How do we become comfortable with uncertainty?

Over the past week, I have heard from friends and former colleagues from around the country and beyond. While these connections are the silver lining in the enormous, dark coronavirus cloud, so much of the conversation is about lost jobs, fear for laid off employees, the sound of ambulances going by, and radical uncertainty. Personally,…

What do we do now?

This is a week for reaching out; for me, that includes working on a post for Museum Questions, after a very long absence. This is a week when, while spending time isolated, we learn we are not alone. This short episode of “The Daily” shares how the tone of the internet has changed over the…

Jobs at the Peoria PlayHouse Children’s Museum

Join our amazing team! The Peoria PlayHouse Children’s Museum is hiring a Membership and Marketing Coordinator, a part-time (29 hours per week) position with a flexible schedule. This staff member will be in charge of the museum’s membership program, as well as considering data across the museum and coordinating marketing, especially on social media and the museum’s…

Can Museums Be Neutral?

A few months ago, Mike Murawski, in partnership with LaTanya Autry of the Mississippi Museum of Art and The Empathetic Museum, created t-shirts to support a “Museums are not Neutral” campaign. Murawski wrote, “Museums have the potential to be relevant, socially-engaged spaces in our communities.  Yet, too often, they strive to remain “above” the political and social…

Is Failure Useful?

There’s a cult of failure these days. A google search for “failure” brings up articles like “Why success always starts with failure” and the New York Times article “On campus, failure is on the syllabus.” In fact, failure is so in vogue that there is now a museum dedicated to it. Failure is hot in museums,…