FREE Museum Exhibit Design 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!

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.

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!

If you enjoy the blog, you can help keep it free to read and free from ads by supporting ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"

Three Chatbots Walk Into a Museum...

If you've been following museum tech trends lately, you've probably noticed AI chatbots popping up everywhere. Instead of just reading about them, I decided to roll up my (digital) sleeves and build a few exhibit-focused chatbots to see what all the fuss is about.

Spoiler alert: It's pretty fun, surprisingly educational, and maybe even useful for museums!

Why Museum Chatbots?

Visitors come to museums with wildly different questions, interests, and attention spans. Some want the quick Wikipedia version, others want to dive deep into primary sources, and still others just want to know where the bathrooms are (Pro Tip: chatbots are *terrible* at that last one).

But what if you could give visitors a way to have an actual conversation with a historical figure or topic expert? Not in a creepy uncanny valley way, but in a "here's another tool in your interpretive toolkit" kind of way.

Three Chatbots Walk Into a Museum...

I created three different chatbot experiments, each with a different personality and purpose:

1. George Washington: First President, First Chatbot

This was my first attempt, and I went straight for the big guy himself. The George Washington chatbot is designed to answer visitor questions about his life, Mount Vernon, and 18th-century America—all while staying in character and citing actual historical sources.

Want to know about his dentures? His relationship with enslaved people at Mount Vernon? His thoughts on political parties? George (or at least this digital version) will chat with you about it. The key here was making sure responses were historically grounded and included source citations, so visitors know this isn't just making stuff up.

2. Ivan Vazov: Bulgaria's Literary Lion

Okay, this one's a bit more niche, but hear me out! Ivan Vazov is Bulgaria's national poet, and I created this chatbot to help English-speaking visitors engage with Bulgarian literary history. 

This bot can discuss Vazov's works, the Bulgarian National Revival period, and even translate some of his poetry. It's a great example of how chatbots can make culturally specific content more accessible to international audiences without oversimplifying it.

3. Paul Orselli: Yes, I Made One of Myself! 

In the spirit of full transparency, and maybe a little ego, I created a chatbot version of myself to answer questions about museum exhibit design, visitor engagement, and the ExhibiTricks blog. 

This one's less about historical accuracy and more about sharing professional expertise in a conversational format. It's like having a museum consultant available 24/7, except this one never gets tired of explaining why hands-on exhibits shouldn't be overly complicated.

What I Learned

The Good:

• Creating these chatbots was surprisingly quick and iterative. You can test, refine, and improve the personality and accuracy pretty easily.

• They're genuinely useful for handling the "long tail" of visitor questions that traditional labels can't address.

• The ability to cite sources means visitors can dig deeper if they want to verify information.

The Not-So-Good:

• You need to be really thoughtful about accuracy and bias. These tools can confidently state incorrect information if you're not careful.

• They're not a replacement for well-designed exhibits or human interpretation—they're a supplement.

• Accessibility is still a work in progress (think: screen reader compatibility, multilingual support).

Should Your Museum Make a Chatbot?

Maybe! Here are some questions to ask first:

• Do your visitors have questions that go beyond what your labels can address?

• Do you have good primary source material or expertise to draw from?

• Are you comfortable with AI as an interpretive tool, with all its limitations?

• Can you commit to maintaining and updating it over time?

If you answered yes to most of these, it might be worth experimenting. Start small, test with real visitors, and don't be afraid to iterate.

Try Them Out!

All three chatbots mentioned above are live and ready to chat. Click the links above, ask them questions, and see what you think. Are they useful? Gimmicky? Somewhere in between? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

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.

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!

If you enjoy the blog, you can help keep it free to read and free from ads by supporting ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"

The "Forever Ready" Exhibit

We’ve all seen it. You walk up to a fascinating-looking interactive exhibit, ready to dive in, only to find it in a state of chaos. Pieces are scattered everywhere, the "start" state is unrecognizable, or worse, the previous visitor left it in a "game over" condition that you can't figure out how to undo. (If I see one more already solved “ecosystem puzzle” exhibit at a Nature Center again, I’ll scream!)

