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. And to cut to the end of the story first, yes, we are creating a project together, yes, you can participate, and yes to whatever other questions this brings up in your head. Photography, video, audio, text, origami, mail art.

Museum 45

Museum Participatory Artist History 45

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 24, 2012

I like to ask myself this question periodically, challenging myself to find substantive ways for visitors to contribute to our museum. To that end, our exhibitions are full of participatory elements. Evergreen Cemetery Board Game. How do community members make your institution better? Here's a picture of it in action.

Platform 41

Platform Open Museum Participatory 41

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 11, 2012

For years, I'd give talks about community participation in museums and cultural institutions, and I'd always get the inevitable question: "but what value does this really have when it comes to dollars and cents?" but I didn't have numbers to back it up. They all have in concert, and they build on each other.

Audience 47

Audience Museum Participatory History 47

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 14, 2013

It''s resulted in some of my favorite work ever: games like #namethatzoom , projects like FeederSketch , adult-only Ball Pits , and most importantly, the creation of Experimonth , which is what I''d like to blog about today. But at my museum , the support doesn''t stop at our visitors. Experimonth started out as play.

Museum 51

Museum Roles Game Participatory 51

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 23, 2014

They were “preaching the museum gospel” in NYC via alternative tours at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. We interacted with the art and with each other through dynamic photo challenges, kinesthetic activities, and conversations. Heck, I even learned about a 17th century German drinking game. Who is the audience for Museum Hack?

Museum 55

Museum Interview New York Interaction 55

Museum 2.0

MAY 9, 2012

Our curator writes labels about licking the art. I host dating games. 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. I found this idea really powerful.

Reflection 43

Reflection Columbus Museum Participatory 43

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 18, 2012

When talking about active audience engagement with friends in the museum field, I often hear one frustrated question: how can we get adults to participate? They're playing video games. We assume that adults don't want to do crafts or play games--that they want the "serious" stuff. They're going to trivia night.

Interaction 47

Interaction Design Museum Participatory 47

Tech Soup

JANUARY 31, 2012

One of the most frequent questions I hear at events from nonprofit professionals in the field is how to coordinate teams to produce compelling media across offices, time zones and countries. This is a participatory live video show - come ready with your questions for our experts! Guests for Nonprofits Live: Collaborative Video.

Storytelling 67

Storytelling Collaboration Video Thailand 67

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 8, 2008

Today, the Luce Center at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) is launching what they claim is the first ever alternate reality game (ARG) in a museum. Why would an art museum create an ARG? All motivation to play comes from the players themselves, since it's not clear where the game is going or what the point is.

Game 20

Game Museum Arts Alternative 20

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 5, 2008

I was captivated by Chris Alexander 's story about participatory online/onsite efforts at the San Jose Museum of Art (SJMA). It is small and focused and highly repeatable (Chris and Lucy are producing a new YouTube series for the new exhibition on The Art of Cardboard ). Would my enthusiasm have been different? Projects.

Case Study 20

Case Study Participatory Studies Museum 20

Tech Soup

JANUARY 20, 2012

One of the most frequent questions I hear at events from nonprofit professionals in the field is how to coordinate teams to produce compelling media across offices, time zones and countries. This is a participatory live video show - come ready with your questions for our experts! Guests for Nonprofits Live: Collaborative Video.

Collaboration 44

Collaboration Storytelling Video Thailand 44

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 22, 2009

What does the word "participatory" mean to you? This isn't just a rhetorical question. The various definitions of participatory projects can lead to confusion and misunderstandings. The scientists control the process, steer the data collection, and analyze the results.

Public 36

Public Research Participatory Report 36

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 16, 2010

I spent some time playing with this question last week at the Milwaukee Art Museum, a large general museum that is moving toward redesign of the permanent galleries. I partnered with staff member Bambi Grajek-Specter, and we went out into the galleries armed with a simple question: "What would you recommend that I see?"

Experiment 44

Experiment Lesson Learning Museum 44

Museum 2.0

JUNE 12, 2012

It made me think in ways that I haven't before about the relation of art--as expressive culture--to democracy. It is multi-disciplinary, incorporates diverse voices from our community, and provides interactive and participatory opportunities for visitor involvement. Note: you can view these photos of the exhibition on Flickr here.)

Participatory 51

Participatory Museum Blackboard Game 51

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! Some of the most interesting questions included: how do you verify the accuracy and authenticity of visitor-contributed content?

