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4 Important Membership Trends Every Museum Needs to Consider

Connection Cafe

It’s 2019, and a whole lot is changing in the museum and nonprofit world. When it comes to mass direct-mail campaigns, that difference of 5 cents can accumulate quickly for organizations on a tight budget! That’s not to mention how strained museums already are in terms of resources. Rapid Shifts in Consumer Expectations.

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Year Three as a Museum Director. Thrived.

Museum 2.0

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. Sometimes it isn''t.

Museum 49
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How Different Types of Museums Approach Participation

Museum 2.0

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.

Museum 29
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The Next Generation of Major Donors to Museums: Interview with David Gelles

Museum 2.0

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."

Museum 54
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Teenagers, Space-Makers, and Scaling Up to Change the World

Museum 2.0

This week, my colleague Emily Hope Dobkin has a beautiful guest post on the Incluseum blog about the Subjects to Change teen program that Emily runs at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. Subjects to Change is an unusual museum program in that it explicitly focuses on empowering teens as community leaders.

Teen 45
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The Participatory Museum, Five Years Later

Museum 2.0

This week marks five years since the book The Participatory Museum was first released. Across the museum field, the questions about visitor participation have gone from "what?" Over the past four years, I''ve been running a small regional art and history museum in Santa Cruz, CA. and "why?" to "how?".

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Teenagers and Social Participation

Museum 2.0

Last week, I gave a talk about participatory museum practice for a group of university students at UCSC. During the ensuing discussion, one woman asked, "Which audiences are least interested in social participation in museums?" Many teens love to perform for each other. First, teens often have incredibly tight social spheres.

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