Slides from my webinar featuring Nina Simon, museum exhibit designer and author of The Participatory Museum

1. Participatory Museums
with Nina Simon
2

2. where i live

3. what i do
balboa park online collaborative
boston children’s museum
calgary science center
chabot space science center
chicago history museum
denver art museum
experience music project
girls math and science partnership
international spy museum
monterey bay aquarium
oakland museum
SFMOMA
smithsonian museum of natural history
statens museum for kunst
tech museum of innovation

4. what i advocate
the participatory museum
is a place where visitors can
create, share, and connect
with each other around
content.

5. in cultural institutions, that can mean...
Cantor Art Center upper: SFMOMA Denver Community Museum
lower: Science Museum of Minnesota

6. and it requires some changes
Authority is content provider

7. and it requires some changes
Authority is content provider Authority is platform provider

8. why would you want to do this?
participation does five things best:
deliver personal relevance
celebrate and network
diverse voices
deliver dynamic content
encourage interpersonal
dialogue
support collaborative +
creative practice

9. how can you do it well?
what do they
need?

10. how can you do it well?
what are
you about?
what do they
need?

11. how can you do it well?
what are
you about?
what will these
relationships look
like?
what do they
need?

12. five techniques for
participatory engagement
1. be personal / i like museums + heroes
2. scaffold the experience / side trip + art of participation
3. design for thoughtful response / on the road
4. offer multiple engagement points / youtube
5. connect to known frameworks / advice + human library

13. five techniques for
participatory engagement
1. be personal / i like museums + heroes
2. scaffold the experience / side trip + art of participation
3. design for thoughtful response / on the road
4. offer multiple engagement points / youtube
5. connect to known frameworks / advice + human library

14. ilikemuseums.com

16. End of Part 1/
Beginning of Part 2
14

17. five techniques for
participatory engagement
1. be personal / i like museums + heroes
2. scaffold the experience / side trip + art of participation
3. design for thoughtful response / on the road
4. offer multiple engagement points / youtube
5. connect to known frameworks / advice + human library

18. 90,000 visitors, 37,000 posters made Denver Art Museum
average time poster-making: 25 minutes

19. social participation also requires scaffolding
SFMOMA

20. SFMOMA

25. five techniques for
participatory engagement
1. be personal / i like museums + heroes
2. scaffold the experience / side trip + art of participation
3. design for thoughtful response / on the road
4. offer multiple engagement points / youtube
5. connect to known frameworks / advice + human library

27. Lowell National Historical Park

28. five techniques for
participatory engagement
1. be personal / i like museums + heroes
2. scaffold the experience / side trip + art of participation
3. design for thoughtful response / on the road
4. offer multiple engagement points / youtube
5. connect to known frameworks / advice + human library

29. don’t focus solely on creators...
the vast majority of social media users are not creators

30. what makes YouTube different?

31. participation can be for everyone
Auckland Museum Minnesota History Museum

32. End of Part 2/
Beginning of Part 3
30

33. five techniques for
participatory engagement
1. be personal / i like museums + heroes
2. scaffold the experience / side trip + art of participation
3. design for thoughtful response / on the road
4. offer multiple engagement points / youtube
5. connect to known frameworks / advice + human library

34. Advice, University of Washington

35. I’ve never had a gay friend. It was unbelievably
exciting to find myself facing him with his body,
opinions and identity. It seems he was not very
different from me and especially he was not an
alien. From now on, I will not disrupt my
communication with the gays, I will enhance it.
- Reader in Istanbul, 2007

36. what’s your idea?
what are your questions?

37. Next steps
• Slides on SlideShare now; survey email
• Resources and chat PDF next week
• Link to free download
• Ideas, speakers, problems for upcoming
Experienceology clinics
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38. the participatory museum
nina simon, museum 2.0
nina@museumtwo.com
@ninaksimon on twitter