Museums and the internet, an amazing combination!   A blog or a website is a form of communication, a museum’s introduction to the world.  Your internet presence is your chance to communicate with the visitor before they visit your “bricks and mortar” museum.  As with any good communication, be a good listener, share information and be polite.

When I was the Director of Exhibits at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan (1994-1997), I was at a meeting and Andy the Museum Director, said, “Content is King”, it was the first time I had heard the term (the term is from the Bill Gates article 1996).  With that one quote, my thinking about museums had changed, now the content of museums would be accessible both “in person” and on the internet, a very significant change in framework.

Museumplanner.org is now the world’s most followed website for information on museum planning and exhibition design (Alexa ranking 262,000).  I have been blogging since 2007, looking back now I realize how little I knew about writing and blogging.  I would like to share some of what I have learned.

1. What is your question? Maybe more than anything, the internet is a forum for answering questions.  Museumplanner.org is based on two questions, “How do you start a museum?” and “How do you design an exhibition?”.  I have found it fascinating that as I narrow the focus of the blog, the topic broadens and I find more and more to write.  Keep the content of your museum’s website (and your museum) narrow, answer questions.  Decide what questions your museum / website / blog will answer.  Be a good sharer, answer as many questions as questions you ask.

2. What are the words? I literally and figuratively “own the words “Museum Planning”, I have tried to purchase all of the related domains and make sure that my content is always related to topics of museum planning.  Be very specific in the key words of your website / blog.  The more specific the key words the better.

3. Be Local  The Arizona Science Center (Alexa 652,00) becomes a local resource for science in Arizona and Phoenix area, the Mobius Science Center (Alexa 5,000,000) requires association to the Spokane area.  I find it very interesting associating Alexa ranking with museums, (the lower the Alexa the better).  I have ongoing research into the correlation between the world’s largest museums and their online ranking, the interesting part is often smaller museums have a higher online visitation than their larger counterparts.

4. Move People. Literally and figuratively, tell personal stories.  …and the internet is like a lint ball, as you move it around it gathers more lint.  Move people from Facebook to twitter, from twitter to youtube, from youtube to Linkedin, each time you move people around you gather more people.  You will notice that I try to be consistent with my naming, twitter.com/museumplanning, facebook.com/museumplanning, “own the words”

5. Be yourself I started a blog as a way to organize my thoughts, I am still amazed that people are interested in my thinking. I am a strong believer in “Built to Last”, that companies have a “personality” and will attract similar clients / customers.  I am consistently surprised that many of my clients are from the business world and bottom line driven, I tend to attract business minded people.  On the internet your writing is your “voice”, have a clear and consistent ”voice” .  The internet is a form of communication.  The internet has grown into a forum where each user has a persona, even if you don’t want to have a persona, you become a noob.   I have a website walhimer.com but I think of my website as a portfolio, it is a static form of communication, a place to direct potential clients who are interested in our projects.  A blog is a converstation, every participant in the converstation has a voice.  As with any conversation it is important to be polite and communicate your point of view.  I spend, (time working of online projects) 90% of my time working on my blog and 10% working on my website.  If I was to make a recommendation, I would suggest the same to any “start up museum”, spend time your time on your blog.

6. Tools Use the tools of the internet:

10. “It is still virtual”  I am a sculptor by training and I believe that an online experience will never replace an “in person” experience.  …But, it is worth trying.  I like to think “Pre-visit”, “Visit” and “Post Visit” an online experience can support and compliment an “in person” experience.  A visitor’s online experience before visiting the museum can be as important as the in-person experience. The online experience can be 2/3 of the visitor’s experience.

Do you have a question about Museum Master Planning or Exhibition Design that has not been answered on museumplanner.org?  Enter the question in the comment section below.

“How to start a Science Center”.  Designing a Science Center can be divided into ten steps that include; project objectives, exhibition design, coordination with building architecture, fabrication and installation.  Exhibition design is visually communicating casework, lighting and equipment the creates the visitor experience while considering aesthetic and functional perimeters.

