Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

AUGUST 11, 2009

Photo by American Art Museum Note from Beth: This week I'm trying to understand crowdsourcing and nonprofits, hopefully with a crowd of other folks. Some questions I don't know the answers to: What are the best examples of nonprofits using social media to crowdsource advice, program evaluation, ideas, or other uses?

Museum 92

Museum Campaign Flickr Arts 92

Museum 2.0

MARCH 29, 2011

Last month, I learned about a fabulous, simple participatory experiment called “Case by Case” at the San Diego Museum of Natural History that uses visitor feedback to develop more effective object labels. To date, the solution has been to put photos on the walls, pray for funding, and ignore the front-end evaluation bit. Where to now?

San Diego 55

San Diego History Museum Participatory 55

Museum 2.0

JULY 17, 2013

Last week, my museum hosted Hack the Museum Camp , a 2.5 day adventure in which teams of adults--75 people, of whom about half are museum professionals, half creative folks of various stripes--developed an experimental exhibition around our permanent collection in our largest gallery.

Museum 49

Museum Arts History Professional 49

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 21, 2020

Alison Koch shared these thoughts originally as part of Museum Computer Network 's 2019 Ignite. First, I think that museums need to think about their staff as a stakeholder group worthy of just as much time, attention, energy, and evaluation as visitors or donors. They were that true and that powerful. I hope you enjoy them.

Work 56

Work New York City Museum New York 56

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

DECEMBER 19, 2007

I am also prepping a panel on the topic for NTC (more about that later) Seb Chan is focusing specifically on blog metrics for museums. the multidirectional communication, that most museums set up blogs to encourage and explore. He thinks that Avanish Kaushik's model is particularly well-suited for museum blogs. interactivity???

Metrics 50

Metrics Museum Technorati Influence 50

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 18, 2015

Every few months, a major news outlet does an "expose" about data collection on museum visitors. These articles tend to portray museums as Big Brother, aggressively tracking visitors'' actions and interests across their visit. And then I started thinking: we do that all the time in museums. We''re trying to personalize.

Museum 20

Museum Experiment People Data 20

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

AUGUST 17, 2009

And, if you submitted a nonprofit panel - and I managed to miss it while scanning 2200 in ten minutes - please add the link and description in a comment. Museum APIs: What Are They Good For? In Museums, context can be hard to come by. Please try to vote for as many nonprofit panels as possible. Twitterstorm, anyone?

Comment 95

Comment Social Media Jordan Cancer 95

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. The theory of change has been invaluable as a "playbook" that we use to guide programming decisions, evaluation protocols, and marketing messages about our impact. and it feels amazing.

Museum 20

Museum Director Arts History 20

Museum 2.0

JULY 8, 2015

I wanted to open up conversation about how we judge the relative ethics of various sources of museum revenue--all of which have moral grey areas. 20 people commented on it. A small percentage comment on it. On Facebook, you can post, like, comment, add photos, play games. of game viewers commented.

Game 20

Game Museum Participatory Comment 20

Museum 2.0

JULY 30, 2019

Me at the Norman Rockwell Museum Before we get to today’s topic, I want to start with a thank you. But today, I’m not going to attribute these comments, as I am in a bit of a time crunch on my post. The big themes from comments could be broken into three broad categories: we think we do; we don’t even think about it, and we don’t.

Museum 27

Museum Comment Evaluation Audience 27

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 2, 2008

When people ask about blogging, the question of comments comes up more frequently than any other. There are many good ways to measure a blog's value , but somewhere inside ourselves, we feel that comments are the thing that validate a blog's existence. So when people ask, "Why don't more people comment?," Museum 2.0's

Comment 20

Comment Museum Blogger Reflection 20

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 6, 2014

MuseumCamp is an annual professional development event at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History in which teams of diverse, creative people work on quick and dirty projects on a big theme. On the other hand, a photobooth where people were prompted to take a photo with a stranger they met at the museum was barely used.

Experiment 52

Experiment Impact Social Museum 52

Museum 2.0

MAY 1, 2013

In three weeks, Kathleen McLean and I are co-hosting a freewheeling talk show at the American Alliance of Museums conference. Kathy and I have each spent a lot of time advocating for experimental practice and risk-taking in museums, both as consultants and on staff. Please share your story in the comments.

Story 39

Story Baltimore Open Museum 39

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 9, 2011

Two weeks ago, we inaugurated a Creativity Lounge on the third floor of our museum. Lisa was thrilled that her work was on display at the museum. We started a pretty fascinating (and yes, a little frustrating) dialogue about the puzzle and the question of what constitutes desired engagement in the museum.

Museum 51

Museum Arts History Columbus 51

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. Feel free to add your own questions and answers in the comments! The Museum 2.0 For more on the differences among different types of museums (with examples), check out this post.

Question 49

Question Participatory Museum Evaluation 49

Museum 2.0

JUNE 12, 2013

TCG is the industry association for non-profit theaters, the way AAM is for museums. Given TCG''s multi-year Audience (R)evolution initiative, I took the opportunity to write a new talk about what revolution has looked like at our small museum in Santa Cruz. We heard again and again that the museum was cold and uncomfortable.

Museum 55

Museum Learning History Arts 55

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 21, 2020

First, I think that museums need to think about their staff as a stakeholder group worthy of just as much time, attention, energy, and evaluation as visitors or donors. We love a comment card from a visitor, but how can we gather better, honest feedback from staff early and often before they quit or leave the sector?

Work 20

Work Museum Cancer Leadership 20

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 28, 2010

Every once in a while I come across a project I wish I could have included in The Participatory Museum. For one year, a group of twelve schoolchildren age 9-11 were invited to work with staff at the Wallace Collection to develop a family-focused exhibition using the museum's artifacts. it's a Secret! , What made Shh. it's a Secret!

