The Future of Museums (Funding) in the Next Trump Administration?

I've been wondering about the support that museums and other cultural organizations may or may not receive in the next Trump administration. Given that the previous Trump administration actively tried to eliminate funding for IMLS, NEH, NEA, PBS, and the NASA Office of Education, among other agencies, who knows what might happen?

This poem by Wendell Barry helps me reflect on the uncertainties of my museum work.

“The Real Work” by Wendell Berry

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.

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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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Editing Your Exhibits

"In art, economy is always beauty."  ~ Henry James

There's a tendency for folks who are new(er) to developing museum exhibits to want to jam as many concepts (or objects or exhibit components ...) into a space as possible.  It's almost as if they don't trust their ideas to carry the visitors along and instead feel that more of EVERYTHING would be better.

It's natural when imagining a new empty museum building or exhibition gallery to feel compelled to fill all the spaces and walls with stuff (and museums have lots of stuff!) But your visitors will be better served if you take a step back and resist that urge.

Aside from the truism that "sometimes the easiest way to fix an exhibit is to change the label," what are some easy ways to edit your exhibits?  Here are three things to keep in mind when editing:

 

BEFORE OPENING: What's the Big Idea?  What essential parts of your exhibition's story arc can't be removed? Keep those and junk the rest. This is especially important when your exhibition ideas are tied to large objects or component sets that can't be easily moved (or removed!) after opening.

DURING INSTALLATION: Be on the lookout for duplicate sets of materials or too many loose parts.  This is a common problem in Maker/Tinker-type spaces --- does every workstation need a complete set of markers, colored pencils, cutting devices, and glues, or could you cluster these things in materials stations to reduce the clutter and chaos?  Similarly, many Children's Museums or Early Learner exhibition areas have Puppet Theater components --- but do you need multiple complete sets of puppet figures (like fantasy figures or animals) instead of rotating through one thematic set at a time? 

AFTER OPENING: Evaluate (and edit) by observing visitors.  Set aside time to watch your visitors move through your exhibition spaces.  Are there "dead spots" where nobody ends up? What could you shift around physically or conceptually to change those traffic patterns?  Similarly, if certain exhibits seem constantly overcrowded, are there ways to create multiple stations to spread out the visitor interactions?

Of course, exhibition editing should be an ongoing and iterative process.  Remember the words attributed to an anonymous Exhibit Developer:  

Create without fear; edit without mercy! 

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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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Helping Visitors Make Choices in Exhibitions

Sometimes as part of a museum exhibit experience, we'd like the users to make a choice of some sort -- "Which historical figure do you want to find out about?"  "Choose one of these six minerals to test ..." "Did your animal survive the winter?" and so on.

While these kinds of decision points as part of an interactive experience can be handled by a digital/computer device or (gasp!) some sort of Artificial Intelligence application, I'm a big fan of a decidedly more "old school" analog approach -- incorporating the devices used in board games (dice, spinners, flippers, carnival wheels, etc.) to provide different content or experiential choices for museum visitors.

Why use things like dice or spinners in an exhibition instead of a randomized digital equivalent?

Here are a few reasons:

SOCIABILITY 

Watching a spinning carnival wheel or having several people throw dice to make a choice in an exhibition is inherently a more social experience than one person hunching over a touch screen.

SUSTAINABILITY

Spinners or dice don't need to be plugged in.

ACCESSIBILITY

Physical selection devices can be used by people with a wide range of abilities. For example, all these "old school" game devices can be set up so that users with low or no vision can still participate.

SCALABILITY

Game elements can also easily scale up or down. Large-scale game elements add to the "sociability" factor mentioned above.

Check out this example below from a nature game (about geese!) I saw during a recent trip to Bulgaria.

TESTABILITY

Simple selection devices can be easily mocked up when testing exhibit prototypes, or just by doing a quick Google or Amazon search for "game piece suppliers," you can find lots of good places to buy all sorts of pieces to use for testing or in finished exhibit components.