A project the scale of a science center requires a group of stakeholders.  The group should include the founder, a money person, a scientist, a politician, an artist, a designer and a community leader.  Find a person to represent each, a person who can raise money, a scientist, an active politician who can make things happen, an artist, a designer, and a  community representative (PTA leader, Superintendent of Schools or a real estate developer are all great)

10 Steps:

1. Project Objectives - Maybe the toughest part of all.  Why are you building the science center?  What is the visitor experience?  What are the visitor outcomes? “World Class”, “Clean, Modern Aesthetic”, “Fun and Interactive” – really don’t tell you much at all. I often think that we each have a movie playing in our head’s when descriptions such as “Fun and Interactive” are used, one person’s “movie” is different from another’s.  The trick is to get all the stakeholders with the same movie.   The best method I have found is a research trip with all of the stakeholders.  Schedule a long weekend, for the 4-8 people that comprise the “core” team and go see at least 3-4 Science Centers.  Ask lots of questions and view different exhibits at the same time.  Document your findings from the trip.
2. Critical Mass – Sometimes the best way to start a project is to gather a group of smart, creative people with a pot of coffee, some good food and talk.  Talk for a couple of hours, “if you could create any type of Science Center, what would that place be?”, create quick concepts and take lots of notes.  Set up a meeting to review the ideas.  Type up the meeting notes and review the notes before the next meeting.  At the next meeting narrow your conversation to three or four concepts for the Science Center.  Work to create an “Umbrella concept”,  an idea that provides a superset or grouping of concepts that all fall under a single common category.   An umbrella concept is the central and coordinating concept that will represent a number of smaller, separate concepts.  Try to be relaxed and have fun.  This is the most important work you will create in the whole process.  A few examples, Exploratorium -”An ongoing exploration of science, art, and human perception”, Discovery Science Center – “Science Southern California Style”, “The Tech Museum of Innovation” (the name says it all), The Museum of Science and Industry – Coal Mine, Silver Streak, Farm Tech, U-505 and the Wright Flyer.  With each example the Umbrella Concept is the unifying concept for the institution a sort of “elevator speech” for the Science Center.  Take your time and try on several unifying concepts before deciding on one, make sure you have enough “critical mass” of exhibit ideas to support the Umbrella Concept.
3. Filters There is no shortage of good ideas.  Often the tough part is having a way to separate one good idea from another.  Create a set of “Exhibition Filters”; guiding principles by which exhibits are chosen or rejected.  The filters become the criteria by which the exhibits are judged to be included as part of the overall Science Center.  Examples of Exhibition Filters, “Wherever possible exhibits will be open ended with multiple outcomes”, “Exhibits will be discovery based vs. didactic” and “Exhibits and environments will be built with exposed fasteners and connections”. Make sure your Exhibition Filters are in line with your Umbrella Concept.   Run a couple of tests, “we know we would like XYZ exhibit in the science center, does it pass our Exhibition Filters?
4. Design and Research Concept Development, Schematic Design, Design Development and Final Design are the phases of exhibition design.  As the process goes through iterations, more and more details will be added to the design.  During Concept Design, you will be reviewing area themes and space allocation, schematic design, you will be reviewing rough layouts of exhibits in areas, Design development, you will be reviewing dimensioned drawings of each area and Final Design will be details of case design and AV systems.  The Fabricator will be creating Working Drawings for review prior to fabrication.  Accept and embrace that exhibition design is a never ending process, even on opening day, you will still be making changes and revisions.  Revisions are not mistakes.  What you are creating has never existed before.  Until you have hundreds of people in the science center you are not going to know how it all works.  A friend of mine says “designers are people who can see the future”, she may be right.  A design is an image of the future, but only “an” image, the “image” will change with time.
5. Architecture Sometimes the building comes first and you have to do a “force fit”, “how do you create your umbrella concept in the planned architecture?”.  Sometimes you create a the Umbrella Concept and work with an architect to reflect the umbrella concept in the architecture.  The truth is the second is much more difficult than the first.  Architects are NOT exhibition designers.  Often exhibition designers and architects think very differently.  Architects are concerned about creating spaces, exhibition designers are concerned with creating activities.   In the best relationships the architect creates a space to house the activities of the Science Center.  You want a very patient architect, by design your process will be ever changing, and that will mean changes to the architecture.  Define the spaces for the exhibitions, create “foot prints” of each exhibition area.  Include, lighting, HVAC, electrical, doors, windows and create a elevations of the space and reflected ceiling plans.
6. 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 There are thousands of science centers all over the world, there is no need to “redesign the wheel”.  1/3 of the exhibits should be original to the Science Center, 1/3 purchased from a vendor or science center and modified and 1/3 should be bought “off the shelf”.   Once you have established the areas of your science center, go visit at least ten science centers and find out what exhibits could be used for your science center. Start a data base of the exhibits that can be purchased “off the shelf”, which ones you like but would like modified and exhibits that you would like original to the science center.  To the “nah sayers”, Frank Oppenheimer the founder of the Exploratorium researched existing science class experiments as the starting point for the Exploratorium.
7. Science Center Icons Create an icon for the Science Center and create an icon for each exhibition area.  I often think about the “parking lot conversation”, when people are walking back to there car after visiting the science center “what is the one exhibit they will be talking about?”  Make sure that you have that “wow” exhibit for the science center and each exhibition area.  A few samples of icons, the Tactile Dome at the Exploratorium, The Cube at Discovery Science Center and The Hoberman Sphere at Liberty Science Center.
   
