Museums Worth A Special Trip: Bay Area Edition

What makes a museum worth a special trip?  Why would you tell a friend they had to go see a particular exhibition or institution?  I've blogged about this before, but my recent trip to the West Coast --- specifically the Bay Area, made me think about some of the qualities that make up a great museum visit and a great museum.

So without further adieu, here's a group of museums that I definitely think are worth a special trip:

The (new) Exploratorium   Despite the herculean task of moving out of their old home and into their tony new digs at Pier 15 in the heart of San Francisco, I think the (new) Exploratorium is super!  

Somehow the new exhibits (both indoor and outdoor) manage to peaceably coexist with the "classic" exhibit components and experiences.   Also, despite the fact that the building is "new" it feels remarkably "un-new" a little lived in, in a very comfortable way. 

Because the spaces expanded, cool spaces (like The Tinkering Studio pictured below) have gotten larger.

Was everything perfect?  Of course not, but so many things were done so well, it just made me happy to be a visitor there.  The (new) Exploratorium also added things like more natural light, a beautiful, accessible location on the Bay, and not one, but two (!) restaurants to add a nice level of visitor services that the (old) Exploratorium seemed to willfully (and gleefully) disregard.  Hats off to everyone involved --- I know it wasn't easy!

Bay Area Discovery Museum  Next up, across the Golden Gate Bridge is the Bay Area Discovery Museum (BADM) in Sausalito.  A children's museum located on the grounds of what was once Fort Baker military base.   BADM uses its unusual collection of restored military buildings and surrounding outdoor spaces to its advantage by creating individual, and "bite-sized" exhibition and programming environments.

Each building houses a specific offering, whether that's a traveling exhibition gallery, a themed space, or a programmatic space like a collection of Art Studios.  The indoor and outdoor spaces blend seamlessly and comfortably into an environment I would characterize as a "learning landscape."

I really appreciate the thoughtful use of simple materials in both the indoor and outdoor spaces at BADM.  And I like how there are cool surprises around every turn in the outdoor areas, like the collection of musical frogs (pictured below) that you can make "croak" by rubbing a stick across their backs!  Of course, you also have a perfect view of the Golden Gate Bridge across the Bay from BADM --- just remember to bring a jacket, since it's Northern California!

de Young Museum  Located in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, the de Young is the encyclopedic fine arts museum of San Francisco.  The museum building is beautiful (and comfortable) both inside and out, being composed of warm, natural materials including copper, stone, wood, and glass.

It was great to maneuver around the spaces inside the de Young which seemed to complement the art on display, not compete with it.   The visitor services at the de Young were well done also --- the entry and admissions sequence was straightforward  (I got free admission by using the Google Field Trip app!) and the museum had a great cafe with indoor and outdoor seating.

Oakland Museum of California  Now let's bop across the Bay Bridge to Oakland to visit the Oakland Museum of California (aka OMCA.)  This museum has reinvented itself in recent years with lots of community involvement.  It's worth checking out the book, How Visitors Changed Our Museum, to find out more about OMCA's exhibit process and products.

My main purpose for visiting OMCA this trip was to see their newly opened (but not quite completed) Gallery of California Natural Sciences.  To quote the museum's website: "At 25,000 square feet,  the reinstalled Gallery presents seven places throughout California that depict the state’s diversity of climate, geology, habitats, ecosystems, and wildlife, while exploring current research, contemporary issues of land use, environmental conflict, and conservation projects."

So it's a whopper of a gallery, but because it's broken up into those seven places, or "theme areas" filled with a welcome diversity of interactive and exhibit display techniques (like the aquarium as landscape painting below) it didn't seem overwhelming at all.  I really liked the new gallery (and the rest of OCMA, too!)

While I was visiting the Natural Sciences gallery, I was delighted to overhear a grandmother (pictured below pulling out a display drawer of "roadkill" specimens from the front of a pickup truck display) have continuing conversations with her 11 year old granddaughter about the things they were experiencing inside the Gallery. 

the reinstalled Gallery presents seven places throughout California that depict the state’s diversity of climate, geology, habitats, ecosystems, and wildlife, while exploring current research, contemporary issues of land use, environmental conflict, and conservation projects.
At 25,000 square feet,
- See more at: http://www.museumca.org/view/gallery-natural-sciences#sthash.kfru03tR.dpuf

the reinstalled Gallery presents seven places throughout California that depict the state’s diversity of climate, geology, habitats, ecosystems, and wildlife, while exploring current research, contemporary issues of land use, environmental conflict, and conservation projects.
At 25,000 square feet,
- See more at: http://www.museumca.org/view/gallery-natural-sciences#sthash.kfru03tR.dpuf

Gallery of California Natural Sciences

Gallery of California Natural Sciences

Gallery of California Natural Sciences

Gallery of California Natural Sciences

Santa Cruz Skateboards Museum (Coming Soon!)