In that regard, while researching this post, I came across a great website boardgamegeek.com. In addition to having all sorts of information about and reviews of board games, the site also has this handy webpage that provides an alphabetical listing of online outlets that sell game pieces and related materials. 

FAMILIARITY

Most, if not all, of your museum visitors will automatically know how to use a carnival wheel or set of dice.

MAINTAINABILITY

Last but not least, these low-tech items are very durable and easily maintained or replaced.  Even better, all of these items can be self-contained -- that is, without loose parts.  Even dice can be put into spinning cages or the awesome Pop-O-Matic so they don't go astray.

So, why not take a chance (roll the dice!) and incorporate some "old school" physical game elements into your next exhibit design or prototyping session?

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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 4!

I'm very excited to return to Bulgaria to kick off the FOURTH 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 Isabella Bruno and Christina Ferwerda! (Pictured with me at the top of this post.)

Check out this article from the ABF website, which shares more information about my work and the MUSE Academy. Also, follow me on Twitter (X), Facebook, and Instagram, where I will 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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Museum/Exhibit/Design Inspiration: Real-Time Data Sites

In addition to being a perfect blend of science, art, and technology, real-time data websites provide a soothing thrum of information that I find mesmerizing and relaxing. These sites can also inspire great museum/exhibit/design ideas.

Some of my favorite real-time data sites are listed below:

Wind Map gives a real-time visualization of wind speeds in the U.S. It's like a giant video infographic! The Earth website pictured at the top of this post offers a more three-dimensional view of wind around the entire globe.

While you monitor the skies, check out planefinder.net, a site that allows you to locate commercial aircraft during their flights.

Returning to Earth, you can track tectonic activity by seeing the geographic locations of active earthquakes and volcanoes at this site or view NOAA satellite data, including infrared, visible light, and water vapor views.

Finishing up on the terrestrial side, EarthCam is a website that lets you easily choose and view real-time webcam feeds from exciting places worldwide.

I'll finish out this post with a favorite digital "eye candy" site.  Google Trends Hot Searches gives you a constantly scrolling feed of current trending searches from the popular search site.

I hope clicking on these sites inspires you and brings you enjoyment! Did we miss any of your favorite real-time data sites? How have you used real-time data sites in your exhibitions? 

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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Gatherings

I've been thinking a lot about gatherings lately.

One reason is that my son Philip got married this past weekend. (Congrats, Dani and Phil! ❤️)  

Another reason is that an international gathering of museum professionals is about to converge on Chicago for the 2024 edition of the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) Annual Conference.

Both a professional conference filled with excellent colleagues and an auspicious occasion like a family wedding actually have several things in common:

• Everyone is gathering for an event that is important and meaningful for them

• You are seeing people you care about that you may not have seen in a while

• Things will happen at the event that people will continue to ponder after they return home

• You will meet new people 

• There will be dancing and drinking!

All this to say that what makes a successful event are the people who create a community of sorts there.  

All this noodling also leads to what Brian Eno calls "scenius" -- the idea of a creative community -- rather than "genius" -- the focus on one creative individual.  Check out this super short video of Brian Eno explaining the concept.

 

That idea of scenius really resonates with me and makes me think of many examples of powerful creative communities -- Apple Computer, Burning Man, the Harlem Rennaissance, Andy Warhol's Factory, and, yes, even museums like the Exploratorium.

So I hope the next gathering you attend will be a true coming together of diverse individuals forming a spirited creative community!

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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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Can a Museum Become a "Small Giant"?

In the excellent book Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big, author Bo Burlingham contends that there is more to "growing" a business than getting bigger (and getting bigger quickly!)

As the book's subtitle suggests, companies featured in the book (such as Ani DiFranco's Righteous Babe companies, Clif Bar, and Anchor Steam Breweries) have concluded that simply making a business larger is not nearly as important as maintaining high standards and not confusing one goal for the other.

