Exhibit design has long been a cornerstone of storytelling, crafting immersive, sensory-rich experiences within museum walls. But when the story moves beyond the physical space, how can the principles of exhibit design thrive in a digital realm?
Designing an exhibit is more than arranging objects—it’s about guiding visitors through a story. But do your exhibits tell the stories you want visitors to experience?
This is the sixth year of our forecasts for the museum field! An incredible amount of change has occurred in the sector which brings with it new challenges and opportunities.
At the start of 2024, I shared three forecasts for museums regarding digital programs, AI, and burnout in the museum industry. This post recaps the specifics of my forecast and how those areas actually evolved over the course of 2024.
Let’s look at the numbers and consider taking inspiration from what our visitors are most interested in. This demand-driven approach can be incredibly informative and can offer fodder for stories in perpetuity.
Online exhibits lack the constraints that can make it impossible to relate stories in a physical exhibition and can inspire us to share in new ways
In a previous post, I covered how the flexibility of collections online can inspire online storytelling. This week we’ll tap into another source of storytelling inspiration: exhibitions of the past, present, and future.
Collections online offer multiple benefits for storytelling including greater flexibility and cost effectiveness around budgets and staff time.
Storytelling with online collections is impactful, whether we choose online-only or as part of a hybrid approach to museum exhibitions.
Digitizing museum collections introduces new and engaging opportunities for storytelling. By leveraging digital surrogates—essentially online representations of physical objects—museums can enhance how they present narratives and information to audiences.
Storytelling with museum collections online allows for a great degree of flexibility, offers additional detail, and lends a dynamism that is difficult to produce within a physical exhibition.
Last week we reviewed how archives can enhance museum collections online. This week will continue our work with an examination of specific examples, including what items different types of archives may contain and where to capture this data.
Staffed archives are in constant motion in their attempt to provide and broaden access to the archival collections.
One of the wonderful things about museums is that the learning never stops. There are always projects, exhibits, and programs in development that serve as constant instigators of research.
This month’s series focuses on the enhancement of museum object data using “hidden” troves of information. Hidden is in quotes because the information exists and often is not hidden—it just hasn’t been gathered for inclusion in the museum Collections Management System (CMS).
Standard museum cataloging leverages the usual set of fields that are considered best practice. We tend to refer to this information as “the tombstone information,” meaning it is clear and concise in communicating the “need to know” information.
Museums are well established as “empathy generators”, meaning the museum space in combination with artifacts and storytelling can help humans emotionally connect to (or at least better understand) other human groups that are different from their own.
If you have a smartphone, have used a customer service chat, Googled, or asked Siri something, you have used Artificial Intelligence (AI). What about within the museum physical space?
The museum field is not one that considers itself “cutting edge” or even very technical, and yet AI can have a tremendous positive impact on our work and how we engage with our audiences.
Details of the five things to look for when assessing a fit between a funding opportunity and your CMS project.
Grant applications often require in-depth project details; expert’s list of application information that makes a museum CMS project attractive
Funders look for a compelling story, proof of concept, clearly defined activities and costs, what else you’ve done, and reference to best practices
The number of grants that cover museum CMS work with access as the goal is increasing; what CMS work can you describe as a discrete project?
WCAG Version 2.1 Principles 3 and 4: Understandable and Robust; guidance for easily readable content and access to assets via the museum CMS
Compliance with WCAG Version 2.1 Principle 2: Operable