I was lucky enough to get a "sneak preview" of a place under construction that I think will be a museum"worth a special trip."

Santa Cruz Skateboards is one of the leaders in the skateboard biz, and as such has been part of the history of skateboarding over the past 40 years of the company's existence.  Right next to their production facilities, offices, and warehouses in Santa Cruz, they're building a museum that will be filled with amazing artifacts, artwork, and stories about skateboarding.  Here's some pictures from inside their production/assembly facility (they said it was o.k. to take photos in there!)

But they wouldn't let me take photos during our tour of the in-process museum (and I didn't want to be a jerk and sneak any with my iPhone!) so let me just tell you it was AMAZING!  For some of the walls they let people skateboard all over them for a scuffed/distressed look.  Lots and lots of clever display techniques supporting truly wonderful images and artifacts.  The museum is slotted to open in October, so stay tuned!

I know, I know, you're thinking: "But didn't he see anything he didn't like?" Good question!

I had a difficult visit at the California Academy of Sciences (aka "Cal Academy") in Golden Gate Park.  (Sorry Cal Academy folks!)  The building was so, so bad, in so many ways --- it overwhelmed (maybe even squashed) the exhibits, it made finding your way more complicated than it needed to be, it made the spaces feel both crowded and confusing (even on a not so busy day!)

BAD, BAD, BAD!  Despite the fact that a "starchitect" designed the place...

It feels like the architect won every argument about lighting, exhibit placement, traffic flow, etc. much to the detriment of the overall visitor experience.  I literally would not see all the exhibits because I felt compelled to exit the building.  (There may be some rays of hope --- Cal Academy has recently hired some new folks I respect very much into the Exhibits Department.  So maybe the exhibit experiences will find a stronger place in the dialogue with the building.  I hope so!)

All of the parts of a museum visit (entrance, exhibits, visitor amenities, location ...) really add up --- and can "make" or "break" a visitor's experience.  Considering all the things that could go wrong, it's gratifying to find museums that get so much right!


Have you visited any "museums worth a special trip" this summer?  Share some of your own experiences in the "Comments Section" below!



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Letter from Museum Camp

Dear Folks,

I just got back from Museum Camp in Santa Cruz, and I wanted to tell you about it, and show you some pictures I took there.

First off, the "official" title of Museum Camp was "You Can't Do That in Museums Camp" or the somewhat edgier alternate title of "Hack the Museum Camp."  Anyway, whatever you call it, the Camp was launched by Nina Simon (a museum rock star, if there ever was one) at the museum where she is the director, the MAH (aka The Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, pictured below.)

Nina invited me to come to Museum Camp and be a "counselor."  (More on that later ...) Just like summer camp there were campers and counselors --- some of the campers even slept on the floor of the museum in sleeping bags, but I got to share a house with some of the other counselors --- museum "rock stars" in their own right.

Just getting to be part of the same event with fellow counselors like Maria Mortati, Eric Siegel, Julie Bowen, Jason Jay Stevens, Dan Spock, Kathy McLean, Darcie Fohrman, Kevin von Appen, and Merilee Mostov was big fun.  (Also the Camp counselors brought a lot of professional horsepower to the enterprise.)

So the big idea of Museum Camp was this: bring together about 75 people (Campers and Counselors) for two-and-a-half days, break them up into 15 counselor+camper teams, let them choose from 20 or so museum collection objects, and then have an entire exhibition ready for the public opening party!   So check-in on Wednesday and check-out Friday night after the exhibition party.

Woohoo!  The perfect high-stakes, high-pressure antidote to the usual museum whining ("we don't have enough time, we don't have enough money!" ) And honestly, miraculously, it all came together --- there were 15 exhibits lined up with bright, shining faces to form an entire exhibition.  A wild, eclectic exhibition, but everyone delivered the goods!

So how did this all shake down schedule-wise?  Everyone checked in starting Wednesday morning (since I was a counselor, I got a whistle!) and we had a series of workshops throughout the afternoon related to exhibit development topics like prototyping, writing prompts, emotionally-engaging exhibitions, etc.  (I got to do a workshop on becoming an "Office Supply Ninja" prototyper!)

After a scheduled "siesta" (really --- it is Santa Cruz after all!) we played a game to choose the artifact (or artifacts) that each team would use as the basis of their exhibit.  After that was sorted out and after a delicious group dinner (with carefully delineated vegan and gluten-free options --- still Santa Cruz, right?) we used the time between 8pm and midnight on Wednesday to lock down the initial "Big Idea" and crank up the concept and development phase of our project.  Knowing that everything had to be ready to go before the Exhibition Opening Party at 5pm on Friday didn't leave much time for monkeying around (which was good!)