In the world of interactive exhibits, the “Reset” is everything.

The "Reset" is one of the most critical (yet often overlooked) aspects of interactive exhibit design. 

If an exhibit isn't ready for the next visitor immediately after the previous one leaves, it's “broken.”

If an exhibit requires a staff member to tidy it up every ten minutes, it’s not an exhibit; it’s a chore. <cough> mini-supermarket exhibits at Children's Museums <cough> 

The Holy Grail of interactive design is creating experiences that naturally return to a "visitor-ready" state the moment the first user walks away. 

Here are three different types of exhibit elements that handle their own housekeeping, ensuring every visitor gets a fresh experience:

1. Gravity to the Rescue!

You can’t beat gravity as a free source of energy (and cleanup). The classic Tennis Ball Launcher is a great example of reset.  The visitor pulls a rope to raise a bowling ball inside a close-fitting acrylic tube. When the ball drops, a stream of air rushes through a smaller connected tube containing a tennis ball. 

Whoosh! The constrained air sends the tennis ball flying! 

When the tennis ball reaches its apogee? Gravity takes over and returns the tennis ball to its original position, ready for the next user.

• Why it works: It uses physics, not staff, to clean up.

• See examples of CW Shaw’s Tennis Ball Launcher here

2. The Magnetic Gear Wall

"Loose parts" exhibits are engagement gold, but they are also a "reset" nightmare. If you have a bucket of small pieces, they can end up in pockets, on the floor, or in the wrong exhibit entirely.

The Magnetic Gear Wall solves this by turning the entire vertical surface into a storage unit. The gears stick where you leave them. While the pattern changes, the functionality never breaks. The next visitor doesn't encounter a pile of junk; they encounter a collaborative work-in-progress that is instantly playable.

• Why it works: The "mess" is the exhibit. There is no "wrong" state.

• See an example: Magnetic Gear Wall at the Discovery Museum in Acton, MA

(Notice how the gears are always presented effectively, whether arranged in a line or a chaotic cluster.)

3. "Phygital" (Physical/Digital) Exhibits

Sometimes you want the tactile joy of a giant "Lite-Brite" but without the agony of picking up hundreds of little plastic pegs.

The Everbright is a giant grid of dials that change color as you twist them. It satisfies that tactile itch but offers a massive maintenance advantage: Auto-Erase. You can program it to wipe the screen clean with a satisfying ripple of light after a period of inactivity. It’s always a fresh canvas for the next artist.

• Why it works: It mimics a mechanical experience while clever engineering handles the reset instantly.

• See an example: The Everbright

(Their site specifically highlights the "self-resetting" feature as a major perk for staff-less spaces.)

The Takeaway

When prototyping your next interactive, ask yourself: "What’s the Reset?"

If the answer involves a staff member constantly picking up loose pieces or a confused visitor pressing buttons randomly, keep iterating!

 

Have a favorite "auto-reset" exhibit example? Share it in the Comments Section below!

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.

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!

If you enjoy the blog, you can help keep it free to read and free from ads by supporting ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"

Beyond Buttons, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Analog.

I get it. You walk into a museum planning meeting and someone inevitably says, "What if we just put a touchscreen on it?" It's like the exhibition equivalent of putting bacon on everything – sure, it works, but sometimes you need to step back and remember that not every problem needs a digital solution.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a Luddite. I'm typing this on a computer, after all (shocking, I know). But there's something enjoyably subversive about creating engaging, interactive experiences that don't require a single pixel, USB port, or software update. 

The Case for Going Analog

There's something primal about physically manipulating objects. We're tactile creatures who spent thousands of years figuring out the world through our hands, not our fingertips on glass.