One interesting aspect of Small Giants is that the different companies came to their conclusions about quality and size by various paths. Some companies and founders/directors/employees seem to have always had an intuitive sense of the mission of their particular business and were willing to pass up growth if that meant sacrificing their original principles. Other people running companies that grew too fast or grew for the wrong reasons only came to embrace "quality over quantity" after suffering personal and business disasters due to growth for growth's sake.

I often think of this constant tug of war as it relates to museum expansion projects.

Sometimes, upon hearing of a campaign to make an existing museum "bigger and better," I wonder if they couldn't increase visitation and income by "just" becoming better. Admittedly, that is hard and incremental work that doesn't lend itself to sexy capital campaigns.

What do you think?

What are some of your favorite museum examples of "small giants"? 

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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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FREE Museum Resources

Who doesn't like free stuff?  Here are links to some great FREE exhibit design resources from the POW! website:

The Great Big Exhibit Resource List

A constantly updated compendium of resources for museum design and exhibit fabrication (including websites and contact information.) Need to find fake food, giant sequins, or adaptive devices? Check out the GBER List!  And contact me if you have a resource you think should be added to the list.

The Exhibit Cheapbooks

The idea for the Exhibit Cheapbooks started during sessions at the annual Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) Conference. The purpose was to share "cheap" exhibit ideas and create a written record of how to replicate these simple and successful exhibit components.

The four Exhibit Cheapbooks have always celebrated museums' "sharing" nature. Inside each volume, you will find varied exhibit ideas from museum colleagues around the world. Sincere thanks to everyone who has shared their ideas and expertise! Special thanks to ASTC for allowing all the Exhibit Cheapbooks material to be shared freely online.

Museum FAQ Videos

Check out these interesting and informative video conversations with museum professionals from around the world.  Topics run the gamut from museum management, community engagement, digital exhibits, and more!  Click the link above for the video gallery, or go directly to the POW! YouTube site.

You can also find downloadable exhibit articles and other museum exhibit design resources by clicking over to the main resource page on the POW! website.

Do you have some other great resources to share?  Tell us about them 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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Museum/Exhibit/Design Inspiration: Disney Research

Many museum folks dislike Disney and its theme parks. But even if you're not a Disney fan, it's worth checking out what the Disney Research folks (and their research partners) are up to.

On the Disney Research website, they present research papers and show videos of some of their cool concepts like "Stuntronics" (which uses robotic technology to produce stunt-double animatronics)  or "Magic Bench" (pictured below) which introduces "mixed reality" experiences and characters into an environment without headsets. 

The Disney Research website offers dozens of inspirational ideas (including, in many cases, information about materials used) that can really push you to consider new technological possibilities for your projects -- even if you have to adapt them to museum-sized budgets! (Paper Electric Generators, anyone?)

For more information, visit the Disney Research website and check out the DisneyResearchHub on YouTube as well. 

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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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High Quality = Internal Capacity

I'd say that all "high-quality" museums have a strong capacity to create programs and exhibits internally—not necessarily everything, but many things. High-quality museums know their strengths and build upon them. Great museums also know their weaknesses and where to look for help in those areas.  

Put simply:

High Quality = Internal Capacity 

As a practical matter, developing a genuinely high-quality museum experience means having a clear sense of what you want your museum to look like two, three, or more years in the future—not just two months after opening! That means investing in thoughtful experiences, staff, and expertise for the long term. ("Invest in staff, not stuff!" as Jane Werner might say.)

In my exhibit design and development practice, I often ask museum collaborators two simple questions: How will you (the staff inside your museum, not contractors or consultants) 1) fix things that break or don’t work? and 2) transform great new ideas into real exhibits and programs? If you can’t come up with credible answers to both questions, I’m afraid that not only will you be constantly racing to “put out fires” in the form of problems that could have been anticipated (as opposed to the many un-anticipated ones you’ll encounter) but your bright, shiny museum will soon become dingy and boring, not only physically, but in its intellectual and emotional spirit as well.

