On December 11, 2014, and in the days following a number of us posted a joint statement expressing our concern about museums’ lack of recognition of the underlying causes of the events in Ferguson (writ large). The statement has had both immediate and continuing impact, so I think it’s worth republishing it, and reflecting on…
Museums have to look at where they can challenge the status quo, and where they can push, but also where they can partner. Peoria, IL City Manager Every once in awhile a confluence of books, articles, conference presentations, and blog posts calls attention to the same phenomenon in the museum world. Is this synchronicity, the zeitgeist,…
Carol Bossert’s weekly Museum Life program on VoiceAmerica satellite radio brings all kinds of current museum issues to the fore. I was happy to be part of a discussion she hosted on Friday, January 23, 2015 called “Following up on Ferguson.” I joined Melanie Adams, the Managing Director for Community Education and Events for the…
Utility, Ubiquity, Unselfishness A few months ago Neal Stimler, media visionary and digital specialist at the Met in New York, spoke on The Commons and Digital Humanities. “Utility, Ubiquity, Unselfishness,” he said, must be the qualities for the future of the digital humanities. In this post I’d like to acknowledge just these characteristics in a…
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 Charlotte…
Silence in My Twitterverse The other morning I was enjoying a cup of coffee and scanning through tweets. I had just finished reading an article about President Obama stating that if he had had a son, he would look like Trayvon. While I was zipping through Twitter, I was listening to commentary about the case…
Museum folks in senior/leadership positions should be on Twitter! A number of museum people of a certain (dare I say it?) age and/or self-regard (educated, well-read, busy, already inundated by media, steeped in museum culture, interested in the future of museums) wouldn’t be caught dead on Twitter. I can say this, because until a few…
Writing this blog for six months has introduced me to all kinds of fascinating conversations found in other museum-related blogs and tweets. There’s a whole new world out there of ready-to-hand (but how make it ready-to-mind?) information about: · museums · participatory culture · new uses for technology, especially social media But how are all…