Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 10, 2014

Scene: a regional workshop on arts engagement. Engaging people actively in the arts. One, from a museum director. PARTICIPATORY: can people get involved or contribute to it? Heck, no museum exhibition hits them all. High participatory quality, low technical quality. Core Museum 2.0 Any questions?

Participatory 55

Participatory Museum Arts Culture 55

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 27, 2017

Our county board of supervisors had brought their official meeting to the museum. In it, I argued that museums could give up control of the visitor experience while still maintaining (a new kind of) power. Museums could make the platforms for those experiences. Traditionally, museums and cultural organizations offer programs.

Platform 31

Platform Impact Childhood Museum 31

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). Each year they bring together diverse, passionate people for a sleep-away camp for adults where they learn together through active, creative workshops and activities.

Causes 50

Causes Change Museum Social 50

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 16, 2010

I spent last week in the glorious country of Taiwan, hiking, eating, and working with museum professionals and graduate students at a conference hosted at the Taiwan National Museum of Fine Arts. It's not topic-specific; I've done these exercises with art, history, science, and children's museums to useful effect.

Museum 41

Museum Technique Taiwan Social 41

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

As a designer, I'm always trying to ensure that participatory activities, however casual, impact both the participant and the organization. If fundraisers are so keen on relationships, why weren't they the first into social media and participatory projects on behalf of their organizations?

Participatory 39

Participatory Practice Fundraising Relationship 39

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 16, 2013

It's not every day that a visitor buys pizza for everyone in the museum. Then again, Saturday was hardly normal at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. Ze was really hands-on with everyone, giving hugs, taking photos, jumping in to do activities with participants. The activities had a really low barrier to entry.

Reflection 43

Reflection Community Museum Participatory 43

Museum 2.0

JULY 20, 2016

When we say we want our museum to be "audience-centered," what do we mean? My career first got moving at a brilliant example of the customer-centered museum: the International Spy Museum. Many of my favorite museums, libraries, and zoos are customer-centered places. They care about visitor comfort.

Museum 20

Museum Audience Music Arts 20

Museum 2.0

APRIL 25, 2011

I've spent much of the past three years on the road giving workshops and talks about audience participation in museums. The Museum 2.0 I wrote The Participatory Museum in response to this energy--to put together case studies in the context of a design framework so we could talk as a field about what works and why.

Question 49

Question Participatory Museum Evaluation 49

Museum 2.0

MARCH 27, 2013

There's a constant dialogue in participatory work about how to make peoples' contributions meaningful. I've written about different structures for participatory processes (especially in museums), and recently, I've been interested in how we can apply these structures to the design of public space.

Design 49

Design Participatory Children Museum 49

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

DECEMBER 23, 2010

Digital Activism was one of several books I gave to my friends at iHub in Nairobi. Digital Activism Decoded: The New Mechanics of Change , Mary Joyce, Editor. Digital activism is defined by the Meta-Activism Project as “the practice of using digital technology for political and social change.&# 6. ShareThis!

Amazon 116

Amazon Nonprofit Social Media Oregon 116

Museum 2.0

APRIL 3, 2009

The experiment is a multi-step activity in which you talk to strangers, get strangers talking to each other, and then build a social object that mediates conversation among strangers (more here ). Virtual-to-real design workshop at Museums and the Web—Friday, April 17 in Indianapolis. He doesn't do workshops.

Experiment 20

Experiment Seattle Indianapolis Denver 20

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. actively sought out community needs to respond to. were shamelessly resourceful.

Museum 47

Museum History Arts Artist 47

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

The Leading Change Summit was more intimate (several hundred people), participatory and interactive, intense, and stimulating. When you have four facilitators, you want to make sure that you choreograph each activity. Next, of course, is diving into the design task of identifying goals and framing for the session and specific roles.

Reflection 124

Reflection NTEN Change Facilitation 124

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 29, 2009

Last week, Jim Richardson and I hosted MuseumNext , a 24-hour workshop for museum professionals focused on bringing new, wild museum projects into the world. We also ended the entire event with one of my favorite exercises, the Exquisite Corpse game, in which participants co-created comics of their craziest museum dreams.

