Museum Buzz

Aron Ambrosiani, curator of digital collections at the Swedish Museum of Architecture and Design and PhD candidate, takes one headline — "Swedish museums experience drop in visits, but record digital reach" — and unpacks what it really means. The numbers are big: 130% increase on Wikimedia platforms, 23% increase in website visits, and 10 % increase on Instagram. But Aron digs beneath the surface to ask the harder questions: what counts as a visit? What are we actually measuring? And does digital reach translate into something museums can act on? From the surprising ways museum collections come alive on Wikipedia to a student project that turns digital publishing into deep learning, this conversation challenges us to think more critically — and more creatively — about what digital engagement really means. Read the article here.  

Sarah Van Haastert, Global Director of Strategic Partnerships at AVI-SPL offers a beautifully layered take on digital learning in museums. As she puts it, digital learning is both "a drop and the ocean": a small spark of curiosity that surprises visitors in the gallery, and the vast infrastructure behind the scenes that makes it all possible. In a place where visitors come to be social, learn, and connect with stories, digital becomes a catalyst — delivering moments of delight that stay with people long after a visit. This conversation digs into what it really takes to make those moments happen, from the essential foundations to the magic of a visitors experience.  We also explore:  Sustainability and Infrastructure What Museums Mean When They Say "Personalization" Learning From Other Industries The Vendor Trust Gap

Chris Evans, founder of the design consulting firm Drummin Hands, designs in-gallery digital experiences across museums, national parks, and cultural institutions. With a background rooted in interpretation and storytelling, Chris believes the best technology is invisible. Or, as he puts it, the "magic happening in the background." He shares how he helps organizations of all sizes start with the story first, choose the right tools to tell it, and create digital moments that visitors can't get anywhere else.

Pauliina Kinanen, Training Specialist, with the Finnish Museums Association pulls back the curtain on what digital learning looks like when the average number of staff in a Finnish museum is nine. These small teams are finding big ways to innovate by trusting the power of their own stories, building the right partnerships, and experimenting with digital tools on their own terms. This conversation is a reminder that you don't need a massive team or budget to create meaningful digital learning experiences, you just need confidence, curiosity, and good collaborators. Learn more about the Finnish Museums Association.

Zeina Dghaim, Training and Excellence Manager at the Zayed National Museum in Abu Dhabi, knows what it takes to build digital learning experiences from the ground up. From advising on a fully digital museum for the Bahamas to shaping visitor experiences at one of the newest cultural institutions in the world, Zeina has a clear message for the sector: trust yourselves.  She challenges museums to stop approaching digital from a deficit mindset and start leading with imagination, creativity, and confidence in their own stories. Her unlikely sources of inspiration? The fashion and culinary industries where vision comes first and barriers come second. This conversation is a reminder that museums already know how to create extraordinary experiences. They just need to believe it.  

Frits Polman, CEO and founder of Guide-ID, is the first guest this season to go deep on how AI is reshaping the digital learning experience in museums. His platform uses AI to generate audio content tailored to each visitor's language and learning level making personalized engagement possible for museums of any size and budget. But Frits also makes a compelling case for why audio itself matters more than ever: in a world designed to pull visitors toward their screens, audio lets them keep their eyes on the art and their phones in their pockets. This conversation explores what happens when AI and audio come together to put the story and the visitor first.

Katya Provornaya from the Group for Education in Museums (GEM) shares how museum educators across the United Kingdom are the driving force behind making digital tools actually work for audiences — from rural schools and home-educated children to underrepresented communities. She discusses how GEM is leading sector-wide research and upskilling efforts, and why the most intentional digital learning strategies start not with technology, but with the people designing the experiences. Learn more about Group for Education in Museums .  

Museums often talk about going beyond the walls to reach audiences—but what if the museum has no walls at all? After the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art closed its doors in 2024, it has engaged more audiences than ever through "trans-mediated experiences" spanning exhibitions, digital platforms, and partnerships.  Kimon Keramidas, Head of Digital Content and Strategy at the Rubin, demonstrates how this deliberate approach can help museums serve as bastions of critical thinking and future-proof our sector against whatever the next hype cycle brings. Plus, Kimon designs his dream museum studies degree program in our game!  

