Your 2016 Summer Museum/Exhibit/Design Beach Reads

Taking some books to the beach this summer?  Why not pack a few museum-related reads into your suitcase?

Here are some books I've read recently and/or featured here on the ExhibiTricks blog that I would happily recommend:

The Art of Relevance by Nina Simon.  Nina Simon's new book explores how mission-driven organizations can matter more to more people. It is an enjoyable read filled with great examples and a wonderful central analogy that got me thinking more about what "relevance" means for my own professional practice.  Jeanne Vergeront has written a thoughtful review and consideration of the book on her Museum Notes blog.


Exhibit Labels: An Interpretive Approach by Beverly Serrell. Beverly follows up her essential first edition on the entire process of creating exhibit labels with an even better second edition! Here's an ExhibiTricks interview that I did with Beverly when her book first came out.


Interpretation. Making a Difference on Purpose by Sam H. Ham.  I wish I had this book when I started my first museum job as a living history interpreter!  Human-to-human interaction and interpretation inside a cultural space can provide some of the most powerful (or horrible!) experiences for museum visitors. Author Ham brings practical information to museum workers interested in interpretation, but he also shares what research tells us about how people process information.


A Practical Guide to Museum Ethics by Sally Yerkovich.  Many museum workers (and boards!) might like to gloss over the need for more critical thinking about museum ethics.  However, thinking about how to avoid potential ethical issues before they happen seems like a much better approach than trying to sort things out in the midst of an institutional crisis.  Sally shares her information through a series of case studies and offers approaches to resolving (and hopefully avoiding) such issues.  Sally also shared information about her work at the Institute of Museum Ethics and her impetus for writing a guide to museum ethics in this recent ExhibiTricks interview.


House of Lost Worlds by Richard Conniff.  Author Conniff puts together an enjoyable history of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.  From its unlikely founding 150 years ago, the story is filled with both colorful characters and great moments in science centered around the amazing New Haven institution.


When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi.  Ok, it's not a museum book!  But this powerful memoir allows us to draw important lessons about life from Dr. Kalanithi's tragic death. Highly recommended.


Read any good books lately?  Share your suggestions in the Comments Section below.



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Inspiration: Your Rainbow Panorama

As summer begins here in the Northern Hemisphere, I offer you a bit of museum/exhibit/design inspiration that evokes light, and sun, and endless horizons: artist Olafur Eliasson's architectural installation entitled  "Your rainbow panorama."

Situated on top of the ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum art museum in Aarhus, Denmark, Your rainbow panorama invites you to experience the familiar (a city skyline) in unfamiliar ways. Olafur Eliasson's creation consists of a 150-meter-long and three meter-wide circular walkway in glass in all the colors of the spectrum. Your rainbow panorama is mounted on slender columns 3.5 meters above the roof of ARoS with a diameter of 52 meters.

Here's a quote from Eliasson about this work:

“Your rainbow panorama establishes a dialogue with the existing architecture and reinforces what was already there, that is to say the view across the city. I have created a space that can almost be said to erase the boundary between inside and outside – a place where you become a little uncertain as to whether you have stepped into a work of art or into part of the museum. This uncertainty is important to me, as it encourages people to think and sense beyond the limits within which they are accustomed to function.” 

I hope the promise of summer and the inspiration of Your rainbow panorama opens up new possibilities in your own work and practice.

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One From The Vaults: Smaller STILL Is Better

Though I wrote the original version of this post back in 2009, it still rings painfully true today.  We, as an industry,  still seem to be preferentially creating institutions that are lumbering behemoths instead of small and nimble innovators.  As I mention at the end of this encore post, I'd really like to know about smaller, better cultural institutions doing great work to shine a light on them.  So call out great examples in the comments or contact me directly.   Thanks, and enjoy this post from the ExhibiTricks vaults!

So here's my two-part solution to solve the ever continuing museum money/funding crisis:

1) Stop building gigantic new museums.

2) Fund small "risky" projects instead of "safe" big projects.

Most big museums were unsustainable before the current "financial crisis" and even more so now. Not to mention that many gigundo museums are filled with pockets of mediocrity or just plain lousiness that gets ignored or excused or even overlooked because there are other flashier, newer segments of the rest of their elephantine museum building complex.

So why do people keep building giant museums? Sheer ego and "edifice complex" as far as I can tell. It's a lot sexier to say you're building the "world's biggest and best museum" than to actually set up the infrastructure to ensure a continually growing and evolving institution that makes best use of both staff and community resources.

If you really want to see Museum 2.0/3.0/whatever happen, then museum workers and museum organizations should advocate for more, but smaller, museums spread throughout communities like public libraries --- heck why not have every museum (that's not already doing so) partner with a local library or community center to work on exhibits and programs together?

Now, funding.

Here's a modest proposal for NSF, IMLS, NEH and the rest of the governmental alphabet soup of funding agencies: alternate every year between funding "big" projects and "little" projects.

This would have the benefit of breaking the cycle of perpetually funding "The Usual Suspects" of the same batch of museums/designers/evaluators who get funded every grant cycle.

Which would be fine, if the "The Usual Suspects" were turning out wonderful field-changing exhibitions. But mostly the funding process has turned into a gravy train for folks doing the same sort of mediocre exhibitions over and over again.

Why couldn't NSF, for example, deliberately fund 15-20 large exhibition projects one cycle, then 50-60 small exhibition projects the next?

I think part of this big vs. small dichotomy is also an issue of exposure. There are many amazing, innovative museums and museum workers doing their thing in remote or smaller outposts, so they don't get recognized in the traditional incestuous museum conference/funding world.

So, I'm going to do my part to help change that exposure thing, and I need your help. Do you know of some cool projects happening at smaller "non-famous" museums, or do you know an up-and-coming whiz kid who hasn't been able to find a real full-time with benefits job in the museum business yet?

Send me an email at info@orselli.net so I can start giving these small places and some NOT the usual suspects some publicity and the attention they deserve.

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Walkalong Gliding with Phil Rossoni

Phil Rossoni is a commercial glider pilot who has always been interested in finding ways to share the experience of piloting an aircraft with a wide audience.  I thought his enthusiasm (and directions and videos!) for lightweight gliding aircraft that can be made with museum visitors would be a great thing to share with ExhibiTricks readers.

What's the next best thing to soaring through the skies like birds? Its called Walkalong Gliding where a simple paper airplane seems to hover in perpetual motion on the edge of a piece of cardboard. 

Walkalong Gliding works on the same principles of soaring flight used by all manner of flying creatures to effortlessly take to the skies. The best design for the indoor museum setting is the Tumblewing designed by John Collins aka "The Paper Airplane Guy". 

Everybody gets to build and fly their own glider made from a 1"X4" strip of light newsprint. What's the goal? Keep it flying for at least 30 seconds, longer than the current world record for a tossed paper airplane! It's called the "30 second airborne club". 

Like the first pioneers of flight had to learn, staying in the air for extended periods requires control of the paper airplane. What's the takeaway? Yes try this at home, come back and show everyone you've learned the right stuff! 

To find out more about making lightweight gliding aircraft for yourself or with your museum visitors, check out Phil's book,  Build and Pilot Your Own Walkalong Gliders and his list of Tumblewing Links.

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.

P.S. If you receive ExhibiTricks via email (or Facebook or LinkedIn) you will need to click HERE to go to the main ExhibiTricks page to make comments or view multimedia features (like videos!)