So let me tell you about our team, Team #10 (aka "Perfect Ten.")  My three team members were super!  Diana Kapsner is a staff member at MAH --- it was great to have a "local" on our team when we looking for materials and resources!  Emily Black Fry works at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City --- she had tons of great ideas and enthusiasm.  And last, but not least, Karli Kendall from the Red Deer Museum, in Alberta Canada --- Karli was definitely our "organizer" but in a good way!

The "Perfect 10" team chose a large (7 feet wide by 6 feet tall) painting by Joseph De Giorgio, entitled Oceanside No. 8. (Pictured below, but it looks better in real life.)   I'm no art historian, but I liked it, and it used a sort of pointillist approach which led directly to our team's "Big Idea" namely, "One Painting, Many Points of View."

So my way of describing the idea(s) behind our team's exhibit would be that we wanted to reward visitors for being careful observers of Oceanside No. 8, and that we also wanted to give visitors many multi-sensory ways to look at the painting more than once, and to experience the painting in different ways.  We set out to do this by creating a physical "beach scene" tableau complete with beach chairs, cooler, table, etc. set up in front of the painting.  Objects you might expect to find at the beach would all be used to allow visitors to experience this one painting from many different points of view.

Then it was just hard work! Pulling materials together and editing down our ideas, our team pretty much worked from Thursday morning up until midnight.  It was a loooong day!  I think it helped that our team conversations were honest, but respectful, even if we pushed back on each others' ideas now and then.  I think my role was less counselor as "exhibit Yoda" but more as an equal team member (albeit with a bit more museum exhibit development experience!)  I think we all left with a clear sense of what we needed to accomplish in the few hours remaining on Friday and how we could work together to do it.

I don't think any of our team felt stressed at all when we gathered together Friday morning.  We articulated the things we "had" to finish, as opposed to the things we'd "like" to finish so we had a clear sense of our priorities.

I'm really proud and happy with where we ended up with our team's exhibit. I feel that the Big Idea is a strong one, and that we gave visitors many ways (sights, sounds, smells) and reasons to engage with De Giorgio's painting.

Would I have done anything differently with Museum Camp?  Not much actually.   I might have added one more day to the process,  and also added an optional mid-day activity to break up the intensity of the long day(s) of work.

Also we spent a lot of time talking about "taking risks" and making "risky experiences."  I'm still not sure what that means exactly.  In the end, I think notions of "risk" became a bit of a distraction to the exhibit development process at Museum Camp.

So would I participate in Museum Camp again?  In a heartbeat!  It definitely reinforced some of my ideas about "quick and dirty" prototyping, but also stretched me professionally in thinking about new and different ways to twist the "traditional gallery experience" in more visitor and community-centric ways.  (Also, I'm sold on the idea of installing more beach chairs inside Art Museum galleries!)

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Google Field Trip and "Free" Museums

Should all museums be "free"?  That is, charge no admission to anyone who shows up at the front door?  (And I don't mean the slightly bogus "pay what you wish" policy that many museums employ... that's still really intimidating for many "novice" museum goers.)

I've been thinking about this a lot as I am visiting many, many museums during a West Coast trip.  Usually a combination of my AAM card and/or my business card and/or turning on the 150 watt charm gets me into the particular museum for free.  Not always, but the vast majority of the time. But that works for me, not just anyone who shows up at the front desk.

I recently downloaded an app called Google Field Trip onto my iPhone.  It uses your location to suggest nearby cultural or historical or theatrical attractions that you might like to visit or explore.  As a bonus,  Google has partnered with some museums (mostly right now on the East and West Coasts) to offer free admission to the highlighted venue.   So this weekend as I was ambling aroung Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, my iPhone pinged me to let me know that I was near the de Young Art Museum and could get free admission there by showing the front desk staff my Google Field Trip screen.  Cool right? Who doesn't like free stuff?

Inevitably friends or neighbors who know I work in the museum business will say, "I love it that all the Smithsonian Museums in Washington DC are free."  Of course, I explain they're not really free since our taxes help to support the Smithsonian, but to most non-museum people it still shakes down the same way --- they think museums cost too much, and they would prefer (and practically expect) that museums should charge no admission.

Elaine Gurian has made a passionate case for free museum admission (you can check out her thoughts on her website.)  Her basic premise (which I agree wholeheartedly with) is that free museum admission will build broader and more diversified museum use.

On the other hand, it costs money to run and staff museums, so where will that "missed" admissions revenue be made up?  Jamie Glavic of the Museum Minute blog has written an equally passionate post defending the 9/11 Memorial Museum's decision to charge admission.

It's tricky isn't it?  The Web and smart phones and streaming technologies have given us an expectation that we can latch onto any kind of content for free, whenever and wherever we like.  Does that mean that museums should become "free" also?


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