Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 15, 2009

Over the past year, I've noticed a strange trend in the calls I receive about upcoming participatory museum projects: the majority of them are being planned for teen audiences. Why are teens over-represented in participatory projects? Teens are a known (and somewhat controllable) entity. The first of these reasons is practical.

Teen 24

Teen Participatory Experiment Museum 24

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 19, 2015

We start with the community and build to projects. Here are two examples: Our Youth Programs Manager, Emily Hope Dobkin, wanted to find a way to support teens at the museum. Emily started by honing in on local teens' assets: creativity, activist energy, desire to make a difference, desire to be heard, free time in the afternoon.

Teen 20

Teen Museum Voice Collaboration 20

Museum 2.0

MARCH 3, 2007

If you haven’t been, it’s a fabulous building stuffed with heavy hitters. The collection is disaggregated, grouped by floor (Painting and Sculpture 1) rather than artist, movement, time period, or geography. Most featured Name of Artist, Name of Piece, Year of Execution, Materials. Did the artist like it? Is this enough?

Arts 30

Arts Museum Artist Audio 30

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 7, 2010

I had a healthy second life as a slam poet, and I loved the world of artists and performance. At the tiny science center, I got to do everything from leading programs to building exhibits to managing volunteers to cleaning snot off of plexiglass. There is lots of room for new voices online. I hope this is helpful for someone.

Museum 52

Museum Boston Participatory Job 52

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. We experimented with many different forms of visitor participation throughout the building, trying to balance social and individual, text-based and artistic, cerebral and silly.

Participatory 51

Participatory Museum Blackboard Game 51