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The Western Museum Association was kind enough to invite me to speak on a panel about engagement at their annual meeting in Boise. Phillip’s early remark about museums was an invocation for everyone. MORE
Museums and nonprofits can also reap huge benefits from employing artificial intelligence, particularly in their membership and development departments. That’s why they can also come in handy in museums. Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. MORE
After the International Committee on Museums spent some time debating the definition of museums, many folks took up the charge on social media to give their own definitions. ICOM2019 #ICOMKyoto2019 — Dan Hicks (@profdanhicks) September 7, 2019 But this week I want to focus on a tweet by Dan Hicks who suggested instead of a definition we need museum verbs. I know I’m missing early innovators of interaction in museums; feel free to tell me who in the comments.) MORE
I''ve now been the executive director of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History for three years. We talk a lot at our museum about empowering our visitors, collaborators, interns, and staff by making space for them to shine. institutional change Museum of Art and History MORE
At the end of February, I attended the first of (what I hope will be) many Museums Advocacy Days (MAD) on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. There was something magical about the combination of something I love – museums – with something that scares me: US politics. MORE
A new company in New York, Museum Hack , is reinventing the museum tour from the outside in. They give high-energy, interactive tours of the Metropolitan Museum and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). Today on Museum 2.0, How do you advertise Museum Hack? MORE
Museum launches social media fund-raising campaign - : The Edwardsville Children’s Museum is trying to raise $100,000 by the end of the year through a social media campaign, #SaveOurMuseum MORE
Guest Post from Debbie McKenzie, Development Manager for Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose. . Nonprofit Marketing Arts & Cultural Discounts Membership Museums ticketing MORE
They wanted to help museums and galleries across the UK make significant, sustained changes in the ways they engage community partners and visitors as participants in their work. The result, Our Museum , is an extraordinary funding program with a focus on community participation. MORE
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. I never saw comparable adjectives used in the European art labels at the museum. MORE
11 Ways Your Museum Should be using Twitter | npENGAGE : recently read “The Social Media Police: Nonprofit Edition.” In it the authors discussed how you should use social media at a nonprofit and it made me curious about how museums are using Twitter. The Gibbes Museum of Art, for example, does a great job of using Twitter to share announcements about exhibits, raise awareness for their events, and start conversations with groups scheduled to attend the museum (see below)…. MORE
Or maybe hello museum world! Previously, I had worked at the same museum for 17 years.) So, when you visit more than 300 museums, parks, and historic sites, what do you learn? This week, I wanted to start with us, museum and cultural workers. Hello World! MORE
It invites visitors to make the museum better. When visitors share their brilliance, it brings the museum to life. I believe that every person who walks into our museum has something valuable to share. This is the participatory museum, played out loud. MORE
Recently, we''ve been talking at our museum about techniques for capturing compelling audio/video content with visitors. It made me dig up this 2011 interview with Tina Olsen (then at the Portland Art Museum) about their extraordinary Object Stories project. MORE
So when I stumbled across Austin Museum Day , project of the Austin Museum Partnership, I loved discovering that this event is offering free admission to thousands of Austin residents who likely wouldn’t otherwise visit cultural organizations. MORE
While many American museums require 37.5 The whole issue of wages gets at the heart of the faulty systems of capitalism, the culture of women’s work, and museums as privilege-concentrating institutions. In the last twenty years, or so, professionalization has changed museum work. MORE
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 the many museum tech projects of the decade, I felt inherently sad about the imagining away the successes that friends and colleagues have enjoying. 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. MORE
It's time to make your dreams a reality and apply to become the next executive director of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (MAH). When you check out the job description , you'll see the MAH is not looking for museum-director-as-usual. Museum of Art and HistoryHey, you. MORE
A year ago, I wrote a post speculating about whether events (institutionally-produced programs) might be a primary driver for people to attend museums, with exhibitions being secondary. Many museums, big and small, thrive on events. This isn't true for every museum. MORE
