What are the (top) secrets of better collaboration? Is collaboration like a game of ping pong? Or more like ballroom dancing? Is there a better way to disagree? Does having constraints make design ... better? How is an exhibition like a film? And what happens when your project feels — in this case, even literally — like “Mission: Impossible”? Barbara Miller (Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs, Museum of the Moving Image) and Danae Colomer (Director of Exhibition Management and Design, Museum...
Jun 18, 2025•57 min•Ep. 57
How do you choose the right architect for your museum? Is architecture about more than a building? Is architect selection about more than architecture? What is a design “brief”? Why are museum projects on “elephant time”? Are anonymous open design competitions a good thing? What comes after “good design is good business”? Susanna Sirefman (President, Dovetail Design Strategists) discusses “The Art of Choosing a Museum Architect” with host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners | The ...
May 21, 2025•57 min•Ep. 56
What if every museum were more like ... a children’s museum? Why is play “agnostic”? Can you design an entire museum for every generation, all at the same time? How are children’s museums like (and not like) other museums? How did they get that way? Wait, could we make an entire exhibition out of nothing but cardboard boxes? What is “co-learning”? And why don’t more museum people visit … other people’s museums? Along the way: teaching artists, art teachers, and what we really mean by “caregiver....
May 07, 2025•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 55
What can we learn from one of the most complex AI projects in any museum today? What is the history of AI in museums? Can we add AI to our experiences without a complete renovation? How do you teach an AI about 775 different football teams? How can AI put visitors literally into a story? Is AI accurate enough for a museum? What about bias? Doesn’t AI take away jobs? And how do you specify exactly what shade of college football orange you want to an AI — if you can only use words? Kimberly Beaudi...
Apr 23, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 54
What if the secret to better museums was … neuroscience? How can museums inspire human creativity? How much media should be in a gallery — or should there be any? How soon should you get feedback on your exhibition ideas? Can museums help us all “escape the algorithm”? What does knitting have to do with visitor satisfaction? In this episode, we’ll learn some unexpected tricks of the trade from a renowned museum leader. Lynda Roscoe Hartigan (The Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Executive Directo...
Mar 26, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 53
What if a museum were more like a laboratory? What if our exhibits were experiments? What if our galleries were more about questions, rather than answers? What if we didn’t fear failure as much? What if scientists, artists, and technologists all created exhibitions together? What happens when you edit an exhibit about editing DNA? Should every project have a post-opening contingency — in addition to the normal kind? Ann Neumann (Director of Galleries and Exhibitions, MIT Museum) joins host Jonat...
Mar 11, 2025•58 min•Ep. 52
What if we're doing community engagement … wrong? How long should the process really take for a museum or exhibition? What’s the difference between demographics and psychographics? What does it mean to “move at the pace of community”? Why do community engagement experts sometimes cringe when they hear the word “charrette”? And what exactly does “community” mean? Nu Goteh (Founder and Principal of ROOM FOR MAGIC, and Co-Founder of Deem Journal ) joins MtM host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&...
Feb 19, 2025•51 min•Ep. 51
What if we combined immersion, emotion, storytelling — and games? We all want “engagement” … but what is engagement? How can our projects create it? What are the elements that go into it? Can game theory and play teach us how to make our experiences better? What is “narrative transportation”? Why are emotions key to memory creation? And what do Renaissance fairs have to do with museums? Ed Rodley (Co-Founder and Principal, The Experience Alchemists), joins MtM host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partn...
Feb 04, 2025•59 min•Ep. 50
Can a statue change American history? How do we decide who gets a statue? What happens when you realize how many people deserve a statue but never got one? What’s the difference between a “forensic sculpture” for an interpretive exhibition, and one you’d put in a fine art show? Why are some museums just not complete without a bronze statue of the main characters? Are there “statues of limitations”? Ivan Schwartz (Founder and Director of StudioEIS), joins MtM host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner...
Jan 22, 2025•58 min•Ep. 49
How do you make a museum display case disappear? This episode is a masterclass in museum display case design. To the untrained eye, museum display cases look like what you’d find in a gift shop. But under the hood, they couldn’t be more different — and they are 100% unique to the museum world. Secrets we’ll reveal: art envelopes, non-offgassing, air exchange rates, and how glass is never, ever just glass. How can a display case be sealed, yet also designed to leak? What exactly makes a museum di...
