Making the Museum

Why can’t we just ask our visitors what they want? Why bother evaluating our design ideas? Which type of evaluation is the biggest bang for your buck? Why is “timing and tracking” a great way to find out if your exhibition works? What is the “button-mashing code?” Jessica Sickler (Principal, J. Sickler Consulting) discusses “Testing the Right Thing at the Right Time” with MtM host Jonathan Alger (...

[ASTC 2026 Special] Science changes fast. How can science museums keep up? What’s a “technology toolkit”? Can one interactive turn into another? Can you do that same trick with a whole room? What about a whole exhibition? What’s “Wizard of Oz-ing”? Do constraints make for better design? How could museums work together to solve the challenges they all face? A special episode for ASTC 2026, where Mi...

A very special episode of Making the Museum, for the 25th Anniversary of 9/11. The unique, unforgettable story of the architect who found himself on the 9/11 debris pile right after the tragedy, working for years to save artifacts for a museum he could only imagine. What do you do when your two largest museum artifacts aren’t there anymore? What is the “Bilbao Effect Upside Down”? How is architect...

If we’re not studying our visitors, how can we fulfill our mission? What is a net promoter score? And what should a museum’s net promoter score be? How do you ask a survey question if you want a meaningful answer? What is capacity building? What is COVES, and how can people get involved with it? Ryan Auster (Manager of Learning Metrics, Museum of Science, Boston) discusses “Improving Visitor Exper...

What could museums learn right now — from their competitors? What’s happening out there that museums should know about? How can museums compete with a sports venue that has 18,000 seats, each with its own interactive controller? What do IP, KPI, and F&B mean? What if museums went out and learned from theme parks, advertising, corporate centers … and even casinos?   Renée Hampton (Strategic Par...

How can exhibitions create positive change in the world? Why is play the key? How can we build trust with a community that doesn’t know us? Why should exhibition makers preserve their “beginner’s mind”? What can exhibitions do climate change, polarization and global conflict? How do we measure our impact? Femke Bijlsma (Partner, Kossmanndejong) discusses “Make Space for Change (The New Book)” with...

Museum lobbies have a huge influence on visitor experience. But what makes a good lobby? What is a “liminal space” in a museum? How does research actually work? What does “peer-reviewed research” actually mean? What do researchers hope their outcomes will be? Which department of a museum is even responsible for the lobby, and all the other “spaces in between”? Dan Clevenger (Principal), Monika Smi...

How do you build a museum? How do you build the right project team? How do you engage with community? What does it mean to plan a museum? What does it mean to design a museum? How do you align your budget with your purpose? How do you build the story of your museum project? Jamē Anderson, Monteil Crawley, Sarah Ghorbanian, and Chris Wood from SmithGroup discuss “Building a Museum: This is Not a Ma...

How do you design for all ages at the same time? What is “serious fun”? Does nature ever go out of style? How do you create content for both Native and non-Native audiences? What do education staff do when a gallery has no text panels? What are “Native sensibilities”? Why is Blue Deer blue? Shoshana Wasserman (Deputy Director) and Kimberly Rodriguez (New Media Specialist) from First Americans Muse...

How can we make our exhibitions more sustainable — in every way? Where do we start? What can museum teams learn from sustainability advancements in architecture? What’s a “red list?” What is the difference between embodied and operational carbon? What does it mean to do “design for deconstruction?” And when can we all buy the upcoming “Sustainable Museum Exhibition Handbook?” Douglas Flandro (Exhi...

One in four people has a disability. Why aren’t we designing museums better for them? What is inclusive design? How does it relate to universal design, or the ADA? Which disciplines and departments have to get involved to make a museum truly inclusive? What happened when the military tried to design for the “average” jet pilot? If we design for better accessibility, are we designing for our own fu...

Is there a better way to collaborate? What’s the secret to good feedback? How do you manage 40 people in a room? Are group facilitators ever truly neutral? Should you tell your teammates their responsibilities, or have them tell you? What’s a RACI chart? If collaboration is so important, why hasn’t there been a book about it — until now? Emily Saich (Vice President of Exhibitions) and Joey Noelle...

