Posts
Education & Interpretation
A Counterpoint to “Witch Kitsch”: Peabody Essex Museum’s New Salem Witch Trials Walking Tour
At 11:58 am, my finger hovered above the record button. I had set out on a hot August day to capture the noon bell chimes of the Immaculate Conception Church in downtown Salem, …
Museums Can Help Transform Education
Last week I spent an inspiring afternoon in a Zoom workshop dedicated to envisioning “liberatory futures” for P-12 education. How can we collectively create an educational future that is …
A House Museum Built for the Digital Age
The museum sector went into the pandemic ill-prepared to use digital strategies to keep themselves afloat, but many museums that had begun to experiment with how digital could enhance or …
Get Your Geek On! How Museums Can Host Mission-Driven Community Conventions
Did you know that a freight elevator can just barely fit a life-size Tyrannosaurus rex puppet? We happened to learn this while getting ready for the Geek Con, an annual event held by the …
How Museum Educators Are Using Strategic Foresight to Address Climate Change
In this series of posts, EdCom’s Trends Committee is taking a deeper look at emerging phenomena identified in the 2021 edition of TrendsWatch from the Center for the Future of …
What University Museum Educators Have Learned from the Pandemic
In this series of posts, EdCom’s Trends Committee is taking a deeper look at emerging phenomena identified in the 2021 edition of TrendsWatch from the Center for the Future of Museums. In …
Family Interactive Spaces: Are They Necessary or Just Nice?
Cultivating a strong family audience is critical for museums, and as practitioners we use many different strategies to do this, including special family days and festivals, workshops, …
With Strategic Focus, TikTok Creates New Opportunities for Cultural Institutions to Inspire Critical Thinking and Constructive Dialogue
In September of 2021, TikTok surpassed one billion users, making it the fastest-growing social media app. The video-sharing platform allows users to post short-form videos, which are then …
For Your Radar: The National Association of Museum Schools
When invited to make a statement I’d like to be true in the future, I often offer a vision of America in which “any child can choose to go to school in a museum.” Today’s guest post by …
Catching Feelings for a Triceratops: How Live Theater in Museums Evokes Empathy in Visitors
An excited murmur can be heard throughout the audience as they await the show to begin. When we come together to watch a live performance we expect to be moved, to be transported out of the …
STEAMing into Solvency: Integrating a Museum into the Public School System
The pandemic was an economic tsunami for museums, particularly those already experiencing financial stress. Relatively new museums, still getting their feet under themselves, were at …
In the Pandemic a New Museum Charter School is Born
Over the past two years, the pandemic has prompted museums to experiment with new products and services to meet the needs of their communities. Some of these experiments have turned out to …