The New York Times ran a special section on Museums called, Wish You Were Here. “In lean times, museum officials strive to develop creative new strategies to connect with visitors.” While I wish they included a bit more information about all the wonderful partnerships libraries have with museums, nonetheless, there were several ideas noteworthy of reflecting.
- When the Gallery is a Classroom focuses on 500 high schoolers that attended ‘Cool Remixed’ at the Oakland Museum in California, wearing fashions from recycled materials. This complimented the museum’s fashion/art exhibit of the 20th century.
- The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles is organizing a bike night with valet parking (yep for the bikes) and the showing of a movie in the courtyard.
- At the Miami Art Museum, middle and high schoolers are using laptops, cameras, and video equipment to “consider their neighborhood as a design problem.” They then take the technology to suggest improvements to the situation.
These ideas sound like great partnership opportunities for libraries or program models to try on our own. A lot of information on advertising was included in the articles as well. Sure, a lot of it is online, just like we do at libraries, but other creative options were also given. If you’re partnering with a museum, feel free to share.