In the spirit of this belief, I’ve decided to unleash the Museum 2.0 For that reason, I’m thrilled to announce that over the next two months, I’ll be transferring ownership of Museum 2.0 She is committed to community participation, equity, and innovation in museums. Museum 2.0 MORE
I recently discussed what it means to be a “museopreneur” in a feature article published by American Alliance of Museums. MORE
We connect with people both professionally and personally, at the museum and on the street. This weekend, I got my answer in Seoul--the 18th biggest city in the world--at Hello Museum. Now, they call themselves a "small neighborhood museum"--in the middle of a city of 9.8 MORE
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. And that’s the core of a successful museum – personal mission. MORE
This post was written by my colleague Nora Grant, Community Programs Coordinator at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. How can you take something as substantial and precious as a museum and add a pop up twist? guestpost Museum of Art and History participatory museum MORE
Nina Simon, Lauren Bentua, and many others would host us in the halls of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art. When we think about mapping these ideas onto an organization I think about how museum leadership can take these on personally as individuals (CEO, COO) and as departments (Human Resources, Education) and so on. Science museums are a forum and a space for communities to tackle issues that are important to them- climate change, poverty, food insecurity, air and water quality. MORE
This month we’ve been thinking about “What is a museum?” (I'm I’ve been visiting museums my whole life. Does that make me the best judge of museums? People are the defining characteristics of museums. I’ve worked with and at plenty of museums that can sometimes feel empty. MORE
” In it the authors discussed how you should use social media at a nonprofit and it made me curious about how museums are using Twitter. Here are eleven things your museum should should do to get the most out of Twitter: Create a Twitter account. MORE
Museums Pursue Engagement With Social Media - NYTimes.com: "SHELLEY BERNSTEIN lives with her computer. Most days she hunkers down in her spartan office at the Brooklyn Museum where, as chief technology officer, she invents ways to keep people visiting the museum and its Web site, brooklynmuseum.org.". MORE
About a year ago, the Dallas Museum of Art did something truly innovative. The museum’s memberships have tripled in the past year. Dallas Museum of Art has taken the concept of website and email marketing metrics and made them analogue. The museum has taken Web 2.0 MORE
Monday, May 18th is International Museum Day , the mission of which is to raise awareness of the fact that, “museums are an important means of cultural exchange, enrichment of cultures and development of mutual understanding, cooperation and peace among peoples.”. MORE
Written by Seema Rao Last month, I shared some of my thoughts about the best of museums over the last decades. (I I'll mention now, Kate Livingston, listed Museum Twitter as one of the best things, and I definitely thought this as I read people's responses. MORE
They position museums as social starting points, experiences worth sharing, braggable moments. They do something entirely different than what museums professionals thought tags might do for our institutions. Almost ten years ago, museum techies started to get excited about tagging. MORE
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. Seema) In some museum work places, the culture of stress is tied to perceived effort, as you mention. Q: Do you know any museums that have implemented telecommuting successfully? MORE
It gave me a chance to really think about how we have been opening up our museum and what it means for our community. Museums can be incredible catalysts for social change. We're doing it in Santa Cruz and it has absolutely transformed our museum into a thriving community institution. MORE
Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh utilized their resources to develop an innovative retention strategy. Participants earn special stamps when they visit one of the museums or attend an event for a chance to win a grand-prize. MORE
This month, we're thinking about the way we do work in museums. As someone texted me recently, Art History grad school didn't teach us anything about working with others in museums. Sharing articles that work is a great reason to stay on Museum Twitter by the way. MORE
Trendswatch 2015 , the annual forecasting report from the Center for the Future of Museums , is now available! In case you missed the event, here’s a recap of two of the top trends to watch this year: Open Museums and Content. Personalizing the Museum Experience. MORE
As a Historic Interpreter for Telfair Museums, I would lead visitors through the Owens-Thomas House and Slave Quarters on a 45 minute guided tour of antebellum Savannah history discussing politics and urban slavery. When the Museum closed I was expecting the next few weeks to be different. MORE
