Museum Mission Pop Quiz (First In A Series)

Pop Quiz:  Do the two statements below belong together? Why or why not?

STATEMENT 1:

The Mission of the Museum of Science:

The Museum's mission is to play a leading role in transforming the nation's relationship with science and technology. This role becomes ever more important as science and technology shape and reshape our lives and world, and it means we:

• Promote active citizenship informed by the world of science and technology
• Inspire lifelong appreciation of the importance and impact of science and engineering
• Encourage young people of all backgrounds to explore and develop their interests in understanding the natural and human-made world

To do this, we will continue to build our position as a leader in the world's museum community and use our educational perspective as an informal learning institution to help the formal pre K-12 education system.

STATEMENT 2:

Harry Potter™: The Exhibition

Opening Soon at the Museum of Science:

Harry Potter™ is a cultural phenomenon, inspiring the imaginations of millions across the globe. Now it's your chance to peer into the wizard's world in a new exhibit featuring more than 200 authentic props and costumes from the Harry Potter films, all displayed in settings inspired by the film sets -- including the Great Hall, Hagrid's hut and the Gryffindor™ common room. View iconic film artifacts such as Harry's glasses, the Marauder's Map, and Hermione's Yule Ball gown, and pause to pull a screeching Mandrake from its pot or try your hand at tossing a "Quaffle."

Are Museums Creating Enough Risks For Visitors?

Since I'm part of a session called "Are Science Centers Missing The Science?" at the upcoming ASTC Conference in Fort Worth, I've been pondering the roles that "danger" and "risk" play in science education and science museums.

As you can see from the video at the top of this posting, starring my pal Ian Simmons from the UK, even a discussion of the calories in food can become interesting if an element of danger (like pure oxygen and metal-cutting flames!) is introduced.

There seems to be a wonderfully subversive undercurrent of "controlled danger" in the work of William Gurstelle (through his books like Backyard Ballistics) and groups like the Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories.  (Of course the fine folks at United Nuclear can provide supplies for your tinkering ...)

In addition, folks like Gever Tulley (and his Tinkering School) and Lenore Skenazy (of the Free-Range Kids blog)  argue that what kids (and adults!) need to learn is MORE risk and independence, not less.

In these troubled times, when many museums seem to be "hunkering down" and waiting for the economy to improve, should we also be thinking of ways to take more risks in the programs and exhibits we develop, not less?

Before you argue that building places for open-ended, messy activities and physical risks aren't possible with a phalanx of lawyers or nervous board members around every corner, I hope you'll visit the websites of The City Museum or PATH (PlayAssociation Tower Hamlets) to get a little "risky" inspiration!

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Exhibit Design Inspiration: Hand from Above

Now here's a screen-based project to love! Artist Chris O'Shea inserted some clever computerized wizardry into very large public video screens (called, aptly enough, Big Screens) sponsored by the BBC and placed around various cities in the UK.

In O'Shea's piece, a giant cartoony hand (looking like something out of Monty Python) tickles, flicks, squashes, or removes images of pedestrians on the screen. As you can see from the embedded video at the top of this posting, rather than merely gawking at the jumbo TV, the people in the square are laughing, talking with each other (and even playfully shaking their booties!) as they interact with Hand from Above.

You can find out more about Chris O'Shea and his work by visiting his website.

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Exhibit Designer's Toolkit: Creating The Sounds of "Gore and Squidge"

Now that many museums are creating multimedia projects in-house, being able to make your own sound effects can really help stretch tight budgets.  (Plus sound effects demos and workshops make great Halloween season activities as well!)

The Guide To Sound Effects is a simple how-to primer for creating all sorts of sound effects. Arranged alphabetically and containing everything from "flying bats" to "gore and squidge" the guide gives some simple hands-on techniques for creating interesting sounds for your projects.

But where do you go if you need a specific digital sound file of an umbrella opening, or an elephant's roar?  A great resource for your digital sonic searches is the FindSounds website. It's sort of like Google for people in search of particular digital sound files.

Simply enter a search term, like "umbrella" and FindSounds does the rest. You can additionally set parameters for particular file types, file size and sample rate as well.

Do you have a favorite web-based exhibits or multimedia tool that you couldn't live without?  Let us know your favorites in the "Comments" section below!

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Designer's Toolkit: IdeaPaint

Who hasn't had the occasional urge to write a great idea or comment on the walls of your house or a museum?

IdeaPaint can turn virtually anything you can paint into a high-performance dry-erase surface.

As you can see on the IdeaPaint website there are a variety of colors available to create dry-erase areas,  as well as two paint formulations: an "industrial" solvent-based version called PRO that is backed by a 10-year warranty, and a "consumer" version called CRE-8 that comes as a water-based material.

IdeaPaint seems like a great way to loosen up meeting spaces and kids' rooms.  I'm just waiting for a museum to paint their entire building (inside and out!) with the stuff to collect visitor feedback on everything from the doorknobs to the exhibits inside!

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So Why Doesn't Your Museum Just Give Away Free Ice Cream?

Would better public funding mean better museums?

I know this may not be the best time, economically or otherwise, to bring up the topic of "public funding" , but I've been thinking about this a lot recently since the notion keeps popping up in projects and meetings I've been involved with.

The biggest operational trick for most non-profits, including museums, is a steady, reliable funding stream.  Without having a clear sense of your resources, realistic budgeting and planning becomes nearly impossible.

So how have museums reacted to these budget uncertainties?  Unfortunately, in many cases, by the institutional equivalent of buying lottery tickets.

All sorts of dodgy "get rich quick schemes" seem to have forced many museums into, to be charitable, exhibits, programs, and events that are "off mission."  For example, I'd love to know what showing the latest cheeseball Transformers movie on your IMAX screen has to do with history or science.  Or how turning the latest kids TV show character into a traveling exhibition practically devoid of content is best serving the needs of our visitors.

I can hear the arguments already --- "but if we bring people in with some pop culture exhibit or program, they'll stay to see the rest of the museum."  By that line of thinking you could also give away free ice cream to get people in the door, but is that really what museums should be doing?  (Also the "but they'll also look at the rest of the museum" rationalization was played out 25 years ago when planetariums started doing Pink Floyd laser shows on Friday and Saturday nights for the stoners...)

So let's do a little blue sky thinking --- if numbers (either visitation numbers or dollars) weren't the primary motivation for museum decisions, how would the look and feel of your exhibits and educational programming change?  More importantly, how would your institutional priorities change?
Share your thoughts and ideas in the "Comments Section" below!


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