Technology Research : Museum 's Mission

In preparation for my first visit to the Denver Art Museum I browsed their numerous extravagant collections online. I was taken back by the wide range of skilled artwork as well as impressed. I spent hours completely entranced by the artwork. When I was done viewing the gallery virtually I questioned whether or not I should even still visit the actual museum. I felt that I had just had the same experience only free and from the comfort of my couch. Fortunately, my sister convinced me into going with her and I have not regretted it since! Viewing artwork in person is far more beneficial than viewing it from a virtual gallery.

Museums have long served a purpose as cultural staples. For every museum, big and small, careful consideration is used in selecting its contents. When securing new items for a museum, it is most important to consider public appeal, educational value, and cost-effectiveness.

To highlight the relationship between each of the exhibitions, the staff could provide daily visitors with a cohesive guide map of the entire museum. The current location of the museum is massive to accommodate for the displays as well as three research laboratories, but due to large size, each exhibit feels isolated and

Another aspect that I found to be very interesting was the way in which each of the museums offered different multimedia formats to facilitate the visitor’s experience with the artwork in display. I noticed that both museums offered applications for smartphones and tablets, free of charge, to assist the visitors with getting the most possible out of the museum. Visiting a museum can be a very distracting task because there is so much to see and without a plan or a navigating system that helps you make your way towards the museum, it can be hard to gain something from your visit. Both apps are accessible to most people and very easy to navigate through. These apps included audio guides, exhibition information, calendars, events and so on. However, I noticed

I learned that museum trips for the purpose of learning or not just to take time away from the school or as a “reward” for students; rather, the teacher must make connections to the classroom learning and see the museum activity as another resource method to engage children. As Erdman suggests, “Collaboration with a museum takes planning to ensure the process is effective for everyone. As with any aspect of education, goal setting and reflection are key” (p. 18). Moreover, I recognize the value of Erdman’s article is its germane inclusion of technology. Erdman’s discusses how more museums “are embracing the potential of a digital museum” (p. 17) and with more schools looking to use 1-to-1 laptops, could provide teachers with another avenue for student learning. Again, I recognize the importance for an effective incorporation of museum education will need careful panning because “Collaboration with a museum takes planning to ensure the process is effective for everyone” (Erdman, 2016, p. 18). In short, I recognize three important ideas from the week’s readings—connecting museums to early childhood development, my own understanding of the purpose of museums, connecting museums to student learning—provided me with a foundation and motivation to incorporate museum education to my

There are opportunities though, and they are good opportunities. I was able to identify three that they should pay attention to and really hit hard on. In today’s economy, people aren’t wanting to spend a lot of money. The recession is making people be a lot more conscious about money. Good news, the museum is free. If marketed properly, this could be a huge way to gain new visitors. Plus, art museums have sophisticated connotations that make people feel smart when they go to them. What better way to spend the day than to go somewhere that is free and feel sophisticated? Another opportunity is that new exhibits could attract younger demographics, pending on the exhibit. This could be tricky though because they want to attract everyone, but older crowds are interested in things that younger generations aren’t. They have to be able to balance the attractions so everyone can relate to it and want to view it.

Libraries, archives and museums (LAMS) have been drifting into separate institutions for at least the last century. In doing so they have each created their own vocabulary and style of cataloging that often does not mesh. However, thanks to the great recession and the growth of digitization among all three fields, they are starting to come together for projects. This collaboration allows patrons a greater ability to gather information from all of them in one place. I can see the appeal of joint collaborations on both local and larger scales. By working together and even merging collections a wider audience can be reached and served.

The display is curated by Interim Director of Museum Studies, Dr. Kendall H. Cocoa, with B. Karenina Karyadi, Lauren Nochella, Kristy Odett, and Ariana Rizo, as a halfway prerequisite for the CSULB Graduate program in Museum and Curatorial Studies.

