Forum One

MAY 23, 2024

Here are some ways to practice that effort: Active Listening Sessions I encourage structured listening sessions where team members take turns sharing their thoughts and concerns, while others actively listen without interruption. This fosters a culture of open communication and empathy within the team.

Audience 79

Audience Design Exercise Test 79

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. And like Camp, those people you talked to huddled late at night in the Lobby hold a special place in your heart. When people talk about “systemic oppression” what are the systems they are referencing? What are their names?

Museum 29

Museum Map Structure System 29

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.”

Museum 30

Museum Audience Conversation Associations 30

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 20, 2017

El Museo Reimaginado is a collaborative effort of museum professionals in North and South America to explore museums' potential as community catalysts. I'm generalizing grossly here, but for the most part, I find European museums to be conservative. I find North American museums to be risk-averse.

Museum 40

Museum America South America Participatory 40

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.

Museum 21

Museum Culture Professional Training 21

Museum 2.0

MAY 21, 2014

LinkedIn has a new feature where people can congratulate each other on work anniversaries. 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. We have an incredible group of people working together at the MAH right now.

Museum 49

Museum Director History Teen 49

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. True inclusion and equal representation of all people requires overhauling both systems and ways of thinking. Change Organizational Culture.

Strategy 82

Strategy Fundraising Philanthropy Nonprofit 82

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

AUGUST 18, 2011

Many people ( Paul Orselli , Linda Norris , Pete Newcurator ) in the museum field have written about the question of museum "tribes"--based partly on Seth Godin's book , partly on the longstanding fan culture that pervades our lives through sport , celebrity, and shared experience of mass events.

Museum 45

Museum Share Support Indianapolis 45

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

Neon CRM

DECEMBER 13, 2023

Every membership program needs a structure that appeals to its intended audience. Membership Models: The What and Why A membership model is an organizational structure where a nonprofit offers a valuable set of benefits in exchange for a recurring membership fee. Often, members can join for a nominal fee or for free!

Model 52

Model Florida Nonprofit Benefit 52

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

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

DECEMBER 1, 2010

Marnie Webb has been thinking about how the nonprofit sector might be different if organizations believed in abundance and re-thought their organizational structures and how they delivered programs as a result. If we thinking that way, what are the organizational structures that we have to build?

Artist 96

Artist Structure Museum Nonprofit 96

Connection Cafe

MARCH 31, 2015

I recently had the pleasure of attending the South Carolina Federation of Museums Conference in Florence, SC. Here’s what I learned: At the core of each museum is a personal mission. I wasn’t familiar with many of the museums who were in attendance at SCFM, even though I’ve lived and worked here for 40 years now!

South Carolina 20

South Carolina Museum Conference Personal 20

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 1, 2018

I was at an informal talk by a visitor research professional from a large American art museum. Cultural institutions are willing to change to attract new audiences. Some people might argue that protectionism is the natural political position of a collecting institution. But when it comes to people, protectionism is problematic.

Museum 40

Museum Audience Slides Press 40

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. People make fun of each other and laugh loudly.

Place 41

Place Discussion Culture Museum 41

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.

Museum 34

Museum Comment Experiment Participatory 34

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. Like many people in the arts, I'm interested in new models that help people combine mission-driven work with an entrepreneurial spirit.

Structure 31

Structure Model Social Profit 31

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. Last month, a couple came in and asked if they could stage a pop up tea ceremony at the museum.

Platform 41

Platform Open Museum Participatory 41

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.

Museum 21

Museum Game Structure South America 21

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. Invite people into participation. I remember the first staff meeting I ever ran.

Hosting 31

Hosting Arts Help Museum 31

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

MAY 7, 2010

Nina has written a fantastic book engagement called The Participatory Museum. Most of my work involves museums, but these categories can be useful in any project that involves user participation. Blog commenters are contributors, as are people who engage in contests. 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

APRIL 11, 2017

This is the sixth 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. John would run Abbott Square Market , a multi-vendor food and drink business, adjacent to the plaza, adjacent to the museum. Money is on the table.

Technique 29

Technique Museum Exercise Structure 29

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. Our interns include undergraduates, graduate students, and people of all ages looking to jumpstart creative careers in community engagement. and the cycle continues.

Participatory 37

Participatory Museum Photography Unconference 37

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. C3 invites people to cross-pollinate and share ideas--the most promising of which we will follow up on to plan new programs. We made people write things down constantly.

Program 49

Program Community Design Museum 49

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 2, 2011

And that's what this post is about--how we advertise the culture at our organizations (or not) when we offer new positions. 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. Not everyone wants a super-unstructured internship.

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Museum Student Participatory Structure 35

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

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.

History 73

History Accessibility Museum Award 73

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

Nonprofits Source

JANUARY 23, 2023

The program is most helpful for organizations that have discussion-worthy causes and content centered around related topics that people are actively searching for online. Ad creation and keyword research: A Google Grants manager will structure your account properly and create ad campaigns that target valuable keywords.

Grant 52

Grant Google Management Guide 52

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 Why should institutions engage with people in this way? For more on the differences among different types of museums (with examples), check out this post. Yes and no.

Question 49

Question Participatory Museum Evaluation 49

Museum 2.0

MARCH 27, 2013

There's a constant dialogue in participatory work about how to make peoples' contributions meaningful. 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.

Design 49

Design Participatory Children Museum 49

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 4, 2015

In pop culture-land, relevance is all about now. If people on the street are talking about X, the museum should be talking about X too. I used to work at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, CA. Our mandate was to be the museum of Silicon Valley--not of its material history, but its pulse of innovation.

Content 20

Content San Jose Museum Miami 20

Have Fun - Do Good

SEPTEMBER 6, 2006

As a result of recent fighting, millions of people are living in diaspora, migration is the trademark of this generation; what is it like to start a new life in a new place? Family structures around the world are changing, yet mothers are most often the parent who will stay at home with young children. How do you express yourself?

Museum 40

Museum International Story Music 40

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 19, 2016

We believe that partnerships build a stronger museum and a stronger community. We were seven people in a room, laser-focused on making the MAH a community gathering place and cultural center. We were seven people in a room, laser-focused on making the MAH a community gathering place and cultural center.

Collaboration 20

Collaboration Tools Build Organization 20

Museum 2.0

MAY 13, 2008

I once asked Elaine Gurian how museums can change. Here's the problem with both of these ways: they require circumstances that are outside of most museum employees' control. Here's the problem with both of these ways: they require circumstances that are outside of most museum employees' control. There's no client, no cash.

Museum 31

Museum Place Model Project 31

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.

Museum 20

Museum Conversation Columbus Local 20