Three years ago, I wrote about immersive memorials - the idea of places where objects and points of memory are dispersed through spaces, rather than being localized in one place. The example I used were Stolpersteine, the brass “stumbling block” cobblestones that mark the former residences of Holocaust victims throughout Europe. When I first wrote…
What happens when visitors explore life in the ocean during Arctic winter using flashlights in a pitch black room?
When I began as the Curator of Interpretation with the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery in 2008, my first project was Soapstone Prairie Natural Area. 28 square miles in northern Colorado, Soapstone was purchased by the city of Fort Collins to be a park and conservation area. Along with its attraction as a natural space,…
What happens when living history interpreters allow the lines between the past and present to blur a little? When they don’t break character, but they definitely crack it? I’m always a bit skeptical of living history and (re)enactment experiences. I don’t dislike them by default, but growing up between the Revolutionary War reenactment-happy towns of Lexington…
It’s no secret that I don’t like traditional dioramas. But apparently I do like it when it looks like traditional dioramas have exploded and scattered animals throughout the exhibit. I like it a lot. Last week I visited the National Museum of Scotland. And it was a lovely, if somewhat predictable, experience until I got…
A few weeks ago, my students and I were talking about what pieces of current pop culture we thought would have sticking power. What references, songs, movies, and taglines from today will people still be using thirty years from now? Will our future be full of YOLOs, hashtags, twerking, and fetch? Just kidding. Fetch is never going…
Disclaimer #1: This post is primarily shameless bragging. But, as Lesley Gore would have said if she blogged about museums while eating German chocolate in her pajamas, “It’s my website and I’ll brag if I want to.” Disclaimer #2: The awesome exhibit I’m about to show off was a collaborative effort. I was the primary developer,…
The more ways I involve myself in creative projects, the more how see how much of the creative process is the same, regardless of your final products and goals. This video about Dustin Lance Black’s storytelling process focuses on screenwriting, but it could just as well be about how we tell tales in museums. “Figuring out why. Not…
Last year I wrote about how impressed I was with the interpretive moments sprinkled throughout Icelandair’s planes. When I traveled with them this month my admiration kept growing. These guys are good. Their little language and cultural stories are consistently interesting, quirky, and beautifully phrased, while still being short and snazzy. The world needs more interpretive signage…
You may have already seen this fantastic video of the United States Air Force Band’s flashmob at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, but here it is again. I love this performance, but I’m also incredibly biased. First, it’s taking place in a museum - what’s not to like? But, more importantly, these are…
Museums Askew 