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.

Museum Buzz

Season Two Wrap Up

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.”

A New Model for Caring in Museums

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.   

MCN Chairs on Designing Virtual Conferences

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.

Reopening Museums with “A Lens Toward Justice”

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.

A 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. 

#MuseumFromHome

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.

S2: How to Build a Resilient Institution

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.

Reopening Museums

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?! 

Rethinking the Visitor Experience

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!

Museum Buzz Season Two Trailer

“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!

‘Buzzwords’ with Jim Fishwick and Tilly Boleyn

“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!

'Next' with MuseumNext's Jim Richardson

“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. 

'Hospitality' with Nasher Museum of Art's Myra Weise

“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!

'Access' with Seattle Art Museum's Regan Pro

“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!

'Diversity' with Dr. Porchia Moore

A podcast that unpacks buzzwords in the contexts of museums with professionals at the top of their field.

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Museum Buzz

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