Creating a strong institutional culture of internal capacity is the key difference between a great museum and a mediocre one. Building and investing in strong institutional capacity doesn’t mean that you work in isolation.  On the contrary, carefully understanding the strengths and weaknesses across your institution makes it clear when and where you need to invest time and resources. 

Those investments in time and/or resources can involve seeking out expertise in your local communities, sending staff to national or regional conferences or local professional development opportunities, or (gasp!) bringing in consultants to help build up internal capacity in other areas of institutional need. There are many choices.

What is not a choice is doing nothing. Because doing nothing will surely begin the slide from “high quality” to “who cares?” And is that the kind of museum you want to be part of? 

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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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The 2 Biggest Museum Questions

The fundamentals of most, if not all, museum projects can be boiled down to two short but essential questions.

I started reflecting on this after reading an excellent article entitled "Who Gets to Decide?" on the Creating The Future website. Among many other excellent points, the article evokes the motto of disability rights activists: Nothing about us without us.

The other question I like to ask before starting a project is, "Who is this for?" or, more sharply, "Who cares?"  I'd suggest if your answer(s) doesn't hinge on some variation of "our visitors" or "the communities we serve, " you might want to head back to the drawing board.

I have been to museums where I'm not quite sure if the answers to the questions "Who is this for?" and "Who gets to decide?" involve VISITORS -- and it shows.

And if your exhibition or museum is instead trying to cater to wealthy board members or only subject-matter experts, why bother charging visitors for that experience?

Before starting your next project, consider who gets to decide and who cares.

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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 Design?

“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 development meetings or the reveries of creating slick computer renderings to show potential donors.

I wonder if the oft-repeated plaint 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) exhibit project: take one exhibit idea, even if it's not fully formed and truly "inspiring," and just try it out for at least 20 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 (20 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!

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Blowing the (Red) Whistle on Bad Ideas in Museum Practice.

I was tickled to receive a red plastic whistle in the mail last week.

I have been awarded membership in the "Red Whistle Club" by Serrell & Associates for "outstanding achievements in unfailing vigilance to audience needs and unhesitating readiness to blow the whistle on bad ideas in museum practice."

I will, of course, wear (and use!) my red whistle proudly.

Do you have someone in mind who would make a fine member of the Red Whistle Club?  

If so,  just send the nominating information below to Beverly Serrell via the email address found here.

Submit an application with the following information:

1. Name

2. Title

3. E-mail address

4. Reason or rationale for nomination—What makes this person worthy of a Red Whistle Award? How did he or she “blow the whistle”? (maximum 300 words)

5. Who is submitting the nomination? (you may submit yourself)

 

Awardees receive an official certificate and an actual red whistle.  

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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Revisiting Nick Cave and Nick Cave

I've recently been enjoying the art of Nick Cave and Nick Cave, so I thought I'd share this encore post about two masterfully creative people, each named Nick Cave (pictured above.)

Nick Cave is an artist known for using sound in his work, most notably in his multifaceted pieces called "Soundsuits."

Nick Cave is a musician who brings an artistic sensibility to his deeply strange and personal musical compositions.

Here is a YouTube video of Nick Cave speaking about his artistic choices while creating a particular Soundsuit, on display at The Smithsonian.  Nick Cave's work rewards careful observation.

 

Here is a YouTube video of one of Nick Cave's songs called "Girl in Amber." (You can read more about the background of the song on another Nick Cave website called "The Red Hand Files.")

 

After exploring each Nick Cave's work, I'm struck by some commonalities:

• The work of each Nick Cave is informed by their own personal experiences, shared in ways that resonate and connect them to their viewers/listeners.

• Nick Cave's work pays strict attention to seemingly small details, that really do add up to create a greater whole.

• Each artist creates a visual and sonic environment that defies easy categorization.  In fact, each Nick Cave is his own category.

