Candid

SEPTEMBER 6, 2023

But it remains an effective draw for scores of alumni looking to burnish their personal legacies. To honor Pickens’ lifetime giving to OSU of $650 million, a museum focused on his legacy is being constructed inside the school’s Boone Pickens football stadium. But many alumni aren’t waiting to give back through a bequest.

Profile 98

Profile Relationship Money Donor 98

Museum 2.0

APRIL 24, 2013

Check out this inane AT&T commercial about a woman whose absorption in her smartphone is so great that Facebook updates become substantiated as pieces of art in the museum through which she strolls. It also suggests that for young people, masterpieces in museums are not nearly as interesting as a good friend''s new haircut.

Museum 53

Museum Attention Arts Artist 53

Museum 2.0

MARCH 6, 2013

Two weeks ago, Roberto Bedoya asked several arts bloggers, including me, to write a post reflecting on Whiteness and its implications for the arts. I write this piece in good faith about the organizations I know best: museums. The vast majority of American museums are institutions of white privilege.

Museum 55

Museum St. Louis Arts Artist 55

Museum 2.0

JULY 3, 2013

And of course, I use this blog as a reflective space to learn by writing. At our museum, Pinterest is a primary tool for brainstorming and sharing ideas. Individual staff members use these tools both personally and professionally. Part of that has to do with my personality--I love to write, and I rarely take photographs.

Museum 47

Museum Images Listserv Bookmarking 47

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.

Museum 49

Museum Director History Teen 49

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 7, 2013

This August/September, I am "rerunning" popular Museum 2.0 This is a personal and crowd favorite--and one of the scariest posts I ever wrote. It’s an uncomfortable truth which is forcing me to examine my arguments for inclusivity, access, and populism in museums. Yes, I am a jerk—but only when it comes to my own experience.

Museum 45

Museum Wyoming Map National 45

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

APRIL 4, 2010

He is Deputy Director for the Contemporary Jewish Museum , and an expert in using social media in a museum setting. Participants design and launch a social media experiment that helps them improve their practice and share learning with one another. Here are some reflections on the instructional design: 1. I said yes.

Social Media 94

Social Media Reflection Learning Social 94

Museum 2.0

JUNE 14, 2011

Should museums play music - in public spaces and or in galleries? So I thought I'd open it up to the Museum 2.0 Pros for music: Music helps designers frame the atmosphere for the intended experience at the museum. One person's favorite song makes another person want to stab themselves in the eye with a pencil.

Music 47

Music Museum Open Sound 47

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 7, 2011

I have a confession to make: I've never cared much about museums on the Web. I'm focused on the onsite, in-person experience. When smart people talk about digital museums and virtual experiences, I nod and compartmentalize it as someone else's bailiwick. Is this the future of all museum websites?

Museum 51

Museum Arts Digital Websites 51

sgEngage

OCTOBER 7, 2021

According to The Art Newspaper’s annual survey in 2021, visits to the world’s 100 most-visited museums plummeted by 77% in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Photo Credit: Devon Rose Turner, Natural History Museum, London. . Social media challenges . Plan a treasure hunt with clues offered via social media channels. . .

Arts 88

Arts Culture Organization Social Media 88

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

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.

Reflection 43

Reflection Columbus Museum Participatory 43

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 16, 2013

It's not every day that a visitor buys pizza for everyone in the museum. Then again, Saturday was hardly normal at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. I was so proud to see how our overall ethos of participation and social bridging was manifest in making the experience really wonderful for everyone.

Reflection 43

Reflection Community Museum Participatory 43

Museum 2.0

JULY 23, 2019

Me with a friend As I keep saying, I’ve been to a few museums of late. In reflecting on the sample, I’ve made some broad reflections on museum workers and visitors. Our visitors often see museums as a genre, not unlike hospitals or libraries. People go to museums for leisure.)

Museum 35

Museum Participatory Interaction Classroom 35

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. So what would I do with this little experiment? Do you interrogate the map? Get deliciously lost?

Experiment 44

Experiment Lesson Learning Museum 44

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. Having your own profile relative to an exhibition can help you find a way "in" to the experience via your own interests.

Museum 34

Museum International Roles Greece 34

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

MAY 24, 2006

The Art Museum Social Tagging Project is a group of art museums is looking at integrating folksonomies into the museum Web by developing a working prototype for tagging and term collection, and outlining directions for future development and research that could benefit the entire museum community. A tag is a user???s

Museum 50

Museum Tag Arts Folksonomy 50

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.

Museum 29

Museum Difference Participatory History 29

Twenty Hats

AUGUST 18, 2020

Lasting six months or longer, these groups are safe spaces to grow professionally, surrounded by colleagues who share similar experiences. For eight months, 30 museum-based volunteer managers gathered to explore challenges specific to their brand of volunteer engagement. Factor in about 20 minutes per person, give or take.

