Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Creative Design Toolbox: FotoJet



FotoJet is a fast, fun, and FREE online app for your creative design toolbox.

You can use FotoJet to create a variety of collages (like the 3D image collection below) or other photo effects using your own images (or the easy-to-use FotoJet templates) and then save and download the finished images to your computer.



FotoJet even provides templates for various Social Media sites, so you can create headers for your Twitter or Facebook or Instagram accounts.



So click on over to the FotoJet website to see what you can come up with yourself!



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Monday, January 18, 2016

Money, Politics, and Museums



The intertwined issues of money and politics are on full display with the U.S. Presidential Campaign in full swing.

I can't help seeing parallels to the issues being raised by the candidates, and the challenges of museums.

Starting with money, of course.  In both cases, one has to wonder if the needs and interests of the "people" (the vast majority of voters, in the case of political elections, along with visitors and most staff members, in the case of museums) are being swamped, if not completely lost, by the sway of big money donors and funders.  Recent revelations concerning the sway of funders in exhibitions that touched on issues of climate change are disappointing.  There is no such thing as a "neutral" exhibition, so why do museums continue to claim otherwise?

Fortunately, groups like The Natural History Museum are pushing museums to be more transparent and thoughtful in considering the implications of who their funders and trustees are.  


Wages and demographics are two related issues in the political process, but also in museum operations.  Politicians (and museums!) seem to have any number of excuses for not being able to pay some of their employees a living wage.  Lucky you if you work for a Wall Street firm or in the Development Department of a museum.  Too bad if you are a woman art museum director, or are part of the front line or education staff at most cultural institutions.

Again, groups like #MuseumWorkersSpeak and Museum Hue are bringing forward issues of inclusion and social justice in museums.

More than anything my takeaway from all this is to try to call out issues to be examined rather than hidden or "hushed up" in the museum community.  Kudos to museum organizations like NEMA who are building their conferences around such topics of common interest to museum workers.  I, and the general public, hold museums to high standards, and consider them highly trustworthy institutions.

But let's continue to earn that respect as a field by not falling victim to institutional laziness or craven pandering to funders.

Onward!





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Sunday, January 10, 2016

What Makes a Museum "Special" ?



I've written posts about "special trip" worthy museums before, but I'm after something a little different here.  I'd like to tease out the specific qualities of what makes a museum (or museum visit) "special".

I've been thinking a lot about why some museum visits seem special and some don't.  To me, a special museum visit feels much like a memorable restaurant experience.  Even if you've never visited before, you feel welcomed, you feel like you are in the "right" place.  Every staff person you come in contact with seems legitimately happy to be there and to interact with you. As your visit unfolds, you notice little things, attention to details, that combine to create a positive impression.

So help me ExhibiTricks readers!  What do you think are the "ingredients" for a special museum experience?  Leave your ideas in the "Comments" section below, and I'll use the submissions for a future ExhibiTricks post.

THANKS!


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.

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