Is a museum where experiences happen — or is the museum the experience? Can a museum be designed to inspire? What is the Medal of Honor? What role does a bold design idea have in making a project happen? Does the mission of a museum inspire the people who make it? Can everyone have a mission? Bassam Komati, AIA OEAB (Partner, Viñoly Architects) discusses “Making the Medal of Honor Museum” with hos...

What are the (top) secrets of better collaboration? Is collaboration like a game of ping pong? Or more like ballroom dancing? Is there a better way to disagree? Does having constraints make design ... better? How is an exhibition like a film? And what happens when your project feels — in this case, even literally — like “Mission: Impossible”? Barbara Miller (Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs,...

How do you choose the right architect for your museum? Is architecture about more than a building? Is architect selection about more than architecture? What is a design “brief”? Why are museum projects on “elephant time”? Are anonymous open design competitions a good thing? What comes after “good design is good business”? Susanna Sirefman (President, Dovetail Design Strategists) discusses “The Art...

What if every museum were more like ... a children’s museum? Why is play “agnostic”? Can you design an entire museum for every generation, all at the same time? How are children’s museums like (and not like) other museums? How did they get that way? Wait, could we make an entire exhibition out of nothing but cardboard boxes? What is “co-learning”? And why don’t more museum people visit … other peo...

What can we learn from one of the most complex AI projects in any museum today?    What is the history of AI in museums? Can we add AI to our experiences without a complete renovation? How do you teach an AI about 775 different football teams? How can AI put visitors literally into a story? Is AI accurate enough for a museum? What about bias? Doesn’t AI take away jobs? And how do you specify exact...

What if the secret to better museums was … neuroscience?   How can museums inspire human creativity? How much media should be in a gallery — or should there be any? How soon should you get feedback on your exhibition ideas? Can museums help us all “escape the algorithm”? What does knitting have to do with visitor satisfaction? In this episode, we’ll learn some unexpected tricks of the trade from a...

What if a museum were more like a laboratory?   What if our exhibits were experiments? What if our galleries were more about questions, rather than answers? What if we didn’t fear failure as much? What if scientists, artists, and technologists all created exhibitions together? What happens when you edit an exhibit about editing DNA? Should every project have a post-opening contingency — in additio...

What if we're doing community engagement … wrong?   How long should the process really take for a museum or exhibition? What’s the difference between demographics and psychographics? What does it mean to “move at the pace of community”? Why do community engagement experts sometimes cringe when they hear the word “charrette”? And what exactly does “community” mean? Nu Goteh (Founder and Principal o...

What if we combined immersion, emotion, storytelling — and games?   We all want “engagement” … but what is engagement? How can our projects create it? What are the elements that go into it? Can game theory and play teach us how to make our experiences better? What is “narrative transportation”? Why are emotions key to memory creation? And what do Renaissance fairs have to do with museums?  Ed Rodl...

Can a statue change American history? How do we decide who gets a statue? What happens when you realize how many people deserve a statue but never got one? What’s the difference between a “forensic sculpture” for an interpretive exhibition, and one you’d put in a fine art show? Why are some museums just not complete without a bronze statue of the main characters? Are there “statues of limitations”...

How do you make a museum display case disappear? This episode is a masterclass in museum display case design. To the untrained eye, museum display cases look like what you’d find in a gift shop. But under the hood, they couldn’t be more different — and they are 100% unique to the museum world. Secrets we’ll reveal: art envelopes, non-offgassing, air exchange rates, and how glass is never, ever jus...

Can a building tell a story? How do you design a glass wall to be ... mist? What if architecture, landscape, and exhibitions were all thought of as one thing? What changes when you etch barbed wire into a handrail? How can the floor plan of an entire museum relate to a nautilus shell? What does “A.D.R.O.I.T.” stand for? We’re going to find out, so notebooks at the ready. Alan Reed, FAIA, LEED AP (...

How would you design an exhibit — if an animal’s life depended on it? What is the number one reason people come to the National Aquarium? When should you take ego out of design? What is a “machine for living”? Which is right: “know-feel-do” or “feel-know-do”? (Hint: might not be the first one.) Why would an aquarium visitor want to hear from the people who take care of the animals? What happens wh...