Slides 20

Slides Participatory Museum Children 20

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 29, 2009

We also ended the entire event with one of my favorite exercises, the Exquisite Corpse game, in which participants co-created comics of their craziest museum dreams. I gave an hour-long talk about participatory design practices ( video here ), and Jim gave a small tour of an exhibition he had organized nearby. Facilitator bits.

Facilitation 32

Facilitation Reflection Museum Participatory 32

Museum 2.0

APRIL 3, 2009

We tried this at the Denver Art Museum last week, and it is incredibly challenging—you can’t just put out a box of chocolates and expect people to talk. We’ll be tackling tough questions around how to design elegant, physical substantiations of virtual functions like tagging and personalization.

Experiment 20

Experiment Seattle Indianapolis Denver 20

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 7, 2010

I also learned that the best money in museums for someone who's starting out is in art modeling. After a long day running around a science center, I would show up at the Worcester Art Museum in the evening and make $20 just to stand around and listen to a painting instructor talk about art. I hope this is helpful for someone.

Museum 52

Museum Boston Participatory Job 52

Museum 2.0

JULY 27, 2009

I’ve long admired Improv Everywhere , the NYC-based participatory public art group. At 4:30, Steve starts a “pointing game” in which he asks you to point to the tallest building you can see, then the Statue of Liberty, then Nicaragua. After the Nicaragua question, Steve says, “Most of you are pretty good at geography.”

Instruction 21

Instruction Instructional Nicaragua Experiment 21

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 25, 2009

If someone asked you that question, how would you answer? Answers will differ depending on who's asking, but they are also influenced by the designed environment in which questions are asked. If someone asks you a question on Twitter, you can only respond with 140 characters. "Where were you last night?"

Design 31

Design Goal Difference Platform 31

Museum 2.0

MAY 3, 2010

Like many people in the arts, I'm interested in new models that help people combine mission-driven work with an entrepreneurial spirit. The Structure Lab is set up as a "game" in which you explore cards in various categories (values, assets, financing, etc.) readers, who I see as potential co-conspirators).

Structure 31

Structure Model Social Profit 31

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 18, 2008

On 8.16.08, the Museum of Art and History (Santa Cruz, CA) hosted FreelanceCamp, a free unconference that brought 150 designers and techies from the south bay area together to talk shop. Several libraries have started to offer gaming nights where you can drink soda and play Wii to your heart's content. Projects participatory museum.

Museum 22

Museum Hosting Model Community 22

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 2, 2008

I had heard some influential museum leaders raise the question of what a wiki museum might look like, and I wanted to explore that and related concepts. Small, quirky projects like the public art geocaching exhibition in Bellevue, WA , and inspiring surprises like the Living Library program and book-drop based tagging at the Hague.

Museum 20

Museum Voice Minnesota Participatory 20

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. This is a question I've been puzzling over now for a few months, both professionally and personally. There's been a lot of innovation in arts programming in the last few years. How do you form an arts habit?

Arts 50

Arts Museum Music Calendar 50

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

JULY 3, 2008

I've written before about techniques for talking to strangers, looking at how buttons , buses , and dogs and can all be tools for participatory design. I used that instruction recently to kick off a meeting at a museum planning a participatory education space. There was a self-aggregating group who toured an art exhibition.

Participatory 20

Participatory St. Louis Museum Game 20

Museum 2.0

MAY 15, 2008

They articulate the basic questions and knee-jerk reactions in our own minds, carrying us deep into the content from a common starting place. Reread the question and substitute the word "visitors" for "listeners." It's not the most fun game ever. Tags: participatory museum Unusual Projects and Influences.

Conversation 20

Conversation Arts Museum Voice 20

Museum 2.0

JUNE 15, 2009

The unfacilitated experiences (discussed in more detail below) involved visitors writing their own pieces of advice on post-its and walls and answering each other's questions asynchronously. In Praise of the Post-It There's lots of post-it-powered art on the web these days (like this and this ). People also asked follow-up questions.

Advice 31

Advice Museum Facilitation Student 31

Museum 2.0

MARCH 30, 2016

Our entire strategy at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History is rooted in community participation. It's a good question. You can show up to a public meeting and ask a question. That means offering clear, visible, appealing participatory experiences that enhance the destination experience. You can meet a candidate.

Community 20

Community Museum Local Participatory 20

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. Their questions made me think about a blog post I wrote in 2008, The Future of Authority.

Authoring 44

Authoring Share Museum YouTube 44

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 25, 2010

no tour guides or game masters), you need to start by designing personal services for users, then linking up users through shared interests or objects to promote interpersonal connections. Stage two provides an opportunity for inquiry and for visitors to take action and ask questions. Ideas participatory museum.

Design 34

Design Museum Social Participatory 34