And here's the kicker: analog interactions are often more memorable. When was the last time you remembered a specific touchscreen interaction? Now think about the last time you turned a really satisfying crank or pulled a lever that made something dramatic happen. 

Mechanical Marvels That Actually Work

The Mighty Lever System

Nothing says "I have the power!" like a good lever. Some museums have visitors lifting actual cars with giant levers.  These exhibits demonstrate powerful mechanical principles that make visitors feel like they have superhuman strength. The key is making the payoff dramatic – don't just move a small weight, move something that makes people go "whoa."

Pro tip: A satisfying clunk when something locks into place is worth its weight in engagement metrics.

Gear Trains Tell Stories

Gears are visual poetry. They're also perfect for showing cause and effect, which is the holy grail of interactive design. Create a gear system where turning one element starts a chain reaction.

Maybe it's showing how a clock works, or how an appliance like a mixer operates. The trick is to make it detailed enough to be fascinating, simple enough to understand.

The Humble Crank

Never underestimate the power of a good crank. It's immediate, satisfying, and gives visitors a sense of control. Use it to power animations, reveal hidden information, or create sounds. The classic "crank a generator" component can power dazzling visual and physical effects, while allowing visitors to directly experience how their physical energy can transform into electrical energy. 

Making It Work in the Real World

Durability is Key

If you're creating mechanical interactions, build them like tanks. Visitors will push, pull, crank, and manipulate your exhibits in ways you never imagined. Use materials that can handle abuse and design mechanisms that fail gracefully. A broken interactive exhibit is worse than no interactive exhibit.

Clear Instructions, Obvious Affordances

Make it immediately obvious what visitors should do. If it's meant to be turned, make it look turnable. If it's meant to be pushed, make it look pushable. Don't make people guess – confusion kills engagement faster than broken technology.

Maintenance Plans Matter

Mechanical doesn't mean maintenance-free. Create exhibits that can be easily cleaned, adjusted, and repaired by your existing staff. Document everything, and make replacement parts easy to source. Future museum employees will thank you.

The Secret Sauce: Emotional Payoff

The best analog interactions create emotional responses. The surprise of a hidden compartment opening. The dramatic moment when a lever lifts something heavy. Design for those moments of delight, frustration, and ultimate satisfaction.

 

Remember, you're not just creating an activity – you're creating an experience. The best analog interactions make visitors feel smart, powerful, or surprised. Sometimes all three.

The Bottom Line

In a world of endless screens and digital overload, analog interactions offer something refreshing: direct, immediate, tactile engagement with ideas. They're reliable, memorable, and often more engaging than their digital counterparts. Plus, they won't become obsolete when the next operating system update drops.

So the next time someone suggests "just adding a touchscreen," take a deep breath and consider the alternatives. Sometimes the best way forward is backwards – or sideways, with a really good crank!

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.

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!

If you enjoy the blog, you can help keep it free to read and free from ads by supporting ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"

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!

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.

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!

If you enjoy the blog, you can help keep it free to read and free from ads by supporting ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"

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!

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.

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!

If you enjoy the blog, you can help keep it free to read and free from ads by supporting ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"

The "Three List" Trick

As I continue coordinating my plans for 2024, I'll often be relying on my trusty "Three List" trick.

Despite the "best-laid plans" for our museum and exhibit projects, things often do go awry.  Whether it happens during the initial stages of value engineering (often providing neither "value" nor "engineering") or just before the opening of a new building or exhibition, the harsh realities of schedules and budgets often squeeze our hopes and dreams like a vise.

In an effort to shake myself out of the funk that often accompanies different parts of the exhibit/museum development process, I've taken to creating three lists for myself and suggesting that clients do the same.

What are the aims of those three lists, you ask? 

