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.

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Museum Director History Teen 49

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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Culture Build Museum Articulate 53

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

Museum 2.0

APRIL 18, 2011

I asked Wendy Pollock and Kathleen McLean, authors of the new book The Convivial Museum , to share a guest post about the book. At first glance, our new book, The Convivial Museum , is about the most simple ideas. And to reflect in this collage of images and quotations the gritty realities of daily practice. Nothing new here!"

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Museum Photo Minneapolis California 50

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

OCTOBER 26, 2010

There are people or even organizational cultures comfortable with using the existing tools and are slow to change, while early adopters and agile cultures keep learning and moving. And, that through this comes learning and insight.

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Blackbaud Conference Reflection Atlanta 93

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

JULY 15, 2015

I decided to give myself a gift this year: permission to change the Museum 2.0 I love the rigor of weekly blog posts because it forces me to keep up an important activity that helps me learn and grow. But I also know there is huge potential to improve Museum 2.0. I hope this gift will open new doors to learn, share, and connect.

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Museum Proposal Analysis Lesson 20

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.

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Museum Learning History Arts 55

Museum 2.0

MAY 18, 2018

OFBYFOR ALL is a framework to help civic and cultural organizations become OF, BY, and FOR their communities. We're launching it with partners at community-based libraries, parks, museums, and cultural centers around the world. As our staff and board became reflective OF our community, more people felt represented.

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Community Build Organization Museum 37

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. Workstream priorities should reflect this knowledge. Change Organizational Culture. By: Yolanda F. and several countries.

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Strategy Fundraising Philanthropy Nonprofit 82

Museum 2.0

MAY 9, 2012

Last week, I was in Minneapolis for the American Association of Museums annual meeting. Kathleen McLean led a terrific session called "Dangerous Ridiculous" about risk-taking in museums. Interestingly, at my museum, our team is naturally better at ridiculous than we are at dangerous. I found this idea really powerful.

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Reflection Columbus Museum Participatory 43

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). Each year they bring together diverse, passionate people for a sleep-away camp for adults where they learn together through active, creative workshops and activities.

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Causes Change Museum Social 50

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

FEBRUARY 23, 2016

The book looks at how individuals can avoid burnout through self-care and how nonprofits can support it – through activities that promote well-being, cultural cues, or an overall strategy. How cultural norms influence participation. Our values reflect this commitment. 5 floating holidays and 7 fixed holidays per year.

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Product Time Create Museum 50

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. Simon is a remarkable "get" for the museum.

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Museum History Arts Work 31

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 26, 2018

Our goal is to help civic and cultural institutions become more representative OF, co-created BY, and welcoming FOR their diverse communities. We selected a First Wave that reflects diversity of geography, size, and sector, so we can see who this works best for and why. How do you build a movement for institutional change?

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Los Angeles Network Oakland Change 31

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.

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Museum Difference Participatory History 29

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 14, 2010

Recently I've been looking at ways cultural institutions invite people to self-identify relative to the visit experience. This external profile technique was also used at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum when it first opened to let visitors connect with the stories of particular people affected by the Holocaust.

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Museum International Roles Greece 34

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

Photo Source: Indianapolis Museum of Art Blog. That's the cultural norm in the nonprofit sector, with a couple of exceptions. The Indianapolis Art Museum has been doing just that by sharing its institutional dashboard out for everyone to view. In October, the Indianapolis Art Museum Dashboard celebrated its' second year.

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Public Indianapolis Museum Organization 94

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

JUNE 14, 2010

One of the big themes in our book, The Networked Nonprofit , is the importance of experiments and not to frame them as success or failure but as learning. It isn’t whether your experiment is an immediate success, it is more about what you learn about what works and what doesn’t.

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Social Media Media San Jose Social 99

Museum 2.0

JULY 27, 2011

I'm trying to reposition our museum as a cultural hub supporting creative and intellectual community growth. Our conversation made me reflect on the museums that most inspire me from a public service perspective--institutions with missions that stretch far beyond their walls. These museums work differently.

