Making the Museum

How do new museums make money — really? In this episode, we lift the veil on new museum projects and money. What is “the peril of the bicycle wheel”? Is it bad to rely on “anchor funding”? How many kinds of revenue should a new museum project have? What happens if you have the wrong number? (Hint: eh, not so good.) How much money do endowments make? And what’s so magical about thirds? Amy Kaufman...

What’s the role of wonder in experience design?   What can the circus teach us to make our exhibitions better? (Spoiler alert: a lot.) Could being “with it and for it” be the secret to success for museum projects? How much technology is too much? Can we really design for all five senses? Can an exhibition be a high-wire act — literally?   Jennifer Lemmer Posey (Tibbals Curator of Circus at The Joh...

Do museum stores actually make any money? What are they really for? Can a store act like an exhibition? What does “cap rate” mean? How big should a museum store be? What percentage of visitors go into one, and how many of them buy something? Why should you get an expert to design your store, and what happens when you don’t? David Franke (museum store architect) joins host Jonathan Alger (Managing...

Why is economic planning so vital to any new museum project? What happens if you don’t do it? What is “dark tourism”? Why do economists think about audiences? Can a museum have “ROI”? Which is more important, a profitable museum event, or one that advances a museum’s mission? What can economics teach us about how to make our projects better? James Stevens, AICP (Vice President, ConsultEcon, Inc.)...

What is the “humanities gap” — and why is it a huge opportunity for museums? Why can’t everybody be a philanthropist for the day? What does “cultural literacy” mean, and how can it unlock new approaches to the collections we put on display? Why could a shortfall in humanities funding suggest new ways for museums to be relevant? Why shouldn’t a museum buy products and services from its own communit...

We might think a design concept is the first step — but it’s not. What do you need to ask yourself, before you even start?   What does your community want from your new museum, and how can you find out? What happens when you have funding for 10 staff, but you design a museum that will take 25 staff to operate? What’s more important, the cost of creating the museum, or the later costs of operating...

Why is “70/50” the gold standard? Should it be? Who decided? Does every gallery really need to be 70 degrees, plus/minus two? Does every storage space really need to be 50% humidity, plus/minus five? Is that a reasonable goal for most museums? At what cost? What’s the difference between “AA” climate control, and just “A”? How much energy could we all save, just by switching down one grade? Are art...

What if chaos in cultural projects is something to embrace, not fear?   Can chaos theory give us new insights about how to manage complex work? Are we advocates for the owner of a project, or for the project itself? What are the three things upon which the success or failure of a project depends? Sometimes, is it better to let a few things change, rather than fight those changes for even longer? M...

What’s the secret to success, when a project lasts years longer than planned?   What keeps us going when our work takes more time? How does the subject matter of a project relate to the form of a project? Why should we be thinking equally about the budget for what happens after a project opens? What is the “architecture of delight”? Why do “reverberations matter”? Which is more important: patience...

What is a “growth mindset” — and why is it more important than ever for our industry? What happens when we combine museology with the fast-growing field of positive psychology? How do exhibition teams get through projects with tough subject matter? Why should we always “put our own oxygen mask on first”? What’s the opposite of love (hint: not hate)? What’s contemplative science? How can we learn f...

Can an eye-catching museum revitalize a city? The answer might surprise you.   Getting the right designer is vital. If you don’t like a painting you can put it away, but if you don’t like a building, you can’t take it down. Why is it important to have the goals of a complex museum project fit in a mantra of a few words? What comes first in museum architecture, practicality or creative genius? Shou...

How can we raise the voices of people of color in museums and exhibitions — and what stands in the way? What is Museum Hue? What constitutes a sustainable museum job, a sustainable career? What percentage of staff at museums are folks of color, and what roles do they have? What do we see happening in the exhibitions that museums create?  Many cultural organizations began their DEI initiatives afte...