Jan 07, 2025•56 min•Ep. 48
Can a building tell a story? How do you design a glass wall to be ... mist? What if architecture, landscape, and exhibitions were all thought of as one thing? What changes when you etch barbed wire into a handrail? How can the floor plan of an entire museum relate to a nautilus shell? What does “A.D.R.O.I.T.” stand for? We’re going to find out, so notebooks at the ready. Alan Reed, FAIA, LEED AP (President and Design Principal of GWWO Architects), joins MtM host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner,...
Dec 03, 2024•53 min•Ep. 47
How would you design an exhibit — if an animal’s life depended on it? What is the number one reason people come to the National Aquarium? When should you take ego out of design? What is a “machine for living”? Which is right: “know-feel-do” or “feel-know-do”? (Hint: might not be the first one.) Why would an aquarium visitor want to hear from the people who take care of the animals? What happens when you float an entire Chesapeake wetland on top of the ocean, in the middle of Baltimore Harbor? Ho...
Nov 19, 2024•56 min•Ep. 46
How do you make an institution that's both a museum and a memorial — at the same time? How are exhibitions like theater? Is a museum a group experience, or a personal one — or is that a trick question? When is it time to trust your gut? Why is collaboration so important? When is a single milk can the most important object in a museum? How can one single, simple philosophy inform everyone’s work, from the curators to the team making mounts for the artifacts? How are the principles of making a mem...
Oct 29, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 45
Is there an organization for the exhibition field? A new initiative is picking up steam. The exhibition community in the US, some say, has recently gone from having “nearly one” professional organization — to none at all. That’s because of the unexpected 2023 dissolution of NAME, the National Association for Museum Exhibition, a group within the American Alliance of Museums (AAM). But now a new effort is rising at SEGD, an international organization headquartered in the US. It takes the form of ...
Sep 10, 2024•40 min•Ep. 44
“The client’s role is not to solve the problem — it’s to state the problem.” What’s the client’s perspective in major cultural projects? What are “client user groups?” What’s the difference between advocating for the client, and advocating for the project? How do you “inhabit your project?” How might a single gender-inclusive restroom project change an entire institution? Should every project have a “super contingency” in the budget? Amy Weisser (Deputy Director for Strategic Planning and Projec...
Aug 27, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 43
Can you get big press with a small budget? (Hint: Yes.) For museums, small firms, and independent consultants, this episode is packed with literally dozens of ideas from a master of scrappy PR. What is the #1 tip about PR, if you forgot all the others? How do you get a journalist’s attention? How do you get in the news without something new? Who should be your spokesperson? Is press actually about the topic — or is it about just being in the news? Once you get an article, what do you do with it?...
Aug 06, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 42
Have we lost a sense of playfulness in our work … and could we get it back? In museums for children, why does “analog usually beat digital?” What’s a “climbing structure”? What are design metaphors, and why should planners beware of them? How can exhibition teams better empathize with one another’s fears and concerns? Why should a museum professional or designer “hyper-specialize”? Jonathan Goldstein and Kyle Talbott (Principals, Skyhouse Studio) join host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&...
Jul 23, 2024•50 min•Ep. 41
How do new museums make money — really? In this episode, we lift the veil on new museum projects and money. What is “the peril of the bicycle wheel”? Is it bad to rely on “anchor funding”? How many kinds of revenue should a new museum project have? What happens if you have the wrong number? (Hint: eh, not so good.) How much money do endowments make? And what’s so magical about thirds? Amy Kaufman (Principal, Amy Kaufman Cultural Planning) joins host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Part...
Jun 25, 2024•52 min•Ep. 40
What’s the role of wonder in experience design? What can the circus teach us to make our exhibitions better? (Spoiler alert: a lot.) Could being “with it and for it” be the secret to success for museum projects? How much technology is too much? Can we really design for all five senses? Can an exhibition be a high-wire act — literally? Jennifer Lemmer Posey (Tibbals Curator of Circus at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art) joins host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to te...
Jun 11, 2024•50 min•Ep. 39
Do museum stores actually make any money? What are they really for? Can a store act like an exhibition? What does “cap rate” mean? How big should a museum store be? What percentage of visitors go into one, and how many of them buy something? Why should you get an expert to design your store, and what happens when you don’t? David Franke (museum store architect) joins host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to discover what’s “Beyond ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’”. Along the way: ...