Children 46

Children Museum Create Project 46

Museum 2.0

MAY 11, 2009

I'm doing a workshop with the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History which includes a public lecture on "the multi-platform museum" on May 18 at 3pm ET (GMT -5). What is a multi-platform museum? I usually try to push myself to think about social engagement from the perspective of the smallest museum with the most limited budget.

Museum 22

Museum Platform North America Lecture 22

Museum 2.0

JULY 16, 2019

Visitor (though, really my child) at the Maritime Museum, Greenwich, UK As I said, last week, I’ve been to a travelin’ girl for the last couple of years. So, instead, I am offering 3 posts this month about what I learned from visiting more than 300 museums. Last week, I talked about what I learned about museum workers.

Museum 27

Museum Photography Phone Children 27

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?" We're hearing on a daily basis that the museum has a new role in peoples' lives and in the identity of the county.

Audience 47

Audience Museum Participatory History 47

Museum 2.0

APRIL 19, 2016

We realized that we needed a systematic way to evaluate these kinds of requests--a tool that would help us evaluate when to say yes and why to say no. Our museum has already had several requests to lend our support to bond measures that will be on the ballot in 2016. How did we create it? We only met once in person.

Policy 20

Policy Advocacy Create Museum 20

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

APRIL 23, 2008

One of the best projects that illustrates the basic idea of Web2.0 - listening and conversation and stakeholders creating their own experience with your organization - comes from the Brooklyn Museum of Art. On the web, anyone can evaluate the photographs in terms of aesthetic quality and relevance to the exhibition theme.

Arts 74

Arts Social Media Examples Artist 74

Museum 2.0

JULY 3, 2007

This week, we look at Chapter 5 of Elaine Gurian's book Civilizing Museums , Choosing Among the Options: An opinion about museum definitions in two parts. First published in Curator magazine in 2002, this essay presents five different museum "types" and their distinct opportunities and challenges.

Museum 20

Museum Taxonomy Arts National 20

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 22, 2009

They provide detailed case studies of projects in each area, including project descriptions, informal science education goals, participant training techniques, and evaluation outcomes. I've added a fourth model to this citizen science typology, one may be more appropriate to facilities like museums than to scientific organizations: co-option.

Public 36

Public Research Participatory Report 36

Tech Soup

MAY 28, 2015

We evaluated Kickstarter, Indiegogo, CauseVox , and more, so you can be one of the cool kids, too. Tell us about it in the comments. Image 6: Durango Discovery Museum. We expanded our hardware offerings this year to include MacBooks and Chromebooks and computers with solid-state drives. All the Cool Kids Are Crowdfunding.

Tech 36

Tech Images Captivate Tutorial 36

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 11, 2013

This week''s guest post is written by Julie Bowen, VP of Experience and Engagement at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa. Years ago, I was running a workshop at a conference introducing a creativity technique to museum professionals. The comment that brought me up short was “This was great.

Place 52

Place Museum Environment Problem 52

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

OCTOBER 4, 2011

It isn’t unlike what a museum curator does to produce an exhibition: They identify the theme, they provide the context, they decide which paintings to hang on the wall, how they should be annotated, and how they should be displayed for the public. Susan Kistler has an example with evaluation resources.

Content 139

Content Skills Feeds Tutorial 139

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 28, 2015

I''ve been thinking about all of this recently because I''m in the midst of negotiating a partnership with a for-profit real estate developer to enhance a public plaza adjacent to my museum. We''re down to about seventeen indicators of success at our museum that roll up into five bottom lines. How many lines are you tap-dancing on?

Museum 20

Museum Measure Evaluation Profit 20

Museum 2.0

MARCH 25, 2015

This is the first in a two-part series about the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History’s new theory of change. This week, Ian David Moss and I are each writing blog posts about our collaborative process to develop a theory of change at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. For three years, we hit the gas at my museum—hard.

Process 20

Process Change Develop Museum 20

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 12, 2012

In the spirit of a popular post written earlier this year , I want to share the behind the scenes on our current almost-museumwide exhibition at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, Santa Cruz Collects. As always, I welcome your questions and comments. Pocket Museums in bathrooms. Digital Collections comment wall.

Participatory 44

Participatory Museum History International 44

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 7, 2015

I''m entrenched in a project to build a creative town square in Santa Cruz connected to my museum. My museum''s mission is to "ignite shared experiences and unexpected connections." But I also worry that we sometimes set unrealistic expectations for the intensity and duration of interaction among strangers at the museum.

Museum 20

Museum Learning Public Contact 20

Museum 2.0

MAY 29, 2009

Two weeks ago, I conducted a participatory exhibit design workshop with staff at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Between the giant squid brainstorming and experimentation, I gave a talk to the larger Smithsonian Institution about multi-platform museum experiences. The slides are also available for download.

Slides 20

Slides Process Video Open 20

Museum 2.0

JUNE 22, 2009

My goals are two-fold: to develop a dynamic, creative, social platform for my community and to distribute its successful elements to other civic learning institutions (museums, libraries, community centers). And then at the end, when she asked how many of us could do this in our own museums, no hands went up. We loved it.

Action 31

Action Ideas St. Louis Museum 31

Museum 2.0

MARCH 3, 2011

As one participant said, "the museum feels friendly in a way it usually doesn't." People make the museum friendly, not activities. There were 168 secrets contributed during the weekend this activity ran (a weekend in which 250 people visited the museum). The secrets ranged from funny to sexy to deeply serious. I don't know.

Participatory 51

Participatory Arts Audience Museum 51

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. There are several good resources on evaluating participation. It’s nice to have both.

Project 22

Project Museum Teen North Carolina 22

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