Museum 2.0

AUGUST 29, 2012

Earlier this month, the Detroit Institute of Arts was "saved" by a voter-approved property tax (called a "millage") in its three surrounding counties. 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.

Detroit 49

Detroit Arts Public Support 49

Whole Whale

MARCH 29, 2022

Spring is a time that sees more people with a tidy sum of cash thanks to their tax returns, itching to go outside, and looking for things to do around key holidays like Easter, Passover, Nowruz, and Mother’s Day. By mid-spring, the sun is shining and people are eager to spend some time outdoors. Art Show and Silent Auction.

Ideas 98

Ideas Fundraising Fun Kentucky 98

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 1, 2012

Last week, Douglas McLellan of artsJournal ran a multi-vocal forum on the relationship between arts organizations and audiences, asking: In this age of self expression and information overload, do our artists and arts organizations need to lead more or learn to follow their communities more? Here are three of my favorites.

Arts 45

Arts Museum Artist Tucson 45

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 13, 2013

But this month, it's as if there was a subliminal email sent to a crew of bloggers in the arts suggesting a salon about audience diversity, and how/why to move in that direction. The posts are meaty and the commenting is robust. This never seems like a good idea. In some ways, what's more interesting is the world beyond this bubble.

Arts 48

Arts Question North Carolina Museum 48

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 28, 2013

Earlier in 2013, I was amazed to visit one of the new “Studio” spaces at the Denver Art Museum. The Denver Art Museum is no stranger to community collaborations, but we’ve been dipping in our toe a little more deeply when it comes to developing permanent participatory installations. Who are all of these people?

Denver 35

Denver Museum Arts Collaboration 35

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 16, 2015

Who are the people with whom you want to connect? When you are dealing with an audience of hundreds or thousands of people, you have to make assumptions. When you are dealing with an audience of hundreds or thousands of people, you have to make assumptions. Is it elitist to present art that may be dislocating or foreign?

Arts 20

Arts Artist Audience Project 20

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

APRIL 24, 2011

His comment made me reflect over the past 32 years of working in the nonprofit sector. They hired me and it turned into a decade of learning and teaching others (artists, arts organizations, and arts educators) how to integrate this technology into their work and organizations.

Maslow 98

Maslow Yemen Artist Arts 98

Museum 2.0

APRIL 15, 2015

"The arts are future-making." I wrote this down when Deborah Cullinan said it at a meeting of arts leaders about a year ago. Deborah''s vision for the arts leading the way to stronger future inspired me. But I couldn''t fully imagine how a museum or an arts center could embody it. A fitness trail for urban life.

San Francisco 20

San Francisco Arts Design Marketing 20

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 24, 2011

This post features an interview with Sarah Schultz, a museum staffer at one of the institutions Light profiled in the book (the Walker Art Center). Guard staff who are willing to let an artist step between two panes of glass to perform. A crew that has the capacity to build a sign at the last minute. It's inherent in what we do.

Arts 46

Arts Interview Teen Artist 46

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 27, 2013

Detail on distribution of artworks in the Tate collection by birthdate of artists, visualized by Florian Krautli. The Tate is providing metadata about artworks and artists in its collection--over 70,000 artworks in all. What does "big data" look like for museums? These visualizations are fun. But the discussions they raise are limited.

Open 55

Open Data Artist Museum 55

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

Writing my masters thesis for Gothenburg University’s International Museum Studies program while also working four days a week as the Director of Community Programs at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History this spring was certainly a challenge but also an incredible opportunity.

Museum 49

Museum Program Participatory Community 49

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 6, 2014

MuseumCamp is an annual professional development event at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History in which teams of diverse, creative people work on quick and dirty projects on a big theme. We encouraged teams to think like artists, not researchers. This was the question at the heart of last week''s MuseumCamp. To be playful.

Experiment 52

Experiment Impact Social Museum 52

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

NOVEMBER 12, 2015

You have to ask, how is polling the audience and seeing the aggregate results helping people learn? Here how collecting data and displaying aggregate might enhance learning: (Add in the comments if you think I missed anything). In other words, to what end? Support a fun icebreake r. She did so in the first few minutes.