Jun 04, 2024•57 min•Ep. 38
Why is economic planning so vital to any new museum project? What happens if you don’t do it? What is “dark tourism”? Why do economists think about audiences? Can a museum have “ROI”? Which is more important, a profitable museum event, or one that advances a museum’s mission? What can economics teach us about how to make our projects better? James Stevens, AICP (Vice President, ConsultEcon, Inc.) joins host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to discuss “An Economic Planner’s Adv...
May 07, 2024•49 min•Ep. 37
What is the “humanities gap” — and why is it a huge opportunity for museums? Why can’t everybody be a philanthropist for the day? What does “cultural literacy” mean, and how can it unlock new approaches to the collections we put on display? Why could a shortfall in humanities funding suggest new ways for museums to be relevant? Why shouldn’t a museum buy products and services from its own community? Michele Y. Smith (CEO, Museum of Popular Culture) joins host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&...
Apr 30, 2024•44 min•Ep. 36
We might think a design concept is the first step — but it’s not. What do you need to ask yourself, before you even start? What does your community want from your new museum, and how can you find out? What happens when you have funding for 10 staff, but you design a museum that will take 25 staff to operate? What’s more important, the cost of creating the museum, or the later costs of operating it? What’s “noblesse oblige”? What’s a “civic entrepreneur”? Carolynne Harris (Museum Planner, Carolyn...
Apr 23, 2024•35 min•Ep. 3
Why is “70/50” the gold standard? Should it be? Who decided? Does every gallery really need to be 70 degrees, plus/minus two? Does every storage space really need to be 50% humidity, plus/minus five? Is that a reasonable goal for most museums? At what cost? What’s the difference between “AA” climate control, and just “A”? How much energy could we all save, just by switching down one grade? Are artifact loan agreement climate requirements consistent, or is there room for improvement? Roger Chang ...
Apr 16, 2024•50 min•Ep. 35
What if chaos in cultural projects is something to embrace, not fear? Can chaos theory give us new insights about how to manage complex work? Are we advocates for the owner of a project, or for the project itself? What are the three things upon which the success or failure of a project depends? Sometimes, is it better to let a few things change, rather than fight those changes for even longer? Museum staff are rarely experts in managing building projects or large exhibition productions. Why woul...
Apr 09, 2024•59 min•Ep. 34
What’s the secret to success, when a project lasts years longer than planned? What keeps us going when our work takes more time? How does the subject matter of a project relate to the form of a project? Why should we be thinking equally about the budget for what happens after a project opens? What is the “architecture of delight”? Why do “reverberations matter”? Which is more important: patience, or pushing? (Hint: it’s a trick question.) And most importantly, why should everybody visit the hous...
Apr 02, 2024•46 min•Ep. 33
What is a “growth mindset” — and why is it more important than ever for our industry? What happens when we combine museology with the fast-growing field of positive psychology? How do exhibition teams get through projects with tough subject matter? Why should we always “put our own oxygen mask on first”? What’s the opposite of love (hint: not hate)? What’s contemplative science? How can we learn from the latest news about the Rubin Museum? Do we sometimes all take ourselves … too seriously? Dr. ...
Feb 27, 2024•55 min•Ep. 32
Can an eye-catching museum revitalize a city? The answer might surprise you. Getting the right designer is vital. If you don’t like a painting you can put it away, but if you don’t like a building, you can’t take it down. Why is it important to have the goals of a complex museum project fit in a mantra of a few words? What comes first in museum architecture, practicality or creative genius? Should you choose your designers by design competition? If not, what’s the alternative? What are the three...
Feb 20, 2024•59 min•Ep. 31
How can we raise the voices of people of color in museums and exhibitions — and what stands in the way? What is Museum Hue? What constitutes a sustainable museum job, a sustainable career? What percentage of staff at museums are folks of color, and what roles do they have? What do we see happening in the exhibitions that museums create? Many cultural organizations began their DEI initiatives after the tragic events of 2020; how are those programs doing now? Could exhibitions be one of the best p...
Feb 13, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 30
What do technologies like the Apple Vision Pro mean for exhibitions and experiences? For people who create cultural destinations, the pace of technology has now become so fast it’s hard to keep up. AR, VR, AI. What’s happening in the “near future” of the technologies that will define our field for years to come? What is spatial computing? Are projection mapping and Pepper’s Ghosts early forms of augmented reality? Is the extreme personalization of all digital content causing problems we don’t ev...
Feb 06, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 29
