Museum 2.0

MAY 2, 2012

Today is my one-year anniversary as the executive director of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. A year ago, I put my consultant hat on the shelf and decided to jump into museum management (a sentence I NEVER would have imagined writing five years ago). The possible determinism of cultural geography.

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Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 17, 2018

It's time to make your dreams a reality and apply to become the next executive director of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (MAH). Our board, staff, and community are seeking a new director to join the MAH in 2019. When you check out the job description , you'll see the MAH is not looking for museum-director-as-usual.

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Qgiv

NOVEMBER 1, 2023

Parker, a Seneca Indian who worked as the director of the Museum of Arts and Science in Rochester, N.Y. National Native American Heritage Month was created with the intention to provide a platform for American Indians to share and honor their culture, traditions, music, art, dance, beliefs, and ways of life.

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Forum One

MAY 10, 2023

Most recently Director of Digital Experience at the Philadelphia Museum of Art , she has developed creative strategies for global consumer brands, like Virgin Mobile and American Express, as well as for cultural institutions and other mission-driven organizations.

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Design New Jersey Philadelphia Arts 73

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 15, 2019

The Western Museum Association was kind enough to invite me to speak on a panel about engagement at their annual meeting in Boise. Phillip’s early remark about museums was an invocation for everyone. As an outsider, he immediately saw that museums were operating “under a business model that doesn’t work.”

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Museum 2.0

JUNE 10, 2020

Nina Simon, Lauren Bentua, and many others would host us in the halls of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art. If we map this line of thinking onto an entire organization it becomes even more problematic, there are Board of Directors and employees to contend with. Many of you are probably old museumcampers. Ivel is one of my fellow campers.

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Connection Cafe

SEPTEMBER 29, 2020

Though we’re disappointed to not be exploring Seattle with all of our awesome Arts and Cultural friends, we are super excited for our first-ever virtual bbcon 2020 ! Arts and Cultural will have thousands of professionals represented from organizations ranging from zoos to museums, performing arts organizations to libraries, and beyond!

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Connection Cafe

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

The following post was originally published on the Center for the Future of Museums blog. On Wednesday, August 8, over 300 museum professionals joined CFM director Elizabeth Merritt and Seema Rao, principal of Brilliant Idea Studio , to explore self-care in the museum workplace. But effort and efficacy are not the same.

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Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 15, 2014

When basketball players are offering more cogent commentary on racial issues than cultural institutions, you know we have a cultural relevance problem. Museums are a part of this educational and cultural network. Colleges are addressing greater cultural and racial understanding in various courses.

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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. We started bootstrapping growth.

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Museum 2.0

JUNE 27, 2012

A year ago, I wrote a post speculating about whether events (institutionally-produced programs) might be a primary driver for people to attend museums, with exhibitions being secondary. Many museums, big and small, thrive on events. At our museum, about 68% of casual visitors (non-school tours) attended through events this year.

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Museum 2.0

MAY 15, 2012

Last week, I sat down on a toilet in our museum and found myself looking at an interactive station intended to test a “Legends of the Stall” sign concept for the restrooms. Some of my happiest moments as a director come when I encounter awesome things in our museum that I had absolutely nothing to do with. Sorry for the delay.

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Museum 2.0

APRIL 14, 2011

Dear Museum 2.0 As of May 2, I will be the executive director of the Museum of Art & History at McPherson Center in Santa Cruz, CA (here's the press release ). I am closing down my consulting business at the end of April, but the Museum 2.0 Here are a few things that make the MAH an exciting museum to me: It's small.

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History Museum Arts Consultant 55

Connection Cafe

JULY 28, 2016

So I went ahead and picked out some of the top sessions for Arts & Cultural organization to make planning your conference journey just a little bit easier. Maximizing Engagement at Your Arts & Cultural Organization – Learn how you can move your visitors from “hello” to “I do” with a personalized journey for your supporters.

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Museum 2.0

MARCH 26, 2014

Last week''s New York Times special section on museums featured a lead article by David Gelles on Wooing a New Generation of Museum Patrons. In the article, David discussed ways that several large art museums are working to attract major donors and board members in their 30s and 40s. David describes himself as a "museum brat."

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Museum Generation Interview Donor 54

Connection Cafe

AUGUST 16, 2018

Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh utilized their resources to develop an innovative retention strategy. Participants earn special stamps when they visit one of the museums or attend an event for a chance to win a grand-prize. The creative technology comes from how Carnegie Museums tracks the stamps.

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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.

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Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 18, 2013

Bridging cultural differences? These are the questions that underpin Museum Camp 2014 , a professional development experience in which diverse people from the arts, community activism, and social services will measure the immeasurable together. What is the change you hope your work effects in your community? Igniting compassion?

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Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

Writing my masters thesis for Gothenburg University’s International Museum Studies program while also working four days a week as the Director of Community Programs at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History this spring was certainly a challenge but also an incredible opportunity.

