Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 18, 2011

In our quest to make the public areas of the museum more reflective of Santa Cruz culture, we moved these boards from a comprehensive display in the history gallery into a main stairwell, prominently visible from the lobby and throughout the building. We decided to approach the label-writing for these boards in a participatory way.

Participatory 48

Participatory San Diego Museum History 48

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. Deborah''s vision for the arts leading the way to stronger future inspired me. Deborah''s vision for the arts leading the way to stronger future inspired me. A fitness trail for urban life.

San Francisco 20

San Francisco Arts Design Marketing 20

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 16, 2013

Then again, Saturday was hardly normal at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. This past weekend, in conjunction with our exhibition about Ze Frank's current participatory project, A Show , we hosted " Ze Frank Weekend "--a quickie summer camp of workshops, activities, presentations, and lots of hugging.

Reflection 43

Reflection Community Museum Participatory 43

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

APRIL 23, 2008

I'm prepping for a workshop on Social Media and wanted do a round up of recent compelling examples of arts organizations using social media strategies and tools. I've covered arts organizations and social media here and there over the past three years and last winter co-wrote a cover story article with Rebecca Krause-Hardie for ArtsReach.

Arts 74

Arts Social Media Examples Artist 74

Museum 2.0

APRIL 20, 2009

I’d never attended before and was impressed by many very smart, international people doing radical projects to make museum collections and experiences accessible and participatory online. Are participatory activities happening on the web because that is the best place for them? Instead, I found a standard art museum.

Participatory 35

Participatory Museum Web Indianapolis 35

Museum 2.0

APRIL 26, 2018

One that has found remarkable success is California’s Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. She says that the museum made changes in hiring and board recruitment practices, and invited the community in to help reshape the facility into a place that reflected and represented its people and their interests.

Audience 49

Audience Washington Museum Intergenerational 49

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

MAY 7, 2010

I'm a huge fan of work and the way she thinks - especially after she road the Scare House ride on the Santa Cruz boardwalk with me and did a brilliant reflection on its design. Nina has written a fantastic book engagement called The Participatory Museum. Tags: Art Sector Arts & Technology engagement.

Model 98

Model Activities Active Activism 98

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 2, 2013

Elsewhere is at the top of my list of places I would most like to visit. Proposals involve sculpture, performance, participatory-projects, videos, and installation that use and respond to the museum’s collection. This past July, artist Guillermo Gómez proposed to restore a piece of art.

Artist 49

Artist Museum Proposal Participatory 49

Museum 2.0

JULY 1, 2011

I've now been the Director of The Museum of Art & History in Santa Cruz for two months. It really reflects what we're trying to do here to transform our institution into as relevant, dynamic, and successful an organization as possible. We all know Santa Cruz is such a creative place," she said.

Museum 31

Museum History Arts Work 31

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 4, 2010

It's rare that a participatory museum project is more than a one-shot affair. Wikipedia Loves Art, Take One The first version of Wikipedia Loves Art first took place in February 2009. Over 13,000 photographs were submitted by 102 photographers at the fifteen different institutions, documenting about 6,200 pieces of art.

Wikipedia 40

Wikipedia Arts Museum Images 40

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

NOVEMBER 14, 2007

The question forced me to reflect on my experience last summer. It made me curious about the art of mircoblogging - and how you develop the technique of saying it in 140 characters. I just discovered a new site called " Great Nonprofits " another participatory philanthropy site. How do you know if a charity is legit?

Reflection 50

Reflection Conversation Develop Cambodia 50

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 11, 2012

We started the summer with no money and a strategic vision to be a thriving, central gathering place. I can't say that any one experience--working on a collage with other visitors, swinging on a hammock, discovering a participatory display for pocket artifacts in the bathroom--directly contributed to increased attendance and giving.

Audience 47

Audience Museum Participatory History 47

Museum 2.0

JULY 31, 2013

You''re in for a treat, with upcoming posts on creativity, collections management, elitism, science play, permanent participatory galleries, partnering with underserved teens, magic vests, and more. And that got me thinking about why I blog in the first place. Reflective time is important, especially when your work is hectic.

Museum 35

Museum Participatory Reflection Conference 35

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

JANUARY 18, 2011

Establish local networks of individuals and organizations using social media to help build stronger organizations and more participatory societies. Everyone was asked to share five words or “hash tags&# on sticky notes and place them on the wall. Trainer the Trainers: Beth Kanter, Mohamad Najem, Jessica Dherre, and Mary Joyce.