1) Things that MUST happen before opening

2) Things that would be NICE to happen before opening

3) Things that ABSOLUTELY WON'T HAPPEN until after opening

Exactly which things you put on your lists will vary from project to project and situation to situation.  (It's a pretty sure bet your new museum will need working front doors on your first day, but if a few staff office chairs arrive a week late, it's probably not a reason to cancel the opening gala.)  But to proceed otherwise, as if everything on all the punch lists and wish lists and to-do lists will happen before opening, is, at best, a rookie mistake or, at worst, a one-way express ticket to Burnout City.

So pause a moment to process the bad news you just got from your General Contractor (or Director or Fire Marshall or Lead Designer ...), then take a deep breath and gather your team together to start updating your three lists.

Your project (not to mention your health and sanity) will be better for it.

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.

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!

If you enjoy the blog, you can help keep it free to read and free from ads by supporting ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"

New Year, New Games!

Our family just received some new games over the Holidays that I'd like to recommend.**

Good games, like good museum exhibit experiences, share a few common traits:

1) Easy to learn and play.

2) Fun for a variety of age levels.

3) Challenging, but not too challenging.

4) Interesting enough to play again and again.

So here, in no particular order, are some games that you might like to check out. (The link attached to each game name brings you to Amazon.)

Charty Party

Charty Party is a card game for adults that reminds me of another card-based game called Apples to Apples. During each round of Charty Party, one player is chosen to be the judge and flips over a chart card. The other players then anonymously play their funniest orange card to name the Y-axis of the chart. It's an easy but often hilarious game.

Wingspan

As the name of the game and the picture below implies, this is a game about birds!  You play against other players to collect bird cards, get different types of food, and gather eggs in various ways. Wingspan is a gorgeous-looking game, with each one of the beautiful playing cards showing an accurate picture of a real bird. Wingspan feels educational but not boring -- with interesting, solid gameplay.

We like the game so much that we bought one of the "expansion" packs -- in this case, the Asia Expansion set, which adds a whole new flock of birds to learn and play with!

Mantis

Brought to you by the same people who developed the "Exploding Kittens" game, Mantis (named after the super-cool oceanic creature the Mantis Shrimp) comes with a bonus physical copy of the comic book, "Why the Mantis Shrimp is My New Favorite Animal."

The aim of the game is to be the first player to get 10 or more cards into your score pile. You do this by collecting matching sets of colorful Mantis cards and/or stealing those same cards from your opponents! Mantis works as a card game for kids but is also one of the adult party games you’ll want to play again and again.

King of Tokyo

If you've ever imagined yourself tearing up Tokyo like Godzilla or blasting New York City from an alien spaceship, this is the game for you!

A dice-driven game with a good combination of both luck and strategy needed to win, you compete against fellow "monsters" to collect energy points and avoid losing health points.  Each round plays relatively quickly, so it's a great game for people at a party to jump in and out of.

Here's hoping your 2024 gets off to a fun and playful start!

As I mentioned above, each game name leads to a link on Amazon where you can purchase your own set!  (** Note: Commissions may be earned from the Amazon links above.)

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.

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!

If you enjoy the blog, you can help keep it free to read and free from ads by supporting ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"

The Other 99%

I've never received a congratulatory message about the 99% of exhibits in a project that are working wonderfully and that visitors are enthusiastically enjoying.

Instead, understandably, people (whether they are visitors or clients) want to tell you about things that aren't working.

Continually focusing on the things that need to be fixed can sometimes cause us to miss the bigger picture -- all the many, many parts of a project that ARE working.

So how can we hold these two aspects of our creative working lives  -- the things that need to be tinkered with or improved, as well as all the cool things we've accomplished  -- in a helpful balance, or at least a sort of peaceful coexistence?

I'll offer two ways of thinking about this creative tension between improvement and accomplishment:

1) SNAPSHOT VERSUS MOVIE

If you had to graph a creative lull or a tricky part of a project, it might look something like this:

And at that particular moment in time, it might feel awful -- even hopeless. You might even feel like quitting. And that's the "snapshot." A moment in time.  

