Museum 2.0

MAY 21, 2014

Seeing so many cheerful one-liners in my inbox made me think about how different my work situation is today than the last time I reflected on it in public in 2012, at my one-year anniversary. I helped them find funding and partners and time to make amazing work happen. Participatory work can be very labor-intensive.

Museum 49

Museum Director History Teen 49

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

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. When I read the New York Times online, each article's author's name is hotlinked and there is an easy and direct way to contact him/her. It's very relational.

Participatory 20

Participatory Museum Teen Voice 20

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. Reflective time is important, especially when your work is hectic. I''ve never taken a break from blogging before.

Museum 35

Museum Participatory Reflection Conference 35

Museum 2.0

JUNE 12, 2012

Going to MAH and seeing the LOVE exhibition on First Friday was a wonderful experience. It is multi-disciplinary, incorporates diverse voices from our community, and provides interactive and participatory opportunities for visitor involvement. Pull up an armchair for a tour of our participatory hits, misses, and related discoveries.

Participatory 51

Participatory Museum Blackboard Game 51

Museum 2.0

MARCH 27, 2009

This week, the Denver Art Museum (DAM) opened a new temporary exhibition called The Psychedelic Experience , featuring rock posters from San Francisco in the heyday of Bill Graham and electric kool-aid. I happened to be at DAM for work and got to experience this amazing exhibit. It is an incredible museum experience.

Denver 21

Denver Museum Arts Remix 21

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.

Green 20

Green Interview Share Community 20

Museum 2.0

MAY 5, 2009

I led two sessions, one on visitor co-created museum experiences, and the other on design inspirations from outside museums. 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!

Slides 20

Slides Participatory Museum Children 20

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 7, 2010

This seems like an appropriate time to share the story. Part 2: It's How Aggressive You Are My first year in museums, I tried to get as much broad experience as possible. At the big one, I worked on a small project with teens to design science exhibits for community centers in their own neighborhoods. hour at the Museum.

Museum 52

Museum Boston Participatory Job 52

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.

Project 22

Project Museum Teen North Carolina 22

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. But it also makes their "front-end" experience incoherent.

Process 20

Process Share Philadelphia Arts 20

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 25, 2009

Here are a few design rules I use to think about what kinds of designed dialogue environments are right for different experience goals. 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. A lone "What do you think?"

Design 31

Design Goal Difference Platform 31

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 16, 2007

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. But the best reason I can imagine has to do with barriers and shared experience. Ideas participatory museum Unusual Projects and Influences visitors.

Museum 20

Museum Participatory Teen Game 20

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.

Participatory 48

Participatory Process Museum Children 48

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 7, 2008

Please let me know (since I'm listening) whether this length is a benefit or a detriment to your experience. Many adults think it provides a good adult experience but that engaging with the exhibits requires waiting and or wading through lots of running, yelling kids. What does it mean to listen to the groundswell?

Museum 20

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.

Community 22

Community Museum San Diego San Francisco 22

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 18, 2008

If museums get involved in these online-offline partnerships, we can bring new audiences through our doors, familiarize them with museum-going in a comfortable way, and reap the benefits of their online musings about their real-life experiences. Consider the experience of the Computer History Museum and their Yelp! several years.

Museum 22

Museum Hosting Model Community 22

Museum 2.0

MAY 16, 2007

The recent flurry of restrictions that has sent teens fleeing? I want in-person museum experiences to be more like experiences on social sites like Flickr, where strangers connect and form relationships around content. All that's required is an explicit way to physically signal that you want to be part of the social experience.

Museum 20

Museum Myspace Facilitation Social Network 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. Next time, everyone was talking. I don't know what formed the bridge between the artists and the teens in this circumstance.

Community 42

Community Teen Build Social 42

Museum 2.0

MAY 8, 2013

We''re more successful when we target particular communities or audiences and design experiences for them. What started as a series of experiments and happy accidents is now embedded in how we develop and evaluate projects. It''s impossible for any organization or business to do a great job being for everyone. Why fight it?

Museum 55

Museum Social Arts History 55

Museum 2.0

JULY 23, 2013

Any job with the word “coordinator” in it sounds like you might spend your time sorting socks into pairs. We are hiring for a School Programs Coordinator to wrangle the 3,500+ students and their teachers who come to the museum every year for a tour and hands-on experience in our art and history exhibitions.

Program 39

Program Museum Work History 39

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

You have a great time. Museums and other venues are offering special programs for teens, for hipsters, for people who want a more active or spiritual or participatory experience. For myself personally, this gulf rears its head every time I go to a live music concert. What will it take for you to do it again?

Arts 50

Arts Museum Music Calendar 50

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 18, 2008

In many museums, comment cards are currently the most "participatory" part of the visitor experience. The ideas can be tagged and grouped into categories, and can be browsed in time order, by most popular, or by category. 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

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. And other times, when I'm focused on opening up access and opportunities for audience members to partner with staff, I'm talking about framework.

Voice 42

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.

Community 20

Community Museum Local Participatory 20