Patrick Urich is the City Manager of Peoria, Illinois. As City Manager, he is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day activities of the City of Peoria, including the budget and all city departments and employees. What role do museums play in Peoria? Museums provide cultural vitality to a community of our size. They provide an experience…
Last week I wrote about exposure as a goal for field trips, and readers debated whether exposure was passive. As I stated in a reply to this post, I don’t think exposure is passive for the visitor, but I do think that it can be a way for the museum to be passive, by abdicating responsibility…
Last week, in honor of Bastille Day, we opened the PlayHouse Art Room to the public with a flag-making activity. We saw a range of flags created by kids and parents. As I share them, imagine some music playing, something vaguely patriotic but from an imaginary or unknown country. There were French-inspired flags: There were PlayHouse…
Museum Questions is going on a six-week hiatus. It turns out that opening a new museum and producing weekly blog posts are a challenging combination. And really, between now and June 12th, I need to focus on getting the Peoria PlayHouse Children’s Museum open. This is a difficult decision, because there is so much out there…
This post shares a presentation made by Adam Nilsen, Miriam Bader, and myself at the American Alliance of Museums conference last week. Adam Nilsen is a graduate student in Stanford University’s School of Education, where he is studying empathy in a variety of settings, including museum settings. Prior to working on his PhD, Adam was a…
In March I started a “Museum of Museums” on Pinterest. Thank you to readers who suggested additions from Dylan and Collins, as well as the film “Museum Hours.” Here are two more additions, which I share in part because I find them so beautiful. But also because they remind me of the mystical aspects of museums, the…
This week’s post is by Lisa Gilbert, a doctoral student in education at Saint Louis University. Lisa studies the pedagogical nature of public history spaces as well as ways individuals relate to historical narratives. The National Council for History Education asked Lisa to write a related article for teachers on strategies for making the most of student…
As mentioned in a recent post, I am currently hiring full-time staff for the Peoria PlayHouse Children’s Museum. The job description for the Education Manager can now be found here (scroll down to find it) and at the end of this post. It’s an interesting experience to be hiring someone else to do the job I held (in one…
This guest post is from Michelle Grohe. For the past ten years Michelle has been the Director of School & Teacher Programs at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts, where she has overseen the School Partnership, an intensive multiple-experience program with local Boston schools, including in-depth professional development with classroom teachers. Michelle has…
I will be hiring two full-time staff members to work with me at the Peoria PlayHouse Children’s Museum. We have posted the first job description, for an Operations Manager, and you can see the posting here (scroll down – at the time I am writing this blog, the position is the third one down). The full…
YELLOW ERRTHANG DIS TIME!
Reflections on Museums, Programs, and Visitors
A catalog of museum experiences and impact
Thinking critically about museums and art galleries.
Experience Well-Crafted
Because Nonprofits Are Messy
Being a mom is so much more than simply “being mom.” It’s about still knowing yourself, finding time for the people you love, the things you love and knowing you would do anything for those who call you mom.
Reflections on Museums, Programs, and Visitors
Reflections on Museums, Programs, and Visitors
Thoughts on 21st Century museum leadership by Anne Ackerson and Joan Baldwin
Exploring museums, parks, cultural sites, and other informal learning environments…and every WMATA Metro station
Reflections on Museums, Programs, and Visitors
Reflections on Museums, Programs, and Visitors
Musings on the therapeutic, empowerment, and wellbeing-enhancing possibilities of the museum
Reflections on Museums, Programs, and Visitors
Reflections on Museums, Programs, and Visitors
Peer-populated resources for art history teachers
Reflections on Museums, Programs, and Visitors
"There is no cure for curiosity." ~Dorothy Parker
thoughts on museums, content, design, and why they matter