When you are in that snapshot moment, it can be hard to have the proper perspective on the path of a project, which, often, if you take a moment to step back or evaluate afterward, looks more like this:

Let's be honest, there are crappy movies. And maybe your project is one of those "Rotten Tomatoes." Or maybe the scene you're in right now just needs to be rewritten or reworked a little bit. You might need to force yourself to step out of the snapshot to find out. 

2) LOOKING BACK TO MOVE FORWARD

A retired school superintendent named George was one of my all-time favorite Board Members, and he would often remind us of something during tense meetings when we would be talking (or arguing!) about things that needed to be improved in, or added to, our museum.  

George would say, "Yes, these are things we need to improve or programs we need to add, but let's stop and take a look back at some of the things we have accomplished in the past few months, or the past year.  What can we take away from looking at how we made those things happen?"

It was a very wise strategy because it shifted the focus from the often contentious present and the uncertain future.  We would be reminded that in the past few months or past year, we had actually accomplished a lot of positive things together. And that we could add and improve more new things together if we used our past experiences to guide us forward.

Years later, I realized that George's approach was very much in the spirit of Sankofa.  

As mentioned in this Wikipedia article about Sankofa, the notion of "looking back to move forward," is used by the Akan people of Ghana. They often use an adinkra symbol, of a bird with its head turned backward to symbolically capture an egg depicted above its back, to represent the same concept. It symbolizes taking from the past what is good and bringing it into the present to make positive progress. 

So, as we come to the end of another year, I hope you will be able to see not just snapshots but also movies. I also hope you will be able to look back at 2023 to move forward with learnings for the New Year and beyond.

P.S. You know that tricky project you finished this year? It is AWESOME!

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.

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!

If you enjoy the blog, you can help keep it free to read and free from ads by supporting ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"

Check Out The Cheapbooks!

I've recently had several online and conference-hallway conversations with museum colleagues struggling to create interesting interactive exhibits at reasonable prices.   Plese allow me to re-introduce The Exhibit Cheapbooks -- a great resource filled with inexpensive exhibit ideas.

That's right -- nearly 100 free exhibit "recipes" contributed by museum colleagues from all over the world are available to download as FREE PDFs from the POW! website.  

A little history --the idea for the Exhibit Cheapbooks started during sessions at the annual Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) Conference with the purpose of sharing "cheap" exhibit ideas and creating a written record of how to replicate these simple and successful exhibit components.

The very first "Cheapbook" was compiled and published by ASTC in 1995. Subsequent volumes appeared in 1999, 2004, and 2014.

The Exhibit Cheapbooks have always celebrated the "sharing" nature of museums. You will find varied exhibit ideas from museum colleagues from around the world inside each volume. 

Sincere thanks to everyone who has shared their ideas and expertise by contributing ideas over the years! And special thanks to ASTC for allowing all the Exhibit Cheapbooks material to now be shared freely online.

Think of all these Exhibit Cheapbooks entries not as detailed shop drawings but rather as creative jumping-off points for your own exhibit building.

So what are you waiting for?  Click on over to the Exhibits Cheapbooks Download Page and start making cheap exhibits!

Have fun!

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.

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!

If you enjoy the blog, you can help keep it free to read and free from ads by supporting ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"

Marking a Cheapbooks Milestone

Today I thought it was important to mark a meaningful personal/professional milestone -- The Exhibit Cheapbooks became available for FREE one year ago, and the very first volume of Cheapbook exhibit ideas got turned loose nearly 27 years ago!

That's right -- nearly 100 free exhibit "recipes" contributed by museum colleagues from all over the world are available to download as PDFs from the POW! website.  (Did I mention that they're FREE?)

A little history --the idea for the Exhibit Cheapbooks started during sessions at the annual Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) Conference with the purpose of sharing "cheap" exhibit ideas and creating a written record of how to replicate these simple and successful exhibit components.