What do technologies like the Apple Vision Pro mean for exhibitions and experiences?   For people who create cultural destinations, the pace of technology has now become so fast it’s hard to keep up. AR, VR, AI. What’s happening in the “near future” of the technologies that will define our field for years to come? What is spatial computing? Are projection mapping and Pepper’s Ghosts early forms of...

Great projects happen because of great teams. But how do you build that team in the first place? Who should a museum hire first, to start a major project? How do you decide whether internal staff should run a big project, or if you need help from outside? Should you hire an architect before you hire an exhibition designer, or vice versa? Who else do you need, and when? Where can a museum find firm...

How can we make digital experiences work for all visitors — whether kids or grandparents?   Hint: it has to do with recognizing “diverse digital literacies.” When should you bring in a creative technologist? Why should you aim for the strong verbs? What is “sneaky attract mode”? How do you do paper prototyping? Are a lot of digital experiences in museums essentially “sexy browsing”? Are touch tabl...

What’s the very first question we should ask — before we start our projects?   Should we start designing … by designing? How do we make sure we understand our audience, before we start making experiences for them? Why is prototyping so important? How many of our ideas should we expect to survive the creative process? And what does microbiology art have to do with your sense of balance? (Hint: they...

Cultural projects should be data-driven — but which *kind* of data? What’s the difference between the “big data” we all know — and “thick data”? Which is more important? (Hint: trick question.) What does cell phone data have to do with sculpture gardens? What’s a “two-hour ring”? What if we just recorded visitors narrating their entire experience — out loud? Elena Kazlas (Founder, Elevativ) and Ad...

What if there were just five important things to remember when you build a museum?    What if the most important one of them all — had nothing to do with architecture? Which costs more in the end: building the museum, or operating the building? (The answer might surprise you.) Is it better to be bold, or to be subtle? What’s the difference between how design teams experience a museum project — and...

What’s the #1 thing to know about experiential technology?    How long do LED walls last? (The answer will surprise you.) Is a project done when it opens, or are growing pains normal? What happens when you use technology just to have technology? What’s an “integrator”? Is sustainability a thing in experiential tech? How? What missteps waste money, ruin the experience, and let content go stale?   J...

What if there were a better way?   Are the normal exhibition planning and design methods actually way too risky — and is there a way to “de-risk” them? Are our concepts not good enough, because we’re not developing enough of them, fast enough? What would happen if we merged effective web techniques like “Agile” with established physical development processes like “Waterfall”?   Jonathan Alger (Man...

What’s the A in DEAI, and why are the ADA guidelines not enough anymore? What’s intersectionality? What’s a “user expert”? If ADA isn’t our goal, what comes after? This is a must-listen episode, featuring two of the most important voices in museum accessibility today.   Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) is joined by Beth Ziebarth (Smithsonian head diversity officer and director o...

How can exhibition teams help to decolonize design? What are the pitfalls cultural organizations should watch out for in their DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) initiatives? What’s a supertoken and why are cluster hires a better strategy? And what does it mean to approach the process indigenous-first?   The new book, “Decolonizing Design: A Cultural Justice Guidebook” offers answers to all th...

What if the best way to market an exhibition — wasn't marketing? What do we need to do better to help visitors find us in the first place? When they do, how do we engage them? When visitors arrive at our institutions, do they know where to go? What happens to the visitor's experience when we haven't thought enough about the restrooms, the stairs, or the endless line to get something to eat? Why do...

Three podcast hosts join forces in a single show to discuss the latest in experience design.  It’s a fast-paced three-way session covering half a dozen broad themes, and countless smaller ones. What are we hearing out there? How can we apply it to the work of cultural institutions? Is the biggest creative trend of them all the resurgence of … empathy?  Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Par...

What if there were a high-quality, peer-reviewed journal for the whole exhibition community? What if it featured the leading organizations, practitioners and ideas that shape the whole industry? What if back issues for the past 30 years were available — for free to see online, right now? “Exhibition,” the Journal of Exhibition Theory & Practice, published by the American Alliance of Museums, i...