Museum 2.0

MAY 21, 2014

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. I''ve now been the executive director of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History for three years. Naming our goals and our culture.

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Museum Director History Teen 49

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

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 Artist Remix Professional 47

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.

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Museum Director Arts History 20

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

NOVEMBER 4, 2015

Each of these women push the boundaries of cultural institutions in different ways, with digital and physical manifestations. Ravon and Amanda are using several social media channels to explore and share museum exhibitions, programs, and projects. She writes about race, history, parks, culture, and politics.

Culture 20

Culture Work Museum New York City 20

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.

Place 41

Place Discussion Culture Museum 41

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. 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

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.

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Artist Museum Proposal Participatory 49

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 22, 2009

Earlier this year, a group of informal science researchers, led by Rick Bonney of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, published an extremely useful report on public participation in science research (PPSR). In this report, the authors describe three specific models for public participation: contribution, collaboration, and co-creation.

Public 36

Public Research Participatory Report 36

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. The Structure Lab is set up as a "game" in which you explore cards in various categories (values, assets, financing, etc.) to better articulate what you are really trying to do with your project concept.

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

JULY 10, 2018

The museum was in huge financial trouble. My expertise was on inviting strangers to participate in public settings like museums. Creating event-specific rules can level the playing field, make the implicit explicit, and create a specific culture for the event. I remember the first staff meeting I ever ran.

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Hosting Arts Help Museum 31

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.

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Museum Participatory Arts Attitude 34

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. Their ideas were delightful, and their contributions shifted the conversation about what family-friendly really looks like.

Design 49

Design Participatory Children Museum 49

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 2, 2011

We're seeking great folks for public programs, participatory exhibit design, online marketing, 3D design, and whatever else you might have to offer. And that's what this post is about--how we advertise the culture at our organizations (or not) when we offer new positions. We might never get there.

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Museum Student Participatory Structure 35

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.

History 74

History Accessibility Museum Award 74

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

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. Every channel in Slack is public by default. Like most museums and nonprofits, we have a donor database. SALESFORCE.

Collaboration 20

Collaboration Tools Build Organization 20

Museum 2.0

APRIL 19, 2016

Our museum has already had several requests to lend our support to bond measures that will be on the ballot in 2016. We reviewed a handful of existing policies from other institutions (local and national, museums and not), discussed their attributes, and started drafting/stealing/reworking with a Google doc. We only met once in person.

Policy 20

Policy Advocacy Create Museum 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?

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Museum Audience Program Artist 24

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 7, 2007

I got my copy of the fall issue of Museums and Social Issues this week. The theme is "Civic Dialogue," and the journal includes articles on the historical, cultural, media, and museum practice of getting people talking to each other (including one by me about such endeavors on the web). A place many museums are not.

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Museum Lecture Denver San Francisco 22

NTEN

AUGUST 13, 2012

Technology-responsible staff are involved in overall strategic planning, helping to craft the future of the organization and the plan for how technology can support that work, both inside the organization and through public-facing technologies. We have HIGHLY innovative staff who push our available technology structures to capacity.

Adopt 81

Adopt Benchmark Tech Technology 81

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

AUGUST 12, 2009

About three months ago Beth Kanter wrote about the Crowdsourcing of Vision at the Smithsonian Museum. Let's look at why and where crowdsourcing can be useful when organizations (private, public or not-for-profit) are facing important new or emerging issues. That's where this post about crowdsourcing came out of it!

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Aggregator Model Leadership Method 82

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

Payne," member of the incredibly popular Santa Cruz roller derby team, wants to pitch a partnership with our museum. She doesn't have a specific idea for a partner event or exhibit, but she feels like we have a lot to offer each other in terms of publicity and a shared focus on enhancing cultural experiences in the community.

Phase 38

Phase Library Museum Homeless 38

Forum One

DECEMBER 13, 2023

Within the organization, the AARP Public Policy Institute maintains the AARP Livability Index , a key tool in their mission to promote the development of sound policies to address common needs for economic security, health care, and quality of life. Forum One partnered with the Museum to launch their new brand to the world.

Celebrate 68

Celebrate Award Colorado Museum 68

Michael Stein's Non-profit Technology Blog

APRIL 1, 2007

They want the journals and publications, the professional seminars, the reduced prices on publications or classes. The other sort are organizations that exist to serve a broad social or cultural goal. After all, no one ever joined their public radio station because they really needed a tote bag.

Management 40

Management Articulate Journal Museum 40

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

JANUARY 6, 2014

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. One might think that great content curation that gets results is a full-time job.

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Social Media Network Media Free 108

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 11, 2010

Dear Museum 2.0 The cafe will also be an R&D innovation lab for the cultural sector. The team will work on risky experiments and share what we learn with the field, through publications, workshops, and hopefully, some more contract work. They may ask models directly to pose for the in more structured encounters.

Project 35

Project Help Badge Model 35

Forum One

DECEMBER 13, 2023

Within the organization, the AARP Public Policy Institute maintains the AARP Livability Index , a key tool in their mission to promote the development of sound policies to address common needs for economic security, health care, and quality of life. We partnered with the Museum to launch their new brand to the world.

Celebrate 46

Celebrate Award Colorado Museum 46

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). It's easier to secure grants for community-based programming or exhibitions, but it's not easy to get funding for some of the core work that museums do.

Arts 46

Arts Interview Teen Artist 46

Museum 2.0

MAY 16, 2007

into the museum is the potential to encourage more positive in-museum interactions among strangers. I want in-person museum experiences to be more like experiences on social sites like Flickr, where strangers connect and form relationships around content. Structure the space with a clear story (and commensurate rules).

Museum 20

Museum Myspace Facilitation Social Network 20

Bloomerang

FEBRUARY 1, 2022

I’ve managed campaigns ranging from about $5 million to over a billion dollars in health care, education, arts and culture, and advocacy sectors. So strategy really focuses on organizational direction, establishing values, mission, ensuring the organization embodies its cultural ethos. It builds a culture of trust and respect.

Leadership 60

Leadership Fundraising Gift Slides 60

Museum 2.0

MARCH 8, 2010

Chatroulette strips away all of the social conventions and scaffolding we use to relate to strangers in public. Occasionally it's a place for a surprising cross-cultural encounter. I've had some fabulous interactions with strangers in comparably open-ended environments that offered just a bit more designed structure.

Interaction 26

Interaction Giving Museum Internet 26

Museum 2.0

JULY 4, 2007

On Tuesday, I reviewed Elaine Gurian’s essay, Choosing Among the Options , on museum archetypes and self-definition. Today, discussion with Elaine about ways museums choose their direction, how change is possible, and new museum types to be added to the list. What if you don’t want to be identified as one type of museum?

Museum 20

Museum Puerto Rico Change Boston 20

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 5, 2013

"The words we use in attempting to change museum directions matter. We need translators within each cultural context. Our museum in Santa Cruz has been slammed by those who believe participatory experiences have gone too far. I''ve always known that some people feel that social work means mission creep for museums.

Participatory 53

Participatory Museum Arts History 53

Museum 2.0

MARCH 24, 2010

This is the third in a four-part series about writing The Participatory Museum. When I decided to write a book about visitor participation in cultural institutions, I knew I'd do it in a way that reflected the values behind the book itself--transparency, inclusion, and meaningful community participation. Check out the other parts here.

Participatory 33

Participatory Museum Process Experiment 33