Is Creativity a Team Sport?

In a recent post, I asked people to suggest "Museums Worth a Special Trip." One thing I've noticed about the museums suggested is that many, if not most of them, are the products of strong-minded founders. Which begs the question, "Is Creativity a Team Sport"?

It seems a lot more straight-forward, if less democratic, to pursue one person's design vision than to sit through endless meetings trying to come to consensus among staff and advisors on the direction of an exhibition, or a set of exhibitions, in the case of a new museum.

The National Science Foundation, among other granting agencies, has essentially mandated an exhibits approach that makes all sorts of consensus-building techniques an essential part of the "creative" process --- but has this approach resulted in more interesting exhibitions?

Art Museums seem more willing to turn over their galleries to individual artists for installations, usually with very good results. How can less "auteur" minded institutions like Science, History, and Children's Museums take advantage of a strong-minded individual driving the exhibit process forward, rather than the oft-venerated "Exhibits Team"? (I'd love to see Olafur Eliasson put together an exhibition at a Science Center!)

The "Creative Team" Conundrum also rears its ugly head when thinking about visitor studies and that Web 2.0 favorite, "crowdsourcing".

In the case of visitor studies, many visitors are only able to come up with variations of exhibits and exhibit themes they are already familiar with. Every museum stocked according to audience surveys would likely include a rocket ship, a dinosaur skeleton, and a mummy --- not bad, necessarily, but not exactly moving the exhibits field forward either.

Crowds and focus groups are notoriously bad at choosing innovations, which is why companies like Apple don't use them. Apple’s attitude is that sometimes, to truly innovate, you’ve got to go beyond giving people what they say they want. Building consensus often builds mediocre, and "safe" (rather than interesting) design decisions.

Maybe we need to bring in more "trouble makers" like Fred Wilson to shake up our staid exhibition development models. As Kathy McLean said in a previous ExhibiTricks interview, "I don't really need a lot of money or time to do my dream exhibitions ... I need organizations that are interested in presenting unusual, thought-provoking experiences."

So what do you think? Better Exhibit Teams or More Exhibit Auteurs? Let us know in the Comments Section below.

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Design Inspiration: Storytelling

During the recent "Creating Exhibitions" conference put on by the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums (MAAM) several sessions, and a talk by author David Macaulay about his process, got me thinking again about the importance of stories and storytelling, especially in design projects and museums.

One thing I'm thinking about is whether it is better to start with the objects or to begin with the stories. I'm leaning towards objects first, since so many BAD exhibitions I've seen seem to have started with a fixed storyline that didn't really lead anywhere. What do you think? Stories or Stuff first?

Another thing I'm pondering is David Macaulay's statement in the Q&A session following his talk that (my paraphrase) "You can't draw on a computer, and you can only really understand something if you can draw it." While the computer is an incredibly powerful tool, one of its downsides is that it can almost effortlessly help us to produce things like renderings and label text (or blogs!) that may have a certain surface beauty without any true depth borne from hard-won understanding and experience. Mr. Macaulay spoke of a whole bookshelf full of failed experiments that he didn't want to publish because they weren't "good enough."

Some of my best encounters with museum exhibitions or art are those in which it was clear that there was something interesting going on underneath, rather than merely presenting a glittery, facile surface.

It's easy to talk about storytelling, but much more difficult to frame a proper story. With that in mind, here are two on-line resources that were suggested during the conference, each with slightly different points of view about storytelling, that can serve as springboards for your own storytelling and design efforts:

The Center for Digital Storytelling is an international not-for-profit community arts organization rooted in the craft of personal storytelling. The Center assists youth and adults around the world in using media tools to share, record, and value stories from their lives, in ways that promote artistic expression, health and well being, and justice.

Stories for Change is focused on the intertwined roles of community and place in storytelling. Their website has some especially good resources to draw upon.

So, what's your story? Or the story inside your exhibition trying to get out? I look forward to visiting the next set of museum exhibitions I see with a critical eye toward the stories inside.

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First Children's Museum for Antarctica!

I am happy to report that I have accepted the position as Executive Director of the first children's museum in Antarctica, The Antarctic International Children's Museum.

While plans are still in process, the museum will include both the world's largest IMAX theatre (the dome will be constructed entirely of ice!) as well as the world's best kid-sized grocery store exhibit (in keeping with the Antarctic theme, the "store" will be stocked with 15 varieties of artificial fish and simulated canned goods.)

Other planned exhibitions will be an iceberg climbing structure, a (frozen) water play area, and a community-minded exhibition developed entirely by penguins.

Planning and construction of the state-of-the-art Antarctic International Children's Museum would not be possible without the generous contributions of Doctor Victor Fries.

For more information about the project, or to find out about employment opportunities, please visit our website.

UPDATE:
Thank you so much for your messages of support and concern regarding my recent abduction by aliens, time travel excursions, and the reinstallation of the official planetary status for Pluto. (It's been a busy day!)

