Museum 2.0

MARCH 4, 2015

This week marks five years since the book The Participatory Museum was first released. I thought the pinnacle of participatory practice was an exhibit that could inspire collective visitor action without facilitation. Over the past four years, I''ve been running a small regional art and history museum in Santa Cruz, CA.

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Participatory Museum Empowerment Facilitation 20

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 13, 2011

The best participatory projects are useful. The participatory activity in question is part of the new Unfinished Business gallery, a room in which the museum engages with a contemporary issue related to the passion and work of Jane Addams and the historic Hull-House activist residents. Yes, this activity is political.

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Participatory Museum Action Experiment 44

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 25, 2018

For the past five years, each summer, the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History has hosted MuseumCamp. MuseumCamp is amazing, but there are two issues that come up every January when we announce the new session: The application process is very competitive, and hundreds of people end up being rejected or waitlisted.

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Museum 2.0

APRIL 26, 2018

One that has found remarkable success is California’s Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. Reading this article made me wonder: what are the greatest diversification issues in museums today? I'd argue that age and income diversity are important, but that racial and ethnic diversity is a bigger issue in museums today.

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Audience Washington Museum Intergenerational 49

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

Visitors bond and bridge through participatory experiences at MAH. To apply the results of my analysis to produce a community-driven program design specifically for implementation at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (the MAH). You can download and read the full version of my thesis here.

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Museum Program Participatory Community 49

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 19, 2014

While some in the art world are heralding Carminero''s act as expanding the role of art to disrupt and make political statements, I feel that this is a pretty straightforward issue of a criminal act. But does the fact that Ai Wei Wei smashes work himself complicate the issue? institutional change Museum of Art and History risk'

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Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 15, 2014

When basketball players are offering more cogent commentary on racial issues than cultural institutions, you know we have a cultural relevance problem. As mediators of culture, all museums should commit to identifying how they can connect to relevant contemporary issues irrespective of collection, focus, or mission.

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Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 11, 2015

INTERNSHIPS If you want to join us in Santa Cruz for more professional learning, consider an internship at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. We''re offering internships this summer in: Participatory Exhibition Design. Help take the participatory elements of this permanent gallery to the finish line. Community Programs.

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Participatory Community Museum History 20

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

OCTOBER 30, 2009

A Learning History of the CARE LAC - Institute for Strategic Clarity Guatemala Poverty Project. Every non-profit works with “systems” – internal ones relating to how work gets done, issue systems relating to the topic that the NGO is working to address, and mental model systems about strategy. Institute for Strategic Clarity, March 15.

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Map System Profit Guatemala 86

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 29, 2012

Here's the short version (read the whole thing here ): The Museum of Art & History is committed to creating exhibitions that inspire our diverse audiences to engage deeply with contemporary art and Santa Cruz County history. It's a working document, and we mean to put it to work planning new projects with our partners.

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Museum Artist Participatory History 38

Museum 2.0

APRIL 4, 2012

Museums have been grappling with this question for years ( here's a 2007 roundup of such projects ), most aggressively in zoos and natural history museums where staff hope to inspire conservation and in history/concept museums that focus on civic engagement and activism. There was no specific instruction with the dots.

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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? History Museums OPPORTUNITIES - History museums are in many ways the best-suited for visitor participation.

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Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 18, 2013

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. In 2008 and 2009, there were many conference sessions and and documents presenting participatory case studies, most notably Wendy Pollock and Kathy McLean''s book Visitor Voices in Museum Exhibitions.

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Museum 2.0

JANUARY 16, 2013

Then again, Saturday was hardly normal at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. This past weekend, in conjunction with our exhibition about Ze Frank's current participatory project, A Show , we hosted " Ze Frank Weekend "--a quickie summer camp of workshops, activities, presentations, and lots of hugging.

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Reflection Community Museum Participatory 43

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 19, 2012

We're looking for an Exhibitions Manager to join our team here at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. Spurred partly by the most recent (and fabulous) issue of the Exhibitionist and conversations we're having at our museum, I'd like to hear your reflections on how you think about exhibition formats and schedules.

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Participatory Museum Blended History 32

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

OCTOBER 25, 2011

Where her first film was a contemporary account of the Civil War in Guatemala, particularly the story of Nobel Peace Prize Winner Rigoberta Menchu, Granito is an effort to capture the history of the war through recollections and archival exploration. Guest Post by Vincent Stehle. But that is only the jumping off point for the inquiry.

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Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

FEBRUARY 20, 2015

By placing players squarely in the middle of the issues at-hand, games for social impact allow them to experience the nuances of these challenges in a way that is often as transformative and it is informative. government and encouraging participatory democracy. ” Senate Immersion Module. Half the Sky Movement: The Game.

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Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

SEPTEMBER 8, 2016

Last week I was honored to be a counselor at Museum Camp , an annual professional development event hosted by the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (MAH). Nina Simon, the executive director of the museum, is an expert in participatory design and fantastic facilitator.

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Museum 2.0

JANUARY 18, 2012

The common museum knowledge on this issue is that adults are timid, that we have lost some of the wonder, impulsiveness, and active creativity of childhood days. There are many participatory experiences that appeal primarily to adults, and they are designed distinctly for adults. But I don't think that theory holds up.

