MuseumNext Europe 2017 Rotterdam

MuseumNext Europe 2017 is done! This year Rotterdam's hosted 500 'Game Changing' museum professionals, leaders, storytellers, designers, etc. for the conference that asks - just like President Bartlett

The conference has evolved into three evenings and days of social, participative sessions and content. Sometimes edgy, sometimes predictable but I always find takeaways: new ideas, things to research and new friends for Twitter and LinkedIn to keep in touch with. The first evening for early arrivals was drinks at Belasting Douane Museum Rotterdam where we were treated to a demonstration of dog handling and how Indie and Jack smell out drugs. The wee Jack Russell sniffed out 2,500Kg last year!

We went pink this year!

Day 1 - Discovery and Orientation

I reluctantly visited the Maritime Museum and was so impressed another blog will follow with what's there, it was surprising! A relaxed first day with informal workshops, tours and social events allows delegates to settle in, catch up with old friends and meet new delegates - it's a conference I try not to leave anyone standing alone for long. Local venues open to host and their staff also come and mingle and all sorts of new connections are made. Attending fascinating talk at Het Nieuwe Instituut introduced me to someone who is researching physick garden plants of the Dutch during their colonisation and how it impacted their medical remedies. It's also a courageous and confident move to open a venue to a museum conference, how many others would happily welcome the professionals in?

Days 2 & 3 - Talks and Workshops

Content heavy with time to visit the carefully selected sponsors and mingle. My key memories and learning from these two days:

• Honor Harger from ArtScience Museum presented, woweeee!!! Singapore has an awesome exhibition partner in teamLAB. She presented Future World Where Art Meets Science illustrating the challenge of exhibiting in bits versus atoms, using technology the exhibition is able to take drawings and integrate them into the wall displays converting atoms into bits. It was exciting to see different ways of entering the exhibitions, slide in, crawl in, etc.  Another exhibition Into the Wild has the museum partnering with the big technology players Google, Lenovo, etc.  and is challenging their visitors on climate change direct with 21st century technology. Guests learn about the ecological damage in nearby Indonesia and are invited to plant a virtual tree in VR and the institution then plants a real one to offset the thousands of trees burning in fires threatening the habitats of endangered animals and also contributing to the city's smog. Incredible visitor number growth shows the engagement and fun is wanted.
• The Lost Palace is coming back this summer. See my last post gushing about the experience. The project manager honestly explained what went well and what went wrong. Always entertaining Tim Powell shared the painful experience of not getting the marketing right. This year they have revamped it and supplemented with images from last year. A must see if in London July to September. 
• The British Museum has created an engaging and informative sex and relationship education programme for Key Stage 3-5 kids. Working with an artist and using the collection in the gallery they are seeing strong results, positive and negative press coverage from Mary Beard and Daily Mail - a true measure of a programme's impact. Melany Rose and Chloe Cooper gave a great presentation. More info in the blog by Melany.
• Dave Patten from Science Museum shared some of their initiatives in the hackathon and the new maths gallery at Science Museum uses VR to show the mathematics behind flight of the installed biplane. The graphics and effect were captivating and feedback positive, except it seems the five minute experience is too long for the participants' friends and family to wait! 

The city has art everywhere, some inspiring messages like this. 

Some that can't be explained!