Network 95

Network Build Yemen Morocco 95

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.

Public 27

Public Museum Arts History 27

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. Each camper had three sticky notes where we added our names.

Causes 50

Causes Change Museum Social 50

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? Aren't art museums less open to participation than other kinds of museums?" I was surprised by her question.

Museum 29

Museum Difference Participatory History 29

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.

Arts 50

Arts Community Online Intergenerational 50

Museum 2.0

MAY 21, 2014

It has some of the same feel as the disconnected affection of people wishing you a happy birthday on Facebook, with professional reflection baked in. Seeing so many cheerful one-liners in my inbox made me think about how different my work situation is today than the last time I reflected on it in public in 2012, at my one-year anniversary.

Museum 49

Museum Director History Teen 49

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). Many of the postcards are gems that provide powerful connections to strange people and places. But there are some places where it falls short. It doesn't launch new relationships.

Case Study 20

Case Study Participatory Studies Museum 20

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

APRIL 21, 2015

As the book points out, while fast, frequent, and informal makes it all sound easy, there is an art to it. Sharing has to help spread authenticity, emotion, and point of view. The chapter includes some great reflection questions: What stories can you share to advance your top goals? This means sharing stories and visuals.

Digital 50

Digital Strategy Chapter Advice 50

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. You never know who might have connections to some place or another. For our Art That Moves event, our Membership and Development Director suggested the incredibly popular Tarp Surfing activity.

Collaboration 55

Collaboration Community Tools Museum 55

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. We talked to visitors and made and placed cards for about half an hour. Tags: design participatory museum usercontent. Do you interrogate the map?

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

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're a place you can work off your traffic ticket.

Build 20

Build Community Museum Artist 20

Museum 2.0

APRIL 16, 2008

I've written before about the inspiring work that the Brooklyn Museum of Art is doing with their community-focused efforts. Click is an exhibition process in three parts: The Museum solicited photographs from artists via an open call on their website, Facebook group, Flickr groups, and outreach to Brooklyn-based arts organizations.

Museum 24

Museum Participatory Artist Arts 24

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. They reflect the soul of the community and can be responsive to its unique interests and needs. It's not their size or type or subject matter.

Support 41

Support Museum St. Louis NSF 41

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 20, 2010

On September 10, the Whitney Museum of American Art started offering a new membership called "Curate Your Own," in which members select one of five specialized "buckets" of benefits in addition to core admission and discount benefits. People want to experience art in quite individual ways. The "insiders" are another example.

Interview 46

Interview Director Museum Arts 46

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.

Museum 52

Museum Boston Participatory Job 52

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. Not every visitor is willing to be subversive.

Museum 22

Museum Alternative Portland Artist 22

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.

Participatory 46

Participatory Museum Arts Artist 46

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 25, 2009

When you want visitors to spend a long time reflecting and sharing their thoughts, you need to design spaces for response that are comfortable and minimize distractions. In this case, we talked about placing a large physical map of recommendations in the lobby rather than at the "end" of the experience, where visitor feedback often lives.

Design 31

Design Goal Difference Platform 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. The unconference got lots of locals "in the door" who otherwise hadn't considered the museum a useful or interesting place. Other person: Nope.

Museum 22

Museum Hosting Model Community 22

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 14, 2009

Unsurprisingly, some of my favorite museums are small, funky places run by iconoclasts—but that’s not useful to most professionals who work for organizations in which they have little control over size or leadership matters. What new projects might allow you to better reflect those aspirations? It’s nice to have both.

Project 22

Project Museum Teen North Carolina 22

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 5, 2013

Our museum in Santa Cruz has been slammed by those who believe participatory experiences have gone too far. We always knew that the inclusion of participatory and community-centered practices in arts institutions was controversial. To me, the backlash against participatory and community-centered experiences is not surprising.

Participatory 53

Participatory Museum Arts History 53

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? But comments on the gamers' forum like: An internet collaborative [sic] art display in a national museum? To expand their audiences.

Game 20

Game Museum Arts Alternative 20

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 6, 2012

I'm thrilled to share this brilliant guest post by Marilyn Russell, Curator of Education at the Carnegie Museum of Art. In a straightforward way, Marilyn explains how her team developed a participatory project to improve engagement in a gallery with an awkward entry. Reassert the "forum"?

Museum 45

Museum Arts Problem Design 45