What's Your Favorite Museum Work Poem or Quote? (Plus a HOLIDAY GIVEAWAY!)

Do you have a poem or quote that you keep coming back to that inspires or resonates with your museum work?

I do.  It's a poem called "The Real Work" by Wendell Berry.

The Real Work

It may be that when we no longer know what to do we have come to our real work,

and that when we no longer know which way to go we have come to our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.

The impeded stream is the one that sings.

It seems that so much of our museum work often brings us to places and ideas that we don't quite understand yet.  And I guess that's part of the reason that "The Real Work" resonates with me, and why I keep Berry's poem on my phone so I can share it with my creative partners.

And now the HOLIDAY GIVEAWAY!

In the spirit of quotes and poems, I'm going to give away three of Harry White's "Exhibit Aphorism" card decks to some lucky ExhibiTricks readers!  

For your chance at one of those three decks, just email me your favorite quote or poem that drives and inspires your museum work before December 11, 2023.  And tell me a little about what the words mean to you and your work.  I'll choose three winners from all the responses submitted.

Depending on the number of responses, I'll put together a future ExhibiTricks post sharing some of the inspirational poems and quotes.

GOOD LUCK!

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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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Sharing Stories (and Sticks!)

I'm still reeling a bit from the loss of Brad Larson, whose tragic death is a tremendous loss to the museum community and beyond.

But if you'll indulge me a bit, I'd like to refer you to this YouTube video from a few years ago when I had a conversation with Brad featuring great suggestions about how to gather stories from visitors -- both inside and outside your museum. (Plus the video comes with a bonus "Work From Home" (WFH) tip on how to break up your routine -- using a stick!)

Please take a few moments to check out the video and spare a kind thought for Brad and the family and friends he leaves behind.

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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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Remembering Brad Larson

My friend (and long-time Museum Conference roommate) Brad Larson just died in the past day or two.

Of course, it's sad when anyone dies, but I'd like to remember the joy and spirit that Brad shared with others, rather than the unfortunate circumstances of his passing.

I will always remember Brad with a big stick or staff because he loved the practice of Shintaido. As well as being a practical martial art, Shintaido aims to be a form of artistic expression, a healthy exercise, and a path of self-discovery and transformation.  I remember being with Brad at many conferences where he would get up early in the morning to run or move in a local park with his Shintaido staff (or even a big stick he found!)

Brad also loved to dance! Because he was so tall, it was not unusual to see Brad's head bobbing above the crowd near the front of the stage at many a conference dance party.

Brad especially enjoyed writing haikus. So I'll end this remembrance by sharing one of the last haikus he wrote on his Facebook page:

Trail Run Haiku 10/26/23

Time to catch my breath

breathe in breathe out, stand and watch

golden leaves falling 

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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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Four Qualities of Great Creative Partners

I've just returned from Blagoevgrad, a large city in Bulgaria, where I helped lead a week-long series of professional development workshops (called MUSE Academy) for Bulgarian colleagues working in museums and allied cultural organizations from across the country.

One of the things I've been thinking about after this most recent trip to Bulgaria is how to recognize the four qualities that make for great Creative Partners.

For me, the best Creative Partners are the ones that 1) Have Fun; 2) Think Big;  3) Work Flexibly; and 4) Get Stuff Done.  Below are some of the ways that the MUSE Academy fostered Creative Partners, and the four qualities below are important indicators to keep in mind when working with partners on any creative and challenging project.

1) Have Fun

My memories of working with my two MUSE Academy co-instructors, Christina Ferwerda and Jamie Lawyer, are filled with laughter.  We all really believe in working hard during our trips to Bulgaria, with extensive planning ahead of time. And yet, our work is enjoyable because we have fun together.

2) Think Big 

Our creative partners at the America for Bulgaria Foundation sponsor the MUSE Academy, and we are so lucky to have Nadia Zaharieva and Yuliana Decheva as the point people from the Foundation driving everything forward.  Nadia and Yuliana push for us to "think bigger" and to create more opportunities for the MUSE Academy participants and, in turn, build even greater capacity in the Bulgarian museum and cultural sectors.

3) Work Flexibly

In every project I've ever worked on, unexpected events occur. Our time in Blagoevgrad was no exception, as a few "Bulgarian surprises" came up during our week there. Despite this, I was sure that my Creative Partners would be flexible and figure out ways to overcome any challenges rather than complaining or pointing fingers.

4) Get Stuff Done 

Можело is a Bulgarian word meaning roughly, "This can be done!"  We strive for a spirit of Можело during our week together with MUSE Academy participants -- to push against the notion of "This is not possible" and to accomplish a lot together and challenge ourselves creatively.

Here's hoping you can find wonderful Creative Partners that meet all four of these criteria when you put together your next project!

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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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Back to Bulgaria for MUSE Academy!

I'm excited to be heading back to Bulgaria in a few days to kick off the second edition of the MUSE Academy program sponsored by the America for Bulgaria Foundation (ABF).

The MUSE Academy will equip Bulgarian professionals from museums and other cultural organizations with the tools to create compelling exhibits and tell powerful stories that will keep visitors returning for more.

I am doubly excited to share the MUSE Academy teaching stage with colleagues Jamie Lawyer and Christina Ferwerda!

Check out this recent article from the ABF website that shares more information about my work and the new MUSE Academy.  Also, follow me on Twitter (X), Facebook, and Instagram as I post live updates from Bulgaria!

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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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Is Inspiration Hazardous to Exhibit Development?

“You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”  ~ Jack London

As I was touring through a new exhibition at a very large museum recently, a person from the Exhibits Department complained to me that they didn't have enough time or money to prototype their interactive exhibits. 

 

"So how do you work out which ideas to put into your exhibitions?" I asked.  The Exhibits person admitted that they spent a large amount of time gathering exhibit notions together that the designers felt "inspired by" and produced those things to create the final exhibition --- generally leaving no time or money for remediation, if technical or content aspects fell flat.

I immediately thought of the Jack London quote at the top of this post and considered how slippery the notion of "inspiration" is. And how the best exhibit components often come about from spending time with visitors and ideas and materials figuring out what works (and what doesn't) and stumbling onto serendipitous avenues that would never have been found in mind-numbing exhibit development meetings or the reveries of creating slick computer renderings to show potential donors.

I wonder if the oft-repeated complaint of "no time or no money" for prototyping and testing components/concepts/whatever (or for fixing things after an exhibition opens) is just a convenient excuse to cover the fear of the unknown.  Is waiting for the clouds to open and inspiration to strike just a similar sort of excuse?

 

New ideas are fragile things, especially ideas centered around approaches that have never been tried before.  Doubts start to creep in: What if your ideas fall flat before your peers during a presentation meeting?  What if visitors don't like the ideas?  Many museums speed through, or try to short-change, the often messy and plain hard work of really trying ideas out even though the final exhibition is often better for these early uncertainties.  These museums want the inspiration, but they aren't willing to go after it with a club.

So here's an idea for your current (or next) exhibition project:  take one exhibit idea, even if it's not fully formed and truly "inspiring" and just try it out for at least 30 minutes with visitors inside your museum.  You can test or show your idea with paper, tape, and a pen (stuff you already have near your workspace) Ask your visitors questions. Let them make suggestions.  You do have time (30 minutes) and money (near zero) to do this!  

 

Who knows?  You might even get inspired!

 

"The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who'll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you're sitting around trying to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and something else that you reject will push you in another direction. Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that's almost never the case."   ~ Chuck Close

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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"