Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 23, 2013

But here I sit, the director of a museum that almost closed, squirreling away money for an operating reserve. They closed for capricious financial reasons, and they left disappointed artists and participants in their wake. Consider the museum I run. We had a dedicated staff that wanted to make this museum as good as it could be.

Organization 55

Organization Museum Arts Nonprofit 55

Museum 2.0

APRIL 2, 2014

There are many artistic projects that offer a template for participation, whether a printed play, an orchestral score, or a visual artwork that involves an instructional set (from community murals to Sol LeWitt). Beck talks about this in the context of learning to play music as a young artist. Everything old is new again.

Participatory 52

Participatory Arts Music Learning 52

Museum 2.0

JUNE 12, 2013

TCG is the industry association for non-profit theaters, the way AAM is for museums. Given TCG''s multi-year Audience (R)evolution initiative, I took the opportunity to write a new talk about what revolution has looked like at our small museum in Santa Cruz. We heard again and again that the museum was cold and uncomfortable.

Museum 55

Museum Learning History Arts 55

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. Over the past seven years, this exploration has been undertaken by a staff of artists and more than 35 creators each year participating in our residency program.

Collaboration 36

Collaboration North Carolina Museum Artist 36

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 29, 2010

This question is a byproduct of the reality that most participatory projects have poorly articulated value. But the best participatory projects don't suffer from this problem, because they solicit visitors' contributions toward a very specific outcome. The project is designed to scale. What's the "use" of visitors' comments?

Participatory 48

Participatory Music Project Video 48

Museum 2.0

JULY 26, 2010

From a museum perspective, I think there's a lot to learn from these venues' business models, approach to collecting and exhibiting work, and connection with their audiences. Machine Project (Los Angeles, CA). It's run by Jon Rubin, an artist and professor of social practice at Carnegie Mellon, and his students.

Culture 49

Culture Alternative St. Louis Los Angeles 49

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 3, 2012

But Vi doesn't work in a science museum. Beth Harris and Steven Zucker, who are well known in museums for their excellent Smarthistory website and podcasts. the way the best museums do. Does this mean Khan Academy is competitive with museums? She would be the best science center educator ever.

Learning 55

Learning Free Museum Online 55

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 23, 2018

Two years ago, our team at the MAH embarked on our most challenging co-creation project ever. 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.

Issue 45

Issue Childhood Community Create 45

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

And then there's the Berkeley Ace hardware store, which has a basement lair devoted to model trains. When you find a bar with your favorite song on the jukebox, or a museum room that feels like your grandmother's living room, you suddenly feel a strong affinity and are able to see yourself reflected in the space. What's going on here?

Museum 34

Museum Los Angeles San Francisco Model 34

Museum 2.0

JULY 9, 2009

Seb Chan has a lovely, long interview up at Fresh+New with Helen Whitty about the Powerhouse Museum's new mini-exhibition, the Odditoreum. The Odditoreum is another wrinkle in the study of visitors' understanding and interpretation of authenticity in museums. I enjoyed listening to it (virtually, not at the museum).

Museum 22

Museum Alternative Portland Artist 22

Museum 2.0

JULY 12, 2010

Kickstarter is a website for creative folks to find funding for their dream projects. Currently, the site supports US-based projects only. A Kickstarter project has three parts: Project description. This is typically a video plus text, although some projects just use a simple image instead of a video. Funding goal.

Fund 49

Fund Museum Pledge Game 49

Museum 2.0

MAY 3, 2017

This is the ninth 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. Working with creative people taught me to think like an artist: observe, explore, dive in, look out. We develop the projects. We develop the ideas.

Develop 20

Develop Artist Participatory Blended 20

Museum 2.0

MAY 9, 2012

Last week, I was in Minneapolis for the American Association of Museums annual meeting. Kathleen McLean led a terrific session called "Dangerous Ridiculous" about risk-taking in museums. Interestingly, at my museum, our team is naturally better at ridiculous than we are at dangerous. I found this idea really powerful.

Reflection 43

Reflection Columbus Museum Participatory 43

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). It's the ability for me to work with my CFO to be able to budget and align the right kinds of resources for new projects. A crew that has the capacity to build a sign at the last minute.

Arts 46

Arts Interview Teen Artist 46

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 9, 2009

Between high-altitude hijinks, run-ins with wildlife, and very long days of hiking, I finished John Falk's new book, Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience. In other words, if you are a curious person, you will go to museums to learn new things.

Museum 28

Museum Maslow Facilitation Personal 28

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

MAY 13, 2015

Visitors in front of the African Elephant Diorama at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHMLAC photo) This guest post was written by Karen Wise, Vice President, Education and Exhibits at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. “I Familiarity may breed contempt in some contexts, but apparently not in museums.

Los Angeles 20

Los Angeles Museum History Artist 20

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 14, 2007

Let’s say you wanted to find a model museum using Web 2.0 A place that does all this in the context of a fairly traditional collections-based museum. A place that does all this in the context of a fairly traditional collections-based museum. It’s the Brooklyn Museum. to support programs and exhibits.

Museum 27

Museum Interview Flickr YouTube 27

Care2

JANUARY 13, 2012

Pin your students science fair projects. Pin masterpieces from the budding artists in your arts classes. Think about the tire-swing at the park, the basketball court made from old sneaker rubber, the community garden using the snow from an organic office paper shredder as insulation, the kids art project made from old bottle caps, etc.

