Play is the “Content” in Children’s Museums

One of my favorite blogs is Museum Questions, posted most Mondays by Rebecca Herz.  I read her February 27, 2017 post, “Why Are Children’s Museums Museums?”  with even greater interest than usual for a couple of reasons: First, during the late 1980s into the 1990s–the period that Rebecca is examining in her post–I was involved developing…

Stayin’ Alive, Part 1: Advocacy

And now it’s alright, it’s okay And you may look the other way We can try to  understand the New York Times’ effect on man. Stayin’ Alive.  The Gibbs Brothers Monday, February 27 was training day for the 9th annual American Alliance of Museums Advocacy Day program; two days when museums from all over the…

Diversity and Inclusion: Thinking Systemically

What is thinking systemically? A system, as we know, is a group of interrelated and interconnected parts, such that what happens to one has an impact on all.  I’ve been noticing, in all kinds of media, references to the importance of examining problems from a systemic point of view, i.e. recognizing that a problem is…

Immigration Pop Up Museum: A Small, Powerful Voice

In January, 2016, I organized and taught a two-week seminar with Monica Montgomery called Museums Are Us. The seminar was one of the on-site courses offered as part of the Johns Hopkins University Museum Studies Program.  We partnered with the DC Public Library to present a pop up museum on the themes of Home and…

Warming our Hands Before the Fire of Life

  Since the November 2016 elections I have been asking myself how to be, live, and work in a world that appears to sanction autocracy, intolerance, and racism (both veiled and unveiled).  If I had the answer I think I could bottle and sell it!  Yet, over the past past eight weeks I have become aware…

Can Museums Be Empathetic? Yes!

In a December 6, 2016 post Museum Geek blogger Suse Cairns asked this question: Can institutions be empathetic? My EM colleagues and I have been discussing the many thoughtful  questions Suse has raised. Following is our response.  We believe that it is possible for institutions such as museums to be empathetic, and below we outline…

An Update on The Empathetic Museum

As many of you know I’ve been thinking and writing about the empathetic museum for some years now.  The last time I wrote an update on our project was in summer 2015 after we had presented our first official session at the American Alliance of Museums conference in Atlanta.  Prior to that we had led…

MUSEUMS AND RACE: LANGUAGE PRIMER #3, ON “OPPRESSION”

  [We propose a paradigm] for how museums address their responsibility for fair and inclusive staffing, collections, and interpretation, and equality of access to their resources. This paradigm will examine a vocabulary and a set of theories not usually found in current museum discourse: Oppression: identifying the complex – and too often unacknowledged – ways in…