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. This post shares some of the most interesting questions I've heard throughout these experiences. Feel free to add your own questions and answers in the comments! BROAD QUESTIONS ABOUT AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION 1.

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Question Participatory Museum Evaluation 49

Museum 2.0

MARCH 29, 2011

Last month, I learned about a fabulous, simple participatory experiment called “Case by Case” at the San Diego Museum of Natural History that uses visitor feedback to develop more effective object labels. To date, the solution has been to put photos on the walls, pray for funding, and ignore the front-end evaluation bit. Beiber Rules!”)

San Diego 55

San Diego History Museum Participatory 55

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

AUGUST 11, 2009

Photo by American Art Museum Note from Beth: This week I'm trying to understand crowdsourcing and nonprofits, hopefully with a crowd of other folks. Some questions I don't know the answers to: What are the best examples of nonprofits using social media to crowdsource advice, program evaluation, ideas, or other uses?

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Museum Campaign Flickr Arts 92

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.

Museum 49

Museum Program Participatory Community 49

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 11, 2020

Museums have used games to engage visitors for decades. SR: I came to games before I came to museums. My grandmother cheated at Candyland and uno. :) Games, I think, have a nice Venn diagram of overlap between museum lovers. I love thinking we're getting new museum lovers through games. How did you get into museum games?

Game 55

Game Museum Design Digital 55

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.

Museum 49

Museum Arts History Professional 49

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 1, 2019

And, before all my research and evaluation friends have an attack of “but wait!,” And our museum change rate is glacial. The clash is basically the thing that keeps museum leaders up at night. How do we make the right changes to make the most of audience engagement given our museum culture? Society is changing.

Audience 36

Audience Museum Summary Rate 36

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

MARCH 14, 2012

If you’re not attending and curious what funders are learning, you’ll have an opportunity to read some of the ideas and questions being discussed right here on this blog. I went to the Learning in Public session expecting to hear that the process the Packard Foundation used to evaluate their capacity building work was wildly successful.

Public 93

Public Action Challenge Learning 93

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

DECEMBER 19, 2007

I am also prepping a panel on the topic for NTC (more about that later) Seb Chan is focusing specifically on blog metrics for museums. the multidirectional communication, that most museums set up blogs to encourage and explore. He thinks that Avanish Kaushik's model is particularly well-suited for museum blogs. interactivity???,

Metrics 50

Metrics Museum Technorati Influence 50

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. As I did at the one-year and three-year mark, here are some of the things I'm most proud of, mistakes I've made, and questions on my mind as we head into the next five years.

Museum 20

Museum Director Arts History 20

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 18, 2015

Every few months, a major news outlet does an "expose" about data collection on museum visitors. These articles tend to portray museums as Big Brother, aggressively tracking visitors'' actions and interests across their visit. And then I started thinking: we do that all the time in museums. We''re trying to personalize.

Museum 20

Museum Experiment People Data 20

Bloomerang

APRIL 12, 2022

When my sister first started working with a nonprofit museum, she had a lot to learn about the fundraising process for the organization. The museum had notes saved in their donor management software about the seating preferences for their major donors and that particular donor preferred their regular seat toward the front.

Software 102

Software Management Donor Guide 102

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

DECEMBER 6, 2010

A month or two ago, museums and galleries around the world participated in a Twitter event called Ask a Curator. I asked Jim Richardson, who blogs at the Museum Next Blog and is the brainchild behind the event, a couple of questions: How did #askacurator come about? How did you get 340 museums to participate?

Arts 101

Arts Twitter Examples Los Angeles 101

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 30, 2013

The book of the same title that he edited is rocking my world, both as a museum professional who cares about inclusion and as a new mother. So consider this just the first of many posts related to issues of cultural inclusion, evaluation, and impact. Direct questioning. Implicit Associations test.

Measure 47

Measure Arts People Museum 47

Volunteer Hub

AUGUST 1, 2021

while providing them with the essentials they need,” said Andrea Scallon, Director of Measurement, Evaluation, and Learning, Miriam’s Kitchen. Our volunteers, docents, and donors are instrumental in the success of the museum and its programs,” said Madelyn Strubelt, Director of Visitor and Volunteer Services for Holocaust Museum Houston.

St. Louis 98

St. Louis San Diego Atlanta Minneapolis 98

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

DECEMBER 1, 2010

Marnie asks a great question about the organizational structures needed to actualize abundance: So, if we are building organizations on the abundance of goodwill, energy and eager hands — and if we are thinking of ourselves, organizationally, as platforms for change rather than agents for change. Or are we talking about all curation?

Artist 96

Artist Structure Museum Nonprofit 96

Museum 2.0

JULY 8, 2015

I wanted to open up conversation about how we judge the relative ethics of various sources of museum revenue--all of which have moral grey areas. When I decided to make this little game about museum ethics, I hoped that more people would participate than typically comment on a blog post. I was astounded by the difference.

Game 20

Game Museum Participatory Comment 20

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 6, 2014

This was the question at the heart of last week''s MuseumCamp. MuseumCamp is an annual professional development event at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History in which teams of diverse, creative people work on quick and dirty projects on a big theme. It builds more responsible environmental stewards. How do you measure that?

Experiment 52

Experiment Impact Social Museum 52

Museum 2.0

JULY 30, 2019

Me at the Norman Rockwell Museum Before we get to today’s topic, I want to start with a thank you. I also posed a big question: Do we as a field signal that we like our visitors? Shares like that are what get these questions to the biggest possible audience. The rise in audience evaluation is promising, certainly.