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Museum 2.0

AUGUST 9, 2011

It's a little living room in a lobby area that invites people to lounge on comfortable chairs, leaf through magazines and books related to art and Santa Cruz history, and generally hang out. An unnamed art museum once created an incredible interactive and participatory installation related to a temporary exhibition.

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Museum Arts History Columbus 51

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

MAY 26, 2015

Designing A Participatory Hook for a Virtual Meeting. Guidestar has a history of doing walking meetings, especially one on ones and at its Williamsburg location. This was helpful because you could discuss an issue that might be coming up at a meeting – and this contributes to new ideas and more efficient meeting time.

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Facilitation Virtual Arts Participatory 50

Museum 2.0

APRIL 25, 2011

I've seen this line of questioning almost completely disappear in the past two years due to many research studies and reports on the value and rise of participation, but in 2006-7, social media and participatory culture was still seen as nascent (and possibly a passing fad). In 2008, the conversation started shifting to "how" and "what."

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Question Participatory Museum Evaluation 49

Museum 2.0

MAY 2, 2012

Today is my one-year anniversary as the executive director of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. We went through a dramatic financial turnaround and redefined our relationship with our community through a series of experimental participatory projects and new programmatic approaches. 85% of our visitors attend through events.

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Museum 2.0

MAY 9, 2012

I led a session with Eric Siegel and Ellen Rosenthal on museum business models and some of the issues we grapple with in managing money. It was terrific to have a packed room and a long, open conversation (we split the session into half presenting, half audience discussion) about these issues. History and science museums.

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Reflection Columbus Museum Participatory 43

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 30, 2013

So consider this just the first of many posts related to issues of cultural inclusion, evaluation, and impact. As we start the process at our museum of updating our permanent history gallery, one of our specific goals is to increase intergroup understanding in our community. But how will we know if we are actually achieving our goals?

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Museum 2.0

MAY 24, 2011

Ken is a game designer and writer who develops narrative, collaborative augmented reality experiences about serious issues. The lesson here is a really important one for today, and it’s this: the storytelling ego that’s so important in non-participatory media can be a liability in participatory media. If none, why the heck not?

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Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 3, 2019

I love alternative history novels. I was thinking I’d do a few alternative histories of museums for the first post of the last month of the decade. As I imagined a world without Nina Simon ’s Participatory Museum , I felt sad about all the visitors whose voices (and post-it note comments) weren’t honored.

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Museum Work Social Media History 21

Museum 2.0

MARCH 21, 2012

At the museum of art and history where I work, we are grappling with the question of how to help people enjoy themselves while keeping the art and artifacts safe. In the history gallery, we have some blended props and artifacts, and it's rarely clear what is and is not ok to touch. Art, however, does not come to museums pre-hardened.

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Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

JULY 28, 2009

We can light the match, we can use lighter fluid and kindling, we can fan the flames, but only the community can make our issue, our movement, burn with the full fire of an inferno. I began our talk today with my personal nonprofit history. See, the mark of a great social media effort is when the community itself owns it.

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Create Green Social Media Structure 94

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. We exist for people who live in Santa Cruz County.

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Build Community Museum Artist 20

Museum 2.0

MAY 29, 2009

Two weeks ago, I conducted a participatory exhibit design workshop with staff at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Tags: participatory museum professional development. Sure, there's a part of me that is skeptical that all of this may be a lot of meetings and talk for little change.

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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. The topic of the lunch was internships, and the tables paired students with established professionals to talk about opportunities, issues, and possibilities.

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Museum Student Participatory Structure 35

Museum 2.0

DECEMBER 14, 2009

Or maybe education staff are not willing to engage real-time visitors in dialogue around controversial issues. I used the example of two very different exhibitions that solicited visitor-contributed content: Playing with Science at the London Science Museum, and MN150 at the Minnesota History Center. That’s fine.

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Project Museum Teen North Carolina 22

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 5, 2013

Our museum in Santa Cruz has been slammed by those who believe participatory experiences have gone too far. We always knew that the inclusion of participatory and community-centered practices in arts institutions was controversial. To me, the backlash against participatory and community-centered experiences is not surprising.

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Participatory Museum Arts History 53

Saleforce Nonprofit

MARCH 8, 2022

In partnership with women’s rights funds, sport for development organizations and feminist sport activists, Women Win launched the ONSIDE Fund — a participatory grantmaking mechanism that rapidly mobilises unrestricted resources for girls and young women-led organisations and groups through a pooled fund.

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Costa Rica Game Change Uganda 111

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

But that business model requires experienced staff who know how to empower people, facilitate meaningful participation, respond to community issues and interests, and ignite learning. The whole process of being interviewed for the story made me question the stories we tell and words we use to describe participatory work. Not a crowd.

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Journal Participatory Museum Community 54

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

APRIL 18, 2007

You can find out what other people are saying or thinking about your topic, community, organization, program or issue area. When you find the people and you find the issues, participate. Say you want to track mentions of a particular public issue or news item. Wiki Issues. Change Issues. This can inform.

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