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What do people think about museums?
One way to address the question, “What do people think about museums?” is to look at cultural references to museums. Museum professionals often make note of references to museums in movies. For those...
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Museum of Museums II: How do museums reveal the unknown?
In March I started a “Museum of Museums” on Pinterest. Thank you to readers who suggested additions from Dylan and Collins, as well as the film “Museum Hours.” Here are two more additions, which I...
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What type of media is a museum? Interview with Twyla Gibson
For the past year, I have been wondering about Marshall McLuhan’s ideas of “hot” and “cool” media, and how they might apply to museums. Marshall McLuhan was an influential voice in media theory, and...
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Why are children’s museums museums? – Take 2
Visitor at the Peoria PlayHouse Children’s Museum, during the museum’s first week of operations. As I emerge from the chaos of opening a new museum, I am still thinking about the question “Why are...
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Should exhibits tell stories?
This is a post I have been trying to write for a long time – over a year. I’m still struggling, so bear with me. There has been a great deal written over the past few years about museums and...
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Why are children’s museums museums?
In graduate school in the Museum Education Program at George Washington University (admittedly more years ago than I should admit to), the first semester was dedicated primarily to the idea of...
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Can what museums choose to exhibit or promote define the character of their...
Lately, I have been thinking about the relationship between museums and cities, and how museums support or impact their cities. As part of this exploration, I picked up Gail Lord and Ngaire...
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Should Museums Celebrate the Holiday Season?
A few weeks ago, I walked into the Peoria PlayHouse Children’s Museum to find floor staff creating a clever string of “lights” made of construction paper and cardboard tubes. They wanted to hang it...
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What responsibility do museums have for shaping the public’s relationship...
In March I had a conversation with an insightful colleague, Amy Boyle, an educator at the Guggenheim Museum. Amy suggested that open-ended interpretation might be problematic in a climate in which...
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How do museums help to create a better world?
Because we live in a culture in which we primarily receive information written and shared by those who think just like us, I have spent the last two weeks immersed in a flood of media that deepens my...
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What is the political role of art education in rural communities?
Kate Baird is a museum educator at the Springfield Art Museum in Springfield, Missouri. She is also a founder of Placeworks, which offers art residencies and field trips at no cost to participating...
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Why are children’s museums museums? – Take 3
For the past few months I have been working an article related to children’s museums, and thinking a great deal about the period from the 1960s to the 1980s, when children’s museums transformed from...
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Why visit childrens museums? Interview with Elizabeth Kaplan
Elizabeth Kaplan is a lawyer who lives in Louisville, Kentucky and a college friend of mine. When she visited Peoria recently I learned that she has taken her children to children’s museums all over...
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What is the role of objects in an institution committed to social justice?
Museum educator Andrea Jones writes a blog called Peak Lab Experience – a blog I highly recommend reading. Like many of her posts, Museums, Can We Stop Letting Objects Control The Narrative?, published...
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Should museums be storytellers or truth-tellers?
What do museums have to say about, or learn from, recent events in Charlottesville? Museum leaders and professionals have shared statements condemning and consoling, from their position as community...
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What is the job of a culturally-specific museum?
This post is by Janine Okmin, Associate Director of Education at The Contemporary Jewish Museum, where she develops resources for schools and teachers, and trains museum tour guides. Formerly the...
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Can Museums Be Neutral?
A few months ago, Mike Murawski, in partnership with LaTanya Autry of the Mississippi Museum of Art and The Empathetic Museum, created t-shirts to support a “Museums are not Neutral” campaign. Murawski...
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How do we change a museum’s relationship with its building? Interview with...
Dr. Steven Snyder is the President & CEO for the Fleet Science Center in San Diego, CA. Since taking on the role in 2013, Steve has redefined the Fleet’s role, taking it from a science center in...
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Do museums have a responsibility to name and address issues of contemporary...
In the past few months, I’ve visited the museum Eastern State Penitentiary twice. The museum is exemplary for its excellent audio tour (which you can hear parts of here) and the way it incorporates art...
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How Can Museums Help Visitors Effect Social Change?
Museums have long sought a role for themselves in changing our society. For example, art museums once aimed to acculturate the working class by fostering specific ideas about high art and high...
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