Facilitation 32

Facilitation Reflection Museum Participatory 32

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

APRIL 23, 2008

I'm prepping for a workshop on Social Media and wanted do a round up of recent compelling examples of arts organizations using social media strategies and tools. The Museum solicited photographs from artists via an open call on their website, Facebook group, Flickr groups, and outreach to Brooklyn-based arts organizations.

Arts 74

Arts Social Media Examples Artist 74

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 7, 2007

I got my copy of the fall issue of Museums and Social Issues this week. The theme is "Civic Dialogue," and the journal includes articles on the historical, cultural, media, and museum practice of getting people talking to each other (including one by me about such endeavors on the web). A place many museums are not.

Museum 22

Museum Lecture Denver San Francisco 22

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.

Collaboration 55

Collaboration Community Tools Museum 55

Museum 2.0

JULY 10, 2018

The museum was in huge financial trouble. I'd spent years leading workshops around the world as a consultant. My expertise was on inviting strangers to participate in public settings like museums. The end of an event is one of those moments when the host has to actively practice leadership (and often abdicates).

Hosting 31

Hosting Arts Help Museum 31

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 7, 2010

Last week marked four years for the Museum 2.0 People--especially young folks looking to break into the museum business--often ask me how I got here. Ed Rodley recently wrote a blog post about museum jobs entitled "Getting Hired: It's Who You Know and Who Knows You." hour at the Museum. I made $26/hour at NASA and $7.25/hour

Museum 52

Museum Boston Participatory Job 52

Museum 2.0

MAY 3, 2011

Lots of museums these days have video comment booths to invite visitors to tell their stories, but how many of those booths really deliver high-impact content? Last week, I talked with Tina Olsen, Director of Education and Public Programs at the Portland Art Museum, about their extraordinary Object Stories project.

Story 53

Story Interview Museum Audio 53

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 3, 2009

Last month, the Christian Science Monitor published an article entitled, "Museums' new mantra: Connect with community." It took me a couple weeks (and various museum blog responses ) to realize what bugs me about this article--it treats "connecting with community" as a marketing ploy, a "mantra" rather than a mission.

Community 22

Community Museum San Diego San Francisco 22

Museum 2.0

MAY 3, 2010

Last week, I attended Structure Lab , a half-day workshop on legal and financial structures for ventures for social good. The cards were a brilliant touch--they helped structure the day, supported simple prioritizing and sorting activities, and gave participants with a tangible, reusable take-home. The good news? The bad news?

Structure 31

Structure Model Social Profit 31

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 16, 2009

Imagine activities that actually encourage you to spend time on said beach. Imagine workshops led by inspiring rock stars from gaming, festivals, and special effects. There will be discussions, workshops, immersive activities, and plenty of time to relax and seduce the creative genius inside you.

Collaboration 20

Collaboration Registration Brain Participatory 20

Museum 2.0

JUNE 6, 2008

On June 4, we opened The Tech Virtual Test Zone , a new 2000 sq ft gallery at The Tech Museum of Innovation featuring exhibits on the theme of art, film, and music that were originally developed in Second Life by a community of creative amateurs. Some museum pros have been puzzled by this. than by talking in suppositions.

Virtual 21

Virtual Tech Lesson Develop 21

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 24, 2014

Inspired by Stacy, I wanted to share some of the work we are doing at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History to clarify what we mean by engagement. In early 2014, we developed a set of five engagement goals: Relevant, Sustainable, Bridging, Participatory, Igniting. We developed these goals through a series of all-staff workshops.

Goal 48

Goal Museum Evaluation History 48

Museum 2.0

MAY 8, 2013

Like a lot of organizations, my museum struggles with two conflicting goals: The museum should be for everyone in our community. At the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History , we''re approaching this challenge through a different lens: social bridging. And rarely the twain shall meet.

Museum 55

Museum Social Arts History 55

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 28, 2007

Welcome to the second in the four-part series on comfort (and its boundaries) in museums, a day late but just as tasty. I came out of it truly amazed by the power of the museum—not just to elicit laughter, but also to induce bizarre and voluntary acts of silliness in front of and with strangers. By sending people on missions.

Program 20

Program People Museum Lecture 20