And wouldn't we all like to bring these elements into our own creative work?

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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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A Google Search is NOT Exhibit Development

First, let me state that I really like Google --- I've even been to the Googleplex.

But Google has a tendency to erode exhibit research and let some museum folks think that a Web-infused shortcut is a substitute for the tricky work of actually understanding and connecting ideas.

The Web is a great purveyor of information. Still, bits and bursts of information do not necessarily equal knowledge --- the type of deep understanding of a subject that leads to compelling stories and exhibitions. (This is also why many "digital panaceas" like AI applied to exhibition development are often so trivial, but that's for a future posting ...) 

Recently, I've been bumping up against three types of Google abusers during the exhibit development process. These are perfect examples of the axiom that "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing."

1) The Google "Expert" This first googly-eyed abuser is really someone who should know better because they are often experts in their respective fields. I've recently worked on several science-related exhibits where content experts on the exhibition team just sent links or URLs (or cut-and-paste sections of web pages) as responses to specific questions about scientific content.

Ummm ... I could do that Google search myself! How about providing nuanced advice or expertise if you're an advisor or exhibit team expert? Otherwise, why bother having exhibition advisors in the first place?

2) But Google says ...  The second miscreant always does a quick Google search of a particular exhibit content topic or material, and if the first (or first few) Google "hits" somehow differ from the direction the exhibition is heading, they'll pipe up with, "But Google says .." whether they actually have the foggiest notion of what's actually being considered.

Recently, a museum administrator claimed we couldn't use a particular item in an exhibit demonstration because "Google says it's dangerous."  Even though I produced the correct references and material safety data sheets, that particular idea was dropped from the exhibit programming.

Here's a news flash: The top results in a Google search (or Wikipedia entry or AI query) can often be misleading, if not completely incorrect. Web searches are a place to start, but to set Google as the ultimate arbiter of exhibition content, design, or activities is just plain silly.

3) The Google "Quick Draw Artist"  This last item is as much an etiquette issue as an exhibit development one.  Namely, people whipping out their screen-based devices to poke and search on -- even in the middle of a conversation.  Checking email and taking "Google potshots" during exhibit team meetings or discussions is just plain rude.  If we're taking the time to schedule an in-person meeting, can't we just turn off the screens for a bit?

What do you think?  Is Google gumming up your exhibit development process?

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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What Just Happened to the Ontario Science Centre?

The short story. The Ontario Science Centre was forced to close by the Ontario government on Friday, June 21, 2024.

The slightly less short story. Ontario Premier Doug Ford's government decided to abruptly close the Ontario Science Centre as part of its larger plan for OSC. As reported by the CBC, the Ford government already planned to move the Science Centre from its current location to a redeveloped Ontario Place site, next to a planned spa being built by Austrian company Therme, an expanded Live Nation concert venue, as well as new public space and beaches. Under those plans, the Science Centre building won't open up until 2028.

Many reasonable people question the motivations for these plans.  To quote Alex Bozikovic, Architecture Critic for The Globe and Mail, "This closing is a choice. It is a deeply cynical political manoeuvre based on a bogus reading of an engineer's report. The Ford government wanted to close the Science Center, so it did."

The slightly longer story. Who knows what happens next?  Even if the current Ontario Science Centre got served lemons, perhaps they can use this as an opportunity to reinvent themselves as a new type of interactive science museum, building upon their 50+ years of experience at their original site.

The real longer story (for the rest of the field.) There is a whole cadre of large science centers that sprung into being in the later half of the 20th century. These science centers may, in fact, be too large to serve their original purposes effectively. Dealing with a large physical plant inherently makes the mission of a modern, interactive museum much more difficult and the organization less nimble.

What lessons can we learn by looking at museums like the Milwaukee Public Museum, which is intentionally "downsizing" as it moves to its new home? Or the Rubin Museum, which has decided to jettison its physical NYC museum building altogether in order to present exhibitions and programs worldwide?