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Museum 2.0

APRIL 26, 2018

The Washington Post covered the MAH's transformation as part of an article about museums engaging new audiences. The whole second half of the article was dedicated to our work: Smaller museums can be especially scrappy in finding ways to connect with the community. It’s something that any museum, of any size, can work toward.

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Connection Cafe

JANUARY 22, 2014

As always, I read this article through the lens of our arts and cultural customers. How can these themes make a positive impact on the local museum or symphony? As a result, I put together my perspective on this game changing technology for arts and cultural organizations. Are the same trends applicable? If not, it needs to be.

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Museum 2.0

JULY 10, 2013

Here in Santa Cruz, we''re brushing off our tents and lining up the counselor whistles for Hack the Museum Camp , a 2.5 We have 75 campers here from around the world who will be working in teams to develop exhibits based on artifacts from our permanent collection that challenge museum conventions and traditional exhibit design practice.

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Saleforce Nonprofit

AUGUST 20, 2021

The same historical and cultural structures that have held back diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in so many aspects of our lives are also mirrored in much of the nonprofit sector. Change Organizational Culture. By: Yolanda F. Johnson, Founder of WOC, Women of Color in Fundraising and Philanthropy.

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Strategy Fundraising Philanthropy Nonprofit 82

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.

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Museum Arts History Professional 49

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 10, 2014

One, from a museum director. The word "quality" is often code for aesthetic quality, as judged by a specific set of cultural expectations and preferences. Heck, no museum exhibition hits them all. Core Museum 2.0 Ideas cultural competency design' Any questions? No one wants to do crappy work.

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Participatory Museum Arts Culture 55

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 15, 2014

At the Inclusive Museum conference this summer, Dr. Rick West introduced this question through a tale of two museums. He described the National Museum of the American Indian--where he was founding director--as a multicultural institution, celebrating the diversity of Native peoples throughout the Americas.

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Museum 2.0

APRIL 14, 2020

With many nations hit hard by the virus and events cancelled, the epidemic has already levied a major economic, cultural, and spiritual impact on Indian Country. Yet within days of the first shelter-in-place orders, I received Facebook invitations to groups such as Social Distance Powwow and Quarantine Dance Specials 2020.

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Have Fun - Do Good

JUNE 19, 2010

Tom Aageson, the co-Founder of the Global Center for Cultural Entrepreneurship. In addition to being the co-Founder of the Global Center, he is also the Executive Director of the Museum of New Mexico Foundation. Here's the direct download (mp3) link too. He is also the co-Founder of the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market.

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New Mexico Global Mexico Culture 40

Connection Cafe

FEBRUARY 25, 2014

Last week Ginny Fitzgerald, the Director of Visitor Services and Membership at Chicago History Museum, joined us to host a webinar about how she prepares her team for peak attendance times. Chicago History Museum defines their summer season as June 1 through August 31. Ginny has over 17 years of experience in visitor services.

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Arts Culture Business Chicago 32

Have Fun - Do Good

JUNE 29, 2010

"If we start losing cultural diversity, we begin to lose our whole sense of community because community is defined by culture. My dad is the co-founder of the Global Center for Cultural Entrepreneurship. Before moving to Santa Fe, he was the Director of Aid to Artisans , an international artisan enterprise development NGO.

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Culture Global Interview New Mexico 51

Museum 2.0

JULY 1, 2011

I've now been the Director of The Museum of Art & History in Santa Cruz for two months. But the point is that the MAH, like just about every other museum in the known universe, was content to define the museum experience as something removed from the outside world, a rarefied church-like space of refined artistic reflection.

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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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Museum 2.0

MAY 22, 2012

Imagine you've just been tasked with developing an innovative, future-thinking national museum for your country's history. Blueprint is the story of a group of people who tried to create a Dutch Museum of National History (INNL). The Museum directors released Blueprint as a showcase for these plans. Where would you start?

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Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 9, 2020

What does this have to do with museums? It is why in the great museum upheavals of 2020 no white male director of import ended up getting toppled. It is why art museums have greater financial resources than other ones. The big next step for most museum professionals will be the hardest. Here’s the thing.

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Museum 2.0

MARCH 17, 2020

This month, I’d planned to have a celebration of the fellow people in museums, including your coworkers and colleagues you’ve never worked with. In this time when convenings have become treacherous, museums, zoos, and aquariums, as a collective, possess much of the affordable public space in the world. Then, a pandemic descended.

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sgEngage

APRIL 28, 2022

They’ll work harder and smarter if they’re involved from conception through fruition, as compared to a volunteer who is assigned a task or project. – Russel Heskin, executive director, special projects at Western University of Health Sciences . – Rebecca Barnes, volunteer manager at Tellus Science Museum .

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Museum 2.0

AUGUST 1, 2012

That contemporary art museum is on the front of the LA Times again," she said. I can't believe that an art museum can be front page news in LA for days." He was mandated to turn the ship around financially and to expand the reach of the museum in the community. The discussion then shifted to the overall direction of the museum.

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