Popular But Not Good (PBNG)

At a restaurant in Pittsburgh recently, the waitress described some items as "popular" and others as "good."  There was something about the way she used those words that made me want to dig a little deeper into her descriptions when we were actually ready to order.

It soon became clear that most of the "popular" items at this particular restaurant were actually mediocre.  In some cases, the waitress wasn't even sure why people kept ordering those particular items over and over again.  (The waitress was kind enough to suggest an off-menu combination of a veggie tempura taco with added shrimp that was awesome!)

Being that I was dining with fellow museum folks, I couldn't help remarking that there are also many things in museums, or in museum practice, that are "popular" but not "good" (or PBNG for short.) One example of PBNG is the continued, and often thoughtless, recycling of old exhibit warhorses (especially inside Children's Museums) like mini grocery stores or dig pits. Piles of wooden blocks thrown onto a table are not a smartly designed building exhibit!  (I've written previous posts about why grocery store exhibits are not just bad for museums, but bad for the planet.)

It's not that these types of exhibits are inherently bad, or can't be done in creative ways, but the basic frameworks just seem to attract clichéd ideas and lazy design approaches.

The second PBNG idea that impacts every type of museum and every type of museum designer is the RFP (Request For Proposals) process.  If ever there was an overly onerous procedure designed to ostensibly help museums separate the wheat from the chaff, the RFP process is it.  It is so often unfair and unrealistic to proposers that a selection process involving throwing darts at a grid of names seems brilliant by comparison.

So now that I've outlined how popular, but not good, some types of exhibits and RFP processes can be, what suggestions for improvements or substitutes can I offer?

By happy coincidence, I will be speaking at sessions during the upcoming AAM (American Alliance of Museums) Annual Meeting and the ACM (Association of Children's Museums) InterActivity Conference that will be addressing both these PBNG topics head-on.

First up, in Atlanta The Museum Group will be hosting a series of Conversations on a range of interesting topics.  I'll be part of the Conversation entitled, "Writing and Responding to RFPs: The Dance Everyone Can Do Better" which will take place at the Glenn Hotel on Monday, April 27th from 2:00 - 3:15 p.m.  Hope to see you there!

Then in Indianapolis, during ACM's InterActivity, I'll be part of a fun session called "Material Matters: Thoughtful Choices for High-Impact Visitor Engagement" in Marriott Ballroom 10 on Wednesday, May 13th starting at 3:00 p.m.

I'll be recapping the action at both conferences, so follow along on my Twitter feed @museum_exhibits and on my POW! Facebook page. 

If you'd like to schedule some time to chat about working together on new projects, or just to catch up over a drink during either conference, please drop me an email so we can compare calendars!


Last, but not least, I'll be giving away FREE STUFF! --- copies of some great research and exhibit journals and publications I've written for recently.  So look for me in Atlanta or Indy and ask for your free museum swag (while supplies last!)

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Reimagining Children's Museums? Recapping InterActivity 2013

Last week, the international tribe of Children's Museums professionals converged on Pittsburgh to assemble under the banner of the InterActivity 2013 conference theme of Reimagining Children's Museums.

First off, kudos to the Association of Children's Museum (ACM) staff and the staff of the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh for pulling off such an audacious event in such a graceful way.  The Children's Museum looked great (all spiffed up for the out of town company!) and if there is ever a Nobel prize awarded for museum directors, I would definitely put Jane Werner on the short list.

The organizational format of this year's conference was a little different than normal --- folks from outside the traditional bounds of the Children's Museum field presented to us, and helped us to rethink, and yes reimagine a bit.

However, I only found part of this reimagining exercise successful.

The first part of the reimagining happened on the first day of the conference when ALL of us marched over to the Byham Theater to engage in something called "Small Talks."  I have to admit, I was a little apprehensive at first --- we're ALL going to be in this same theater, ALL DAY, watching/listening to the SAME presenters?!?!?   I felt a little trapped.  But I gave it a try.

IT WAS GREAT!

Having the speakers and performers present to us at the Byham was like what it must be like to attend a TED Conference.  The speakers were thoughtful, the performers engaging, and I really felt inspired and able to "reimagine" a bit.

Some particular speakers whose work and presentations resonated with me included:

Frans Johansson  spoke about the differences between "strategy" and "serendipity" and how we need to be open and prepared to exercise both of those skills in our professional and personal lives.

Luis von Ahn, the inventor of Captcha spoke about leveraging computers and humans to solve big problems.

Jesse Schell, who in his "day job" designs video games and is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, entertained us with his circus skills.

Vanessa German is a passionate artist committed to working with her community in many different ways. (Plus her spoken word piece to end the day kicked butt!)

So that was all good. Great first day, lots of good conversations with people about the presenters and the ideas in their presentations.

The next day was a traditional conference day, but the culminating session of the InterActivity Conference was the "Reimagining Design Seminar" on Thursday afternoon.  I'll just state upfront that this particular aspect of the reimagining theme left me cold, and completely befuddled.  The premise is/was that four international and interdisciplinary teams of designers would present their models for realizing the "21st Century Children's Museum."

I could barely sit still in my seat because of how agitated these presentations made me feel.  It was like bad performance art.  I kept thinking "how much money was spent on all of this?!?"  Perhaps the idea was to push people out of their comfort zone, but honestly my only takeaway was "what the heck was that all supposed to be about?"  A children's museum could be like a sponge? Puh-leeze!

I'm sorry to be so negative about something that sincere people obviously spent a great deal of time on, but that's my honest reaction.   (I'd gratefully provide space, and equal time, on this blog for someone more deeply involved in the process to present what it really was about.)

So, in sum, I learned from InterActivity 2013 that reimagining is NOT a straightforward business.  Perhaps we all just need to pick and choose from the things that do (and do not!) resonate with us, and use these ideas and people and experiences to sharpen our own professional practice.

Were you at InterActivity 2013?  If so, what were you takeaways?  Let us know in the "Comments" Section below this post.




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