articles

The Museum as Distributed Network

Nancy Proctor, Head of New Media, Smithsonian American Art Museum: At first glance, ‘multi-platform museum’ is a perfectly serviceable term to name the multi-faceted nature of museums’ interactions with audiences today: But for a technologist, ‘multi-platform’ has implications that make another metaphor, the distributed network, a more engaged way to approach 21st century museum outreach across digital and other platforms.

Nina Simon Interview: The Participatory Museum

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

Exploring Jewish Identity Within a Wider Story

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...

In Support of Idiosyncrasy

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.

Catalyst for Change: Galleries of Modern London

Cathy Ross, Director of Collections and Learning at Museum of London explains how the opening of the new Galleries of Modern London raises the bar for museums around the world...

Blending E-learning and Museum Practice

A time will come when the term ‘e-learning’ is no longer needed to differentiate this approach to learning, as it will become more embedded in our practice and will become simply another facet of ‘traditional’ learning. Reflections from an e-Learning Officer at the Museum of London by Mariruth Leftwich

Museums and a no-growth economy

In short our unhappy, unequal society is running out of planet. It is difficult to refute this and therefore museums should consider a future where the ‘moral economy’ predominates their thinking. Above all we should consider doing less with less. Consolidating our role as trusted and open institutions which can make a difference to people’s lives

The Great Big Multisensory Interpretation Experiment

Kensington Palace has become the Enchanted Palace in a unique multisensory exhibition combining fashion, performance, and dazzling spectacle to reveal Kensington’s magnificent State Apartments in a magical new light. Intrigued by Historic Royal Palace’s audacity and ambition, we wanted to find out more

Museums and Social Media

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

Anti Establishment: Free Derry Museum

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

Future Policy? Museums under the Tories

Convinced by the Conservatives plans for museums? Concerned about future funding and direction? Looking forward to a breath of fresh air or fear a return to the bad old days? We asked you to put your questions to shadow culture Sec Jeremy Hunt MP

Museums and Me: Richard Benjamin

Museums financially have an uncertain future. One direct consequence of this is that there will have to be clear choices made by museums on whether or not they pursue with such vitality a social agenda with accompanying educational and community related projects

Museums Online: Dumbing Down?

Curators are about depth, academic rigour and cleverness, not publicity, sound-bites and volume. The problem is that museums online want to be mainstream. Mike Ellis asks can you build traffic and virality online and still manage to “not be dumb”?

A social media strategy. From scratch.

Landing the role of Head of Digital Media at a museum that hadn’t yet put its name to even a basic blog was in equal parts refreshing and scary for Hugh Wallace. Six months on Hugh explains the steps he is taking at National Museums Scotland...

Museums, Public Engagement and Climate Change

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

Real Time Twittering: Rewards and Risks

Brands are starting to proactively follow Twitter users and reply to tweets that mention their brand name. Is this legitimate? Peer Lawther, Senior Online Marketing Executive for the Science Museum, talks through the rewards and risks for museums...

Time to Twitter Museums

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

Going to your audience: Tips for Successful User Generated Content projects

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...

New Networks = End of the Association?

UK museums are currently served by more than 30 membership groups and organisations. Here Nick Poole, Chief Executive of the Collections Trust, looks at the new trend in museums towards self-organising networks and the end of the big Association...

Learning lessons from a decade of museum websites

Mia Ridge, Lead Web Developer, Science Museum, on learning the lessons from a decade of museum websites and the opportunity to look at the organisational changes museums might face as both the expectations of their audiences and their own working practices have been influenced by their interactions online

Radical Plans for Museums Under Conservative Government

Jeremy Hunt MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, lays out the Conservatives radical plans for museums, galleries and heritage if they win the next election. Their plans includes streamlining bureaucracy, boosting philanthropy, Lottery reform and economic opportunity.

Museums driving force in building better communities

MLA chief executive Roy Clare argues the work of museums, libraries and archives to support learning and skills, wellbeing and bridging the digital divide showed that the sector is a driving force for empowering individuals and building better communities. At a time when the economy is looking for a boost, culture-led regeneration programmes have the potential to bring long-lasting rewards and value for money.

Real Time Twittering: Rewards and Risks

Brands are starting to proactively follow Twitter users and reply to tweets that mention their brand name. Is this legitimate? Peer Lawther, Senior Online Marketing Executive for the Science Museum, talks through the rewards and risks for museums...

Museums & Me: Tony Butler

“The old default position of the sector, which is to put heads down and hope no-one will notice when it comes to cuts, is untenable. If we are to reflect the world in which we live, we shouldn’t see permanency as the norm. There’ll be some closures, but mergers and partnerships are more likely. Organisations grow or shrink, merge or disappear and museums should be no different"

Inclusive Practice: Access to Art for Older Visitors

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.

Making a Male-led Exhibition Appeal to the Masses

Leonardo and his Machines: making a male-led exhibition appeal to the masses. The Lightbox in Woking discuss their latest successful exhibition and their strategy to drive varied audiences to what could be perceived as a male orientated subject.

Sleepwalking into the Storm

Nick Poole, Chief Executive of The Collections Trust, on why the museum sector needs to be taking urgent pre-emptive action in the face of very hard times ahead. He argues that the glory days are gone, and in the absence of the injection of large sums of Central Government money, suddenly the whole infrastructure of UK museums is starting to look decidely shaky...