On top of the Webinars, there are also links to the programs that bring Museum staff to communities nationwide, such as the “Smithsonian’s Let’s Do History Tour”, where the staff “visit school district nationwide to share effective, exciting teaching techniques and K-12 resources free of charge” (Smithsonian). If given the opportunity, a school district’s educators can interact and learn from the Museum staff directly with regards to the available resources from the Museum’s site. This can enhance the history educators’ expertise on the subjects they teach; they can see hands-on how they can use these very resources in their classroom and they can ask questions to the staff to ensure the effectiveness of the materials and frameworks they are presented. Another example of a resource found on this page, If You Walked in My Shoes teaching poster presents the students with the “who, what, where, when, why and how of object investigation” and the personal stories associated with the history of the pairs of shoes in the Museum’s collection (Smithsonian). More importantly, besides the helpful videos, images and programs, the site shows the many ways to stay in contact with the Museum. For example, educators from the National Museum of American History are active users of Edmodo (Smithsonian). This allows educators nationwide to have portable access to materials and ideas

The Victoria and Albert Museum created many different ways to interact with the visitors. First, they created their website to be easily navigated and created interactive exercises such as “Design a Wig” to promote their exhibitions. By visitors having fun with creating a wig, it builds anticipation on their visit and creates more reason to visit the museum. At the museum itself, visitors will be met with the Hands-On Exhibitions. The exhibitions allows the visitors to try on Victorian costumes, make a brass rubbing or a giant slider puzzle, try on armour gauntlet, design their own tea post, and more (). Through out the whole experience, the visitors are met with fun interactive activities that are not only geared toward children, but adults as well. At Science Museum London, they take pride in their own section of interactive exhibits. Launchpad, packed with over 50 interactive exhibits geared to ward 8-14 years old, is now closed as the museum prepares to open new Interactive Gallery. The new Interactive Gallery, 60% larger than Launchpad will engage all visitors in the drama and spectacle of math and science (). This change was done to better engage the adults, especially experience seeking millennials. One of Gen Y panel member from Millennial Marketing recalled that: “My best museum experiences were London Science Museum and Victoria & Albert. One common thing these both museums have is that they mange to interact with their visitors. Once you walked into the exhibition hall, you find yourself in some place like Wonderland. The interior design, interactive tools and toys are simply designed to create a magical experience. It is never boring. A magical land would never be boring.”

Museum visitors often admire objects from the past and embrace the artwork without a proper understanding of the imagery. Viewers react to what they are looking at, comprehend the work through their own experiences and judge it based on their personal insight of success or failure. The appreciation of artwork at the American Museum of Natural History, located in New York City has educated viewers with knowledgeable information on objects from thousands of different artists. The fossil of a “Tyrannosaurus Rex” and the “Roosevelt Sculpture” are two objects commonly said to be the most viewed pieces of artwork at the museum. The virtual tour presented generous information about the history of the objects as well as knowledgeable facts about the artists and founders.

I toured the virtual Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Though it was not face-to-face, I still really enjoyed my experience through the virtual word. I was more fascinated about the liveliness in the virtual world than anything else. I think the virtual museum itself was more of a work of art than the art it displayed because it covered almost every inch from many different points of view in the museum. I also liked how it was pretty easy to operate and move around, and no matter how much I zoomed in or out I could read almost everything perfectly fine. While being able to explore this museum from the comfort of my own home was a plus, I truly missed out on being able to read the display labels to learn more about the artifacts. Reading about the history or story behind a work of art is, in my opinion, the best part. This virtual tour was captivating, and I hope to someday visit the museum in person.”

As one of the most excellent British modern museums, Tate Modern ran several digital strategies aim to creat incomes and build interactive communication with their audice. In that process, Tate proved how important that digital communication offered to museum to create and nurture an engaged arts community and to maximise the associated revenue opportunities. In the three years, Tate Modern had improvement on their incomes, however, their number of website visitings was not stable, thus, the result should be analysised with theories, to find out why it would happen.

According to the American Alliance of Museums, community engagement in museums includes the use of this facility as “a center where people gather to meet and converse and an active, visible player in civic life, a safe haven, and a trusted incubator of change” (Long 141). Different museums

A greater number of educators are looking to museums to help them attain their educational objectives. Howard Gardner has identified Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood as the perfect environment for stimulating the natural curiosity of a child. Furthermore, in response to demands for new educational approaches, older children are using museums to develop their critical facilities in art and design (Campbell, 1992).