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. age/gender unknown).

Story 47

Story Participatory Museum History 47

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. Short story: we learned a lot. This project wove together many different participatory threads. We'd love to see this model evolve and grow.

Issue 45

Issue Childhood Community Create 45

Museum 2.0

APRIL 7, 2009

Which of these descriptions exemplifies participatory museum practice? Museum staff create an exhibit by a traditional internal design process, but the exhibit, once open, invites visitors to contribute their own stories and participation. In the first case, you are making the design process participatory. The exhibit opens.

Participatory 27

Participatory Design Difference Museum 27

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

SEPTEMBER 27, 2017

Then, for an hour, former foster youth who helped design the exhibition shared their stories with supervisors. The Lost Childhoods exhibition is a platform for 100+ partners to share their stories, artwork, ideas, projects, volunteer opportunities, and events. This argument became one of the foundations of The Participatory Museum.

Platform 31

Platform Impact Childhood Museum 31

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.

Public 27

Public Museum Arts History 27

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 11, 2012

Last week, the local newspaper did a really generous front-page story on my museum (the MAH) and the changes here over the past eight months since I started. Our team focused this year on just three things: making the museum more comfortable, hosting new participatory events, and partnering wherever possible.

Audience 47

Audience Museum Participatory History 47

Museum 2.0

MAY 9, 2012

While I'm always inspired by stories of how we take risks to make programming more relevant and dynamic (thanks, Lisa Lee and the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum ), I was particularly struck by Kathy's thoughtful framing of the session. Our curator writes labels about licking the art. Merilee Mostov and the Columbus Museum of Art.

Reflection 43

Reflection Columbus Museum Participatory 43

Museum 2.0

MAY 2, 2012

Today is my one-year anniversary as the executive director of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. We went through a dramatic financial turnaround and redefined our relationship with our community through a series of experimental participatory projects and new programmatic approaches. 85% of our visitors attend through events.

Museum 55

Museum Director Participatory Culture 55

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. And my museum, and this new model, as a space for them to do so. I wholeheartedly believe it has the power to advance science (and art and cultural heritage) through the power of play.

Museum 51

Museum Roles Game Participatory 51

Museum 2.0

JULY 20, 2016

However, I have enormous respect for the customer-centered model when it is executed in ways that truly invite visitors in on their own terms and deliver satisfying experiences. I felt that comfort, satisfaction, and joy on a recent visit to two museums in Glasgow: Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and Riverside Museum.

Museum 20

Museum Audience Music Arts 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?

Case Study 20

Case Study Participatory Studies Museum 20

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. Projects participatory museum. Again, hundreds of mostly young people shot hundreds of videos and photos featuring or on location at the museum.

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Museum Hosting Model Community 22

Museum 2.0

JULY 9, 2009

Last month, I met an artist who was part of a group that created a renegade podcast tour for the Portland Art Museum. But I also found myself wondering if this imagined set of interpretations for the art was any more compelling or useful than any other imagined set of interpretations. They model the requested visitor contributions.

Museum 22

Museum Alternative Portland Artist 22

Museum 2.0

MARCH 15, 2010

It's not the extent to which they are participatory. In some cases, that's based on subject matter, as at the Museum of Jurassic Technology or the American Visionary Art Museum. But that's only part of the story. Tags: children's museums design business models. It's not their size or type or subject matter.

Support 41

Support Museum St. Louis NSF 41

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 20, 2009

While the majority of experience-based museums like children's and science museums have unrestricted noncommercial photography policies, many collections-based art and history museums continue to maintain highly restrictive photo policies. There are thriving groups of Flickr users who share photos of themselves imitating art.

Museum 54

Museum Photo Policy Open 54

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 7, 2010

This seems like an appropriate time to share the story. My story is more a case of "Getting Hired: It's What You Want, How Aggressive You Are, and What Ideas You Can Offer." I also learned that the best money in museums for someone who's starting out is in art modeling. It's a long post, and you might not be interested.

Museum 52

Museum Boston Participatory Job 52

Museum 2.0

JULY 1, 2008

Today, both of these models are threatened, and within 50 years they will no longer be sustainable. Why are our current models failing? We rarely offer alcoholic beverages, comfortable seating, background music, or free admission to go with the art, lectures, and interactive experiences now available in many hybrid retail spaces.

Museum 20

Museum Library Participatory Wikipedia 20

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

I''m glad to see coverage about art museums involving visitors in exhibitions. It''s neither "quick" nor "inexpensive" to mount exhibitions that include diverse community stories. Yes, community involvement is at the heart of our shifted, successful business model. The curators are the humans in the story. Not a crowd.

Journal 54

Journal Participatory Museum Community 54

Museum 2.0

MAY 16, 2007

social networking model to the real world, the implications of tracking, publishing, and spreading become obvious. I can just imagine the headline: CHILD MOLESTERS CALL ON ART, VICTIMS. Structure the space with a clear story (and commensurate rules). Tags: participatory museum visitors.

Museum 20

Museum Myspace Facilitation Social Network 20

Connection Cafe

NOVEMBER 1, 2018

You see them in business models like Airbnb, right? So that’s an extraordinary model and the reason it’s been able to scale so quickly is because of new power. You have housing, markets change, you have rental markets all too and so it’s these models that are able to do that so quickly.

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Social Game Model Fun 22

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.

Slides 22

Slides Museum Los Angeles San Jose 22

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 24, 2008

Facebook has a diversified object model--for some people, friend updates are the essential object, for others, it's virtual gifts. We know that the stories and connections between visitors and objects exist--we just have to find ways to use those connections to turn the objects into triangulation points for social behavior.

Museum 26

Museum Social Participatory Flickr 26

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 8, 2008

So when people like me start advocating for the creation of tools and opportunities by which visitors can share their stories, reaggregate the artifacts, even rate and review each others' creations, museum professionals of all stripes get concerned. There are many models as well for what we do with user-generated content in the museum.

Authoring 42

Authoring Platform Museum YouTube 42

Museum 2.0

JUNE 11, 2014

This post was written by my colleague Nora Grant, Community Programs Coordinator at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. There are many different models, including The Pop-Up Museum of Queer History , The New York Met , SF Mobile Museum , and even a Pop Up Prison Museum. What does this look like?

Museum 49

Museum Grant Lesson History 49

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 6, 2019

I spent 2007-2011 traveling the world, doing participatory projects and consulting gigs, and writing my first book. You gave me confidence, guidance, and stories for my books. You gave me support as I struggled to lead a museum through a participatory rebirth. I never experimented here with models for collective writing.

Museum 27

Museum Reflection Participatory Attitude 27

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 15, 2009

It launched in October of 2007 with a very simple and understandable idea: to produce a global map of pieces of art made with stones on beaches. The act of making art, and the recognition on a simple website, are the only rewards. It's about making art, connecting to the earth, and being part of something greater.

Project 38

Project Museum Artist Map 38

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.

Authoring 44

Authoring Share Museum YouTube 44