8. Fabricate Ask other science centers who they used for fabrication, ask local building contractors for the names of casework companies and speak to your local convention center about trade show fabricators.  Start a list of ten fabricators and go visit each shop and ask to meet the project manager.  Walk through the shop and look at the projects in the shop, look at the quality of the work, review the working drawings in the shop.  Narrow your search down to three  fabricators and ask each to prototype an exhibit and tell them you are choosing between three shops and one of the shops will win the project contract.  Choose your fabricator by the quality of their project manager, the quality of the shops workmanship and their reputation and response to warranty requests.
9. Prototype, Prototype, Prototype One third of the exhibits will be bought “off the shelf”, leaving two thirds that will either be original to the science center or modified “off the shelf”.  Some of the original exhibits will be from artists, some will be built by the selected  fabricator and some will be modified “off the shelf” that will be modified by the original vendor.  Start a list of the exhibits to be prototyped and group them by type.  Create a relationship with a local Art museum, library, middle school or college and prototype the exhibits there.  Test the exhibits with the public and evaluate the responses and modify the exhibits according to the evaluation.  
   
10. Install, Open and Archive Installation, opening and archiving is part of the design process.  During installation there will be lots of small (and maybe large) decisions made; changes in exhibit placement, changes in lighting, changes in exhibit parts and all of those decisions need to be captured in “as built drawings”, maintenance manuals and archived for future changes and maintenance.

Be as transparent as possible.  Include others in the process and ask for feedback, use facebook, tweeter and a blog and include people in the process.

Funny isn’t it, only one of the ten steps even mentions drawings !  Drawings are not designs, drawings are the culmination of lots of research and thinking.  Some Science Centers such as the Exploratorium don’t even create drawings until after the exhibition has been prototyped and evaluated. The best exhibit designs happen through research, creativity, evaluation and luck.

Would love to hear comments about the ten steps above.  A future post will be the “10 steps to Project Managing the Opening of a Science Center.

There are approximately 17,000 museums in the United States.  That number includes Science Centers, Natural History Museums, Art Museums, Local History and Children’s Museums.

In March 2010 I returned from a year in Asia.  As with any good trip, I had lots of time for reflection and the advantage of perspective; being on the other side of the world does that.  While sitting in my hotel in Bangkok, I started thinking of all of the museums all over the world and the current economy.  My first thought was, “How can they all survive?”.  The easy answer is “they won’t survive”.

The museum world is in a time of transition.   When I started working in museums in the 1980’s, it was the time of Reaganomics.  Up to then, museums were either donor-,  state-,or federally-funded institutions without much public input.  Reagan put an end to that and demanded that museums needed to change and look to corporations and individuals for funding.  At the time museum professionals were outraged. Museums were the “source” of content;  no one should interfere with the purity of the museum’s objectivity.  Looking back, this was a turning point for museums. Museums went from inward-facing institutions to being forced to ask for donations and the involvement of others.  It was painful, but the result is we have public-serving institutions.

I believe we are at a similar turning point.  Museums live and die by attendance figures: if you can’t drive attendance, you can’t keep the doors open.  Depending on the institution, only about 50% of the revenue comes from admission, the remainder comes from museum rentals, store sales, donations, grants, memberships, state and federal funding.  Donors want to know how many visitors their donations will be affecting.  For most museums, attendance is down; people are cutting back on discretionary spending.  With less state and federal monies available, museums are faced with tough decisions.