The very first "Cheapbook" was compiled and published by ASTC in 1995. Subsequent volumes appeared in 1999, 2004, and 2014.

The Exhibit Cheapbooks have always celebrated the "sharing" nature of museums. You will find varied exhibit ideas from museum colleagues from around the world inside each volume. 

Sincere thanks to everyone who has shared their ideas and expertise by contributing ideas over the years! And special thanks to ASTC for allowing all the Exhibit Cheapbooks material to now be shared freely online.

Think of all these Exhibit Cheapbooks entries not as detailed shop drawings, but rather as creative jumping-off points for your own exhibit building.

So what are you waiting for?  Click on over to the Exhibits Cheapbooks Download Page and start making cheap exhibits!

Have fun!

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.

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!

If you enjoy the blog, you can help keep it free to read and free from ads by supporting ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"

Back on the Museum Conference Circuit!

Since 2019, Museum Conferences have been a little different.

Fortunately, in-person conferences are coming back and I'm hoping to see old friends and meet new colleagues out on the road!

I'll be attending InterActivity in St. Louis put on by the Association of Children's Museums from May 16 to 18.

I'll also be in Heilbronn, Germany, for the ECSITE Conference, convened by the European Network of Science Centres & Museums from June 2 to 4.

If you are at either conference, please say hello!  (We might even take a picture like the one at the top of this post from a past conference in Pittsburgh!)

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.

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!

If you enjoy the blog, you can help keep it free to read and free from ads by supporting ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"

More FREE Exhibit Resources!

Who doesn't like free stuff?  Here are links to some great exhibit design resources that come 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 with the purpose of sharing "cheap" exhibit ideas and creating a written record of how to replicate these simple and successful exhibit components.

The four Exhibit Cheapbooks have always celebrated the "sharing" nature of museums. You will find varied exhibit ideas from museum colleagues from around the world inside each volume. Sincere thanks to everyone who has shared their ideas and expertise! And 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!

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.

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 Exhibit Cheapbooks are now FREE!

The four Exhibit Cheapbooks are now available for FREE online!  

That's right -- nearly 100 free exhibit "recipes" contributed by museum colleagues from all over the world are now available to download as PDFs from the POW! website.  (Did I mention that they're FREE?)

A little history --the idea for the Exhibit Cheapbooks started during sessions at the annual Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) Conference with the purpose of sharing "cheap" exhibit ideas and creating a written record of how to replicate these simple and successful exhibit components.

The very first "Cheapbook" was compiled and edited by Paul Orselli and published by ASTC in 1995. Subsequent volumes appeared in 1999, 2004, and 2014.

The Exhibit Cheapbooks have always celebrated the "sharing" nature of museums. You will find varied exhibit ideas from museum colleagues from around the world inside each volume. 

Sincere thanks to everyone who has shared their ideas and expertise by contributing ideas over the years! And special thanks to ASTC for allowing all the Exhibit Cheapbooks material to now be shared freely online.

Think of all these Exhibit Cheapbooks entries not as detailed shop drawings, but rather as creative jumping-off points for your own exhibit building.

So what are you waiting for?  Click on over to the Exhibits Cheapbooks Download Page and start making cheap exhibits!

Have fun!

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.

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!

If you enjoy the blog, you can help keep it free to read and free from ads by supporting ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"

Can Museums REALLY Change?

In the midst of an ongoing worldwide pandemic, many museum workers are wondering if cultural institutions can make the changes needed to move into the post-COVID era.

I recently wrote an article entitled, "Can Museums Really Change?" published in the Informal Learning Review that seeks to tease out some of the issues at hand. 

You can access the entire article for free here, but I'll touch on some of the key challenges (and possible solutions) in this excerpt.

I'll pose the same question here that I used to start my article, 

"If someone you knew and cared about (like a relative or mentee) asked whether they should pursue a career in museums right now, what would you say?"

