Just Put the Salary Range in the Ad!

Much has been written (here and here, for example) about the importance of including salary ranges in job ads.

So allow me to share some good news on that front. The Museum Association of New York (MANY) has announced that starting June 1, 2022, salary ranges will be required for all job ads on their website. (In recognition of MANY's efforts on behalf of museum workers, POW! is proud to sponsor the MANY Job Board through June 2023.)

 "I am so pleased that we now require salary ranges on our job board," said MANY Executive Director Erika Sanger. "I have had to walk away from a long interview process because salary negotiations started way below a living wage. I hope this change will help museums and museum professionals advance equity in our field."

MANY joins a long list of national and regional museum organizations, including AASLH, ASTC, ACM, NEMA, MAAM, and AMM, who have chosen to support museum workers by promoting wage transparency.

Conspicuously absent from organizations supporting museum workers in this way is the American Alliance of Museums.  Why not send AAM's President & CEO, Laura Lott, a short email (lauralott@gmail.com) asking why AAM still resists simply requiring that salary ranges be included for all positions on the AAM Job Board?

Better yet, help support the work of the National Emerging Museum Professionals Network (NEMPN) and sign their petition to get AAM to #ShowTheSalary.

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Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

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Museum/Exhibit/Design Tool: TerraSlate Waterproof Paper

Life (and Exhibit Development!) is often a series of compromises -- choices between two ends of the spectrum.

While working on a Historical Museum project, our team was faced with how best to display facsimiles of 19th Century receipts. We wanted visitors to be able to pick up and read the information (such as the costs of grocery items and canal boat supplies) without the installation becoming too fussy.  

Since the receipts were installed as part of a historic Tavern setting, we wanted the objects and exhibits to feel more integrated into the space, so there was no heavy lamination or tethering of packets of papers to tables.

The "in-between" exhibit tool choice we made was to color laser print scans of the receipts onto waterproof and rip-proof TerraSlate paper. The final outputs are durable, and they will be straightforward for the client to reprint in the future, as needed.  (Examples of some of the final receipts are pictured at the top of this post.)

Check out the TerraSlate website for more info about the range of products they sell.

What are some of your favorite "in-between" exhibit tools? Let us know in the "Comments" section below!

Don't miss out on any ExhibiTricks posts! It's easy to get updates via email or your favorite news reader. Just click the "Sign up for Free ExhibiTricks Blog Updates" link on the upper right side of the blog.

Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

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Back on the Museum Conference Circuit!

Since 2019, Museum Conferences have been a little different.

Fortunately, in-person conferences are coming back and I'm hoping to see old friends and meet new colleagues out on the road!

I'll be attending InterActivity in St. Louis put on by the Association of Children's Museums from May 16 to 18.

I'll also be in Heilbronn, Germany, for the ECSITE Conference, convened by the European Network of Science Centres & Museums from June 2 to 4.

If you are at either conference, please say hello!  (We might even take a picture like the one at the top of this post from a past conference in Pittsburgh!)

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Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

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Great Web Resource: The Dinosaur Database

Inevitably, when you work in any sort of science-adjacent museum, the topic of dinosaurs comes up. 

Does your museum have any?  What are the latest discoveries?  What did a Parasaurolophus look like?

A great web resource for anyone interested in dinosaurs is The Dinosaur Database.  There you'll find a broad collection of dinosaur names, pictures, and facts. This site was built using resources and databases assembled by hundreds of paleontologists over the past two decades.

So take a step into the past by clicking over to The Dinosaur Database!

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Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

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Happy (Museum) Easter (Eggs)

I'm on the road in California, but in honor of the season, here's an encore post -- a homage to museum "Easter Eggs."  Enjoy!

 

Museum designers often add "Easter Eggs" to their work.  But not the brightly dyed or chocolatey varieties --- these are more akin to the hidden "Easter Eggs" that you may stumble across (or deliberately search out) inside video games, crossword puzzles, or DVDs.

For visitors, it's fun to feel like you've found a little "secret" inside a museum building or exhibition, and for designers, it's a little "trick" to reward visitors for carefully observing and examining things inside the museum.

"Exhibits as advent calendars" as Dan Spock has observed (to mix religious holiday metaphors a bit!)  So here are a few of my favorite museum easter eggs:

• Secret Elves at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science: Artist Kent R. Pendleton worked on many of the Museum's dioramas, but supposedly he wasn't allowed to sign his name to his work.  Instead, Pendleton included little "elfin" figures hidden throughout many of the displays.  There's a great blog posting about Pendleton's retro easter eggs!

• The Magic House Mouse:  The Magic House Children's Museum outside St. Louis has some wonderful exhibits, but one of my favorite "hidden gems" is the tiny decorated mouse hole near the baseboards in one of the galleries.  If you were just whizzing around you might not ever see it, but if you're willing to get down on your hands and knees you might see (as in the photo below) a "presidential" mouse:

• The "Hidden Tunnel" at Casa Loma:  Casa Loma is a gigantic historic house/castle outside Toronto that is filled with enough crazy details to keep even little kids interested during the self-guided tours.  One of the things I remember from a family visit (nearly 40 years ago!) was the cool secret tunnel, nearly 100 feet long, that was hidden behind a pivoting wall section (just like in all those scary movies --- but this was real!)  that led to the Casa's underground wine cellar:

Of course, some museums, like The City Museum, also in St. Louis, or the Museum of Jurassic Technology in L.A., are practically interlocking collections of "easter eggs" or in-jokes, but that's certainly one aspect that makes them so popular.

What are some of your most memorable Museum Easter Eggs?  Let us know in the "Comments Section" below! 

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Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

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"Don’t be the best. Be the only.”

'Tis the season when publications like USA Today and Parents Magazine trot out their click-bait "Best Museum" lists, and when museum staff everywhere cajole everyone they know to vote (repeatedly!) for their institution.

How can you compare two completely different museums, say the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and claim one of them is the "best" art museum?

The people who seem most interested in these "best museum" lists are executive directors chasing donors or museum marketers looking to gain some flimsy PR bragging rights.

As that great museum philosopher Jerry Garcia once said, 

"Don’t be the best. Be the only.”

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Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

If you enjoy the blog, you can help keep it free to read and free from ads by supporting ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"