Museum Buzz – Details, episodes & analysis

Dr. Lauren Vargas focuses a lot of her work with institutions on the strategy and design of their digital ecosystem -- including how to engage and build communities. This was increasingly important with the pivot to digital programs in the pandemic and our conversation explores best practices for engaging and empathizing with that community; how to remain relevant and grow; and how to create a community pact that creates norms and expectations for the members. 

Dr. Lauren Vargas, is owner of the consultancy, Your Digital Tattoo and a One-by-One research associate with the University of Leicester. 

Sina Bahram, President of Prime Access Consulting, provides insight into how to approach accessibility when designing a distance learning program. From platform providers to the learner experience, we dive into best practices, practical tips, and more. 

But most importantly, he advises, "start small and [don't] be overwhelmed by all of the things...check your websites for some accessibility best practices. Talk to persons with varying abilities in your evaluation methodologies...And understand that you will not get it right overnight. You just won't. But, you need to start and then build that momentum and inertia over time."

Erika Sanger, Executive Director of the Museum Association of New York (MANY), is balancing the desire and need to re-open with the reality of a national health crisis. 

In this conversation, we talk about how she’s led museums to navigate this difficult time by offering information, resources, and virtual meet ups. We also cover the economic realities that museums face: in New York state, museum’s are losing $3.5 million a day.

More reopening resources are available on my website: http://emily-kotecki.com/podcast.

How have museums responded to the “COVID Moment”? In this episode, Josh Goldblum, CEO of BlueCadet, talks about how museums are having to rethink the visitor experience.

With museums closed and faced with re-opening, Goldblum believes museums can evolve their thinking by looking to other industries such as journalism, or companies such as Disney and Whole Foods. 

Plus, what all museums may be wondering: what happens to all the touch screens?! 

Museum Buzz is back with Season Two!

In this season Emily interviews guests from around the world to unpack one buzzword from different perspectives. That buzzword is "Distance."

We'll look at it through the lens of interpretation, re-opening, exhibition design. But also a little more abstractly: Can museums afford to distance themselves from the present? How do you shrink the distance between a visitor and an object in a world of social distance? 

The podcast will be posting weekly beginning Sunday August 2. As always there will be a game at the end of every episode plus additional commentary by Emily!

“What we really represent is an awareness raising campaign against lazy language.”

Balancing serious commentary and tongue-and-cheek humor, the season finale of Museum Buzz ends with a conversation about...buzzwords! Together with Jim Fishwick from the Australian Centre for the Moving Image and Tilly Boleyn from the Science Gallery Melbourne, we reflect on the notion of buzzwords: what they really communicate, why we use them, and how they evolve.

I wanted to reach out to Jim and Tilly after reading their 2016 Medium.com article ‘Six Museum Words to Make You Vomit,’ where they coined a new buzzword: musevom, and  even created Musevom Bingo! 

Thanks for listening to the first season and stay tuned for season two!

“It’s easy to make assumptions, and that’s how we end up with museums that aren’t relevant to their public.”

The future of museums is relevancy and Jim Richardson, founder of the MuseumNext conference and museum news website, identifies the top priority museums should invest in to stay relevant.

Tune in as we discuss audience research, digital trends and the role of leadership in impacting change. Plus, a new game where we “predict” what museums will be like in the not-so-far-off-future!

“People don’t want to feel dumb. They don’t want to feel like they’ve done something wrong.” Myra Weise brings a human-centered approach to creating more hospitable museum spaces. 

This interview is from our first live podcast event at the North Carolina Museum of Art as part of a month-long training for frontline staff about hospitality. Weise, Manager of Museum Services at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, shared her specific training methodology and bigger vision about how to create a welcoming environment for visitors, including how to balance the inherent tension between hospitality and protecting the object. 

“If your building is totally accessible, or your website is totally accessible, but then, when people come to the space [and] the interactions they’re having with the staff don’t feel welcome, and they’re feeling microaggression’s and they’re feeling bias... then that negates all that work.”

While museums have been investing in access programs for decades, the buzzword is getting new life as it becomes part of conversations around diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Regan Pro, the Kayla Skinner Deputy Director for Education & Public Engagement at the Seattle Art Museum, talks about their long-standing dedication to accessibility. We also discuss how to balance the varying needs of accessibility along with diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as how museums can work together to address the many needs of our audiences. 

Plus, trivia and additional commentary!

“Diversity does not speak to racism. It does not speak to structural inequality. It does not speak to all of these societal ills that still play out in these codified ways.”

Think you know what diversity means? Think again. Dr. Porchia Moore - Johns Hopkins University professor, co-creator of the Visitors of Color Project and the Incluseum, and consultant - challenges the very notions of these words. We discuss how museums can try to represent the multiple lived experiences of visitors, how it can be frustrating and surprising to still be needing these conversations, and yet why she also has hope for the future.

We also play a game at the end of the conversation and I include my own reflections!