This is the casual attendance data from my first full month as the Executive Director of The Museum of Art & History in Santa Cruz. This graph is making me change the way I think about what our museum is for and how we should market it. Museum of Art and History programs MORE
At The National World War II Museum in New Orleans, fundraising is all about data and their data is all about their donors. The Museum uses their data to get know their donors at a deeper level: what they care about, what motivates them, and how to keep them engaged with their organization. “We MORE
These two adages were both in my mind last week when I asked people for the worst museum trends. In this decade museums worst trends were in labor and tech: 1. Suse Anderson spoke about the drawbacks of professionalization: Moves to “professionalise” the sector that make an MA entry level + cost of grad school + systemic under compensation —> further embedding class stasis of who can work in museums, whilst making public arguments for DEAI that contradict institutional actions. MORE
It’s 2019, and a whole lot is changing in the museum and nonprofit world. That’s not to mention how strained museums already are in terms of resources. Adding to this equation, more museums are starting to unionize. MORE
Then, I get home, confined to the couch with a terrible sinus headache, to find ICOM was debating the definition of a museum. ICOM matters because museums are a global phenomenon. Over the years, I’ve enjoyed interacting with all the international museum folks at conferences, particularly at AAM. ICOM might not seem to matter to our workdays in American museums, but it does matter global. People can only define museums on what we have now. MORE
I tell the story of the one-man band because I think many museum professionals feel like him. But, most importantly, few museum professionals have a free hand or moment. Museums rarely have the funding to replicate positions. Museums are for people, after all. MORE
Museum Related Topics 
Connection Cafe
MAY 7, 2020
Monday, May 18th is International Museum Day , the mission of which is to raise awareness of the fact that, “museums are an important means of cultural exchange, enrichment of cultures and development of mutual understanding, cooperation and peace among peoples.”.
Museum 2.0
NOVEMBER 5, 2019
While many American museums require 37.5 The whole issue of wages gets at the heart of the faulty systems of capitalism, the culture of women’s work, and museums as privilege-concentrating institutions. In the last twenty years, or so, professionalization has changed museum work.
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Connection Cafe
JULY 23, 2019
It’s 2019, and a whole lot is changing in the museum and nonprofit world. That’s not to mention how strained museums already are in terms of resources. Adding to this equation, more museums are starting to unionize.
Museum 2.0
SEPTEMBER 24, 2019
This month we’ve been thinking about “What is a museum?” (I'm I’ve been visiting museums my whole life. Does that make me the best judge of museums? People are the defining characteristics of museums. I’ve worked with and at plenty of museums that can sometimes feel empty.
Museum 2.0
NOVEMBER 26, 2019
This month, we're thinking about the way we do work in museums. As someone texted me recently, Art History grad school didn't teach us anything about working with others in museums. Sharing articles that work is a great reason to stay on Museum Twitter by the way.
Connection Cafe
AUGUST 1, 2019
Museums and nonprofits can also reap huge benefits from employing artificial intelligence, particularly in their membership and development departments. That’s why they can also come in handy in museums. Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Museum 2.0
SEPTEMBER 10, 2019
Then, I get home, confined to the couch with a terrible sinus headache, to find ICOM was debating the definition of a museum. ICOM matters because museums are a global phenomenon. Over the years, I’ve enjoyed interacting with all the international museum folks at conferences, particularly at AAM. ICOM might not seem to matter to our workdays in American museums, but it does matter global. People can only define museums on what we have now.
Museum 2.0
JUNE 10, 2020
Nina Simon, Lauren Bentua, and many others would host us in the halls of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art. When we think about mapping these ideas onto an organization I think about how museum leadership can take these on personally as individuals (CEO, COO) and as departments (Human Resources, Education) and so on. Science museums are a forum and a space for communities to tackle issues that are important to them- climate change, poverty, food insecurity, air and water quality.
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. Seema) In some museum work places, the culture of stress is tied to perceived effort, as you mention. Q: Do you know any museums that have implemented telecommuting successfully?
Museum 2.0
MAY 7, 2020
As a Historic Interpreter for Telfair Museums, I would lead visitors through the Owens-Thomas House and Slave Quarters on a 45 minute guided tour of antebellum Savannah history discussing politics and urban slavery. When the Museum closed I was expecting the next few weeks to be different.
