Technology and Decolonization
Museums feel like they have always been here, like the sky and the seas. But, while the sun has always come up, museums are not a natural phenomenon. They are much more recent, younger than many countries. Museums have their foundations in the Enlightenment and colonialism, two interrelated historic situations. Museums grow from the European …
#OMA2019 Recap : Boards, Front of House, and Conversation Burnout
The Ohio Museums Association had its 2019 conference in Akron this week. I was at the conference as a board member of OMA, eager to hear what we can do for our constituents. This week in Akron I was reminded of the phrase: All politics is local. Ohio is populous state, classically purple in elections, …
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Visitor-Centered means Object-Centered
Over the last few years, there have been some heated debates behind the scenes of museum education offices about the ways that visitors should be engaged. Many directors have changed the department moniker from education to learning or interpretation. This change could be seen as a transformation from older methodologies to more sophisticated forms of …
Thinking about Value: Universal Rights of Humanity & Free Arts/ Culture
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed in 1948 explicitly calls out the importance of arts and culture. Article 27 states “Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.” This estimable document includes a number of essential …
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Connecting Experience and Research
Research is the fuel in the engine of the museum’s output. Like a car, which is basically inert without a driver, the museum only fulfills its full mission when drawing visitors. Visitors are now a scarce commodity. Drawing more visitors requires considering our offerings and the way those offerings come to fruition. This does mean …
Interpretation : Focus on Tactile and Kinesthetics
In museum galleries, we signal ideas through a variety of ways. Collections are visible in the galleries. Interpretation adds more signals, like ancillary images, audiotours, and of course text. But, we also omit many stimuli. We often completely exclude two major forms of meaning-making, kinesthetic and tactile. What happens when we do this? And, what …
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What Museums Can Learn from the Black Panther
Taken from the Marvel Comic Books, the Black Panther is a movie about a fictional African nation that cloaks its advanced civilization as a form of self-preservation. The king of the nation has superhuman strength thanks to serious sumptuary success. The Black Panther’s trail to bring a bad guy to justice starts some even worse …
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The Future of the Art Museum: The Alternative Possibilities
I was struck by this response to a previous post of mine. I wasn’t the only one. It had 40 likes and 18 retweets. I want loud art museums. I want social art museums. I want playful art museums. I want art museums that rip me from my bubble world & throw me into …
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Inequity in The Arts & Culture Economy Equation
The arts and culture present some serious funding challenges for society and represent some serious inequities. Production: The top of the pyramids, like the directors of museums or the owners of galleries, make much more money than those starting out. Many people cannot afford to work in the arts because of the low salaries. …
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What Flow and Transcendent Design Mean for Museums #CX #UX / On Yayoi Kusuma
Kusuma Yayoi has been on Instagram accounts big and small over the last year. Her exhibition Infinity Mirrors has been selling out faster than THE concert of the year. Her work has been hailed as “the perfect art experience for the social-media age.” Kusuma’s work has become coupled with the national addition with self-promotion and …
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