Ideas

A Naturally Compelling Future for Museums: Sharon Ament, Director of Public Engagement at the Natural History Museum, London, on why museums have a vital role to play in the future of the planet

Nick Poole argues that the past decade of progress in museums has seen an assault on curatorship from numerous angles all at once. And the risk of not having access to ‘old school’ curators is that museums will gradually stop moving forward. So, without returning to the past hegemony of the curator, what's the alternative?

Victoria Pomery on creating a gallery that doesn’t compromise on quality and which welcomes audiences from all walks of life

Making a good museum game means serious collaboration between game-makers and curators. Danny Birchall and Martha Henson of the Wellcome Trust on how to develop engaging games for a discerning audience...

Janet Carding - director and CEO of the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada - talks to Gregory Chamberlain

By Dr Victoria Dickenson, Chief Knowledge Officer, Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Exclusive free chapter from our new book: The Radical Museum: democracy, dialogue & debate

How do you incorporate digital media into the marketing and communication strategy? By Peter Skogh, National Museums of World Culture, Sweden. Exclusive free chapter from our new book: Museum Public: audience development, brand identity and marketing strategies

What Museums Need to Understand for the Future. By Adam Reed Rozan, Marketing Manager, Oakland Museum of California. Exclusive free chapter from our new book: Museums Forward: social media and the web

Linda Duke - Director of Audience Engagement at the Indianapolis Museum of Art - on Aesthetic Thought. Exclusive free chapter from our new book: Museum Learning: knowledge, ideas and inspiration

Storytelling is a powerful technique that we need to embrace yet use judiciously. An exclusive free chapter from our new book: Museum Narrative & Storytelling: engaging visitors, empowering discovery and igniting debate

Every museum has a responsibility to its community to conduct itself in an increasingly sustainable manner. Exclusive free chapter from our new book: Greener Museums: sustainability, society and public engagement

From Memory to Action by Bridget Conley-Zilkic. Exclusive free chapter from our new book: Museums Fighting For Human Rights

The potential collections have is hugely powerful. But it's not collections alone that define a museum's uniqueness or idenity. Exclusive free chapter from our new book: Museums and Meaning: idiosyncrasy, individuality and identity

Only through the constancy of fresh interpretation and the ongoing communication of a sense of the infinite possibilities our collections can inspire will museums captivate the creative spirit of its visitors

Richard Benjamin, Head of the International Slavery Museum, discusses the fundamental union between museums and the political landscape and focuses on whether it truly is possible to create a museum which is not only accessible and inclusive but relevant to the needs of society

People often ask me which museums are my favorites. I don’t like to give a list. But when I really think about it, all my favorites (so far) have one thing in common. It’s not the extent to which they are participatory. It’s not their size or type or subject matter. It’s the extent to which they are distinctive, and more precisely, idiosyncratic.

A time will come when ‘e-learning’ is embedded in museum practice. Exclusive free chapter from our new book: Interactive Galleries: digital technology, handheld interpretation and online experiences

We invited some of the world’s leading museum innovators - including Nancy Proctor, Head of New Media, Smithsonian American Art Museum; and Victor Samra, Digital Media Marketing Manager, MoMA - to talk about the benefits and challenges of social media. This is what they told us

The establishment of the Free Derry Museum in Northern Ireland by the Bloody Sunday Trust was done so with the explicit intention of sharing the story of Bloody Sunday from the local community’s point of view. May Redfern talks to museum director Adrian Kerr about how that community is now telling its history

In a £10 million transformation The Jewish Museum London tells the story of Jewish history, culture and religion in an innovative and compelling way - exploring the experience of immigration, cultural diversity, and Jewish identity as part of the wider story of Britain...

A radical response to climate change is needed but what role do museums have in the fight? One thing is for sure, they can play an exceptional role in connecting and motivating professionals and the public to make positive changes. But this crucial role has been untapped and unrecognised in the UK despite a number of initiatives

Social media may be a great way to connect with your audience. But getting them to add content to your site is not that simple, as Kirstie Beaven from Tate Online explains...

The recent ‘Follow a Museum’ campaign on twitter was a massive event all over the world. Here the man behind the idea, Jim Richardson, gives an easy step-by-step guide for museums looking to use twitter

Nina Simon is a vital voice in the museum world. Offering refreshing and innovative thinking and solutions Nina’s Museum 2.0 design consultancy focuses on creating participatory, dynamic, audience-centred museum spaces. Nina writes the influential Museum 2.0 blog and has just published The Participatory Museum

Tate will shortly start demolition work to clear the area directly south of Tate Modern, making way for a new £215 million new development. The project will address some of the strains on the current building. The gallery was originally designed for 2 million visitors but current visitor numbers reach up to 5 million.

Caroline Marcus, Access Officer at The National Gallery in London, explains how a special event for two hundred older visitors and volunteer facilitators aimed to highlight existing inclusive practice and recent new developments and initiatives in the area of accessibility.

"...buildings can permit the experience of time that I want to examine, and I want to begin to ask: if buildings do permit an experience of time, to what purposes might such an experience be put? How can we harness the power of what we might term ‘architectural narrative’?" Professor Jack Lohman - Director, Museum of London

Some museum exhibitions are brilliantly conceived but fall down on a disastrous flaw that could have been avoided through close consultation with the target audience. Discover how to capitalise on user groups when planning exhibitions and interpretation.

A new National Museum Wales exhibition attempts to move beyond the traditional archaeological narrative to draw out contemporary messages. And as National Museum Wales is a learning organisation, it is committed to the evaluation of all its exhibitions. Here Melanie Youngs, Steve Burrow and Philippa Diment report on their findings

House of Terror - A Budapest museum remembers the tyrannies of the Nazi party and the Soviet-backed secret police. Review by Jan Lorenc – President & Design Director, Lorenc+Yoo Design, and Richard Lorenc - Director of Outreach, Illinois Policy Institute

With a progressive attitude toward professional inquiry and development, Museum-id presents a stimulating and provocative mix of ideas and opinions from leading museum innovators. Vol. 10 of Museum-id explores the Future of Museums

Features in Vol.08 of Museum-ID include: Why no public debate on museum disposals? - Aesthetic Thought - museums developing creative ways of thinking; Museums and The Big Society; Sustaining the Aesthetic: reimagining exhibition production for an eco museum

Renowned for original and authoriative articles by world-class contributors, in-depth features, high-profile interviews, stunning photography and high production values, Museum Identity has coupled forward-looking content with contemporary design to become the leading publication in the international museum sector

Features in Museum-iD 07 include Sex in the Museum; Fear and Loathing in Museums; Sustainability and Green Museums; and Social Media and Museums. Projects include the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, and the Medieval & Renaissance Galleries, V&A

Museum-iD Vol 06 highlights include Making the Case for Creativity and Experimentation as a Continuing Value for Museums; A Republic of Museums: A shared approach to creating Social Change; Methodologies for Change: Reflections on the Practice of the District Six Museum, Cape Town; Happiness: Can it Renew Museums?