In this article, Linda Norris, Managing Partner of Riverhill, recalls her experience as a teaching Fulbright Scholar in Ukraine. Norris focused on professional development in museums through workshops and direct consultations with museums throughout Ukraine. This article summarizes Norris's findings about the state of museums in Ukraine and her personal revelations about museums and museum work.
In this article, Penny Jennings, Senior Exhibit Developer for West Office Exhibition Design, explores three challenges of translation exhibit text: writing, scheduling, and technical logistics. Jennings advises on how to best handle these challenges and deliver quality exhibits in foreign language(s).
In this article, Nina Simon, principal at Museum 2.0, presents the opportunities and challenges for different kinds of museums in pursuing participatory visitor engagement. Simon addresses the challenges and opportunities for history museums, art museums, science museums and science centers, and children's museums.
In this article, Serena Furman, Principal of A Space Design, provides a guide for improving RFP bidding. Furman outlines the steps needed to prepare the RFP and RFP Response. Included are quotes from the field illustrating concerns from both the Museum Staff and Contractor's side of the RFP process.
In this article, Paul Orselli, President and Chief Instigator of POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop), examines the value and process of prototyping for exhibit development. Orselli provides advice on how to make the most of the prototyping process.
In this article, Alan Teller Partner at Teller Madsen, highlights the major points of a forum on exhibition evaluation at the AAM Conference in Chicago. The forum focused on three distinct approaches: the Execellent Judges Framework, Independent Critic's approach, and Summative Evaluation approach. Challenges and opportunities of each approached are discussed and are regarded as tools for museum evaluators.
This article features three critiques of the exhibition "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" on view at the Visionary Art Museum (Baltimore, MD) from October 3, 2009-September 5, 2010. Nigel Briggs, exhibition designer at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, Kerr Houston, Professor of Art History at the Maryland Institute College of Art, and Peg Koetsch, curator of Exhibtions at VisArts and Founder/Director of Learning Insights, each provide an assessment of the exhibition.
In this article, Daniel Spock, Director of the Minnesota History Center Museum, explores the effects of public participation in museums. Spock acknowledges the challenges associated with increased public participation, but argues that museums should consider themselves as trusted "mediators" in this complex new age of media and information.
In this article, Katharine T. Corbett, formerly of the Missouri Historical Society, examines how visitor meaning making can be stimulated by exhibitry that explicitly addresses the social construction of history, using personal and familial history-making as a point of connection. The Missouri Historical Society's exhibition on the 1904 World's Fair presents an excellent example of how to successfully engage visitors in exploration of the past as it relates to their present.
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Katharine T. CorbettNational Association of Museum Exhibition
In this article, Dan Tomberlin, an exhibit and graphic design consultant, investigates virtual museums. Tomberlin presents several definitions of these online museum-like experiences and then highlights several noteworthy museum sites. This article is a reprint from the "Exhibitionist" vol.15, no.2, Fall 1996.
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Dan TomberlinNational Association for Museum Exhibition
In this article, Kathleen McLean, Principal of Independent Exhibitions, explores the importance of criticism for museum exhibitions. McLean includes a model of how to assess an exhibition as a chronicle of personal experiences. This article is a reprint from the "Exhibitionist" vol. 12, no. 2, Fall 1998.
In this article, Janet Kamien, principal of Janet A. Kamien Museum Consulting, discusses controversial museum exhibitions. Kamien uses recent examples to argue that all controversy associated with exhibits is "situational," and these controversies usually stem from issues within the museum and staff and rarely from the actual subject matter.