Museums In The Middle

I'm worried about museums. Specifically "museums in the middle."

As will come as no news flash to intrepid ExhibiTricks readers, the wretched economy is playing havoc with the museum biz (and all the adjunct players like designers, fabricators, architects, etc. who work with museums.) Just the other day, Design Craftsmen announced they were closing up shop after 40 years.

But this posting is about "museums in the middle" as in middle of the bell curve.

Not BIG museums like those that form The Smithsonian, or MOMA --- these battleships will keep moving in the same direction even if you cut their engines tomorrow. To borrow a phrase, these iconic institutions are simply "too big to fail."

Nor am I concerned about many smaller museums, the ones that didn't overbuild, the quirky little gems that bask in the love of their respective communities --- they've always lived by their wits, rather than endowments or visitor attendance projections, and will continue to do so, even if their forms and formats change somewhat.

No, I'm worried about the mass of mid-sized, perfectly nice, but not exceptional, museums who bought into the notions that the only way to get better was to grow bigger, or to jump onto the traveling exhibits treadmill to boost visitation statistics. When the donor and governmental money was freer-flowing it seemed like every building expansion, or every dodgy ploy to boost attendance, was a smart bet.

But now in the midst of this recession/depression/whatever these notions have become largely unsustainable --- and thus comes the reduction in staff, the reduction in hours, the reduction in, let's be honest, quality and service to the public.

So what happens now? What's the best way to use this time to rethink and reshape our current museums? I'm worried that many museums --- traditionally risk-averse, will just shrink their operational footprint and wait until things "get better."

Rather than just waiting, how can we thoughtfully, and boldly, use this time to make things better now?

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200th ExhibiTricks Post!

Today is my 200th ExhibiTricks post! Since I tend to be more of the tortoise than the hare regarding blogging, that is an accomplishment indeed.

I'd like to thank everyone who reads and subscribes to the ExhibiTricks blog. I really appreciate your support.

As I look back at the last 200 posts (and look forward to the next 200!) I think some of my favorites have been the interviews with Tim McNeil, Harry White, Kathy McLean, Nina Simon, and Aaron Goldblatt. All of them well worth re-reading.

I'm still on my crusade to eradicate crappy PowerPoint presentations from museum conferences, but if you have any other suggestions for future posts or other aspects of the ExhibiTricks blog, please let me know.

Don't miss out on any ExhibiTricks posts! It's easy to get updates via email or your favorite news reader. Just click the "Free Updates" link on the right side of the blog.

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Exhibit Design Inspiration: Canon Creative Park

O.K. maybe it is some sideways advertising for Canon computer printers, but the Creative Park website sure is filled with lots of fun projects to produce utilizing your (even non-Canon) printer. Also, I like the idea of combining high-tech and low-tech techniques to produce projects.

The Creative Park is divided up into categories (things like Paper Craft, Calendars, and Cards) that you can choose from. Once you click on your selection, a PDF with instructions and all the pieces is downloaded to your computer.

There's even a Science Museum category that has Insect, Universe, and Dinosaur projects you can work on! (There's an amazing Architecture section as well that let's you assemble models of buildings and monuments from around the world.)

So fire up the computer, get out the scissors and glue, and check out the Creative Park website for yourself.

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Plants vs. Zombies

Plants vs. Zombies is a super fun game developed by the folks at PopCap. (I've been "testing" it to learn more about interface design.)

I admit this isn't the usual kind of posting for ExhibiTricks, but I figured since there has been so much talk recently about games and the "future of museums" that I would share a recent favorite computer game of mine. (Also I feel compelled to make the conversation about "games" and "the future" a little less serious/ominous and a little more fun --- they're GAMES, and MUSEUMS, people!)

PvZ is just the sort of goofy (and witty!) kind of experience I think museums could benefit looking at and thinking about as they continue to move forward in their forays into interactive and/or social media. (Not the Zombies part, per se, but you get my point.)

One of the best things about PvZ is that you can tell the people who developed it had fun putting it together. That's the mark of a good museum or museum exhibit, too, I think --- when you feel like you get a sense of the time and effort and enjoyment that a real person put into creating something, as opposed to some bland mediocre exhibit experience that feels like it was put together by --- well --- Zombies.

So take Plants vs, Zombies for a spin. There's a free demo to download via PopCap's website, or you can purchase the game there as well.

BRAAAAAAINS!

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Wanted: Museum "Fans"

How would museum staffers do things differently if they were trying to increase the number of museum "fans" instead of "customers" or "guests" or "visitors"?

I mean "fans" like those who attend college football games or people who stay at the Mandarin Oriental Hotels or who line up at midnight to buy Harry Potter books.

It will be a great day when museums become so popular that people are scalping admissions tickets outside instead of shuffling around half-empty exhibit halls.

But until then, how do we create more museum "fans"? Give us your best ideas 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 "Free Updates" link on the right side of the blog.

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Subhead Anti-Slip Stickers

Safety design in museums is an often overlooked opportunity to combine form and function, but safety doesn't often equal beauty. To that end, let me commend to your attention the Subhead website.

Subhead Anti-Slip Stickers is the name of a company that sells (wait for it!) anti-slip stickers, those adhesive-backed non-skid materials often seen on stair treads.

And not just any anti-slip stickers, COOL anti-slip stickers!

For the many museums that have water exhibits or other slippery surfaces that they don't want visitors to slip on, Subhead's stuff seems like the perfect blend of safety and style. (Or you might just want to trick out your skateboard or Segway --- especially if you have a pirate/oceanic fetish!)

Don't miss out on any ExhibiTricks posts! It's easy to get updates via email or your favorite news reader. Just click the "Free Updates" link on the right side of the blog.

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!)