Museum 27

Museum Comment Evaluation Audience 27

Get Fully Funded

JANUARY 4, 2023

For example, a CRM designed specifically for museums might emphasize their ticketing features, whereas a CRM for general nonprofits might have some registration tools but lack a built-in ticketing component. Evaluate CRMs for their flexibility by looking at features such as their: Integrations.

Organization 64

Organization Consultant Application Integration 64

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

Designing Questions Kathy Gustafon-Hilton coordinated a massive Pecha Kucha session, featuring 19 design professionals sharing 20 slides, 20 seconds apiece. I spoke about the importance of designing intentional frameworks for asking visitors questions, based on this blog post. While questions like: "Where were you last night?,"

Reflection 20

Reflection Research Question Museum 20

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 9, 2011

Two weeks ago, we inaugurated a Creativity Lounge on the third floor of our museum. Lisa was thrilled that her work was on display at the museum. We started a pretty fascinating (and yes, a little frustrating) dialogue about the puzzle and the question of what constitutes desired engagement in the museum.

Museum 51

Museum Arts History Columbus 51

Museum 2.0

JULY 16, 2019

Visitor (though, really my child) at the Maritime Museum, Greenwich, UK As I said, last week, I’ve been to a travelin’ girl for the last couple of years. So, instead, I am offering 3 posts this month about what I learned from visiting more than 300 museums. Last week, I talked about what I learned about museum workers.

Museum 27

Museum Photography Phone Children 27

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 11, 2012

For years, I'd give talks about community participation in museums and cultural institutions, and I'd always get the inevitable question: "but what value does this really have when it comes to dollars and cents?" We're hearing on a daily basis that the museum has a new role in peoples' lives and in the identity of the county.

Audience 47

Audience Museum Participatory History 47

Museum 2.0

MARCH 12, 2014

I recently read the BERI report on bilingual labels in museums and was blown away by its findings. in Applied Social Psychology and has evaluated and researched informal learning experiences in museums and other visitor institutions for over 20 years. is a controversial topic, and the same is true in museums.

Intergenerational 53

Intergenerational Museum NSF Facilitation 53

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 10, 2008

In the final installment of Museum 2.0’s s four part series on comfort in museums, we get down to the basics: creature comfort. So for this last piece, we look at going the other way: making museums more physically comfortable. And on the walls, my friend explained, was art from the museum itself. There was funky music.

Museum 30

Museum Denver Arts Design 30

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 22, 2009

This isn't just a rhetorical question. They provide detailed case studies of projects in each area, including project descriptions, informal science education goals, participant training techniques, and evaluation outcomes. What does the word "participatory" mean to you?

Public 36

Public Research Participatory Report 36

Museum 2.0

APRIL 19, 2016

We realized that we needed a systematic way to evaluate these kinds of requests--a tool that would help us evaluate when to say yes and why to say no. Our museum has already had several requests to lend our support to bond measures that will be on the ballot in 2016. How did we create it? We only met once in person.

Policy 20

Policy Advocacy Create Museum 20

Neon CRM

JUNE 20, 2023

If it seems like a reasonable evaluation, the nonprofit takes the donor’s word for it. This will be helpful if there are questions later. While most will receive the majority of their donations in cash, inventory-heavy nonprofits like museums or private libraries may have higher in-kind receipts than anything else.

Track 52

Track Donation Guide Laptop 52

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 18, 2008

I've long believed that museums have a special opportunity to support the community spirit of Web 2.0 This month brings three examples of museums hosting meetups for online communities: On 8.6.08, the Computer History Museum (Silicon Valley, CA) hosted a Yelp! Me: Have you ever been to this museum? meetup for Elite Yelp!

Museum 22

Museum Hosting Model Community 22

Museum 2.0

JULY 12, 2011

A museum holds a free program in a semi-public space. This is the question I've been toying with this week. This is the question I've been toying with this week. Last weekend, my museum did a little pilot of a new program, Downward Draw. Ready for a math problem? Fifteen people engage in the prescribed activities.

Participatory 41

Participatory Museum Measure Activities 41

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 11, 2013

This week''s guest post is written by Julie Bowen, VP of Experience and Engagement at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa. Years ago, I was running a workshop at a conference introducing a creativity technique to museum professionals. But it would never work in my museum because my boss would never go for it.”

Place 52

Place Museum Environment Problem 52

Museum 2.0

JULY 3, 2007

This week, we look at Chapter 5 of Elaine Gurian's book Civilizing Museums , Choosing Among the Options: An opinion about museum definitions in two parts. First published in Curator magazine in 2002, this essay presents five different museum "types" and their distinct opportunities and challenges.

Museum 20

Museum Taxonomy Arts National 20

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 14, 2007

Inventory isn't a museum activity that inspires curiosity in many visitors. This summer, the Austrian Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art ( Österreichisches Museum für Volkskunde) is trying to change that. People often talk about non-collecting museums as the museums of the future.

Museum 20

Museum Conservancy Registration Project 20

Museum 2.0

MARCH 25, 2015

This is the first in a two-part series about the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History’s new theory of change. This week, Ian David Moss and I are each writing blog posts about our collaborative process to develop a theory of change at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. For three years, we hit the gas at my museum—hard.

Process 20

Process Change Develop Museum 20

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 5, 2012

I've always been a bit confused when people talk about the impact of a museum or arts institution as being about "more than numbers." I understand that some museum offer extraordinary, intimate programs. I was visiting with Adam Lerner, Director and Chief Animator of the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. It makes sense.

Denver 45

Denver Impact Museum Arts 45

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 16, 2010

How do you find your way around a multi-faceted museum? I spent some time playing with this question last week at the Milwaukee Art Museum, a large general museum that is moving toward redesign of the permanent galleries. It's easy to ask visitors just one question. Do you interrogate the map?

Experiment 44

Experiment Lesson Learning Museum 44