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. We were discussing the potential for cultural organizations to have significant impact across communities: on planning, health, education, and quality of life. A fitness trail for urban life.

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San Francisco Arts Design Marketing 20

Museum 2.0

JULY 1, 2011

I've now been the Director of The Museum of Art & History in Santa Cruz for two months. Her goal is nothing less than to remake the MAH as the primary cultural touchstone of the Santa Cruz community, the place that best embodies the unique cultural vibe of Santa Cruz. "We

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Museum History Arts Work 31

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.

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Museum Question Participatory Evaluation 45

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). Nina Simon, the executive director of the museum, is an expert in participatory design and fantastic facilitator. A mature employee knows how to manage up.

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Causes Change Museum Social 50

Museum 2.0

JUNE 1, 2010

Like many museum and library professionals, I am enamored of the idea of cultural institutions as “third places” – public venues for informal, peaceable, social engagement outside of home or work. Regulars play an essential function in managing the social life of third places. Facebook discussion board here.

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Place Discussion Culture Museum 41

Museum 2.0

MARCH 14, 2017

This is the second installation 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. The MAH fundamentally has two jobs: we bring art and history out into our community, and we invite our community in. We want to break out.

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Public Museum Arts History 27

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). Yes and no.

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Question Participatory Museum Evaluation 49

Museum 2.0

MAY 21, 2014

I''ve now been the executive director of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History for three years. We work hard to name and build our culture in many ways. Institutional culture is something I never really understood before and I am now completely fascinated by how it can shape work. Naming our goals and our culture.

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Museum Director History Teen 49

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 27, 2012

Do you consider yourself an "activist" for your organization, avocation, or art form? Sure, I admire cultural organizations that have a strong mission to change education or diversify access or transform the role of art in everyday life, but I'm an insider. A national election is the ultimate participatory project.

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Product Build Museum Arts 51

Museum 2.0

APRIL 4, 2012

You have to care before you want to act, and caring--about the earth, about civil rights, about art--is not a given. I was reminded of this "care, then act" framework when I saw a recent story about a student's experience at a powerful issue-driven exhibition at the Skirball Cultural Center, Half the Sky. Sorry your life isn't awesome!

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Story Participatory Museum History 47

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

AUGUST 29, 2006

I met Janet Salmons many years ago while I working on various arts and technology projects in New York State for the New York Foundation for the Arts. I started in the Cornell University Center for Theatre Arts , where I founded and directed two programs: Cornell Theatre Outreach and the Community-Based Arts Project.

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Arts Community Online Intergenerational 50

Have Fun - Do Good

OCTOBER 30, 2009

29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life Filling the Well: Giving to Yourself Join My Village: Ladies Home Journal Do Good Challenge Make Someone's Day: Write a Letter Whew! Interesting WorldChanging post, Just Launched: Journal of Participatory Medicine. It's been a been a busy few weeks! nonprofit (valued up to $75,000 ).

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Green Los Angeles Gift San Francisco 40

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 5, 2008

Reason #258 I'm glad to live in California: Cultural Connections. Cultural Connections is a group of museum professionals who meet up a few times a year and host excellent programs on a variety of topics. I was captivated by Chris Alexander 's story about participatory online/onsite efforts at the San Jose Museum of Art (SJMA).

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Case Study Participatory Studies Museum 20

Museum 2.0

JULY 20, 2016

One hundred years ago, John Cotton Dana, founder of the Newark Museum and godfather of modern museums, famously said: “A great department store, easily reached, open at all hours, is more like a good museum of art than any of the museums we have yet established." All were given value. They offered genuinely interesting learning experiences.

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Museum Audience Music Arts 20

Museum 2.0

JULY 20, 2010

Last week, I gave a talk about participatory museum practice for a group of university students at UCSC. I immediately flashed to my work with art museums and staff members' concerns that older, traditional audiences will shy away from social engagement in the galleries.

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Teen Social Museum Participatory 49

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 14, 2013

First up is Beck Tench, a "simplifier, illustrator, story teller, and technologist" working at the Museum of Life & Science in Durham, NC. I wholeheartedly believe it has the power to advance science (and art and cultural heritage) through the power of play. author''s desk with brilliant colleagues who inspire me.

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Museum Roles Game Participatory 51

Museum 2.0

MARCH 28, 2012

At the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (MAH), we've started experimenting with a "community first" approach to program development. There are many amazing community representatives from business, arts, education, and social services who connect us to powerful ideas and partners. Six goals for MAH community programs.