Of course, I wish the OSC staff (and the citizens of the Toronto region!) much good luck as they figure out the path forward to a new (and different?) interactive, community-oriented science/education institution.

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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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Bringing Dark History to Light

In the past few months, I had two interconnected experiences related to Belene, a forced labor camp in Bulgaria.

Belene was a prison camp in northern Bulgaria on an island in the Danube River that was active from approximately 1949 to 1987.  Belene was one of the places where the Bulgarian regime would send dissidents or just about anyone who disagreed publicly with the policies of Bulgaria's socialist state.

This past March, I had the opportunity to tour with a local volunteer guide the site of the former Belene camp, a remote natural area filled with decaying buildings that are slowly being interpreted and restored.  It's a bit of a strange experience since a penitentiary still operates in the western part of the island, while the eastern part is a managed natural reserve filled with pelicans and other wildlife.

Of course, being in a place where so much human tragedy occurred is a deeply moving experience. But how do you interpret the stories from such a remote place? And how do you push against many people's reluctance to bring up such painful memories from Bulgaria's past?

Enter the Sofia Platform Foundation, a non-governmental organization. One part of the Foundation's mission is focused on "promoting remembrance and dealing with the communist past through historical dialogue and education."

To that end, I recently visited a pop-up exhibition entitled “Belene—A Bulgarian Resistance Story” in Washington, D.C. The exhibition drew upon hours of video interviews with Nikola Daskalov, a Belene camp survivor. The exhibit experience provided visitors with the unique opportunity to have a "conversation" with Mr. Daskalov through an interactive AI-driven video system.

The exhibition is one part of the Belene Camp project < www.belene.camp >, an effort of the Sofia Platform Foundation, with the support of the America for Bulgaria Foundation, to preserve the memory of Bulgaria's totalitarian past using state-of-the-art technology.

And isn't bringing the past, even the painful and uncomfortable past, into the light of the present in new and engaging ways an essential part of our museum work?  

I urge you to visit all of the organizations' websites linked above to learn more about their important work, including opportunities to "converse" with Belene survivors via a Web interface.

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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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Being Braver

I have been studying Bulgarian for the last year or so with an excellent (and extremely patient) tutor based in Sofia, named Billyana.  The other day, during our Zoom lesson, Billyana reminded me to "Be Brave!"

For me, learning a new language as an adult is paradoxical.  You need to acknowledge, right upfront, that you will be making mistakes -- even if you don't want to make those mistakes.  It may be that to really learn a new language, you need to make LOTS of mistakes! And it is important to learn from those mistakes.

So, when Billyana tells me to "Be Brave," it's a shorthand way of encouraging me to dive in and do my best and make mistakes. можело!

Being "braver' carries over to other aspects of life, of course, including museum work. Your first attempt at creating an exhibition or museum program is unlikely to be "perfect." You'll likely need to encounter a few setbacks before you end up with a really great program or exhibit.

Maybe that's why I enjoy doing exhibit prototyping so much. Prototyping actually gives you permission to make mistakes, learn from those mistakes, and bring "brave" ideas and energy to your work.

I hope this post encourages you to be "braver" this week in your own creative work!

 

Благодаря Биляна!

 

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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 Forget Your Workshop Suitcase!

I recently helped present a workshop on prototyping and exhibit development at the annual InterActivity conference organized by the Association of Children’s Museums.

Ably assisted by my co-presenters, Joe Cook and Blake Wigdahl, the three of us touched on how to move from basic exhibit ideas to testing and evaluation to the creation of the finished products. I even got to reveal the connection between ELVIS and museum exhibit prototyping! (Check out this related post here.)

A great workshop not only requires careful planning, but you also need some “stuff “to help take your stories out of a PowerPoint presentation on the screen and into the real world. I always bring a suitcase full of prototype examples and exhibit pieces to pass around and to help illustrate my main talking points. That combination of "stories" and "stuff" really creates a memorable social learning experience for your workshop participants.