Museums don't run without people. Yet workforce development remains underfunded and undervalued despite being critical to everything museums do. It cultivates community, increases retention, leads to employee happiness, and it's a way to future-proof the sector.  Tamsin Russell, Workforce Development Lead at the Museums Association, creates multiple opportunities for its 13,000 members to grow. In this episode she shares her overall approach to developing these programs - ensuring they are relevant and even slightly provocative - while diving deep into their online learning offering. Plus, a game that ties together hot dog vendors, nuclear engineers on a submarine, wedding DJs and museum staff.  

Social enterprise—using business strategies to achieve social goals—is common in the nonprofit world but newer to museums. Ian Ellard, Head of the V&A Academy at the Victoria and Albert Museum, sees an opportunity for museums to break free of old models with this approach. We dive deep into what social enterprise actually means, what it looks like in a museum context, and explore the nuances of using business strategies and financial success to support the public value of a museum. Plus, hear how ancient Greek wisdom can help solve modern online learning challenges.      

Evaluating online learning often flummoxes museum educators, but it doesn't have to. Jeanine Ancelet, Principal at Audience Focus, helps bust that myth with smart, doable strategies for making evaluation meaningful and manageable. Hear practical tips for measuring on-demand resources, interpreting YouTube metrics, and designing inclusive evaluations across ages. And, find out why you might already be sitting on a gold mine of data. Jeanine also shares the guiding philosophy behind her 18 years of evaluation work. Plus, how do her skills as a trained Master Naturalist shape the way she visits museums? Stay tuned to the end to find out! Audience Focus: https://www.audiencefocusus.com/

"How much social impact do we get for a dollar?" That's the question Katy Scott, Director of Education Program Strategy at Monterey Bay Aquarium, is asking as her team explores what social impact actually means in practice, especially when it comes to online learning. Social impact has become a buzzword in museums, but Katy shares how her team is defining it through the intersection of environmental education, maker education, and equity education. While they don't have a formal definition yet, discover how online learning can create "hyperlocal" impact at global scale. Katy reveals why the future of meaningful social impact lies not just in reaching more people, but in empowering communities to innovate solutions for their own local challenges.   Plus, what do girl scout cookies and social impact have in common? Listen to the end to find out!  

Are we stuck in a doom loop of bland, poorly designed online learning, especially as AI plays a larger role in developing digital content? Mark Otter, CEO and Founder of Participate, shares why communities of practice, grounded in peer-to-peer learning and shared purpose, may be our best way out. We dig into how these communities fuel meaningful engagement and powerful learning. Plus, what does a hawaiian shirt, rubber band ball, and office key card have to do with a community of practice? Stay tuned to the end to find out!   Participate: https://www.participate.com/

Dr. Lauren Vargas focuses a lot of her work with institutions on the strategy and design of their digital ecosystem -- including how to engage and build communities. This was increasingly important with the pivot to digital programs in the pandemic and our conversation explores best practices for engaging and empathizing with that community; how to remain relevant and grow; and how to create a community pact that creates norms and expectations for the members.  Dr. Lauren Vargas, is owner of the consultancy, Your Digital Tattoo and a One-by-One research associate with the University of Leicester. 

Sina Bahram, President of Prime Access Consulting, provides insight into how to approach accessibility when designing a distance learning program. From platform providers to the learner experience, we dive into best practices, practical tips, and more.  But most importantly, he advises, "start small and [don't] be overwhelmed by all of the things...check your websites for some accessibility best practices. Talk to persons with varying abilities in your evaluation methodologies...And understand that you will not get it right overnight. You just won't. But, you need to start and then build that momentum and inertia over time."

Kristin Smith, Project Manager at the North Carolina Museum of Art, shares her experience of creating an online course for educators about social emotional learning (SEL), including the structure of the course; the benefits and challenges of teaching this content online; and why museums have a responsibility to create ways for visitors to learn about SEL. 

Emily is joined by a special co-host to breakdown the big take aways from season two. Season Two interviewed museum leaders from around the world about how different departments interpreted the word 'Distance' in the COVID-era.

Esme Ward, Director of the Manchester Museum, is setting out to create the most inclusive, imaginative, and caring museum in the world. In this conversation, we zero in on her efforts to care for her staff, audiences, and collections through embarking on a journey of repatriation. "God knows I'm passionate about museums, but you know, I do worry that we over rely on that passion."

