Here’s a thought that’s crazy but true: an exhibition is a communication medium you can walk through. Unlike almost any other channel of communication, exhibitions are dimensional. And the audience is physically inside the channel. …

Tropes don’t only appear in a genre. They define the genre. Here are five from museum exhibitions: #1. The Systematic Rail.
Three feet off the ground. Keeps visitors from the displays. Often has information perched on it. Now, #2 …

Exhibition planning meeting running low on bold ideas? Here‘s a simple trick: as a thought exercise, ask some disaster questions, like, “What if we could only exhibit one thing? How would we make it amazing?” Now, why not do that anyway? …

Please never put your Mona Lisa in the lobby. You’ll be wasting one of your best opportunities. So where should we put it? Where do we put our iconic experience, that thing we’re known for? Sky’s the limit, really. But here’s an idea starter kit: …

The audience hushes as the actor enters. She glides through shadows to a pool of light, and begins to speak. In a dark theater, an actor is irrelevant until they are lit. If the actor isn’t lit, the actor isn’t there. The same is true in exhibition design. …

Making the Museum, the podcast, just turned 2. Aww. So cute! And I found out the modern way: my software sent me a digital accomplishment badge. I might digitally frame it. It’s been quite a couple of years. Here are some stats: …

What if our exhibits were experiments? Ann Neumann (Director of Galleries and Exhibitions, MIT Museum) discusses “Museum as Lab” with host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners | The Exhibition and Experience Design Studio). …

That black circle in your eye is not a dot. It’s a hole in your eyeball. Your pupils are black like a keyhole is black when the room beyond has no light. (Guess what causes redeye in a photo. Take your time. Hint: it’s a little gross.) …

Some words confuse as much as they help. (Yeah, I’m looking at you, program. developer. and immersive.) Words for display objects aren’t much better. “Artifact” seems clear enough. But what about “repro,” “facsimille,” and “replica”? Sheesh. …

For exhibitions that will be busy, we don’t like interactives only meant for one visitor at a time. Why? Because single-visitor experiences can’t serve enough people to be efficient. So then we plan for large group interactivity. But wait …

It’s not an exhibition brainstorming meeting until someone yells out: How about a hologram? But ironically, nearly every “hologram” you will ever see in person, or in a movie, or in a Google search … isn’t one. …

Long-term exhibitions almost always feature an element that got included because it was a hot trend. But is that element part of a long-term trend? Or a short-term one? Hard to know in advance. But no trend is invulnerable. …

Our projects are spatial experiences just long enough to offload their takeaways into the minds of our visitors. If they succeed, they live on in thousands, or millions, of souls. So what one thing do we want our visitors to leave thinking? …

When is the earliest time you should estimate costs for your exhibition or experience project? A. As soon as you have approved technical drawings. B. As soon as you have a concept design package. C. As soon as humanly possible. The answer is …

What if we're doing community engagement … wrong? Nu Goteh (Founder and Principal of ROOM FOR MAGIC) joins MtM host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to discuss “Community Engagement Misconceptions.” …

I have been looking in all the usual places for credible data to back up a gut feeling we probably all share: Reading is on the decline. Because if it is, it’s time to rethink text in exhibitions. Data-wise, I haven’t found a smoking gun. That’s where you come in. …

For any audio-visual program, we must also offer that audio content in visual form.  And we all know closed captioning. But “open captioning” is the exhibition standard. That’s CC that’s permanent, aka “burned in,” and can’t be turned off. …

For those who hear, but not well, legally we must assist them to hear our audio better. In exhibition theaters, one approach is “assistive listening” systems. This is required anywhere visitors gather to experience content over time. …

Imagine an exhibition many of your visitors will never understand, because the main takeaways are audio-visual — and they can’t hear. Hearing loss in young people is actually on the rise (thanks, earbuds). And a third of people over 65 can’t hear well. …

Oxford economist Bent Flyvbjerg is an expert on failure. Research for his book included “16,000 skyscrapers, airports, museums, concert halls, nuclear reactors, and hydroelectric dams across 136 countries.” That’s right — museums. …