Museum 2.0

APRIL 26, 2018

One that has found remarkable success is California’s Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. Simon knew something had to change. “We We changed our museum by reorienting on our community and really saying we exist to be of, by and for you, and to help build a stronger community.” The impact was dramatic.

Audience 49

Audience Washington Museum Intergenerational 49

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

OCTOBER 25, 2011

The system of making and distributing documentary films is changing rapidly. The creative process of making films is opening up and the outreach efforts to spark social change through documentary media are becoming much more dynamic and collaborative. Guest Post by Vincent Stehle. Perhaps not.

Guatemala 93

Guatemala Movie Artist Award 93

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. design new programs with a focus on history. I promise--after this post, I'll stop writing about this.

Museum 47

Museum History Arts Artist 47

Museum 2.0

JULY 11, 2012

I get excited about a lot of things in my work at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. That's how I felt when artist Ze Frank got in touch to talk about a potential museum exhibition to explore a physical site/substantiation for his current online video project, A Show (s ee minute 2:20, above).

Museum 45

Museum Participatory Artist History 45

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 29, 2012

In particular, we want exhibition collaborators--artists, researchers, historians, collectors--to understand our goals and how we intend to steer the exhibition development process. We knew internally that we wanted our exhibitions to become more interdisciplinary, more participatory, and more responsive to audience needs.

Museum 38

Museum Artist Participatory History 38

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. I loved Jasper Visser's list of 30 "do's" for designing participatory projects earlier this month. Artists work incredibly hard to produce their work. This isn't even participatory. It's just fun.

Design 45

Design Participatory Learning Instruction 45

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 23, 2018

We partnered with foster youth, former foster youth, artists, and community advocates to create an exhibition that used art to spark action on issues facing foster youth. This project wove together many different participatory threads. It empowered our partners, deeply touched our visitors, and catalyzed real community change.

Issue 45

Issue Childhood Community Create 45

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 24, 2012

To that end, our exhibitions are full of participatory elements. What started as a fun personal project for her will hopefully become part of our permanent history gallery--a space we are trying to make more interactive over the coming years. Visitors can comment on how we can improve or what they would like to see.

Platform 41

Platform Open Museum Participatory 41

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 30, 2013

When the music video was not focused on Mexican culture, no such change occurred. Our theory of change posits that when we develop projects that bridge “unexpected connections” between diverse people and ideas, people build understanding and social capital with community members from different cultures, generations, and backgrounds.

Measure 47

Measure Arts People Museum 47

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. You can learn more about her work here. The area that houses the Creativity Lounge also shows art.

Museum 51

Museum Arts History Columbus 51

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 18, 2013

Originally posted in April of 2011, just before I hung up my consulting hat for my current job at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. In 2008 and 2009, there were many conference sessions and and documents presenting participatory case studies, most notably Wendy Pollock and Kathy McLean''s book Visitor Voices in Museum Exhibitions.

Museum 45

Museum Question Participatory Evaluation 45

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 15, 2014

Things must change. Artists and arts organizations are contributing their spaces and their creative energies. Yet our posts contain similar phrases such as “21st century museums,” “changing museum paradigms,” “inclusiveness,” “co-curation,” “participatory” and “the museum as forum.” We are not enough on our own.

Museum 52

Museum Blogger Cleveland Missouri 52

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? History Museums OPPORTUNITIES - History museums are in many ways the best-suited for visitor participation.

Museum 29

Museum Difference Participatory History 29

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 18, 2012

There are many participatory experiences that appeal primarily to adults, and they are designed distinctly for adults. There's a huge difference between the edgy, DIY beauty of Candy Chang 's participatory urban artworks and the dayglow colors, exclamatory language , and preschool fonts of most museum interactives.

Interaction 47

Interaction Design Museum Participatory 47

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 7, 2010

For years, I've been fascinated and a bit perplexed by the Elsewhere Collaborative , a thrift store turned artists' studio/living museum in Greensboro, North Carolina. What values change in that not so subtle shift between people, things, and the common space shared between them?

Collaboration 36

Collaboration North Carolina Museum Artist 36

Museum 2.0

MAY 21, 2014

I''ve now been the executive director of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History for three years. Over the past three years, we''ve tripled our attendance, doubled our budget, and, most importantly, established deep and diverse relationships with community members, artists, and organizations across Santa Cruz County. She is right.

