You’ll find the MJT tucked into an anonymous building on Venice Boulevard in Los Angeles. And if you do, you’ll have found one of the great must-sees for any exhibition person. I am not kidding. But the museum might be. …

How would you design an exhibit — if an animal’s life depended on it? Jacqueline Bershad, Vice President of Planning & Design at the National Aquarium, joins MtM host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to discuss “Designing with Animals.”

Personal screens today have two modes. The original light mode is dark-text-on-light: good in a bright room, so-so in a dark one.  Thankfully, we now have dark mode too: light-text-on-dark, which is much better in dark rooms. Which brings me to exhibitions. …

So people with color vision deficiency can tell which light means “stop”. (Stop is on top in most of the US.) 5-8% of male visitors, and up to 1% of women, have it. Accommodating differences in color perception is complex, because there are many types. …

A microclimate is a space in a museum with different environmental conditions than the surrounding area — like a display case or storage room. Usually this is to preserve artifacts by keeping them in ideal conditions to minimize deterioration. …

“Jargon” — the specialized vocabulary of a field. Jargon can bring us together, or keep us apart. Words we have in common are great. Words we don’t all have the same definition for, less so. So there’s a new feature: The MtM Word of the Day. …

The Mona Lisa is the most famous painting in the world. It was once stolen and later returned, which only made it more famous. On its own, it attracts about 30,000 people. A day. So. If you have a Mona Lisa … where do you put it?

Quick, which is better: A. One giant gallery with lots of mini-exhibitions in it. B. Separate galleries, totaling the same size. C. It depends. A giant gallery is the only choice if you have something giant: herd of skeletons, dozen planes, submarine …

When the design for your whatsis — museum, experience, wall, interactive software — is cluttered, you have two options. The second option is not for the faint of heart. But it’s my favorite. Option 2: Add Even More …

Ever been in a situation where the design for your museum, exhibition, experience, wall — let’s say whatsis — is cluttered? What to do? You have two options. Which is very interesting. Because you might think you only have one. ...

How do you make an institution that's both a museum and a memorial — at the same time? Alice Greenwald (Past President and CEO of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum) joins host Jonathan Alger (C&G Partners) to discuss “Making a Memorial Museum.” ...

So what kinds of intro theaters are there? Here are 8 approaches for your next project: 1. A Great Little Theater: It doesn’t have to be fancy. A nice little room with a good AV system will do. 2. Path as Theater: Audiences don’t actually have to sit. ...

It’s Intro Theater Week, Day Two! Intro theaters are classic — but oddly uncommon, given what they do. Not convinced an intro theater should be in your next project? Consider these 10 reasons. A great intro theater does them all. ...

An introductory (aka “intro”) theater is a dedicated space, typically located near the beginning of an exhibition, where visitors experience a short media presentation. We all know what they are. What's surprising is how useful they can be. ...

It was provocative, groundbreaking, stunning … and simple. In 1992, Fred Wilson curated “Mining the Museum,” an exhibition at the Maryland Historical Society (now Maryland Center for History and Culture). He designed it — by curating it. ...

Our visitors don’t already have our landmark building back home. They don’t already have our historic landscape. They don’t already have our rare collection. But they might already have the same media technology we’re planning. ...

Sometimes we don’t believe our visitors could ever love our subjects and collections like we do. They can, if we try. But it’s hard, yes. So we lose faith. They can tell. The truth is, either everything we have is important, or none of it is important. ...

Sound bleed: we looked at three strategies so far. Here are the last three. D. Separating Narratives. Conflicting narration means different narrators saying different things. Keep these distant enough. Test it. It's less of a problem than you think. ...

Sound bleed: what can we do? There are at least six solutions. Here are the first three. (The first one below is a little mind-blowing to some, but the most useful by far). A. Allow Overlaps. You can have way more overlap than you think. ...

In the competition for Most-Worried-About Technical Aspect of Exhibitions, there can only be one Greatest Of All Time: Sound bleed. Simply put, sound bleed happens when a visitor hears two or more different sound sources at once and finds it distracting. ...