As we plan for 2018 at the Peoria PlayHouse Children’s Museum, we have decided to reduce the number of programs we offer, holding workshops and home-school programs monthly instead of semi-monthly, and cultural festivals bi-monthly instead of monthly. The goal is to leave more time to ensure excellence of programs, and to build strong systems…
For a while now I have been intrigued by the search terms people use to find this blog, which WordPress (the blogging program I use) shares as part of their statistics. As a way to reflect on 2016, I thought I would examine and share some of the search terms people used to find Museum Questions posts…
As the end of 2015 approaches, I am wondering: What compelling questions need to be explored in 2016? Please share your ideas, either in the comments section, via social media, or by email. (See the About page for how to reach me by email or on twitter.) Here are a few things I am thinking about as…
Recently I spent a few hours writing a blog post to be submitted to The Whiskey City Collaborative, a local Peoria blog. Originally, this post was an exercise in thinking about how communities can help schools become places that expand children’s worlds, and thus their opportunities, through field trips. As I wrote, I tried to reconcile this post with…
This chain of questions, posed – in various iterations – to a number of museum bloggers, started with #Museum Blogger day on Twitter on March 19th. Thanks to Gretchen Jennings for asking me to answer these questions. 1. Who are you and what do you like about blogging? After working for 15 years as a full-time staff…
Recently both the New York Times and the Washington Post have published articles sharing great college admissions questions. Of particular note are the questions from the University of Chicago, which solicits ideas from students, and then uses the best in their applications. Here are two of my favorites: “This is what history consists of. It’s the…
Asking good questions is essential to museum practice. Exhibitions are explorations of a topic, often driven by a curator’s curiosity, even when not explicitly framed around a question. Tours explore questions masked as a theme: How do artists explore place? How can we learn about the 19th century through household objects? Inquiry-based museum education, and participatory…
Museum Questions 