Recognizing Bias in Interpretation and Content
Being culturally situated is a state nothing can avoid, collection objects included. Collection objects, even natural history specimens, are mediated by creators, curators, educators, amongst others. A dinosaur bone is excavated by a person, identified by a person, and reclassified by a person. The human existence, in other words, flavors the essence of every …
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#AAM2018 Recap: Language, Collaboration, and Action
The Annual American Alliance Conference 2018 was hosted in toasty Phoenix. Many participants mentioned that this conference felt like a year to consider the basics. Rather than big bang projects, many presentations seemed to focus on maintenance, improvement, and thoughtfulness. As part of this introspection, many presentations put a fine focus on understanding the …
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6 Tips for Making the Most of a Conference #AAM2018
Conferences are a huge expenditure of time and money. They are held in huge, impersonal buildings, peopled by hundreds and hundreds of unfamiliar people. The pressure to do conference right can feel overwhelming. But, first and foremost, there is no one “right” way do attending conferences. You need to find a good balance between engaging …
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Emotions and Customer Experience
Customer/ Visitor Experience basically encompasses connection your visitor has with your organization from the signs on the street to the moments in the galleries. CX overarches both onsite and offsite; physical and digital. Experience is, therefore, a huge concept. As with all large concepts, considering constituent aspects. Touchpoints: The concrete elements that express the experience …
Museum Customer Experience
Customer? Museums create exhibitions and installations for people. We most often describe those people as visitors. The word visitor has some strengths. A visitor is invited and wanted. But, a visit is transitory and not-participatory. There are so many other words that we could use. There might not be an ideal word, but for the …
Museums and the Web 18 Review OR Reality can be hard even when its not Virtual
Museums and the Web 18 Museums and the Web 2018 was hosted in lovely Vancouver. As always, friends from around the world descended upon the town for ideas and enjoyment. While the MuseWeb organization does a great job of publishing articles that expand on the presentations, here are the highlights and themes from this year’s …
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The Cost of Museum Work
Consider these scenarios: For the Museum: Most cities have few museums. Jobs often have low turn over. With the dearth of jobs, professionals don’t leave museum jobs lightly. The manager, confronted with an open position, sees the chance to (finally) make real change. They are looking across the field for the BEST person. The manager …
Making Change that Matters: Moving Beyond “Diversity” Projects Towards Systemic Change
Diversity, Inclusion and Equity can be implemented in a workplace in different ways. Additive: One is additive, by adding new people and programs in the workplace. In this way, the organization hopes to infuse their existing world with new voices, as like adding spice to a bland meal. This approach has strengths, in that …
Reframing Diversity and Inclusion
Diversity and inclusion are now common words in organizational management. Before considering the actual practices, it might be useful to consider the meaning of each of the words. Diversity: : Diversity means variations. Genetic diversity, for example, in the human population creates a huge range of hair colors. Sadly, diversity has become a coded word. …
How do you do Community Engagement
Community Engagement is a commitment. Often organizations need to go through stages to improve their engagement with patrons. At the lowest level of engagement, organizations want to include people in their existing programs without changes. At the highest level of engagement, the organization is willing to make changes and as a result their community changes. …