Posts
Visitor Experience
The Fixer Upper Effect: Waco museums enjoy the ride (and try to learn the deeper meaning)
It’s Monday, November 5, at 1:01 pm. I’m headed to a meeting in downtown Waco, Texas. As I drive by The Silos, a retail space developed by Fixer Upper stars Chip and Joanna Gaines, I am …
Ageism is All Around Us
Greetings! This is my second blog as Aroha Fellow for Museums and Creative Aging, and I begin by reiterating my invitation to meet colleagues who share an interest in creative aging during …
Magical Machinery? What AI can do for museums
When people hear I work with artificial intelligence, they often imagine that I create software that does magical things. Their minds go to humanistic androids or programs that predict …
How We Maximized Our Museum Building’s Impact on Human and Environmental Health
Abundant research demonstrates the efficacy of a building’s design to enhance and support human and environmental health. Peer-reviewed professional studies in journals such as Indoor and …
New Study Offers Clues to Dominance of Curve-Filled Museum Designs
smithsonian.com Curved edges abound in architecture-particularly when it comes to museums, with cultural institutions ranging from Spain's Guggenheim Bilbao to France's Louis Vuitton …
Four Things I Learned When I Started Thinking about Museum Accessibility
I first started working with the Disabilities community in 2011. Over the years, I’ve worked with individuals of all ages in their homes, at their jobs, and in their communities. The …
From a Teacher: How to make your museum field trips ones to remember for students and staff
“That was an awesome field trip!” “That place was so much fun.” These are the statements you want to hear from students after a field trip. As an eighteen-year veteran teacher who has …
The Spaceship Solution: How museums can use experimental technology to solve problems
Picture this: children and adults alike standing on the grounds of a museum on an early winter morning, sipping hot cocoa. Their eyes reach upward as they watch a three-foot spaceman …
A New Way to See: Looking at museums through the eyes of the blind
Let’s talk about accessibility. In the twenty-first century era of inclusivity, museums are working towards making the visitor experience a more positive and unique one, as part of efforts …
Museums Are Entering The World Of Medicine With Prescriptions And Therapy Sessions
Wandering through a museum is one of life's great pleasures and contradictions - at once a private perusal of artistic endeavor and a recognition of community and shared space with other …
New Directions in Interactive Media for Museums
The challenges of integrating interactive media into the museum experience are manifold. New technologies can engage but also potentially alienate museum visitors who have different …
Say Cheese! 3 Ways Museums Can Compete with Instagrammable Pop-Ups
This article is loosely based on a session panel that I facilitated at the 2018 New England Museum Association (NEMA) conference titled, “Let Me Take a Selfie: The Power of Photo Ops and …