Museum 2.0
JULY 1, 2019
In the spirit of this belief, I’ve decided to unleash the Museum 2.0 For that reason, I’m thrilled to announce that over the next two months, I’ll be transferring ownership of Museum 2.0 She is committed to community participation, equity, and innovation in museums. Museum 2.0
Connection Cafe
MARCH 28, 2019
At the end of February, I attended the first of (what I hope will be) many Museums Advocacy Days (MAD) on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. There was something magical about the combination of something I love – museums – with something that scares me: US politics.
Connection Cafe
JANUARY 28, 2020
I recently discussed what it means to be a “museopreneur” in a feature article published by American Alliance of Museums.
Museum 2.0
SEPTEMBER 17, 2019
After the International Committee on Museums spent some time debating the definition of museums, many folks took up the charge on social media to give their own definitions. ICOM2019 #ICOMKyoto2019 — Dan Hicks (@profdanhicks) September 7, 2019 But this week I want to focus on a tweet by Dan Hicks who suggested instead of a definition we need museum verbs. I know I’m missing early innovators of interaction in museums; feel free to tell me who in the comments.)
Connection Cafe
SEPTEMBER 2, 2015
So when I stumbled across Austin Museum Day , project of the Austin Museum Partnership, I loved discovering that this event is offering free admission to thousands of Austin residents who likely wouldn’t otherwise visit cultural organizations.
Museum 2.0
DECEMBER 23, 2014
A new company in New York, Museum Hack , is reinventing the museum tour from the outside in. They give high-energy, interactive tours of the Metropolitan Museum and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). Today on Museum 2.0, How do you advertise Museum Hack?
Museum 2.0
DECEMBER 3, 2019
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 the many museum tech projects of the decade, I felt inherently sad about the imagining away the successes that friends and colleagues have enjoying. 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.
Connection Cafe
OCTOBER 16, 2013
” In it the authors discussed how you should use social media at a nonprofit and it made me curious about how museums are using Twitter. Here are eleven things your museum should should do to get the most out of Twitter: Create a Twitter account.
Connection Cafe
FEBRUARY 7, 2016
At The National World War II Museum in New Orleans, fundraising is all about data and their data is all about their donors. The Museum uses their data to get know their donors at a deeper level: what they care about, what motivates them, and how to keep them engaged with their organization. “We
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. And that’s the core of a successful museum – personal mission.
Museum 2.0
DECEMBER 17, 2019
These two adages were both in my mind last week when I asked people for the worst museum trends. In this decade museums worst trends were in labor and tech: 1. Suse Anderson spoke about the drawbacks of professionalization: Moves to “professionalise” the sector that make an MA entry level + cost of grad school + systemic under compensation —> further embedding class stasis of who can work in museums, whilst making public arguments for DEAI that contradict institutional actions.
Museum 2.0
OCTOBER 15, 2019
The Western Museum Association was kind enough to invite me to speak on a panel about engagement at their annual meeting in Boise. Phillip’s early remark about museums was an invocation for everyone.
Museum 2.0
MARCH 6, 2018
It invites visitors to make the museum better. When visitors share their brilliance, it brings the museum to life. I believe that every person who walks into our museum has something valuable to share. This is the participatory museum, played out loud.
Museum 2.0
DECEMBER 9, 2019
Written by Seema Rao Last month, I shared some of my thoughts about the best of museums over the last decades. (I I'll mention now, Kate Livingston, listed Museum Twitter as one of the best things, and I definitely thought this as I read people's responses.
Connection Cafe
MARCH 28, 2014
About a year ago, the Dallas Museum of Art did something truly innovative. The museum’s memberships have tripled in the past year. Dallas Museum of Art has taken the concept of website and email marketing metrics and made them analogue. The museum has taken Web 2.0
Museum 2.0
NOVEMBER 12, 2018
We connect with people both professionally and personally, at the museum and on the street. This weekend, I got my answer in Seoul--the 18th biggest city in the world--at Hello Museum. Now, they call themselves a "small neighborhood museum"--in the middle of a city of 9.8
Museum 2.0
DECEMBER 17, 2018
It's time to make your dreams a reality and apply to become the next executive director of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (MAH). When you check out the job description , you'll see the MAH is not looking for museum-director-as-usual. Museum of Art and HistoryHey, you.
