article thumbnail

Why Are So Many Participatory Experiences Focused on Teens?

Museum 2.0

Over the past year, I've noticed a strange trend in the calls I receive about upcoming participatory museum projects: the majority of them are being planned for teen audiences. Why are teens over-represented in participatory projects? Why are teens over-represented in participatory projects?

Teen 24
article thumbnail

Museums and Relevance: What I Learned from Michael Jackson

Museum 2.0

By a strange and lucky coincidence, I was at the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum (EMPSFM) in Seattle for a two-day workshop. EMPSFM is one of a handful of museums worldwide for which the death of the King of Pop is a very big deal. Are museums only relevant when they can serve our most pressing needs?

Museum 34
professionals

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

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?".

article thumbnail

Guest Post by Nina Simon -- Self-Expression is Overrated: Better Constraints Make Better Participatory Experiences

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

Submitted by Nina Simon, publisher of Museum 2.0. I’ve had it with museums’ obsession with open-ended self-expression. And yet many museums are fixated on creators. Museums see open-ended self-expression as the be-all of participatory experiences. This is a problem for two reasons.

article thumbnail

How Nonprofit Leaders Create An Authentic Personal Brand on Intsagram

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

The platform attracts many brands because of the opportunities for brand story telling. One of the best personal brands that I’ve seen on Instagram from a nonprofit leader is Thomas P Campbell the CEO of the Metropolitan Museum. This shot is a painting at a museum visited during a professional conference for museums.

article thumbnail

Designing Talkback Platforms for Different Dialogic Goals

Museum 2.0

We don't have the same limitations when designing talkback stations and other physical platforms for conversation, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't intentionally design the conversational tools offered. This is the opposite situation of the previous design goal, one typical in science and children's museums.

Design 31
article thumbnail

Self-Expression is Overrated: Better Constraints Make Better Participatory Experiences

Museum 2.0

I’ve had it with museums’ obsession with open-ended self-expression. And yet many museums are fixated on creators. Museums see open-ended self-expression as the be-all of participatory experiences. First, exhibits that invite self-expression appeal to a tiny percentage of museum audiences.