundraising.

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Strategy Fundraising Philanthropy Nonprofit 82

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 2, 2013

George Scheer is the director and co-founder of Elsewhere Collective, a fascinating "living museum" in a former thrift store in Greensboro, NC. In this post, George grapples with the challenges of balancing the care for a museum collection with that of contemporary artists-in-residence who are constantly reinterpreting it.

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Artist Museum Proposal Participatory 49

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

MAY 7, 2010

Recently, James wrote about some interesting ways museums are using Twitter for offline/online engagement. The San Francisco Bay Area has seen some extraordinary museum openings over the past several years. Sometimes connections cross the boundaries of time. California is part of the OMCA’s mission.

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Trend Oakland San Francisco California 91

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 6, 2009

This post was written by Jaime Kopke , the founder/director of the Denver Community Museum , a pop-up community-generated institution that ran from Oct 2008-April 2009. This post shares her reflections on the project, its design, and its impact. The Denver Community Museum (DCM) was a grassroots operation in almost every sense.

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Denver Museum Community Participatory 29

Museum 2.0

MARCH 3, 2020

I once sat next to a man who worked at a museum about transportation. I’d been starving, and we were being served a delicious hot lunch (Thank you Pennsylvania Museums Association.) Recently, I’ve been reflecting on that conversation often. She emails the director. Many forms of labor are hard to quantify.

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System Work Museum Pennsylvania 20

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

SEPTEMBER 8, 2016

Last week I was honored to be a counselor at Museum Camp , an annual professional development event hosted by the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (MAH). Nina Simon, the executive director of the museum, is an expert in participatory design and fantastic facilitator. Being Intentional About Your To Do List.

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Causes Change Museum Social 50

Museum 2.0

JULY 31, 2013

I spent the weekend queuing up posts for my forthcoming blog-cation--nine weeks of guest posts and reruns from the Museum 2.0 Reflective time is important, especially when your work is hectic. Blogging forces me to have a reflective part of my practice on a weekly basis, even when I feel about as reflective as a black carpet.

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Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

Exhibit labels in science centers ask more questions than any other kinds of museums, and yet the questions are often awful--teacherly, overly rhetorical, and totally meaningless. asked by a cop or mother, garners the full attention of asker and askee alike, museum questions like "what is nanotechnology?,"

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Reflection Research Question Museum 20

Museum 2.0

APRIL 20, 2009

I just got home from the Museums and the Web conference in Indianapolis. I’d never attended before and was impressed by many very smart, international people doing radical projects to make museum collections and experiences accessible and participatory online. Instead, I found a standard art museum. Impersonal guards.

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Participatory Museum Web Indianapolis 35

Tech Soup

JULY 13, 2015

The Mary Ball Washington Museum and Library (MBWML) was established in 1958 and named to honor the mother of America's first president. The museum and library preserves the rich history of the Northern Neck through its collections, exhibits, tours, and educational programs. Images: Mary Ball Washington Museum and Library.

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Virginia History Museum Library 36

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

MARCH 4, 2011

In early January, the American Museum of Natural History announced that it would hold a Brain Tweetup for 75 of its Twitter followers. The event promised an after-hours look at their special exhibition Brain: The Inside Story , a chat with its curators, a behind-the-scenes tour of the museum, and an opportunity to meet other fans of AMNH.

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Brain Museum Culture Interaction 94

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 28, 2010

Every once in a while I come across a project I wish I could have included in The Participatory Museum. For one year, a group of twelve schoolchildren age 9-11 were invited to work with staff at the Wallace Collection to develop a family-focused exhibition using the museum's artifacts. it's a Secret! , What made Shh. it's a Secret!

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Children Museum Create Project 46

Museum 2.0

JUNE 12, 2013

TCG is the industry association for non-profit theaters, the way AAM is for museums. Given TCG''s multi-year Audience (R)evolution initiative, I took the opportunity to write a new talk about what revolution has looked like at our small museum in Santa Cruz. We heard again and again that the museum was cold and uncomfortable.

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Museum Learning History Arts 55

Museum 2.0

JUNE 8, 2010

This guest post was written by Rebecca Lawrence, Museum Educator, Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center in Pennsylvania. You can join the conversation in the blog comments, or on the Museum 2.0 The Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center (SLHC) is a small museum located in Pennsburg, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

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Place Museum Discussion Pennsylvania 27

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

JUNE 14, 2010

The whole idea got started a year ago when James Leventhal who is Deputy Director for the Contemporary Jewish Museum asked me if I would design some trainings for the local arts community. Contemporary Jewish Museum. The Joe Goode Dance Company spoke about the challenges of getting an artistic director to Tweet.