It was only through your concerted efforts (and a container ship load of Lucky Charms cereal!) that the proper steps were taken to ensure my eventual release.

Unfortunately, recent events have caused the founding board of the Antarctic International Children's Museum to revoke my contract as Executive Director, and as part of our severance agreement I am forbidden from any further discussion of this matter.

My understanding is that a new executive search will be conducted under the auspices of the McMurdo Research Station, and those interested should direct their inquiries there. Dr. A. Preel-Fewles is the direct contact.

On the positive side, I am now immediately available to discuss new exhibit design, development, or consulting projects with interested parties.

Building Internal Capacity

If there is one silver lining to the continually oppressive economic news, it's the opportunity for museums and other organizations to focus (or re-focus) on building their internal capacity.

It might sound funny for an independent museum professional like myself to advocate for museums being able to develop and create programs and exhibits internally, but I am a strong believer that all types of museums should build upon the strengths of their existing staff and other institutional resources, rather than automatically looking for outside help. (See my recent posting on the importance of in-house exhibit workshops, for example.)

One way for museums to stretch their resources in these tough times is to look for ways to increase such internal capacity.

Art Museums, as one obvious instance, are starting to think more carefully about how the items in their collections might be reinterpreted or redisplayed to create new exhibitions, or even "mini-exhibitions" of a few works, rather than booking traveling shows, or trying to mount expensive "blockbusters."

Any type of museum could benefit from taking a fresh look at their programs and exhibits to try and creatively, and economically, improve them. Is there a way to slightly change or reconfigure a troublesome exhibit component to make it more interesting for visitors? Can you rethink or revitalize an exhibit in storage, and bring it out of retirement? What about building upon a current news item to rapidly develop a combined education program and mini-exhibition on the topic?

These are the types of questions that a knowledgeable museum professional from outside the organization, with a fresh point of view, can help answer.

As a matter of fact, I'm about to formally announce the launch of a new service called the "Exhibit Dr." designed to help museum staffers, as well as independent designers helping museums, to stretch their existing resources, and to "prescribe" the answers they need to solve their knotty exhibit problems.

So stay tuned, as ExhibiTricks readers will be the first to find out when the Exhibit Dr. is "in"!

Dangerous Things to Let Kids Do

As a followup to our previous post about the lack of play in kindergarten, please enjoy this video of a TED talk presented by Gever Tulley, the co-founder of the wonderfully named "Tinkering School" a weeklong camp where lucky kids get to play with their very own power tools.



(If you're getting this message via email or a news reader, you may have to click over directly to the ExhibiTricks blog page to see the embedded video.)

Maybe we need a little more "tinkering" during the school day!

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What About Play?

Museums and exhibit makers, feeling the pressure of losing school field trip revenue, are now encouraged to align their exhibits and programs with "school standards."

What are these "standards" other than an excuse for more testing? (And spending valuable classroom time with test-taking strategy sessions, setting up weekend test-prep sessions for students, and using limited school funds to purchase execrable test practice workbooks...)

This mania began after the "No Child Left Behind" laws (or as some people describe them, the “No Child Left Untested” laws) were passed, and have had the effect of causing school administrators to eliminate almost every aspect of the education day that doesn't show up on the standardized tests. Some districts have reduced or eliminated "nonessentials" such as Art, Music, Recess, and even "Play."

Enter the Alliance for Childhood, a non-profit organization that focuses on early education issues. The Alliance has just released a new report entitled Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play in School. (The full version of the report is available on the Alliance's website.)

The report documents, in three studies commissioned by the Alliance, the radical changes in kindergarten education that have replaced play and playful learning with hours of instruction in literacy and math, and increasing amounts of standardized testing.

Researchers from U.C.L.A. and Long Island University found that, on a typical day, children in all-day kindergartens in Los Angeles and New York City spend four to six times as much time in literacy and math instruction and taking or preparing for tests (about two to three hours per day) as in free play or “choice time” (30 minutes or less). A third research team, at Sarah Lawrence College in New York, found that most of the activities available to children during choice time (a popular euphemism for playtime) are in fact teacher-directed and involve little or no free play, imagination, or creativity.

The report summarizes recent studies and reports showing long-term gains from play and focused, playful learning in early education. It also critiques kindergarten standards, scripted teaching, and standardized testing and makes recommendations for change.

David Elkind, author of The Power of Play, calls the research findings “heartbreaking.” In a foreword to the Alliance report, Elkind writes, “We have had a politically and commercially driven effort to make kindergarten a one-size-smaller first grade. Why in the world are we trying to teach the elementary curriculum at the early childhood level?”

Museums can be an antidote to this continuing mania for testing and "standards" by providing programs and exhibits that show the power of play, and playful learning.

Unfortunately, it is often difficult to make this argument to administrators, so thanks to the Alliance for Childhood, here are three studies to provide ammunition for your fight.

Now get out there and provide your visitors and field trip groups with some serious play!

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