• Te Papa museum continues to innovate, even if the farthest museum from Rotterdam. Miri Young shared the new Lab called Hinatore  - Maori for phosphorescent or glimmer - is bringing all ages to the museum to create, learn and participate. 
• Adam Lerner from Museum of Contemporary Art Denver pushed the marmite button with his ending keynote. He took us back to where it started as a regular edgy talk in a shopping mall where two unrelated topics were thrown together with an expert speaker on each like, Andy Warhol and Artificial Lighting. It has ended with him Director and Chief Animator of MCA with the same philosophy but working with a bigger team on the output. He was honest and humorous and the audience seemed jealous/appreciative of his (I think) 70% 18-30 audience, but is it too risky to bet the organisation on such unconventional strategy?
• I learned of new tools to try for improving efficiency and effectiveness from the very engaging O'Banion sisters
• Deborah Cullinan from Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts returned to the MuseumNext stage to share CultureBank. Currently the output of a think tank they are seeking to change the museum and society paradigm to introduce other returns on investment. The mission is to generate culture that moves people, because culture is the essential catalyst for change. Skills exchange, etc. could reduce the power of money and address the growing wealth gap. Cullinan  has significant partners on board and it's an ambitious concept which requires political - local and national - acceptance. If you know me and my healthy scepticism... it is great to try new things.
• Johan Idema presented confidently on The Big Art Show. A theatrical show delivered in The Netherlands with 10 art works loaned from nearby institutions interpreted with drama, storytelling and lighting effects. It's based on his argument that the white cube's time is up and by flipping art into the black cube a greater experience can be delivered. I am fascinated by audience engagement with art and another blog is following about this concept. A question from the floor challenged if galleries are white cubes anymore. Also, a growth in cinemas beaming blockbuster exhibitions and curator tours across the UK is adding visits to the exhibitions at a lower cost than The Big Art Show could imagine. 
• Olga Subiros gave a snapshot of The Big Bang Data travelling exhibition. The examples she included were captivating in illustrating the data that surrounds us. Face masks made from found DNA, artworks simulating the wave flow surrounding a buoy in the Pacific Ocean in realtime and one I found on the website, finding a cat from Instagram using the photo's GPS meta data. 

Not as many screens in the audience as previous years?

Jim, Kala, the team of volunteers and any behind the scenes contributors did an amazing job to create another memorable, inspiring and collegiate conference that has left me with new ideas, thoughts and new contacts to move forward. Inviting representatives from #MuseumDetox allowed many of the presentations to be viewed from multiple approaches. Videos will reach the MuseumNext website soon (probably here) and next year it is returning to London for the 10th birthday. The wedding anniversary gift after 10 years is tin or aluminium, I wonder if the name badges will be reflecting this?

Museums Association Conference 2014 - thoughts

Two days in Cardiff at Museums Association conference and here are the things I loved and things not so much. 

Usual intelligently designed conference brochure

1. Young professionals were everywhere - thanks to £125 ticket prices for first timers (I also spoke to someone with a bursary from Welsh Federation), it was great to have a younger demographic evident.

2. Red first time badges - I remember how much I hated my first MA conference in Glasgow. Not knowing anyone and no-one knowing me was lonely and intimidating. Having clear badges helped me know who to say hello to and a great conversation starter. 

3. Games session by @DannyBirchall and Kate Kneale was filled with energy and creativity. Who knew we would end up dancing to Dancing Queen with strangers in the Millennium Centre's foyer. 

4. Mat Fraser's presentation was amazing. Songs, history, rapping, artistic slant and challenges to the room was well timed and it's clear what the take away to every curator. Reinterpret one object to encourage disabled people the belief that they are part of history too. 

5. Presentation by Kim Thomas, Senior cultural advisor at BBC on how she lead the creation of a double episode on Casualty on topic of Female Genital Mutilation was a perfect presentation. 

6. Networking opportunities were plentiful - finding familiar faces, making new contacts, new friends and learning the odd new word - lechyd da!

7. More participative sessions were an opportunity to share ideas and also meet people over juicy topics and healthy debate. 'Should a museum host GP surgery?"

Not like

1. Weather - I am british and am contracted to mention it, two brollies and 10 seconds in the rain soaked me 

2. Repetitive topics like resilience and sustainability have been discussed at conferences I've been to for years. If we keep talking will it ever be solved? I think some speakers could learn from AIM conferences and be inspired by achievements instead of focussing on the cut face towards the future.

3. Inevitable clash of sessions and then a dearth of sessions to visit - thats when the sweeties from exhibitors drew me in and the favourite was PLB! 

MuseumNext 2014 Day Two

Day two at #MuseumNext held as much interest and excitement for me as day one, although I was maybe a little jaded after two nights and one day of networking, the delegates are always so pleasant!
Day two started with Antenna LAB an offshoot from Antenna Audio who are well acquainted with audience engagement in museums. They praised museums as a third space and the opportunities that mobile offers before, during and after visits. They illustrated recent examples of projects within walls of museums at MoMA, Cleveland Museum of Art (Gallery One) and National Galleries Scotland (Art Hunter). They showed Grand Tour project of National Gallery/Hewlett Packard which had replica art all over London and are investigating how to capitalise on the learning of that. My question; is this an opportunity to edutain using cultural output and compete for the time people spend on devices while on the street against music, podcasts, games and social media?
What caught my eye was Talking Statues which is NESTA R&D funded, due to my late posting it's now out. I am excited by this, although rare for museums to have civic statues in their collection the concept of low cost technologies reaching everyday spaces is something I get behind. Currently available on 40 London statues and being evaluated by University of Leicester, this is worth keeping an eye on. 