What are the things museums and other cultural institutions need to focus on to become stronger, more equitable, and more community-centered organizations?

Here are five things that I've been thinking about:

1) Staff > Stuff

One of the first ways museums could begin to become more genuinely people-centered (instead of merely talking about it via their social media accounts) is to clearly prioritize staff over “stuff.” This requires museum management and boards and museum organizations to act as if they care more for the people working at a museum than museum collections or buildings. (Of course, you need trained staff to care for collections and facilities properly, but that’s an entirely different story).

Pay continues to be the most significant ongoing issue in the museum world. It is wrong, if not downright immoral, to hire someone for full-time work at a museum and to knowingly pay them less than a living wage. And many museum workers are woefully and deliberately underpaid. Let’s pause here to acknowledge that many museum administrators are master rationalizers and can spin stories to justify some of their staff needing to work one (or more!) jobs in addition to their full-time museum employment to make ends meet. 

So rather than relying on someone’s rosy notion of what a “living wage” means in different parts of the country, why not use a common yardstick? Fortunately, MIT has developed a free Web-based Living Wage Calculator (https://livingwage.mit.edu/) that anyone can use to determine what a living wage means in different parts of the U.S. All museums should commit to offering their employees a living wage. 

2) Flatten the Org Chart!

The traditional “top-down” hierarchical business structures of most museums contribute to the isolation of museum departments and functions. Instead of creating collaborators moving toward common goals, most museum org charts create multi-level “silos” that compete for limited resources – often pulling in different directions. Front-line and public-facing museum workers often feel that decisions handed down from the “higher-ups” are arbitrary or “out of touch” with the operational realities of running the museum.

Worse yet, museum employees facing severe issues such as the reported instances of sexual harassment or even physical abuse(!) from managers at the Philadelphia Museum of Art were routinely ignored or dismissed, (https://hyperallergic.com/579531/philadelphia-museum-of-art-concludes-workplace assessment-after-allegations-of-abuse/). The museum management hierarchy simply sought to protect itself. 

Hierarchical structures in museums also contribute to pay inequities across departments. Shouldn’t the roles of Education, Exhibits, and Development departments be viewed as equally important to museums’ purpose and function, and therefore compensated equitably? Museums can systemically change staffing and management approaches by “flattening” their org charts and promoting workers’ and departments’ true interdependency.

What would a museum system built on self-organization principles look like in practice? At its core, “self-management” means knowing what you are responsible for and having the freedom to meet those expectations however you think is best. “Self-organization” is being able to make changes to improve things - beyond what is required of you. Simple in theory, but everyone has to truly commit for it to work!

Examples from the for-profit world include the company Zappos, which details the approach it took in successfully changing to a form of a self-organizing structure called a “Holacracy” in this Web article: https://www.zapposinsights.com/about/holacracy.

3) Communities as True Creative Partners

Whose stories are museums telling, and who is visiting museums to experience the exhibits, programs, and events related to those stories? As researchers like Susie Wilkening have shown (http://www.wilkeningconsulting.com/data-stories.html), museum visitors are concerned about a broad range of issues, but can museums provide what their communities want and need – and in a timely way?There are large groups of people that museums are simply not reaching. Visitors to cultural arts organizations, including museums, continue to trend older and whiter than the demographic directions the U.S. general population is heading.

How can museums counteract the notion that “museums are not for me”? I would contend that rather than trying only to present stories, museums also need to engage with their communities as real creative partners. That way, museums no longer become the only authorities and sole judges of the value of certain stories over others. This systemic shift to co-creation with communities may well upset museums with a “Curators Uber Alles” approach, but the realities of demographics point in a different direction.

An excellent example of a museum that sought to reinvent itself with a more community and visitor-centric approach is the Oakland Museum of California (https://museumca.org/). A free PDF of a book outlining their work, “How Visitors Changed Our Museum” is available through the OMCA website: https://museumca.org/files/HowVisitorsChangedOurMuseumBook.pdf.