To address the need for new and additional funding sources many larger institutions (1) learned to drive attendance through “special exhibitions” and started to outsource exhibition design and fabrication.  Starting in the 1970’s with the “Tut” exhibition, museums learned you could drive attendance with “blockbuster” exhibitions, becoming a main model for increasing visitorship over the last 30 years.  Additionally, many museums, large and small, had in-house exhibition staff to design and build exhibitions.  With the downturn of the 1990’s, many began to dis-band their in-house departments and began contracting with design and fabrication firms for production of traveling exhibitions as a cost-saving option.

Today, museums have increased competition from other sources for destination dollars.  Movies, amusement parks, and themed restaurants are competing in the same field as museums.  Donors see shrinking attendance, are unsure of their own futures and are more reluctant to donate.

When I was working at Discovery Science Center in 1996, we visited ten science centers throughout the United States.  On the flight back, a board member said to me, “You know nobody travels to other science centers.  People only visit the science center near them or maybe visit a science center while on vacation.  Why don’t we find the best exhibits and buy them for our science center?”.  In 1996 it was a new model buying exhibits to start a science center; now it is the norm.

During the early 2000’s, museums were being built at a furious pace, with a race to build the biggest.  Many of them failed, closed, or became other institutions.  One result of this was an increasing awareness that museums are community resources.  Although tourists help with attendance, they are only a small percentage of overall museum visitorship.  Most museum visitors are local visitors looking for weekend and daytime activities.  The secret to being a successful museum is being flexible and visitor focused.  A small institution often has an easier to keep visitor focus.

Donor contributions are shrinking.  The success of museums is built on attendance. Smaller museums are more flexible.  Museums don’t have the resources to “renew” themselves every three months. What is the answer?

“What if”

What if, they “traded” exhibits and programs every three months?   An online “hub” of museums could provide a forum for museums to share content and make arrangements to “borrow” each other’s exhibitions.  In many ways this is already happening vis-a-vis traveling exhibitions; museums rent each others exhibitions.  What is lacking is a “network” for collaboration for sharing of content (2).

What if there was a place where parents, teachers, scientists,museum professionals, artists, students and experts could all share ideas both on the internet and in person?  The “Hub Museum” is such a place.

The Hub Museum is not one museum but a new model of a partnership of connected museums. Instead of a children’s museum, natural history museum, an Art Museum, a Science Center, the Hub Museum is all of them! Museums live through attendance and attendance is driven by new programs and exhibitions. The Hub Museum changes every three months into a new place and the exhibitions are rotated through all of the fellow hub museums.

Teachers, parents, scientists,museum professionals, artists, students and experts all gather online at “The Hub” portal. Teachers can share lesson plans and review science standards and curriculum.  Parents can view lesson plans and curriculum. Scientists can answer questions of students.  “Citizen scientists” can earn “expert” points by answering questions. Students can ask questions and learn from one another and experts. The online presence is fun and relaxed, although the content is in line with California Science Standards and National Curriculum. The Hub Museum portal is a shared online community amongst museums, parents, teachers, scientists, experts and most importantly students.

Museums become the hub for in-person activities.   Instead of museums trying to individually create exhibitions, they are created through a network of museums all working to the same educational standards and curriculum. Instead of each museum working to separate standards and curriculum (but standards & curriculum are unique to each state – that would help give relevance, but it’s also “thinking in the box” the curriculum of the schools is shared by the museums and museums work in partnership with one another to design and build exhibitions.

Exhibitions are then shared amongst museums, so museums are always changing. Superintendents of schools, teachers and students are aware of the educational content before they visit the museum.
Still the museum is serving a different role than the school, the museum is an informal place for exploration and discovery related to the formal education at school.

