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Language/Arts: How the Verbal and Visual Intersect in Museums

By Glenna Barlow

A picture is worth a thousand words. Or so the aphorism tells us. What, then, is the value of a single word? That is the question I have explored time and again as an educator in an art museum. It might seem counterintuitive that someone …
Define Museum: A Q&A with the Museum Glossary Project Team

By Adam Rozan

One of my all-time favorite sayings is, “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together,” which was the case with the Museum Marketing, Communications, & Audience Engagement Glossary project. In part one of this …
Speaking the Audience’s Language: A Q&A with James Heaton

By Adam Rozan

At some point in the pandemic, I was working on a project, and I needed a museum-based definition of a term relating to audience development and museum work. I started by flipping through a few books in my library, none of which had what I …
Striving for Excellence in Exhibition Label Writing

By John Russick and Jojo Galvan Mora

In just a few months, a quarter of the twenty-first century will be behind us. Much has changed in museums over that time. Some of that change has been brought on by technology and new ways to do our work, both outwardly and behind the …
Learning from the Double Diamond: How Divergent and Convergent Thinking Can Improve Collaboration and Problem-Solving in Museums

By Dana Mitroff Silvers

Have you ever been in a meeting and thrown out an idea, only to have a colleague start listing all the reasons it won’t work? Or maybe you’ve thought of one in your head, only to second-guess yourself and shut down your own thinking? These …
You, Me, We: Tackling Identity and Discrimination with Young Audiences

By Melissa Higgins and Lok-Wah Li

In February 2023, Boston Children’s Museum opened a new exhibition called You, Me, We, which encourages families to connect with each other around questions of fairness in the world, reflect on and express their identities, explore …
Identity, Choice, and Emotion: New Approaches to Touring

By Debbi Hegstrom, Kara ZumBahlen, and Sheila McGuire

As Learning staff at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), we regularly assess our tour offerings to understand what’s working well or where we may need to find new approaches. Over the past five years, several factors have pulled us in …
Neurodivergent Needs: A Q&A with ADDitude Magazine

By Adam Rozan

If museums want to be welcoming and accessible, one of the areas they must consider is neurodiversity. How do the ways we process information and stimuli differ from person to person, and how can we design experiences that work across this …
Want to Teach Diversity and Inclusion? Go Outside!

By Dan Kriesberg & Camille S. Edwards

“The fresh air, sounds, and sunshine [are] peaceful.” “I can sit differently, and that helps me focus.” “We can see what we are learning about.” “[It’s] easier to reset with nature sounds.” Since we began teaching our Diversity Education …
Why Museums Need Internal Audit

By Humza Elahi, Christienne Johnson, Roman Lindauer, and Laurie Scofield

How do you feel when you hear the words “internal audit”? For many people, the answer is a sense of anxiety and perhaps even a muttered “uh oh.” As a group of museum internal auditors, we’re used to confronting this reaction from our …