Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 9, 2010

Jasper Visser and his colleagues at the not-yet-physically-open National Historisch Museum of the Netherlands have impressed me with their innovative, thoughtful approach to developing a dynamic national museum. Last weekend my museum presented itself at the Uitmarkt in Amsterdam. I believe it worked brilliantly.

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Museum Comment Experiment Participatory 34

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 1, 2018

I was at an informal talk by a visitor research professional from a large American art museum. Our real challenge," she said, "was how to attract new audiences while protecting loyal patrons." When the MAH was changing aggressively, we embraced Elaine Heumann Gurian's idea of "the museum of and." We bring them together.

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Museum Audience Slides Press 40

Museum 2.0

MAY 6, 2016

Five years ago, I left the consulting world to take the helm at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (MAH) at a time of crisis and change. We have spent the past three years planning and raising money for a project to build a creative town square for our city on the front porch of the museum. I bridle under too much structure.

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Museum Director Arts History 20

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 18, 2013

This August/September, I am "rerunning" popular Museum 2.0 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. I''ve spent much of the past three years on the road giving workshops and talks about audience participation in museums.

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Museum Question Participatory Evaluation 45

Museum 2.0

MAY 3, 2010

Last week, I attended Structure Lab , a half-day workshop on legal and financial structures for ventures for social good. The Structure Lab is set up as a "game" in which you explore cards in various categories (values, assets, financing, etc.) to better articulate what you are really trying to do with your project concept.

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Structure Model Social Profit 31

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 2, 2013

George Scheer is the director and co-founder of Elsewhere Collective, a fascinating "living museum" in a former thrift store in Greensboro, NC. In this post, George grapples with the challenges of balancing the care for a museum collection with that of contemporary artists-in-residence who are constantly reinterpreting it.

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Artist Museum Proposal Participatory 49

Museum 2.0

MAY 11, 2010

While it hasn't happened here in awhile, a new Museum 2.0 Many museum and library professionals use the concept of the third place to describe the idealized vision of a cultural institution as a place for community use and civic engagement. For four weeks starting June 1, each Tuesday there will be a Museum 2.0

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Museum Place Library Discussion 25

Museum 2.0

APRIL 1, 2010

This is the final segment in a four-part series about writing The Participatory Museum. This posts explains why and how I self-published The Participatory Museum. COST: Museum books tend to be expensive - because they are printed in small runs, the price for a 400-page paperback can be as high as $40. Why Self-Publish?

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Participatory Museum Process Adobe 33

Museum 2.0

JUNE 22, 2009

What do you do when you encounter a really great and unusual idea, one that you could implement but would require you to change some aspect of what you are currently doing? But I also remember the first time I participated in a RIG (Rapid Idea Generation) session with Julie Bowen, then of the Ontario Science Centre, at a conference in 2004.

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Action Ideas St. Louis Museum 31

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. It was an evening meeting with beer and chips.

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Program Community Design Museum 49

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 24, 2017

In the first rectangle, I sketched out one version of how our organization could be structured. After an hour, I had 12 different versions of our staff structure, each in its own little box. But among them lay the seeds of our museum’s future. But among them lay the seeds of our museum’s future. But I resisted structure.

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Org Learning Structure Museum 20

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 28, 2009

What role does “promoting human happiness” play in the mission statements and actions of museums? That’s the question I’m pondering thanks to Jane McGonigal and the Center for the Future of Museums (CFM). Earlier today, the CFM offered a free webcast of Jane McGonigal’s talk on gaming, happiness, and museums.

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Museum Game Structure South America 21

Connection Cafe

SEPTEMBER 4, 2019

In early 2019, Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh’s Engagement team, one arm of the Advancement and Community Engagement department, lost nearly every mid-level manager. Instead, we challenge you to move beyond what’s happened (the things you can’t control) and look forward by focusing on the things you can control. . Just Do It!

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Change Museum Leadership Fund 21

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 22, 2012

At the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, we take our interns seriously, give them real responsibility, creative challenges, and meaningful work opportunities. Second, and highly experimental, is the Museum Camp Internship. And of course, much more to come about Museum Camp in the months to come.) Exciting, right?

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Participatory Museum Photography Unconference 37

Museum 2.0

MARCH 27, 2013

I've written about different structures for participatory processes (especially in museums), and recently, I've been interested in how we can apply these structures to the design of public space. Their ideas were delightful, and their contributions shifted the conversation about what family-friendly really looks like.

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Design Participatory Children Museum 49

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 18, 2014

I''ve mostly seen museums employ one of two methods for formal community advisors: Create special "spots" on the board of trustees for certain kinds of community representatives. CON: can feel disconnected from the primary governance of the museum or can feel like a second-class board overall. I struggle with both these options.

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Community Story Museum Map 39

Museum 2.0

APRIL 1, 2009

On Monday, I gave the keynote at the Museums in Conversation conference in Tarrytown, NY. Greed, because creative greediness motivates us to hunt down and steal the best design techniques the world has to offer, and generosity, because giving those great ideas and applications away is the only way to change the larger cultural landscape.

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Museum Conversation Columbus Local 20

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 12, 2009

The conventional wisdom on museum memberships is that they are "one size fits many" programs whose primary benefits are free entrance to the museum and insider access to exhibition openings. But what about all the other people who love your museum? Want to know how the Brooklyn Museum is answering this question?