Another way museums could become more community-minded is to foster more cooperation and resource-sharing between museums in the same geographic area. A great example of exactly this kind of local cooperation is the Chattanooga Museums Collaborative: https://www.nten.org/article/sharing-back-offices-in-the-cloud-the-case-of-the-chattanooga-museums-collaborative/.

4) Money Changes Everything

Given the continuing mismatch between cultural institutions’ operational needs and the available funding sources; the COVID-19 crisis has made even more evident the weak financial positions of so many museums.

This raises a sort of “museum lifeboat” question – should unsustainable museums be allowed (or even encouraged) to go out of business so they don’t take away limited resources from more vital institutions?

This is a tricky proposition since many museums really can’t survive without constant (if erratic) infusions of cash from both private and governmental sources. The long-term systemic solution here is to create reliable public funding streams for all museums through political pressure, both at the local and national levels. We should support and vote for politicians that view museums as necessary to civic life as libraries, police stations, or garbage trucks. A politician that continually tries to eliminate organizations like IMLS, NEH, and NEA is no friend to museums.

More systemic public funding of cultural organizations would also reduce the dependence of museums on wealthy donors and reduce the systemic and ethical dilemmas caused by balancing selling objects from the collections versus preventing the firing of staff -- which brings us back to “staff versus stuff” again. Although in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, “stuff” seems to be winning the battle -- if you consider examples such as the Museum of Modern Art (with an endowment of over one billion dollars) terminating every single contract of all 85 of its freelance educators in April 2020 or the Royal Academy in the U.K. that is refusing to sell one Michelangelo statue to save the jobs of nearly 150 museum workers in September 2020.

5) Leaving the "Numbers Game" Behind

Ultimately, to change the current museum “system,” we need to leave the “numbers game” behind. The notion that admissions numbers are an accurate measure of a museum’s worth or a way to measure the value of a museum visit to a visitor may be a more severe sickness impacting the museum world than even COVID-19.

Randi Korn’s book, Intentional Practice for Museums: A Guide for Maximizing Impact, offers meaningful alternatives to the museum admissions figures “numbers game.” Many museum leaders and boards continue to be deluded by an “edifice complex.” The reckless rush to build larger and grander new museums without considering whether we can sustain those new buildings has to stop. If we cannot sustain (parse that word in as many ways as you like) existing museums worldwide, should we really be adding to the number of new museums?

Final Thoughts

All of the challenges and possible systemic solutions highlighted above bring us back to the original question: Can Museums Really Change?

Can we bring the required sense of urgency and the necessary hard decisions to the tasks ahead? Museums have talked a great game for years (even decades!) about systemic inequities and failings in the museum field – often with little, if any, real change. The current moment requires not just talk but timely, and creative, actions.

Are we prepared to leave people behind (whether directors, board members, or staff) who cannot evolve and adapt to the changes needed in the museum field? No matter how much you like an individual personally, or how well they may have fit their role in the past, sometimes folks just don’t grow along with your organization. And then it only deepens the pain to delay conversations about moving on.

Perhaps everyone in the museum field should take a lesson from the dinosaur skeletons on display in so many of our institutions – if you don’t adapt, you will surely become extinct!

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.

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!

If you enjoy the blog, you can help keep it free to read and free from ads by supporting ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"

Creative Resource: Reading Design

Looking for creative writing about design? 

Reading Design (R/D) is an online collection of critical writing about design. The website contains interesting entries dating from the first century BC right up to current times.

R/D gathers papers, articles, lecture transcripts, essays, photo essays, and blog posts all in one place to build an outstanding resource for anyone engaged in, or interested in, design.  I especially enjoyed some offbeat writings gathered from lectures by Oscar Wilde.  

Whatever your interest in design, Reading Design is a website well worth exploring.

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.

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!

If you enjoy the blog, you can help keep it free to read and free from ads by supporting ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"