Ideas 78

Ideas Images Flickr Adopt 78

Museum 2.0

JULY 20, 2007

I read recently about an awesome project at the San Jose Museum of Art in 2001, Collecting Our Thoughts, in which visitors were invited to write the labels for an art exhibition (more another time). But it's a lot of fun, and it could be a great way to construct a personalized takeaway from a museum experience. Then a number.

Museum 20

Museum Game San Jose Artist 20

Museum 2.0

MARCH 15, 2010

People often ask me which museums are my favorite. I visit lots of perfectly nice, perfectly forgettable museums. In some cases, that's based on subject matter, as at the Museum of Jurassic Technology or the American Visionary Art Museum. Some are scrappy and iconoclastic, like the City Museum in St.

Support 41

Support Museum St. Louis NSF 41

Have Fun - Do Good

MAY 16, 2012

She is also a registered yoga teacher and plans to have a finished memoir project by the end of this year. And it’s a sweet life to have been able to turn service into a supportive business model. Supporting art and artists, writers and books. Doing good is fun. My work as a Health Coach is deeply rewarding.

Fun 69

Fun Feeds Delicious Blogher 69

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 22, 2012

What happens when a formal art museum invites a group of collaborative, participatory artists to be in residence for a year? Will the artists ruin the museum with their plant vacations and coatroom concerts? Will the bureaucracy of the institution drown the artists in red tape? No, this is not a reality TV show.

Artist 39

Artist Museum Project Public 39

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 19, 2015

One of my favorite comments on the first post in this series came from Lyndall Linaker, an Australian museum worker, who asked: " Who decides what is relevant? Community First Program Design At the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History , we've gravitated towards a "community first" program planning model. My answer: neither.

Teen 20

Teen Museum Voice Collaboration 20

Museum 2.0

JUNE 22, 2007

Over three days, 60 programmers/artists/composers/pranksters worked all hours to create finished computer-based games from scratch. It's about taking what you already know, combining it with your keen focus and ability to program for HOURS, and ending up with a finished project. This is the real deal, people.

Museum 20

Museum Game Artist Product 20

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." This seems like an appropriate time to share the story.

Museum 52

Museum Boston Participatory Job 52

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 29, 2007

Thanks to Kyle Evans, who forwarded me the fascinating, lengthy master’s dissertation.art: Situating Internet Art in the Modern Museum by Karen Verschooren at the MIT Comparative Media Studies program. In it, Karen provides a survey of the evolving relationship of Internet art to art museums. Citizen science programs. On the website?

Museum 20

Museum Web Arts Internet 20

Museum 2.0

JULY 22, 2008

A platform for museum staff to serve as facilitators of safe spaces for difficult conversations? They are often one-offs for events but are increasingly included in the regular slate of programming at major libraries and cultural facilities (but at my count, only one museum). Could this be applied to museums? I think so.

Library 20

Library Model Museum Europe 20

Connection Cafe

APRIL 29, 2015

Year after year, MCON proves to be an unforgettable experience for artists, media, social entrepreneurs, corporate, nonprofit and public leaders, and passionate people from across the country. Business: Companies and leaders who are transforming old business models.

Generation 20

Generation Activities Active Activism 20

Museum 2.0

MARCH 21, 2008

It's been awhile since I've shared the progress of The Tech Virtual , the web and Second Life-based virtual exhibit workshop that The Tech Museum of Innovation opened in December of 2007. You can read other posts about this project by clicking Tech Virtual in the "Past Posts By Topic" sidebar on the right.)

Museum 20

Museum Virtual Tech Second Life 20

Nonprofit Tech for Good

DECEMBER 14, 2022

For example, if you join a modern art museum, there is a good chance you won’t have to pay admission to other modern art museums. You can create small posters for sponsor businesses to show off that they are giving back and sponsoring your org, team, project, or campaign. This can include museums, archives, galleries, etc.

Donor 343

Donor Sponsor Accessibility Music 343

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." You can write a vision for yourself, your organization, your project, or your team. In the Zingerman's model, visioning is for everyone at all levels of the organization.

History 26

History Pennsylvania Michigan Indiana 26

Museum 2.0

APRIL 23, 2009

Like many people who've worked in science centers and interactive experience museums, I've always been perplexed by the fact that hands-on workshop audiences top out around age 14. They are more than just workshop spaces--they are member institutions, like museums. Isn't this one of our dreams for museums?

Museum 24

Museum North Carolina San Francisco Structure 24

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 8, 2010

When we have a critical mass of new people, anywhere from 3-7 a month, I try to explain the project as briefly as possible. When other cities replicate the model, we’ll be able to track the origin and migration of these ideas from city to city through individuals. Tags: guestpost Unusual Projects and Influences.

Chicago 48

Chicago Library Public Culture 48

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.

Virtual 21

Virtual Tech Lesson Develop 21

Museum 2.0

APRIL 1, 2007

Recently, I’ve become a little disheartened by the extent to which the web has dominated my—and others’—thinking about ways that museums can integrate 2.0 But today I had an experience that reinvigorated my love for and belief in tangible projects that can fill museums with content that is user-generated, shared, and explored.

Generation 30

Generation Content Lesson Museum 30

Museum 2.0

JUNE 6, 2011

This is the casual attendance data from my first full month as the Executive Director of The Museum of Art & History in Santa Cruz. This graph is making me change the way I think about what our museum is for and how we should market it. Simply, I'm shifting my perspective from an exhibit-driven model to an event-driven one.

Museum 55

Museum Arts History Artist 55