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Museum Audience Program Artist 24

Museum 2.0

MAY 31, 2011

Last week, at the annual meeting of the American Association of Museums in Houston, I was honored to chair a fabulous panel on empowering museum staff to take creative risks ( slides here ). Beck beautifully described her entry into museum work. What kind of support do you need to be confident about taking a risk in your work?

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Denver Museum Oakland PowerPoint 55

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 20, 2010

Audience segmentation and research has become a hot topic in museums, especially when it comes to crafting appealing offerings that are customized to different kinds of visitors. I sat down with Kristen Denner, Director of Membership and Annual Fund, to learn more about the program's development and the museum's goals for its future.

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Interview Director Museum Arts 46

Museum 2.0

JUNE 1, 2010

You can join the conversation in the blog comments, or on the Museum 2.0 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. This is the only post written by me, Nina Simon.

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Place Discussion Culture Museum 41

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. For years, I’ve been associated with the idea of “visitor participation.” At the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, our community starts with geography.

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Build Community Museum Artist 20

Museum 2.0

MARCH 8, 2011

Nikki created "The Ministry of Rules" --a shadow organization that existed for one week during half-term break, staffed by visitors who served as "Inspectors" investigating, exploring, and poking fun at the rules that make museums and galleries go. The Inspectors could contribute ideas about what that might happen as a result.

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Interview Museum Badge Game 37

Museum 2.0

APRIL 25, 2011

I've spent much of the past three years on the road giving workshops and talks about audience participation in museums. The Museum 2.0 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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Question Participatory Museum Evaluation 49

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

Payne," member of the incredibly popular Santa Cruz roller derby team, wants to pitch a partnership with our museum. She doesn't have a specific idea for a partner event or exhibit, but she feels like we have a lot to offer each other in terms of publicity and a shared focus on enhancing cultural experiences in the community.

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Phase Library Museum Homeless 38

Museum 2.0

JULY 7, 2010

Most museums that offer interactive exhibits, media elements, or participatory activities offer them alongside traditional labels and interpretative tools. Two institutions I see making this "or" choice in exciting ways are the Brooklyn Museum and the Oakland Museum in California. You can't always do "and."

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Audience Museum Oakland Participatory 40

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 29, 2009

Last week, Jim Richardson and I hosted MuseumNext , a 24-hour workshop for museum professionals focused on bringing new, wild museum projects into the world. 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.

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Facilitation Reflection Museum Participatory 32

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?

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Museum North Carolina San Francisco Structure 24

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). One key idea that Paul Light talks about is the notion of slack. It's always seemed challenging here to find funds for interpretative materials. Can you give me an example?

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Arts Interview Teen Artist 46

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

AUGUST 12, 2009

About three months ago Beth Kanter wrote about the Crowdsourcing of Vision at the Smithsonian Museum. Many nuances and constraints have been applied to Surowiecki’s original ideas, and examples advanced wherein the ideas work more or less effectively. That's where this post about crowdsourcing came out of it!

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Aggregator Model Leadership Method 82

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 11, 2010

Dear Museum 2.0 They may ask models directly to pose for the in more structured encounters. Here's the challenge: I need to settle on a final name for the cafe. Got a great idea? The basic idea of the cafe is "you enter as a stranger but leave as a friend or at least a friendly acquaintance." Share it here.

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Project Help Badge Model 35

Museum 2.0

APRIL 7, 2009

Which of these descriptions exemplifies participatory museum practice? Museum invites community members to participate in the development and creation of an exhibit. 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.

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Participatory Design Difference Museum 27

Museum 2.0

MARCH 4, 2009

It's fun, I learn something, I'm challenged to contribute something meaningful, and I connect with other users. The organizers also curate some of the most interesting cards and offer rewards for "outlier" ideas that are improbable but fascinating. You get the idea. In other words, it's way better. Purple for adaptation.

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Game Experiment Participatory Museum 24

Museum 2.0

JUNE 27, 2008

The VSA has replaced their keynotes with structured group dialogue. But the VSA has taken an intentional approach to these structured conversations with the goal of putting the (arguably) best part of conferences—the side conversations and hallway discussions—front and center. My first reaction was skepticism.

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Studies Associations Houston Museum 20

Nonprofit Tech for Good

DECEMBER 14, 2022

Nonprofit organizations have a lot of challenges relating to fundraising. 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. This can include museums, archives, galleries, etc. You get the idea. You just need to show proof of membership.

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Donor Sponsor Accessibility Music 343

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 2, 2008

Today, Museum 2.0 I started the Museum 2.0 blog in 2006 as a personal learning exercise about "the ways that museums do and can evolve from 1.0 I started the Museum 2.0 blog in 2006 as a personal learning exercise about "the ways that museums do and can evolve from 1.0 and watched the Museum 2.0

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Museum Voice Minnesota Participatory 20

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 30, 2006

There have now been a couple comments on this blog to the effect of: "Visitors already create content in museums through their thoughts and social interactions." The most immediate place to start sharing is with the people with whom you came to the museum. Give people tools to interact socially while in the museum. Great point.

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Share Second Life Museum Structure 20