AFP Blog
NOVEMBER 22, 2013
Museum launches social media fund-raising campaign - : The Edwardsville Children’s Museum is trying to raise $100,000 by the end of the year through a social media campaign, #SaveOurMuseum
Connection Cafe
NOVEMBER 24, 2014
Guest Post from Debbie McKenzie, Development Manager for Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose. . Nonprofit Marketing Arts & Cultural Discounts Membership Museums ticketing
Museum 2.0
JUNE 6, 2011
This is the casual attendance data from my first full month as the Executive Director of The Museum of Art & History in Santa Cruz. This graph is making me change the way I think about what our museum is for and how we should market it. Museum of Art and History programs
Museum 2.0
NOVEMBER 13, 2012
It gave me a chance to really think about how we have been opening up our museum and what it means for our community. Museums can be incredible catalysts for social change. We're doing it in Santa Cruz and it has absolutely transformed our museum into a thriving community institution.
Connection Cafe
AUGUST 12, 2015
Trendswatch 2015 , the annual forecasting report from the Center for the Future of Museums , is now available! In case you missed the event, here’s a recap of two of the top trends to watch this year: Open Museums and Content. Personalizing the Museum Experience.
Museum 2.0
OCTOBER 1, 2014
Recently, we''ve been talking at our museum about techniques for capturing compelling audio/video content with visitors. It made me dig up this 2011 interview with Tina Olsen (then at the Portland Art Museum) about their extraordinary Object Stories project.
Connection Cafe
AUGUST 16, 2018
Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh utilized their resources to develop an innovative retention strategy. Participants earn special stamps when they visit one of the museums or attend an event for a chance to win a grand-prize.
Museum 2.0
AUGUST 25, 2016
They wanted to help museums and galleries across the UK make significant, sustained changes in the ways they engage community partners and visitors as participants in their work. The result, Our Museum , is an extraordinary funding program with a focus on community participation.
AFP Blog
MARCH 21, 2011
Museums Pursue Engagement With Social Media - NYTimes.com: "SHELLEY BERNSTEIN lives with her computer. Most days she hunkers down in her spartan office at the Brooklyn Museum where, as chief technology officer, she invents ways to keep people visiting the museum and its Web site, brooklynmuseum.org.".
Museum 2.0
MARCH 19, 2014
They position museums as social starting points, experiences worth sharing, braggable moments. They do something entirely different than what museums professionals thought tags might do for our institutions. Almost ten years ago, museum techies started to get excited about tagging.
Museum 2.0
JUNE 11, 2014
This post was written by my colleague Nora Grant, Community Programs Coordinator at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. How can you take something as substantial and precious as a museum and add a pop up twist? guestpost Museum of Art and History participatory museum
Museum 2.0
MAY 21, 2014
I''ve now been the executive director of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History for three years. We talk a lot at our museum about empowering our visitors, collaborators, interns, and staff by making space for them to shine. institutional change Museum of Art and History
Museum 2.0
JUNE 27, 2012
A year ago, I wrote a post speculating about whether events (institutionally-produced programs) might be a primary driver for people to attend museums, with exhibitions being secondary. Many museums, big and small, thrive on events. This isn't true for every museum.
Museum 2.0
MARCH 6, 2013
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. I never saw comparable adjectives used in the European art labels at the museum.
Museum 2.0
AUGUST 20, 2019
I tell the story of the one-man band because I think many museum professionals feel like him. But, most importantly, few museum professionals have a free hand or moment. Museums rarely have the funding to replicate positions. Museums are for people, after all.
AFP Blog
OCTOBER 18, 2013
11 Ways Your Museum Should be using Twitter | npENGAGE : recently read “The Social Media Police: Nonprofit Edition.” In it the authors discussed how you should use social media at a nonprofit and it made me curious about how museums are using Twitter. The Gibbes Museum of Art, for example, does a great job of using Twitter to share announcements about exhibits, raise awareness for their events, and start conversations with groups scheduled to attend the museum (see below)….
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