Poll 50

Poll Technique Group Tools 50

Museum 2.0

APRIL 24, 2013

Check out this inane AT&T commercial about a woman whose absorption in her smartphone is so great that Facebook updates become substantiated as pieces of art in the museum through which she strolls. It also suggests that for young people, masterpieces in museums are not nearly as interesting as a good friend''s new haircut.

Museum 53

Museum Attention Arts Artist 53

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 9, 2011

She is a fabulous and thoughtful artist. It's a little living room in a lobby area that invites people to lounge on comfortable chairs, leaf through magazines and books related to art and Santa Cruz history, and generally hang out. The area that houses the Creativity Lounge also shows art. But Lisa questioned this.

Museum 51

Museum Arts History Columbus 51

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 27, 2011

but people aren't coming. The people who want that content may not be in the same city as the museum nor even aware of the museum's holdings. Institutions create exhibit microsites, blogs, and knowledge portals so people beyond the museum walls can explore content. How can he promote smarter outreach for the future?

Wikipedia 54

Wikipedia Content Museum Artist 54

Museum 2.0

MARCH 3, 2007

But I’d been scribbling notes for an art museum label post for awhile, and then yesterday, the NY Times had a review of a new show at MOMA, Comic Abstraction. And it ended with this: No wonder it [MOMA] ends up showing shallow, label-dependent art rather than work that offers deeper, more contradictory encounters. The review was harsh.

Arts 30

Arts Museum Artist Audio 30

Museum 2.0

JULY 26, 2010

I've been spending time recently interviewing people who run unusual cultural and learning venues. Art spaces masquerading as laundromats and letterpresses. This list is by no means exhaustive: please add your favorites (especially non-American ones) in the comments. Want some waffles with your art?

Culture 49

Culture Alternative St. Louis Los Angeles 49

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 12, 2012

This is a picture of the largest temporary exhibition gallery in the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. We're turning over the whole museum to projects that invite visitors to connect with the behind-the-scenes in the making of art and historical research. Thanks in advance for sharing your comments! Of course we can.

Work 40

Work Museum Artist Arts 40

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 29, 2012

We wanted to share with people, in as clear and transparent a format as possible, our approach to developing exhibitions. In particular, we want exhibition collaborators--artists, researchers, historians, collectors--to understand our goals and how we intend to steer the exhibition development process.

Museum 38

Museum Artist Participatory History 38

Nonprofit Tech for Good

DECEMBER 2, 2009

At it’s heyday, a few hours a day sending friend requests and posting wall comments on MySpace profiles quickly resulted in large, thriving online communities. MySpace is not just a community of poor people! This is the most common feedback I get about MySpace from people who don’t use it: “It’s just so ugly.&#

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Myspace Teen Facebook Social Network 190

Museum 2.0

JUNE 12, 2013

Over the past two years, the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History has undergone a significant transformation of program, audience, and resources. There was a small, dedicated group of people who knew and loved the museum, and then a larger community that barely knew we existed. At the same time, our community relevance was limited.

Museum 55

Museum Learning History Arts 55

Have Fun - Do Good

DECEMBER 3, 2009

In 2006, filmmaker Faythe Levine traveled 19,000+ miles visiting over 15 cities, and interviewing more than 50 indie artists, crafters, and designers. The result is a fun, fabulous documentary that recently came out on DVD, Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft, and Design. I watched it a couple nights ago, and *loved* it.

National 40

National Gift Artist Austin 40

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 28, 2011

We've been offering a host of participatory and interactive experiences at the Museum of Art & History this season. Please share yours in the comments. In contrast, people will read signs that explain how their work will be/was used, or that the giant sculpture of metal fish they are looking at was made by visitors.

Design 45

Design Participatory Learning Instruction 45

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. It is a group of people connected by something shared.

Build 20

Build Community Museum Artist 20

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 21, 2016

The chairs were cast-off art, reclaimed as art, available for people to take off the hooks and use. They were there for artist talks. What kind of an art institution is this? It encourages process-driven performances and art projects. It takes the kind of risks that a university art gallery should take.