Professional 61

Professional Skills Leadership Facilitation 61

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 98

Software Management Donor Guide 98

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

I had specifically asked about places that feel welcoming, and the responses were about exclusive experiences. When you find a bar with your favorite song on the jukebox, or a museum room that feels like your grandmother's living room, you suddenly feel a strong affinity and are able to see yourself reflected in the space.

Museum 34

Museum Los Angeles San Francisco Model 34

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

MARCH 4, 2011

Jay Geneske, a social media professional, shares his experience from a recent Tweetup. In early January, the American Museum of Natural History announced that it would hold a Brain Tweetup for 75 of its Twitter followers. It seemed clear that this experience would be quite different from my previous visits to cultural institutions.

Brain 94

Brain Museum Culture Interaction 94

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 9, 2009

Between high-altitude hijinks, run-ins with wildlife, and very long days of hiking, I finished John Falk's new book, Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience. In other words, if you are a curious person, you will go to museums to learn new things. The explorer is a curious person who loves to dig into things.

Museum 28

Museum Maslow Facilitation Personal 28

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

OCTOBER 26, 2010

The conversations that begin with “We did this and this is what we found …&# can always enrich a workshop.

Blackbaud 93

Blackbaud Conference Reflection Atlanta 93

Saleforce Nonprofit

AUGUST 20, 2021

In fact, while there are various acronyms for this work — ranging from DEI to EDI, EDIB, JEDI, you name it — I personally believe that inclusion comes first. Workstream priorities should reflect this knowledge. Personalize communications based on identity to attract diversity in donors and teams. Intentional Marketing .

Strategy 82

Strategy Fundraising Philanthropy Nonprofit 82

Museum 2.0

APRIL 23, 2007

and with it flocks of museum studies / education / exhibit planning graduate interns. I’m always curious when I meet these folks, who are about my age, choosing a different entry path into the museum world. The value proposition of museum grad programs is cloudy in my mind. Is it an education that would make me a better person?

Museum 51

Museum Program Student Skills 51

Museum 2.0

MARCH 3, 2020

I once sat next to a man who worked at a museum about transportation. I’d been starving, and we were being served a delicious hot lunch (Thank you Pennsylvania Museums Association.) As I stuffed my face, the person beside me shared some information about train schedules, routes, and systems.

System 20

System Work Museum Pennsylvania 20

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

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. asked by a cop or mother, garners the full attention of asker and askee alike, museum questions like "what is nanotechnology?," Download my slides here.

Reflection 20

Reflection Research Question Museum 20

Museum 2.0

APRIL 20, 2009

I just got home from the Museums and the Web conference in Indianapolis. I’d never attended before and was impressed by many very smart, international people doing radical projects to make museum collections and experiences accessible and participatory online. Instead, I found a standard art museum. Impersonal guards.

Participatory 35

Participatory Museum Web Indianapolis 35

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 3, 2014

This person is writing about a participatory element (the "pastport") that we included in the exhibition Crossing Cultures. Crossing Cultures features paintings by Belle Yang that relate to her family''s immigration experiences. In my experience, offering many different forms of participation garners more quality interactions.

Participatory 45

Participatory Museum History Arts 45

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 18, 2009

I often think museums are like church--passionately loved by staff and devout audiences, irrelevant or off-putting to lapsed or uninterested adults, alien and overwhelming to newcomers. Not excited generally or about the institutional content, but sincerely pleased that that person in particular has arrived.

Museum 25

Museum Culture Technique Badge 25

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 29, 2009

Last week, Jim Richardson and I hosted MuseumNext , a 24-hour workshop for museum professionals focused on bringing new, wild museum projects into the world. We also ended the entire event with one of my favorite exercises, the Exquisite Corpse game, in which participants co-created comics of their craziest museum dreams.

Facilitation 32

Facilitation Reflection Museum Participatory 32

Museum 2.0

MARCH 21, 2011

This expresses itself most powerfully in museums when we talk about building relationships with visitors over time. But museums are one-night stand amnesiacs in the relationship department. This is terrible, both for the visitor and for the museum. I expect you'll remember some basic things about me--say, my name.

Relationship 46

Relationship Museum Game Personal 46

Museum 2.0

JUNE 25, 2014

A man walks into a museum. How do you measure the value of that experience? Two years ago, we mounted one of our most successful participatory exhibits ever at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History: Memory Jars. Over three months, about 600 people filled mason jars with personal memories and put them on display.

Participatory 52

Participatory Evaluation Project Museum 52

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. Maybe this person was writing about his or her preference for neon paper products, but I doubt it.

Participatory 48

Participatory San Diego Museum History 48

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

JULY 31, 2013

I spent the weekend queuing up posts for my forthcoming blog-cation--nine weeks of guest posts and reruns from the Museum 2.0 I didn''t want to write about something I was an expert on; I wanted to write to explore new ideas, share my questions and ideas, and learn from the experience. As the readership for Museum 2.0

Museum 35

Museum Participatory Reflection Conference 35