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Advocacy Public Service Homeless 44

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

This post recaps these sessions, provides my slides, and shares what I learned at the conference. Exhibit labels in science centers ask more questions than any other kinds of museums, and yet the questions are often awful--teacherly, overly rhetorical, and totally meaningless. While questions like: "Where were you last night?,"

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Reflection Research Question Museum 20

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 18, 2011

We’ve been doing a little experiment at our museum with labels. The Santa Cruz Surfing Museum recently loaned us some fabulous surfboards that tell the co-mingled history of surfing and redwood trees in Santa Cruz. We decided to approach the label-writing for these boards in a participatory way. who were the surfers who used them?” “how

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Participatory San Diego Museum History 48

Museum 2.0

APRIL 15, 2015

We were discussing the potential for cultural organizations to have significant impact across communities: on planning, health, education, and quality of life. But I couldn''t fully imagine how a museum or an arts center could embody it. Where it didn''t happen, visitors, artists, and organizers missed an opportunity to learn and grow.

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San Francisco Arts Design Marketing 20

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. I've purchase a two copies, one for me and one to give away.

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Model Activities Active Activism 98

Museum 2.0

JUNE 17, 2015

Last week, I sat on the jury for the first Cultural Innovation International Prize given by the Center for Contemporary Culture in Barcelona , and this week, I'm offering a workshop for museum professionals across Poland participating together in a "Museum Lab" in Warsaw. The second post , in which Museum 2.0

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Difference Poland Museum Minnesota 20

Museum 2.0

JUNE 8, 2010

This guest post was written by Rebecca Lawrence, Museum Educator, Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center in Pennsylvania. You can join the conversation in the blog comments, or on the Museum 2.0 The Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center (SLHC) is a small museum located in Pennsburg, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

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Place Museum Discussion Pennsylvania 27

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

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. Our audience has quadrupled in size, and the people walking through our doors increasingly reflect the age, income, and ethnic diversity of our County.

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Public Museum Arts History 27

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 1, 2012

Last week, Douglas McLellan of artsJournal ran a multi-vocal forum on the relationship between arts organizations and audiences, asking: In this age of self expression and information overload, do our artists and arts organizations need to lead more or learn to follow their communities more?

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Arts Museum Artist Tucson 45

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

MAY 20, 2010

This post summarizes the content I shared in my presentation and offers some reflection on the conversational keynote. David was interested in learning more about what American nonprofits were doing with social media, he asked me for some advice. The principles cover strategy, learning, capacity, and organizational culture.

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Social Media Media Social San Jose 115

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.

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Build Community Museum Artist 20

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 5, 2008

Apple calls this program “one to one” learning, meaning not one instructor but one computer per child. I was fascinated by our discussion, and Bob came to mind last month, when I was asked to write an article for the Association of Children's Museums quarterly journal, Hand to Hand , about children's museums and Web 2.0.

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Classroom Children Museum Model 22

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

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. A key aspect of this rung is the degree to which children are engaged in critical reflection. Non-Participation 6.

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Design Participatory Children Museum 49

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 12, 2010

There were so many fabulous recommendations for the next Museum 2.0 book club, in which we'll focus on a business book about innovation and organizational learning. This book, suggested by Susan Wageman, looks like a fabulous, off-beat, and highly pertinent read for librarians, museum folk, and cultural professionals of all sorts.

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Government Organization Museum Blended 42

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 20, 2017

I attended because I'm seeking new ways to share the MAH's model and support the development of more community-centered cultural institutions around the world. I learned a ton at Skid Row School, but the lesson that still keeps me up at night is this one: when you want to scale and spread a model, you have to distill it to its essence.

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Turkey Model Museum Adopt 26

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. A Seat at the Table It was March 2020. Endowed by Dr. Ruth J.

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History Accessibility Museum Award 74