Museum 49

Museum Director History Teen 49

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 26, 2012

This article sparked some interesting discussion online with colleagues from natural history museums, which deal with damage and touching very differently than art institutions do. I'm sometimes wary of studies of "innovation," but I like how this one could be used reflectively within an organization to assess openness to change.

Denver 33

Denver Museum Arts Participatory 33

Museum 2.0

APRIL 25, 2011

I've seen this line of questioning almost completely disappear in the past two years due to many research studies and reports on the value and rise of participation, but in 2006-7, social media and participatory culture was still seen as nascent (and possibly a passing fad). In 2008, the conversation started shifting to "how" and "what."

Question 49

Question Participatory Museum Evaluation 49

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 14, 2011

These are both busy people, and while they are very artistic, neither is a crack drawer. This experience reminded me of how much confidence it takes to say yes to any new activities (this isn't limited to participatory projects) because of unfamiliarity with the process. I asked what plan B was if visitors didn't draw the items.

Participatory 43

Participatory Classroom Help Artist 43

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 12, 2017

A cheerful curly-haired deli owner stands in front of 30 of us and shares a quote he loves: "Artists live in the present and write detailed histories of the future." It was even more useful to learn how participatory writing visions can be. Writing a vision can empower you, clarify your thinking, and help you change the world.

History 26

History Pennsylvania Michigan Indiana 26

Museum 2.0

MAY 9, 2012

Attendees brought up questions about how they can get more involved with financial discussions in their institutions, how we can change the ways we approach fundraising, how we can think about earned income differently. In particular, we had a great group of 15 talking about participatory history experiences on Sunday.

Reflection 43

Reflection Columbus Museum Participatory 43

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. We exist for people who live in Santa Cruz County.

Build 20

Build Community Museum Artist 20

Museum 2.0

MARCH 28, 2012

How do you find out what's important to different communities, and how do you change your plans based on their needs? At the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (MAH), we've started experimenting with a "community first" approach to program development. It was an evening meeting with beer and chips. Then, we went honeycomb-crazy.

Program 49

Program Community Design Museum 49

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 14, 2013

We ran with it and have since generated data about decision-making, cooperation, competition and negotiation for scientists (and also some artists) to play with. He''ll be able to watch how certain activities evolve into coordination and what kinds of histories the people who most easily coordinate have in common.

Museum 51

Museum Roles Game Participatory 51

Museum 2.0

JULY 7, 2010

Most of my work contracts involve a conversation that goes something like this: "We want to find ways to make our institution more participatory and lively." It requires trading a certain history for an uncertain future--a nerve-wracking prospect no matter the situation. And that change might alienate some traditional audiences.

Audience 40

Audience Museum Oakland Participatory 40

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 20, 2013

The majority of our public programs at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History are created and produced through community collaborations. It’s not unusual for us to meet with an environmental activist, a balloon artist, a farmer, and the Mayor of Santa Cruz all in one day. Large and small (or no) followings.

Collaboration 55

Collaboration Community Tools Museum 55

Museum 2.0

MAY 5, 2009

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! which followed a very strict formula that frustrated some participants who wanted to be treated like artists, not contributors to a data experiment.

Slides 20

Slides Participatory Museum Children 20

Museum 2.0

JULY 18, 2017

This exhibition is a big accomplishment for us because it incorporates multiple ways we push boundaries at the MAH: we co-designed it with 100+ community partners (C3) , including artists, foster youth, and youth advocates, with youth voices driving the project from big idea to install to programming.

Action 44

Action Childhood Artist Info 44

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 6, 2012

In a straightforward way, Marilyn explains how her team developed a participatory project to improve engagement in a gallery with an awkward entry. Our colleagues in the Museum of Natural History were eager collaborators. If we changed the public display part could we make this an activity visitors can understand on their own?

Museum 45

Museum Arts Problem Design 45

Museum 2.0

JULY 24, 2012

When we talk about making museums or performing arts organizations more participatory and dynamic, those changes are often seen as threatening to the traditional arts experience. What if historic arts experiences were actually a lot more participatory? But what if the "traditional" arts experiences is a myth?

Greece 51

Greece Arts Industry Participatory 51