Breakup sessions are always a tough choice, I plumped for Amy Heibel, LACMA and Shelley Mannion, British Museum with intriguing title which included Zen and R&D. Amy introduced the R&D project at LACMA echoing similar artist engagement in 1960s with Warhol, Oldenberg and Smith. After an open call artists were selected and paired with advisors from companies like NVIDIA, Google and SpaceX. "We (LACMA)  give financial and in-kind resources to artists to support projects (that may not happen otherwise) that engage emerging technology". My favourite so far is Annina Rust who has robots decorating cupcakes with piecharts depicting gender gaps. I even spotted a previous work colleague in one of her slides, the museum world is small.

Shelly Mannion gave a great presentation with theory from Falk, research from Morris Hargreaves McIntyre, the Happiness Project and laboratory studies of Buddhism. She explained Buddhism views happiness as a fundamental drive, distinct from pleasure, a choice, a skill, inextricably related to others. Shelley presented research that biographical exhibits connect more with audiences and aim to increase their sense of well-being. 

Next up was a look at the Adidas archive website, looks great with chance to curate your own collection, nothing new. 

Cybelle Jones from Gallagher & Associates presented on a selection of their projects. As someone who has a non-project budget of less than £5k these multi million dollar projects are not going to impact any of my daily decisions. Gallery One, National Post Museum, College Football Hall of Fame.

The afternoon's keynote was to set the theme of crowd sourcing with Gretchen Scott from MoMA and Jason Minyo from Possible and they talked about ART140. Using famous art work they invite people to tweet what they express for them. An additional element is the opportunity to analyse the data, assuming people use correct information on profiles there's a method of taking the data and looking for patterns of interpretations against age, geographic location, etc. Initial findings seemed to mirror findings of other studies, you don't have to be an art historian to see common themes. 

Kathy Fredrickson, Peabody Essex Museum stepped in late to present on a joint project with Smithsonian Institute and the Roundware Access App platform development. Another method of gathering audience interpretation and knowledge of museum collections. It's at developer stage at present and anyone interested in getting on board are welcome to contact the developers. 

National Museums Scotland, not surprisingly dear to my heart has undergone significant change in the past five years, physically and digitally. The digital has been led by Hugh Wallace and he shared an update and the five learning points for them in developing five apps, three visitor surveys, mobile friendly website, responsive design site (coming soon) and QR code experiments. 

1. Balance internal knowledge knowledge and creativity with external expertise 
2. Everything's an experiment, looking at Bluetooth low energy 
3. Keep asking questions 
4. Think beyond the sector 
5. Promote or die 

My final selection of conference continued the theme of working with your audience with Carlotta Margarone, Palazzo Madama and Hannah Fox, Derby Museums offering their recent experiences of how audiences have responded to calls for assistance and participation.

Palazzo Madama identified a porcelain service from their region dated to 1730 and felt it was necessity to purchase for their collection. They raised €96k in two months exceeding the target of €80k and Carlotta expressed their desire to build on the relationship with these 1591 funders and other ways people supported. It raised their social media skills and the numbers following and liking, they developed portable donations boxes for everyone to take to events and ask for money all based around a storytelling philosophy for the ask. 

Final speaker was Hannah who explained at Derby Silk Mill Museum they were unable to secure the funding to refurbish and were left with a decision of what to do next. They asked the museums and the people what to do and then asked for them to participate and help. Re:make is rebuilding the museum with community effort, skills and ideas by making, producing and building it. Hannah sees it very much in the industrial heritage vein and the innovation of the 1900s while all sharing the load and responsibility. As the location for MuseomixUK in November 2014 it s somewhere some of the audience will no doubt get to visit. 

Apologies for a long summary, it proves;
A. I was listening and,
B. the presentations at MuseumNext are engaging, inspiring and leave me asking more questions and searching websites for more information.