In this conversation, I speak with the four program co-chairs of the Museum Computer Network (MCN)conference about how they approached planning their virtual conference, what they're worried about, and whether conferences in the future will be more or less virtual. MCN in November spans two weeks. Other virtual conferences are four weeks. One day. Live. Hybrid. Asynchronous. Conferences are experimenting and seemingly trying to lower as many barriers to entry as possible to still connect with their attendees.   

Reopening is more than creating safe physical spaces for visitors and staff. It can be an opportunity to "reorient the place of museums" in society and how they engage with issues of white supremacy, white fragility, and social justice. Waqas Jawaid and Andy Chen, Co-Creators of Isometric Studio in Brooklyn, NY, created a Reopening Toolkit for Museums that included a preface called "A Lens Toward Justice."    Our conversation explores the toolkit and the larger ideas museums face as they reopen.

Ian Ellard, Head of the V&A Academy at the V&A in London, shares his experience of rapidly switching to distance learning as a result of COVID-19. Ellard was about to launch a new, cohesive adult learning program: the brochure was ready to print, the new logo was approved, all they had to do was hit 'send'. "But public health had other plans."  Listen to our conversation as we explore their journey into distance learning.

Kat Harding, PR and Social Media Manager at the North Carolina Museum of Art, shares a deep dive into their approach to #MuseumFromHome. This popular initiative by museums from around the world has allowed visitors to stay in touch with the institutions they love - and access new collections - during the pandemic. 

In the wake of the shutdown, Scott Stulen, CEO and President of the Philbrook Museum of Art, had to act quickly. Projects that would take months, took hours. A new idea presented in the morning was up and running by the afternoon. In this conversation, Scott reflects on the role of museum leadership during these tumultuous times. From collaboration to garden cats to victory gardens, the Philbrook has run over 250 programs since they initially shut down and it doesn't seem like they're slowing down anytime soon.

Erika Sanger, Executive Director of the Museum Association of New York (MANY), is balancing the desire and need to re-open with the reality of a national health crisis.  In this conversation, we talk about how she's led museums to navigate this difficult time by offering information, resources, and virtual meet ups. We also cover the economic realities that museums face: in New York state, museum's are losing $3.5 million a day. More reopening resources are available on my website: http://emily-kotecki.com/podcast.

How have museums responded to the "COVID Moment"? In this episode, Josh Goldblum, CEO of BlueCadet, talks about how museums are having to rethink the visitor experience. With museums closed and faced with re-opening, Goldblum believes museums can evolve their thinking by looking to other industries such as journalism, or companies such as Disney and Whole Foods.  Plus, what all museums may be wondering: what happens to all the touch screens?! 

Museum Buzz is back with Season Two! In this season Emily interviews guests from around the world to unpack one buzzword from different perspectives. That buzzword is "Distance." We'll look at it through the lens of interpretation, re-opening, exhibition design. But also a little more abstractly: Can museums afford to distance themselves from the present? How do you shrink the distance between a visitor and an object in a world of social distance?  The podcast will be posting weekly beginning Sunday August 2. As always there will be a game at the end of every episode plus additional commentary by Emily!

"What we really represent is an awareness raising campaign against lazy language." Balancing serious commentary and tongue-and-cheek humor, the season finale of Museum Buzz ends with a conversation about...buzzwords! Together with Jim Fishwick from the Australian Centre for the Moving Image and Tilly Boleyn from the Science Gallery Melbourne, we reflect on the notion of buzzwords: what they really communicate, why we use them, and how they evolve. I wanted to reach out to Jim and Tilly after reading their 2016 Medium.com article 'Six Museum Words to Make You Vomit,' where they coined a new buzzword: musevom, and  even created Musevom Bingo!  Thanks for listening to the first season and stay tuned for season two!

"It's easy to make assumptions, and that's how we end up with museums that aren't relevant to their public." The future of museums is relevancy and Jim Richardson, founder of the MuseumNext conference and museum news website, identifies the top priority museums should invest in to stay relevant. Tune in as we discuss audience research, digital trends and the role of leadership in impacting change. Plus, a new game where we "predict" what museums will be like in the not-so-far-off-future!