So, the next time you are thinking about how to share your stories during a workshop or presentation, don’t forget to pack some extra ‘stuff” for the road!

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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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Ouch! Dealing with the Unexpected

I'm on my way to present at the Association of Children's Museums annual InterActivity Conference in Madison, Wisconsin.  

Of course, I've done a lot of preparation for both my presentation and trip, but one thing I didn't anticipate was falling and breaking my shoulder the day before my departure. OUCH!

How can we best deal with the unexpected in our museum work and in the rest of our lives? Two main things stand out, I think.

1) FLEXIBILITY It's okay to acknowledge that you may have to shift from your original intentions. It's good to come up with a workable "Plan B" ( or C or D). 

2) SUPPORT SYSTEMS  The people around you (whether coworkers, project partners, or family members) are there to support you.  Don't be afraid or too proud to ask for their help.

Here's hoping you get to show your flexibility and flourish with support when the unexpected arises -- and in a less dramatic way than a broken bone!

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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 Your Museum In A Rut?

Why is there such a desire to touch things in an art museum? Does all that concentrated looking create a pent-up demand to use our other senses? Or do we long to get a better sense of how an artist created something and the materials they used? 

I was thinking about these things after a recent Art Museum visit.  But then I took a step back and wondered why so many Art Museums and galleries are so often composed of repeating "white boxes" for their displays.

I don't mean to pick on the Art Museum in question, but the galleries there (and in many other art-oriented museums) often seem to lose track of the intellectual and design values of variety in their exhibit environments. Visitors to Art Museums are often faced with the classic "pure white box" style gallery repeated over and over. Within each pure white space, artworks are arranged linearly or in grid patterns on the walls or floors. Couldn't an occasional gallery wall be painted red or blue? 

Different genres of museums tend to get into these stylistic and design "ruts."

My children once remarked on a History Museum exhibition as being a "bunch of old brown things" because the furniture, textiles, and documents on display were all old and brown! The visual rhythm of "brown" and "old" became a sort of unvarying rut that overwhelmed the designers' ultimate content goals. Each object in every glass case was also set on sepia or earth-toned backgrounds.

Have some museum genres become like particular radio stations for both exhibition designers and visitors?  Tune into pristine white spaces on the Art Museum channel and the dimly lit galleries full of "old brown stuff" on the History Museum station?

Are the typical design "ruts" of many science centers -- filled with bright colors and wildly varying architectural forms really conducive to thinking deeply about scientific content?

How can we, as exhibition creators, push ourselves out of the ruts and vary our exhibition design approaches to create more interesting museum spaces and content-driven experiences for our visitors?

Please share your own experiences or examples of "rut-breaking" exhibition spaces 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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On the Road Exhibit Inspiration

I'm currently on the road in the Bay Area of California, but wanted to give a quick tip of the hat to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco for a super interactive element in their "Color of Life" exhibition.

Sets of colored strings are strung in front of video monitors. When you pluck one (or more) strings, you immediately get a visual burst of colored dots on the screen behind the strings accompanied by some musical tones.  Shortly after that, a graphic with a brief text message shares some interesting information about how the single color (or color combination) you created by twanging the correspondingly-colored string shows up in Nature. 

(See the image below and check out this YouTube video link of my wife playing with the exhibit .)

Frankly, I loved everything about this interactive.  It created an unusual interface with tactile, visual, and auditory feedback.  It was intuitive and inspired experimentation (what if I pluck more than one string simultaneously?)  It offered a phygital (physical+digital) interactive component that actually made sense in the context of the exhibition theme.  It also offered bite-sized and interesting pieces of content, and it was FUN!

What more can you ask for from an interactive museum experience?

So, BRAVO Cal Academy!  If you'd like to find out more about the "Color of Life" exhibition, check out the exhibition webpage and this "Creating a Colorful Exhibit video.

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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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