Greener Museums: Tate's Sustainability Plan

Rachel Madan of Greener Museums on her work with Tate which over the last few years has taken more responsibility for its impact on society and the environment. They want the galleries to continue to deliver a rich, exceptional experience, and also to operate in a way that has minimal negative impact on the world.

Museum Authority, Knowledge and Conflict

Piotr Bienkowski on how museum authority has traditionally been based on knowledge – or a particular form of knowledge. This article analyses that type of knowledge, and the authority that is based on it. It explores three examples of how museums have attempted to share or cede authority and control.

Museum Authority: What is Truth?

David Jones, Keeper of Human History at Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service responds to Piotr Bienkowski's article 'Museum Authority, Knowledge and Conflict' and argues that a rejection of the scientific paradigm and the idea that museums are an authoritative voice would be an act of self mutilation.

Do Objects Really Speak for Themselves?

David Fleming, Director of National Museums Liverpool: 'At the heart of the question is the role of museums. Not definition, but role. Definitions of museums usually state that museums collect, preserve and interpret objects, and if there are no objects then the insitution is not a museum. This is true, but it is not same as saying that’s what museums are about'

Museums and the Political Landscape

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

The National Trust: The Interpretation Experiment

Ben Cowell - Assistant Director, External Affairs describes a very real experiment that is starting to take place at the National Trust. The ‘Atmospheres’ project attempts to bring the Trust’s unique properties to life, in a way that has never been properly attempted before. It is being run as a trial at a number of the Trust’s key sites and so far the response has been fantastic

Power to the People: How to Capitalise on User Groups

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.

How to engage the community to become an award-winning gallery

The Lightbox has moved from very small beginnings with modest aspiration to winning the £100,000 Art Fund Prize in 2008. It is truly an example of people power, how if a community gets behind a project and realizes it’s value then it can become a success

Encyclopaedic museum versus the story-led visitor experience

In 21st century museum interpretation practice, the word "fact" has become almost synonymous with "dull". The interpretation team from Historic Royal Palaces argue that storytelling is a powerful technique that we need to embrace yet use judiciously.

Building time: experiencing museum architecture as history

"...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

Evaluating Origins: how an exhibition is experienced by visitors

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

Are Museums Safe Under the Tories?

A quick look at the opinion polls suggests the Conservatives may well form the next government. If they do Jeremy Hunt will be the next Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport. Greg Chamberlain went to meet him to ask if museums are safe in his hands and what the difficult economic times will mean for museum funding...

Glasgow's new open storage facility

Dr Ellen McAdam, Collections Services Manager at Culture and Sport Glasgow, on the second phase of Glasgow Museums Resource Centre: "As museum display becomes increasingly complex, technical and expensive, perhaps the GMRC model of no-frills, personal interaction with museum objects offers an alternative future for museums in our post-credit crunch, climatically changing world"

Museum of the Future: New £100m Vision for Science Museum

The Science Museum has announced its £100 million master plan for the future. Museum of the Future, as this vision has been named, was unveiled to launch Science Museum's 100th birthday celebrations. Expected to be completed in 2015, Museum of the Future is an architectural vision for the Science Museum that includes important new and updated galleries.

Acropolis Now: €130m New Museum Opens

The New Acropolis Museum had its official opening on Saturday June 20. The €130 million project offers a 360-degree panoramic view of the Acropolis and modern Athens. With exhibition space of more than 14,000 square meters and a full range of modern visitor amenities, the New Acropolis Museum tells the complete story of life on the Athenian Acropolis.

Review: The Terror Háza Museum - Budapest

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

Diffusing interpretative authority in museums

The National Waterfront Museum in Swansea has attempted to break the museum mould in a thoughtful and elegant way that capitalises upon the benefits of interactive new media to provide a more diffused authority in its interpretative narrative.

New National Trust Interpretation Sound Experiment

The National Trust is to offer a new form of interpretation – through the atmosphere of sound in an empty house. To enable visitors to record their thoughts about the new interpretation, a dedicated phone will offer the chance to give their reactions, tell their own stories and to comment on how the house could be used long term.

Liverpool: The Great Museum Experiment of Our Time?

David Fleming is driven by the social value of museums. And as Director of National Museums Liverpool, with all its financial clout and resources, he’s in a unique and powerful position to pursue his agenda on a grand scale. David is an influential and vocal member of the museum community, yet one somehow outside the establishment. It gives him a freedom to experiment he obviously relishes...

Advanced and Accessible Storage: Leeds Discovery Centre

Leeds Museum Discovery Centre is one of the most advanced museum storage facilities in the United Kingdom. Within it’s walls can be found roughly 1,000,000 artefacts from all over the world. Martin Gresswell, Project Development Officer, Leeds Museums & Galleries, on creating an advanced storage facility accessible to all.

How to create an innovative and pioneering marketing campaign

When 81 museums in the North East joined forces to market themselves to the public, the pioneering campaign "I like Museums..." was born. Find out more about the innovative promotional drive that brought together museums across the North East in possibly the biggest collaborative effort of its kind in the UK museums sector...

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