Recent Posts

New Year, New Museums

New Year, New Museums

Happy New Year Museum lovers! Here’s to the next twelve months of dialogue, thoughtful interpretation, social action, and reflection in our institutions. With a new year, comes a host of new museums opening around the world!  Here are 8 new museums opening in 2018. Take 

Social Media Intern [Historic Newton, Newton, MA]

Social Media Intern [Historic Newton, Newton, MA]

Historic Newton is seeking an intern to work with the Community Engagement Manager in the winter/spring of 2018. The intern will create and manage content about special events, including our 2018 Newton House Tour. Familiarity with Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram is required. The ideal candidate 

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays!

We would like to extend a warm thank you to all of our subscribers this Holiday Season! Following this week’s post, we will be taking a short break for the holidays until January 7, 2018. We hope you will continue to engage in meaningful and innovative conversations surrounding the museum realm in the new year! Have a lovely conclusion to 2017 and a renewed and refreshed  start to 2018. We will see you in a couple weeks!!

Warm wishes,

Andrea and Dominique

Repatriation of a Lebanese “Bull’s Head”

Repatriation of a Lebanese “Bull’s Head”

This post comes from Amanda Wall, a first-year in the Museum Education program.  The Metropolitan Museum has handed over a Late Phoenician marble “Bull’s Head” to Manhattan Court Prosecutors after the owners dropped their federal lawsuit fighting the repatriation when presented definite proof of the 

Should art museums be for everyone? Yes. But can they be for everyone? Not yet.

Should art museums be for everyone? Yes. But can they be for everyone? Not yet.

This Week’s Post Comes from Kelsey Petersen, a First Year MA student in the Art History and Museum Studies program.  Should art museums be for everyone? Yes. But can they be for everyone? Not yet. Although many museums promote themselves as institutions open to all, not everyone 

Museums in the News: The New York Historical Society’s Citizenship Project

Museums in the News: The New York Historical Society’s Citizenship Project

This article is by Taylor Fontes, a first-year student in the Masters of Museum Education program. 

A trending issue in a vast number of museums today is keeping visitors engaged and creating conversation with the collection. Educators and professionals are always creating new studies to find out what the daily visitor wants, what they spend time looking at and for how long, etc. The list for conversation problems will always be an issue that museums will look to fix, the historical society has been working to create more engaging programs to benefit their community of visitors. Being placed in New York City the historical society has many people to serve but also an opportunity to expand outside of the “museum norm” and take chances to bring in the population that does not typically visit the museum. The Citizenship Project is a perfect example of how the historical society is bringing a new visitor into the museum and creating conversation.

The New York Historical Society Museum has created some discussion in regards to their free program for immigrants looking to take the naturalization exam to become United States citizens. The Citizenship Project is a class that immigrants can take with the New York Historical Society to learn more about the United States and questions that will be on the exam. The class is discussion based around pieces of art that pertain to important points in American history, including the darker parts of the Nation’s past. The museum pushes for participants to try and relate the images to themselves personally through conversation and to find a personal relationship to make the concepts that will be on the exam stick.

The museum is expanding their reach to visitors who are looking to become productive members of society and are also learning about the history of the country that they are about to become citizens in; another point is that many of these people taking the citizenship course may have not felt inclined to visit the museum prior to hearing about this opportunity so the museum is also reaching out to a new inclined visitor as well. The New York Historical Society is welcoming in new aspect of community involvement and engagement with their programs, whether free or otherwise.

The programs that the historical society has create conversation and allow for a broad audience to visit the museum and find a topic in which people could find interest and possibly a personal connection. The issue of creating conversation within the museum is one that the New York Historical Society has been trying to incorporate more into their programs. Creating programs for immigrants, family programs, children’s programs, as well as lectures and gallery tours are just a few ways that the historical society has been working to tackle their problems.