When a stakeholder or colleague suggests expensive additions midway through a project, make it gently clear — on the spot — if you think it might be over budget. Don’t refuse. Just be clear. …

What happens if you choose the wrong museum architect? Susanna Sirefman (President, Dovetail Design Strategists) discusses “The Art of Choosing a Museum Architect” with host Jonathan Alger …

MONIQUE: [Sips matcha.] A huge tech revolution is coming to the museum world, you know. PHIL: Maybe. MONIQUE: What do you mean? PHIL: [Sips coffee.] I’m not sure which tech revolution you’re talking about. But in my time …

Exhibition and experience projects are like any process of custom-making something. We want to see representations of the final thing, before it’s final. Enter samples, mockups, and prototypes …

Here's a quick way to gut-check whether an experiential idea is going to work — before you commit time and money to developing it. Take any idea being considered, put it in the blank in the following sentence, and …

Got an idea for a guest, or a topic, for Making the Museum, the podcast? Whatever themes, people, ideas, trends, problems, pains, joys, or mysteries are on your mind — I’m all ears. Hit REPLY and LMK. And by the way …

SVEN: You guys coming to my session, “Objects Speak for Themselves”? PHIL: Yep! MONIQUE: Yep! PHIL: So untrue. MONIQUE: No, I’m really going. PHIL: I mean his title. It should be “Objects Can’t Speak for Themselves.” …

What if every museum were more like ... a children’s museum? Edwin Link (Executive Director, The Children’s Museum of Atlanta) discusses “Think Like a Children’s Museum” with host Jonathan Alger.

Q: 4K screens are the only choice! Netflix sends 4K into living rooms! Who would ever use HD again? A: Sure, expectations have changed. But Netflix optimizes for a couch inches from a screen. In exhibitions, screens are often farther away. …

Time to build your exhibition. But wait! Before you build a single wall … order a single mount … send a single graphic to print … do me a favor. Hold a page-turner meeting. Consider it the final step before fabrication begins. …

MONIQUE: That exhibition this morning felt like a $1 show. PHIL: Were we on the same tour? That felt like $5,000,000. MONIQUE: Exactly. You were thinking total cost. I was thinking cost per visitor. PHIL: What? …

Will you be in Los Angeles next week, for the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) 2025 annual conference, May 6-9?  Are you involved in exhibitions in any capacity? Then you’ll want to know about this event. …

If you are like most folks working in exhibitions today, you might use the terms typeface and font interchangeably. But they’re not the same. Knowing which is which will make your projects better. …

What can we learn from one of the most complex AI projects in any museum today? Kimberly Beaudin and Geoff Thatcher discuss “A Museum Transformed with AI” with host Jonathan Alger. …

PHIL: If only museums had this many guests. (Sips chamomile tea.) MONIQUE: Museums don’t have guests. PHIL: What? MONIQUE: (Sips Americano.) They have visitors. PHIL: Guest sounds better. MONIQUE: But it’s not true. …

QR codes in exhibition labels are a communication medium, akin to footnotes in a book—optional, often overlooked, but potentially transformative if used well. Like any medium, they have pros and cons. …

Journalists write news articles according to what’s called the “inverted pyramid” style, where the lead paragraph contains all the key information readers must know. The summary is the first paragraph, not the last. …

Don’t know the term “LBE”? No worries. It’s just that … you probably make it for a living. “LBE” stands for “location based entertainment.” LBE is any form of entertainment outside the home, based in a particular location. …

QR codes continue their extended renaissance in museums (and in museum conference slides). BTW, QR codes are older than we think. They were invented a generation ago to track parts on Japanese assembly lines. …

At the moment, we Americans are debating many things. And clearly, the most important national debate of them all is still whether we should all say “exhibition design” or “experience design.” (Rolls eyes.) But meanwhile …