Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 17, 2012

When I started this blog in 2006, I made a multi-media introduction to the concept of "museum 2.0" Venue as content platform instead of content provider: the museum becomes a stage on which professionals and amateurs can curate, interpret, and remix artifacts and information. The museum gets better the more people use it.

Museum 47

Museum Artist Remix Professional 47

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 19, 2016

One of my organization's core values is radical collaboration. We believe that partnerships build a stronger museum and a stronger community. But radical collaboration with our community only works if we also collaborate internally as a team. We all collaborated to develop programs, strategies, and community partnerships.

Collaboration 20

Collaboration Tools Build Organization 20

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.

Museum 20

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.

Museum 45

Museum Question Participatory Evaluation 45

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?

Participatory 33

Participatory Museum Process Adobe 33

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.

Artist 49

Artist Museum Proposal Participatory 49

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

MAY 7, 2010

Nina has written a fantastic book engagement called The Participatory Museum. After a broad survey, Rick’s team defined three broad categories of public participation in scientific research: contribution, collaboration, and co-creation. Wiki users are often collaborators. I’ve added one more category to the mix called hosted.

Model 98

Model Activities Active Activism 98

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.

Story 39

Story Community Museum Map 39

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. We actively seek participation and develop structured opportunities for visitors to collaborate with us. We don't have to convince them that it's their museum.

Platform 41

Platform Open Museum Participatory 41

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. Each small group spent fifteen minutes brainstorming the needs for that community, and then another fifteen discussing potential projects and collaborators that could help meet those needs.

Program 49

Program Community Design Museum 49

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. Let's make sure not to decorate our projects with false participation where real collaboration is possible.

Design 49

Design Participatory Children Museum 49

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

APRIL 1, 2013

It takes you through the technologies and tools for each channel for different goals and offers up lots of case studies from organizations such as National Wildlife Federation, Red Cross, AARP, Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, American Museum of Natural History, SEIU and others. Click to see larger version. Sometimes easier said than done!).

Campaign 97

Campaign Online Chapter Model 97

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.

Org 20

Org Learning Structure Museum 20

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 15, 2012

We've gotten a little more organized at The Museum of Art & History , and we've now released opportunities for summer internships. These are unpaid part-time and full-time opportunities to help design public programs, develop new uses for the museum, perform visitor research, and pursue unusual projects.

Museum 34

Museum Participatory Arts Attitude 34

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 25, 2012

Stacey has been collaborating with local artists to produce a series of content-rich events that invite visitors to participate in a range of hands-on activities. But I honestly believe that visitors telling visitors what they get out of museum experiences is the most effective and authentic way to share what happens in a community museum.

Participatory 50

Participatory Activities Active Activism 50

Museum 2.0

JULY 10, 2018

The museum was in huge financial trouble. My expertise was on inviting strangers to participate in public settings like museums. I had lots of creative formats for drawing people out, sharing stories, and working collaboratively. I remember the first staff meeting I ever ran. I felt like a new teacher on the first day of school.

Hosting 31

Hosting Arts Help Museum 31

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 2, 2011

I had a bit of a wakeup call about internships last month at an "emerging leaders" lunch event at the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums conference. At our museum, we don't provide a lot of structured mentorship for interns. At this time, we're not ready to offer people highly structured internships.

Museum 35

Museum Student Participatory International 35

Museum 2.0

APRIL 1, 2009

On Monday, I gave the keynote at the Museums in Conversation conference in Tarrytown, NY. I learned to cultivate creative greed while working on Operation Spy at the International Spy Museum, where I was lucky to be working on a project that was so new to us that we didn't have any pre-established models or structures for doing it.

Museum 20

Museum Conversation Columbus Local 20

Museum 2.0

MAY 9, 2007

In January, I interviewed Sibley about the potential use of virtual worlds and Second Life by museums, but in the four months since then, the virtual world platform--and the hype around it--has exploded. It seems that Second Life is both the closest and farthest thing from many museum professionals' minds. Collaborative Experience.

Second Life 20

Second Life Museum Life Virtual 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?

Museum 24

Museum Audience Program Artist 24

Forum One

FEBRUARY 19, 2024

This Black History Month, we reflect on the strategy work that our team does through our partnership with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture —much of which centers around expanding access. And for those who have, they quickly understand that the Museum has much more to offer than can be absorbed in a day.

History 73

History Accessibility Museum Award 73

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 4, 2010

It's rare that a participatory museum project is more than a one-shot affair. But next month, Britain Loves Wikipedia will commence--the third instance of a strange and fascinating collaborative project between museums and the Wikipedia community (Wikimedians). Some of these challenges were about mission fit.

Wikipedia 40

Wikipedia Arts Museum Images 40

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

Is there a lead facilitator who is responsible for the final decision or is the team to work collaboratively making decisions? I designed this exercise after a delightful experience visiting the Barnes Foundation Museum where the art work is hung on the wall in a way to facilitate pattern recognition and learning about art concepts.

Reflection 124

Reflection NTEN Change Facilitation 124

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 22, 2009

In this report, the authors describe three specific models for public participation: contribution, collaboration, and co-creation. In the collaborative model, visitors are invited to serve as active partners in the creation of an institutional project which is originated and ultimately controlled by the institution.

Public 36

Public Research Participatory Report 36

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

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.

Build 20

Build Community Museum Artist 20

Museum 2.0

MAY 19, 2016

For example, when we held community meetings about the development of a new creative town square next to our museum, a group of middle/upper-class moms talked about not feeling safe downtown. Bridged groups are useful if you want people to collaborate on a more inclusive vision of the future. SETTING UP THE MEETING 5.

Build 35

Build Community Museum Participatory 35

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.

Question 49

Question Participatory Museum Evaluation 49

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?

Museum 24

Museum North Carolina San Francisco Structure 24

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. How did the museum staff respond to this experience? How did this project come about?

Interview 37

Interview Museum Badge Map 37

Museum 2.0

MARCH 4, 2009

Jane McGonigal and the folks from IFTF have released a new future-casting game/collaborative experience called Signtific Lab. The thing that excites me about this is not the opportunity to use all the weird-colored cardstock hanging around the supply cabinets of most museums. If Signtific just asked the "What if?"

Game 24

Game Experiment Participatory Museum 24

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.

Participatory 27

Participatory Design Difference Museum 27

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). In my experience, innovation is about flexibility, capacity, and collaborative relationships. You need a balance between structure and openness to make all of this possible.

Arts 46

Arts Interview Teen Artist 46

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 25, 2009

Rabinowitz commented that "as a 40-year veteran of history museum interpretation, I can say that I never learned so much from and about visitors." This is the opposite situation of the previous design goal, one typical in science and children's museums.

Goal 31

Goal Design Difference Platform 31

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.

Studies 20

Studies Associations Houston Museum 20

Nonprofit Tech for Good

DECEMBER 14, 2022

You can collaborate with other nonprofits in your region or in your issue area to investigate whether you can all offer benefits for each other. 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.

Donor 341

Donor Sponsor Accessibility Music 341

Forum One

DECEMBER 13, 2023

Forum One partnered with the Museum to launch their new brand to the world. Forum One partnered with the Museum to launch their new brand to the world. This work not only included launching a new website but also revitalizing the American Jazz Museum brand as a whole.

Celebrate 67

Celebrate Award Colorado Museum 67