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Social Media Media San Jose Social 99

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 26, 2012

Way better than that video at Museum X where the director drones on about the new initiatives of the year. I have felt in the past that some of the MCA's holiday videos were a bit too pretentious, but this year's edition is full of joy and a message that really reflects what they do in Denver. How should (and do) we treat them?

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Denver Museum Arts Participatory 33

Museum 2.0

MAY 15, 2012

Last week, I sat down on a toilet in our museum and found myself looking at an interactive station intended to test a “Legends of the Stall” sign concept for the restrooms. Some of my happiest moments as a director come when I encounter awesome things in our museum that I had absolutely nothing to do with. Sorry for the delay.

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Culture Build Museum Articulate 53

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

Photo Source: Indianapolis Museum of Art Blog. The Indianapolis Art Museum has been doing just that by sharing its institutional dashboard out for everyone to view. It was met by with both positive and negative reactions from nonprofit and museum professionals. Two years later, we might have some answers.

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Public Indianapolis Museum Organization 94

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 5, 2008

I was fascinated by our discussion, and Bob came to mind last month, when I was asked to write an article for the Association of Children's Museums quarterly journal, Hand to Hand , about children's museums and Web 2.0. To understand more, I turned to Elaine Gurian's article The Molting of Children's Museums? Why the uniformity?

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Classroom Children Museum Model 22

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 1, 2012

Roberto Bedoya : The "Yes And" Argument and its Civic Implications Bedoya, the Executive Director of the Tucson Pima Arts Council, makes a beautiful statement that arts administrators need to facilitate a multiplicity of leading voices, or as he puts it, "the courage of imagination and the plural." Here are three of my favorites.

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Arts Museum Artist Tucson 45

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 20, 2013

It started as a handout for a session that Stacey and I are doing at the California Association of Museums, and then I realized it was so darn useful that it was worth sharing with all of you. The majority of our public programs at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History are created and produced through community collaborations.

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Collaboration Community Tools Museum 55

Museum 2.0

JULY 27, 2011

I'm trying to reposition our museum as a cultural hub supporting creative and intellectual community growth. Our conversation made me reflect on the museums that most inspire me from a public service perspective--institutions with missions that stretch far beyond their walls. These museums work differently.

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Advocacy Public Service Homeless 44

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 12, 2010

There were so many fabulous recommendations for the next Museum 2.0 This book, suggested by Susan Wageman, looks like a fabulous, off-beat, and highly pertinent read for librarians, museum folk, and cultural professionals of all sorts. For four weeks starting in January, each Tuesday there will be a Museum 2.0

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Government Organization Museum Blended 42

Tech Soup

JULY 24, 2012

Learn how to become a social organization with tips from Yammer 's director of community. Read the transcript of the Nonprofit Commons meeting, featuring Dr. Valerie Hill of Texas Woman’s University School of Library and Information Science discussing libraries, museums, and immersive learning. From TechSoup Global.

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Global Adobe Connect Storytelling Library 52

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 26, 2009

This guest post was written by Ruben Huele and describes the scenario-based strategic process used at the Dutch Natural History Museum, Naturalis , to innovate the redevelopment of their permanent collection. The new building of Naturalis, the Dutch National Natural History Museum, opened in 1998. It should not surprise the Museum 2.0

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Museum Process Wiki Netherlands 20

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 29, 2012

Residents in the three counties that pay the millage will receive special benefits : free admission to the museum and expanded educational programming. I'm focusing on the community response to the prospect of the millage and the way the public debate reflects broader conversations about the public value of the arts. Rebuttal: none.

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Detroit Arts Public Support 49

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 15, 2008

The presumed answer is "yes" your museum needs a blog, a pony, or a set of comfy couches. Does your museum need a custom online social network? Many museums have been experimenting in these spaces by creating institutional profiles, museum affinity groups, and connecting with visitors and other museum professionals individually.

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Museum Social Network Case Study Discussion 20

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

NOVEMBER 30, 2010

Amy Sample Ward shares her first reflections and critique of the platform and wonders what’s the point? But it’s also the latest online creation of Chris Hughes, a co-founder of Facebook and director of online organizing for Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign. Chris Hughes brought in Kirsten Titus as Managing director of Jumo.

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New York Profile Argentina New York City 104