"People don't want to feel dumb. They don't want to feel like they've done something wrong." Myra Weise brings a human-centered approach to creating more hospitable museum spaces.  This interview is from our first live podcast event at the North Carolina Museum of Art as part of a month-long training for frontline staff about hospitality. Weise, Manager of Museum Services at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, shared her specific training methodology and bigger vision about how to create a welcoming environment for visitors, including how to balance the inherent tension between hospitality and protecting the object. 

"If your building is totally accessible, or your website is totally accessible, but then, when people come to the space [and] the interactions they're having with the staff don't feel welcome, and they're feeling microaggression's and they're feeling bias... then that negates all that work." While museums have been investing in access programs for decades, the buzzword is getting new life as it becomes part of conversations around diversity, equity, and inclusion. Regan Pro, the Kayla Skinner Deputy Director for Education & Public Engagement at the Seattle Art Museum, talks about their long-standing dedication to accessibility. We also discuss how to balance the varying needs of accessibility along with diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as how museums can work together to address the many needs of our audiences.  Plus, trivia and additional commentary!

"Diversity does not speak to racism. It does not speak to structural inequality. It does not speak to all of these societal ills that still play out in these codified ways." Think you know what diversity means? Think again. Dr. Porchia Moore - Johns Hopkins University professor, co-creator of the Visitors of Color Project and the Incluseum, and consultant - challenges the very notions of these words. We discuss how museums can try to represent the multiple lived experiences of visitors, how it can be frustrating and surprising to still be needing these conversations, and yet why she also has hope for the future. We also play a game at the end of the conversation and I include my own reflections!

"[Collaboration needs] really strong vision from the top about what we're trying to accomplish together. So it's not marketing's goal and curatorial's goal and development's goal. It's our goal that curatorial, marketing, and development are working on, together. And it's hard to lose that deeply ingrained turfiness in the way that we're set up."   How do museums move away from "deeply ingrained turfiness" that are part of museum structures and ways of operating? Carissa Dougherty, Head of Knowledge Management at The Morton Arboretum, shares her expertise on how to shift museums into a collaborative mindset. Plus, trivia and additional commentary at the end of our conversation!  

"In a perfect world we would have equity. We could celebrate and recognize that we all have differences, and are diverse, in how we come to the world and move through our spaces…And if I'm coming to come down from the clouds and be less Polly Anna-ish, I would say that the reason it's on museums is, you know what, we're really late. We're late to this work. There was never a Brown v Board for museums. Educators had to be forced into this in 1954. This is 2019. " Cecile Shellman is a Diversity, Equity, Access, and Inclusion (DEAI) consultant to museums. Our conversation focused on what museums can do to prioritize their thinking to create equitable environments. We also discussed why equity is the "it" word right now and the difference between equity and equality. Plus! I add my own thoughts on our conversation after trivia, so be sure to listen all the way to the end!  

"Content is king. It is what we have in our pockets as museums. [And it's important] to keep that in mind, that power. But, also think about the audiences and why we still exist and why that content remains powerful." Content is still king. It's what museums put out on social media, it's the labels on the walls, and it's the object behind glass. But how can we harness the uniqueness of content in museums to more deeply engage audiences? Laura Hoffman from the Smithsonian Lunder Conservation Center shares her background in managing a diversity of content and how to relate to audiences.

"Immersive is a word that feels like something. You get what immersive means, palpably, when you hear that word…we crave magic. We crave experience. We crave things that feel different." Seema Rao of Brilliant Idea Studio immerses us in the buzzword 'immersive.' You might be surprised at the breadth of her definition, but not at the depth of her thinking around this word. In this conversation we also explore questions such as: How do museums respond to the consumer appetite for immersion? What's the tension between immersive art and immersive interpretive/educational experiences? And, is immersion worth investing in in the future?

"This idea that museum attendance is falling and we just can't bring people in...I think that's a myth and something we say to stop ourselves from doing that hard work about how can we make our spaces more inclusive." Tune in to hear this and more as we try to define inclusion, identify three starting points for museums wanting to create inclusive environments, and what's the disconnect between creating welcoming spaces for audiences versus museum staff. 

Welcome to a brand new podcast about buzzwords in museums! The podcast will unpack trendy words in the field and their meaning. We'll also play a game at the end of each episode. Stay tuned for the first episode.