Process 20

Process Share Philadelphia Arts 20

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 3, 2012

She's brilliant and funny and pushes people to get excited about higher math and the big ideas behind it. Salman Khan's videos give people access to good instructional content on standard (and often confusing or poorly taught) educational topics. She would be the best science center educator ever. How to solve a quadratic equation.

Learning 55

Learning Free Museum Online 55

Amy Sample Ward

JUNE 21, 2011

The speakers for this panel include: Tracy Fullerton – Electronics Arts Game Innovation Lab. Research libraries have been facing daunting challenges in the digital world, but not everything is digital in research and the library really wants to connect people with the curators and staff that can help them.

Game 140

Game Culture Museum Change 140

Care2

JANUARY 13, 2012

Pin pictures of people in their costumes at your holiday party carnival. Hold a Santa-Con celebration to get in the Christmas spirit, get pictures of people's paint-smeared faces at Holi, take advantage of when neighborhood kids show up to trick-or-treat at your door. Pin masterpieces from the budding artists in your arts classes.

Ideas 78

Ideas Images Flickr Adopt 78

Connection Cafe

OCTOBER 8, 2013

Product Marketing Manager for Arts and Cultural Solutions. Laura’s experience working at and serving on the board of multiple arts organizations around the country shape her insights into the nonprofit community. But where do you find more of these coveted people? Met the artist? Let them know! Let them know!

Costa Rica 46

Costa Rica Tips Arts Culture 46

Museum 2.0

MAY 21, 2014

LinkedIn has a new feature where people can congratulate each other on work anniversaries. It has some of the same feel as the disconnected affection of people wishing you a happy birthday on Facebook, with professional reflection baked in. I''m open to any questions you want to share in the comments. Building an amazing team.

Museum 49

Museum Director History Teen 49

Museum 2.0

JULY 18, 2007

When people talk about museum projects in Second Life and other virtual worlds, I'm often disappointed by the short-sightedness of the vision. As one YouTube visitor commented: A masterpiece recreated. But was I with those people in Second Life? I watched the beauty unfolding in front of me.

Second Life 20

Second Life Arts Life Machinima 20

Care2

JULY 13, 2012

Mobile apps are an interesting way for museums to advance their educational missions beyond people’s expectations. ArtClix from the High Museum of Art, Atlanta. MoMa by the Museum of Modern Art. Here’s our wrap-up of new, updated, and helpful apps for doing good. This week we’ve found apps from museums.

St. Louis 76

St. Louis Museum Mobile Camera 76

Museum 2.0

JULY 17, 2013

day adventure in which teams of adults--75 people, of whom about half are museum professionals, half creative folks of various stripes--developed an experimental exhibition around our permanent collection in our largest gallery. People talked about the camp as Project Runway for museums.

Museum 49

Museum Arts History Professional 49

Have Fun - Do Good

AUGUST 6, 2008

Last week I announced a new weekly feature that I'm trying out on Have Fun * Do Good, Ask Britt , where you send in questions related to career design for artists and activists, and I'll do my best to answer them. I encourage you to add on to my answers in the comments. Happy sales people create happy return customers.

San Francisco 40

San Francisco Green Artist Oakland 40

Museum 2.0

MAY 31, 2017

This is the eleventh in a series of posts on the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History ( MAH )'s development of Abbott Square , a new creative community plaza in downtown Santa Cruz. We had 2,000 t-shirts to give away, 850 balls to drop, and over a hundred artists, accordionists, salsa dancers, taiko drummers, and bubble ladies ready to go.

Open 37

Open Brain Press Museum 37

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

DECEMBER 3, 2008

Shelters R being overwhelmed because people R losing homes/can't afford pets. ALSofGNY : Offer to make up Pre-Addressed, Stamped Envelopes/Cards for people with disabilities for them to send out for the holidays. Leave a comment and I'll pick the random winners. Make sure you include a valid email address in the comment field.

Giving 50

Giving Free Gift Library 50