Instead of the typical museum approach of hiring a “world class architect, hiring a ”world class exhibit designer”, the “Hub Museum” approach, is:
• A “Hub of content” for the museum
• Open Source content:  the museum’s content and programs are shared and available for teachers and parents
• Collaborative: the exhibits, exhibit content and programs are shared by several institutions
• Exhibit spaces are easily changeable
• Dynamic:  the visitor spaces change every three months
• Transparent :  the planning of the institution is shared and available to the community
• The Hub Museum will be an amalgam of museums; a Children’s Museum, Science Center, Natural History and Art Museum
• Shared Curriculum
• Transparency
• Museums curate their content from the “Hub Museum Network”

To make this all work the “Hub Museum” is governed by a panel of advisers who over see the content and direction of Hub Museums.  Advisers to include:

• Museum Directors
• Educators
• Scientists
• Artists
• Business Leaders
• Journalists

All content is open source.  Users agree to adhere to guidelines similar to open source software, each user can build upon another’s content, but only owns his/her content.  Using the open source software model “users own their branch, but not the tree trunk”.

The business model, of “The Hub Museum” website is for profit.  Two possible business models are being explored, one is users pay a 5% or 10% fee to “The Hub Museum” , using a similar model as guru.com or ebay.com.  A second business model is the site is supported through advertising.  Both options are being explored.

The desired result is a revitalization of museums.  Museums currently don’t value their own content and often give it way.  In this new model, museums and the visitor benefit from more agile and engaging educational experiences and museums could have a new revenue source.

What do you think?

(1) When speaking of “museums”, referring to all types of museums, including science centers, children’s museums, natural history museums and Art museums
(2) When referring to content; referring to exhibits, exhibitions, programs, staff training, teacher training and museum research

As a follow up to my Predictions for the future of Museums,  I have been thinking about the future of museums.  What if there was a place where parents, teachers, scientists,museum professionals, artists, students and experts could all share ideas both on the internet and in person. The “Hub Museum” is such a place!

Hub Museum is not one museum but a new model of a partnership of connected museums. Instead of a children’s museum, natural history museum, an Art Museum, a Science Center, the Hub Museum is all of them! Museum live through attendance and attendance is driven by new programs and exhibitions, the Hub Museum, changes every three months, into a new place and the exhibitions are rotated through all of the fellow hub museums.

Teachers, parents, scientists,museum professionals, artists, students and experts all gather online at “The Hub” portal. Teachers can share lesson plans and review science standards and curriculum, parents can view lesson plans and curriculum. Scientists can answer questions of students, “citizen scientists” can earn “expert” points by answering questions. Students can ask questions and learn from one another and experts. The online presence is fun and relaxed, although the content is in line with California Science Standards and National Curriculum. Same as the sharing of exhibitions the Hub portal is a shared online community amongst museums, parents, teachers, scientists, experts and most importantly students.

Museums become the hub for in person activities, instead of museums trying to individually create exhibitions, they are created through a network of museums all working to the same educational standards and curriculum. Instead of each museum working to separate standards and curriculum, the curriculum of the schools is shared by the museums and museums work in partnership with one another to design and build exhibitions.

Exhibitions are then shared amongst museums, so museums are always changing. Superintendents of schools, teachers and students are aware of the educational content before they visit the museum.

Still the museum is serving a different role than the school, the museum is an informal place for exploration and discovery of the formal education at school.

Bechtler Museum of Modern Art – Grand Opening

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“At the foot of Troy Hill, a 108-year-old, ethnically Croatian Catholic church has sat abandoned for five years, its sagging stained-glass windows rattled by traffic rumbling past on Route 28 a few feet away.

But after St. Nicholas Church skirted demolition several times, a study released Friday showed it could see life again as a national immigration museum. It might attract 25,000 visitors a year after $10 million worth of renovations and expansion, said Mark Fatla, executive director of Northside Leadership Conference, which is managing the preservation effort.”

“Planning continues on the idea of a children’s museum in Mandan.

The founding board for the North Dakota Children’s Museum met Thursday evening in Mandan. It was the board’s second meeting. A children’s museum has interactive exhibits for children.

“It’s not sterile, where you can’t touch anything,” said Sara Hills, one of the co-founders of the museum.

Hills is spearheading the children’s museum effort with Wendy Anderson-Berg. Hills is a kindergarten teacher in Mandan Public Schools and Anderson-Berg works for Bismarck Parks and Recreation.”

“These and many other jaw-dropping interactive experiences await when the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History opens its doors Friday, marking the start of a new era in the museum’s history.

What began in 1945 as the Fort Worth Children’s Museum has evolved into a dazzling 166,000-square-foot, $80 million state-of-the-art complex that will thrill children and enable adults to find their inner child.”