Last week I participated in a Twitter chat on what kind of social media training and skills new and emerging museum professional should have. I was especially interested because during our recent teaching stint in India my co-teacher and I had for the first time worked a number of social media requirements and activities into…
Recent posts on Museum Commons have addressed issues of museum empathy and the use of social media to include the visitor voice. In this connection the Education Department of the Levine Museum of the New South contacted me about a new summer program that is using social media to connect more closely with the…
Karen Lee and I with our 2011 students after a prototyping session at Science City, Kolkata Teaching and learning in India Toward the end of June I’ll be traveling to India with Karen Lee, a former colleague who continues to work at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Since 2009 Karen and I have…
The museum social media networks have been buzzing lately with discussions about the nature and role of museums in the 21st century. Inspired by tweets and posts by Nina Simon and Robert Stein among others, museum folks on social media have been contributing to substantive conversations about the key questions museums should be asking and the…
I’m currently reading a terrific book, Letting Go? Sharing Historical Authority in a User-Generated World, edited by Bill Adair, Benjamin Filene, and Laura Koloski. Although this book is about history museums, a number of articles, especially ones by Nina Simon, “Participatory Design and the Future of Museums,” and Kathy McLean, “Whose Questions, Whose Conversations?” made…
This month the United States, as well as many countries the world over, has commemorated the 10th anniversary of 9/11. There have been museum-sponsored events and exhibitions such as the inauguration of the 9/11 Memorial Plaza at the World Trade Center in New York, and a display of 9/11 artifacts collected by the Smithsonian’s…
I have been thinking for some time about museums’ propensity to imitate and reinforce the environments and methods of formal education. I think they need to refocus on what they do best: create informal environments for learning (very broadly defined) and enjoyment. Importing a Classroom Mentality I entered the museum field from the classroom over 30…
The government shutdown in Minnesota is now in its second week, with no end in sight, closing the Minnesota Historical Society and its museums, libraries, and historic sites throughout the state. But as a colleague from Minnesota writes. “Actually, I think what Minnesota is facing now is just one version of what other states, cities,…
If you go to the home page of the Minnesota History Center you’ll see announcements for events in July and August –Tuesday night concerts, a history pub crawl, museum theater – as well as information about current and future exhibitions. But look at the upper left-hand corner and you’ll see a diagonal banner: CLOSED! And across the…
You’re at a dinner party with museum colleagues. All kinds of questions and observations filter across the table and around the room. What did you think about the most recent conference? Why do most museums seem to avoid edgy and groundbreaking topics? Is government funding driving our approach to museum education? Why is University X opening a new…