The Participatory Museum

Posted on 17 February 2018 by Nina Simon

Visitor participation is a hot topic in the contemporary world of museums, art galleries, science centers, libraries and cultural organizations How can your institution do it and do it well The Participatory Museum is a practical guide to working with community members and visitors to make cultural institutions dynamic, relevant, essential places Museum consultant and exhibit designer Nina Simon weaves together innovative design techniques and case studies to make a powerful case for participatory practice Nina Simon s new book is essential for museum directors interested in experimenting with audience participation on the one hand and cautious about upending the tradition museum model on the other In concentrating on the practical, this book makes implementation possible in most museums More importantly, in describing the philosophy and rationale behind participatory activity, it makes clear that action does not always require new technology or machinery Museums need to change, are changing, and will change further in the future This book is a helpful and thoughtful road map for speeding such transformation Elaine Heumann Gurian, international museum consultant and author of Civilizing the Museum This book is an extraordinary resource Nina has assembled the collective wisdom of the field, and has given it her own brilliant spin She shows us all how to walk the talk Her book will make you want to go right out and start experimenting with participatory projects Kathleen McLean, participatory museum designer and author of Planning for People in Museum Exhibitions I predict that in the future this book will be a classic work of museology Elizabeth Merritt, founding director of the Center for the Future of Museums Best Read [ The Participatory Museum ] by [ Nina Simon ] For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr This book says it is about museums, but it has been popular amongst the ALA Think Tank Facebook group, full of public and academic librarians It has some great advice for designing participatory exhibits and spaces, and I got a lot out of it from a library perspective too The best participatory experiences are not wide open They are scaffolded to help people feel comfortable engaging in the activity There are many ways to scaffold experiences without prescribing the result She gives an e This book says it is about museums, but it has been popular amongst the ALA Think Tank Facebook group, full of public and academic librarians It has some great advice for designing participatory exhibits and spaces, and I got a lot out of it from a library perspective too The best participatory experiences are not wide open They are scaffolded to help people feel comfortable engaging in the activity...A book I want to press into the hands of all my museum colleagues and say Read this before you make anyplans about the future of your museum I ve been reading Nina s blog www.museumtwo.blogspot.com for years now, so her big ideas ways to help visitors engage with the museum, ways for museums and visitors to work together and talk weren t new to me But it was revelation to have all those ideas in one spot.This is one of those books I read with a pencil in hand underlining key points A book I want to press into the hands of all my museum colleagues and say Read this before you make anyplans about the future of your museum I ve been reading Nina s blog www.mu...Awesome Provides an entire theoretical basis for participation in museums Why and how Plus plenty of case studies for inspiration Basically you can read this for theory, take the arguments to your institution as needed, and return to it as a methodological guide for any project Brilliance.Very readable discussion of ways that museums can increase participation, through guest contributions, collaborations, hosting community events, etc This would be a little hard to use as a reference, it s really a book that you read through and attempt to keep its main points in mind for the future Simon is right on the money with a lot of this, for example, I and I m probably not alone here hate museums that ask questions of the public that are just supposed to get you thinking , or questi Very readable discussion of ways that museums can increase participation, through guest contributions, collaborations, hosting community events, etc This would be a little hard to use as a reference, it s really a book that you read through and attempt to keep its main points in mind for the future Simon is right on the money with a lot of this, for example, I and I m probably not alone here hate museums that ask questions of the public that are just supposed to get you thinking , or questions to which the museum already has the answers, and think that this is really connecting with people somehow Or similarly, museums that ask for feedback but don t tell you what they...I found something that made me want to jump up and down on almost every page of this book As a museum worker, I long to seeof the community engage with museums, and throughout Simon s book I consistently had the thought YES Someone totally GETS everything a museum could be The examples she uses of participatory models are extremely poignant Simon has the ability to imagine how incredibly innovative systems like Nike can be relevant to the museum industry, and does a marvelous job I found something that made me want to jump up and down on almost every page of this book As a museum worker, I long to seeof the community engage with museums, and throughout Simon s book I consistently had the thought YES Someone totally GETS everything a museum could be The examples she uses of participatory models are extremely poignant Sim...I love Nina Simon s ideas about make museumsinterconnected with their guests and communities, but I could have taken or left this book It would be wonderful if all museums could be participatory, but I feel that, in all honesty, there will always be a place for the cold, look but d...Packed with a bunch of great examples and case stories Nicely split between a introducing theoretical part and apractical second half At times it can feel a bit out dated, but Nina s blog provides for great supplementary readingThis book probably deserves a higher rating than I gave it It is loaded with examples for museums, historic sites, libraries and other institutions of how to go beyond the typical one directional information sharing process with its visitors Some of the suggestions are strictly for larger venues, employing expensive high tech equipment and services Others are as simple as markers and sticky notes.Perhaps it was a little overwhelming for me in one take, and there was definitely a fair amount o This book probably deserves a higher rating than I gave it It is loaded with examples for museums, historic sites, libraries and other institutions of how to go beyond the typical one directional in...This is a truly great book on museology but I have to admit it took me a long time to get through it over a period of years because it is so dense with ideas and case studies Now I need to go back to all the pages I flagged to se...A good book for organizations, especially cultural institutions to make themselvesparticipatory Case studies and clear examples populate the pages In my opinion the second section of the book wasengaging.

English
17 February 2018

Nina Simon