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Program Community Design Museum 49

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. They talked about community building.

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Build Community Museum Artist 20

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

JUNE 5, 2006

It requires the ability to change our internal culture. " Here's my interview with her: I am curious as to whether or not you work for a nonprofit organization? I am still in the process of convincing our board and the managers that we need to be more responsive, but this requires much more than technology.

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Feeds Green Brain Audio 50

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 14, 2009

I used the example of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, which has a mission statement that includes unusual words like “bold” and “fearless.” Third, you need to align your idea with institutional culture. This may sound obvious and natural, but it’s easy to underestimate the power of institutional culture.

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Project Museum Teen North Carolina 22

Have Fun - Do Good

JULY 31, 2009

We're taking the art of freelancing for writers, and making it much more transparent and much more public. On Spot.us, we're trying to bring in a culture of transparency in journalism, where we say, "Invite the public into the reporting from day one. If life is a chessboard, content is still king. Where did the idea come from?

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Interview Fund Report Community 40

Museum 2.0

JUNE 10, 2010

I spent last week working with staff at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA) on ways to make this encyclopedic art museum more open to visitor participation across programs, exhibitions, and events. While there, I was lucky to get to experience a highly participatory exhibition that the MIA mounts once a decade: Foot in the Door.

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Participatory Museum Arts Artist 46

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

Imagine this situation: You go to an arts event, one of a type you rarely or never take part in. There's been a lot of innovation in arts programming in the last few years. There's been a lot of innovation in arts programming in the last few years. How do you form an arts habit? You have a great time.

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Arts Museum Music Calendar 50

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

I’ve been visiting museums my whole life. I’ve worked in them my whole adult life. He defined museums as “a lifeline between its community and the wider cultural landscape. — Art + Museum Transparency (@AMTransparency) September 21, 2019 Museum Transparency brought up the fact that museums are work places.

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Museum Place Life Ohio 36

Museum 2.0

MAY 8, 2013

At the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History , we''re approaching this challenge through a different lens: social bridging. Family Art Workshops" suffer from anemic participation whereas multi-generational festivals are overrun with families. Museum of Art and History programs social bridging' And rarely the twain shall meet.

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Museum Social Arts History 55

Everyaction

OCTOBER 5, 2016

The Digital Media and Learning Conference is meant to be an inclusive, international and annual gathering of scholars and practitioners in the field, focused on fostering interdisciplinary and participatory dialogue and linking theory, empirical study, policy, and practice. National Arts Marketing Project Conference. 11/10/2016.

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Conference Calendar DC Washington 111

Museum 2.0

MAY 15, 2008

We have a show coming up right now about synthetic biology, where engineers are building life forms that are new to existence, new to the history of life. After listening to this clip a few times, I wondered: what if museums dropped the authoritative voice, the cultural voice, the friendly teacher voice, and adopted a novice voice?

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Conversation Arts Museum Voice 20

Museum 2.0

JUNE 2, 2010

This session was participatory in several ways, including interactive music-making machines in the audience and half the time reserved for Q&A. A few things I learned from the presentations and discussion: Dan shared a useful 4-step mental model for the progression of how institutions move towards participatory engagement.

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Slides Museum Los Angeles San Jose 22

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 6, 2019

The response to this blog changed my life. I spent 2007-2011 traveling the world, doing participatory projects and consulting gigs, and writing my first book. You gave me support as I struggled to lead a museum through a participatory rebirth. is about participation, but I never fully succeeded in making it participatory.

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Museum Reflection Participatory Attitude 27

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 25, 2008

I didn't grow up staring open-mouthed at natural history dioramas or wandering through art galleries. Yes, there are some extraordinary museum experiences that have changed my life, but they are the exception, not the norm. There are many parallels between free-choice learning and participatory design. I go on hikes.

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Museum Alternative Education University 29

Museum 2.0

JUNE 29, 2010

The ideal of third places, that attracts we cultural heritage types, is a democratic space where civic life is built collaboratively and at a personal level. Nina's research keeps finding that the right kind of constraints work to produce a better participatory museum experience. That’s our main difference with Oldenburg.

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Place Discussion Library Museum 30

Museum 2.0

MARCH 6, 2019

This week, I've had multiple conversations with colleagues in the arts, symphonies, and urban planning about the fear professionals have about "losing control" when opening up new opportunities for people to participate. While I originally wrote this post to advocate for more participatory practice (i.e.

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Authoring Share Museum YouTube 44