A poem: Exhibitions are like other forms: / All follow certain given norms. / Seldom do we hide special secret layers, / Though visitors like to be game players.

Priceless objects studied by scholars (Neanderthal skulls, Rosetta Stone) often can’t travel. So we make scientific-quality facsimiles for borrowing. These are “forensic" quality, identical in every detail…

Have you ever re-watched an old film you loved for its special effects, and realized that it didn't age well? The media industry raises the bar on production values every day. Museums can’t do that. How can museum media be valuable longer? Pre-age it.

White box, black box. In black box, the container doesn't play an active role in the experience. In white box, it does. When to do white box: It's generally the best choice. In white box, the architecture adds to the value of the experience…

In exhibitions, black box refers to a gallery space that doesn’t matter. It is all black. We take the term from black box theater. Black box is a term in engineering and airplane safety too. In all three cases, the container is irrelevant…

Every visitor experience communicates five types of content, in this order. Inspiration > Persuasion > Orientation > Information > Education. Every experience has all five, even if some are minor…

You plan public-facing technology in most of your exhibitions. How cutting-edge should it be? It depends, but here are two things to remember. First: Nothing dulls faster than the cutting edge…

What if I told you ... that "nonprofit" actually means a business that makes profits, but never gives them to individuals, and instead reinvests them in crucial services for public benefit?

A nonprofit is a business — including nonprofits that make exhibitions. It must make more than it spends or it won’t survive. That leftover money is called profit. Then why do we call it nonprofit?

Nonprofits — like Harvard, the Smithsonian, or the Metropolitan Museum of Art — all have employees, bring in money, pay their bills, and provide things that people value (for example: exhibitions). So yes, a nonprofit is a business.

If you develop exhibitions, you probably work at, or for, a nonprofit. So it’s important to know what a nonprofit is. Quick: define nonprofit in words, quietly to yourself. What did you come up with?

It’s inevitable that some bad news will crop up during your next exhibition project, and you’ll be the one who has to deliver it. Or you’ll have to tell someone else to. It’s awfully tempting to stall, wait, go into denial — and not deliver it.

Time, money and quality are the three basic factors in exhibition project delivery. Given standard time and standard money, we can deliver standard quality. What if we’re asked to deliver faster, or cheaper, or better than standard? When do we say no?

Curators base their careers on knowledge of the subject. Everyone else should base their careers on ignorance of the subject. Defend your professional ignorance. Your ignorance of the subject parallels what visitors will feel.

This classic clip of a DJ explaining science in a broom closet isn't just a masterclass in teaching. It’s a model for engaging any audience that doesn't care yet. And that makes it a lesson you can apply to any exhibition in development.

The five classic questions of journalism — and English teachers — are Who, What, When, Where, Why. Some add How and How Much. The standard questions journalists use work well for other professions. Here’s the museum project version.

A poem: Inspiration first. / If you inspire them first, / You can educate. / It will never work / In the other direction. / Not in exhibits. / We can’t say, “Now learn!” / We must woo the audience. / Immerse them first. Quick.

Visitors don’t perceive architecture and exhibitions as separate. They’re part of one experience. We develop and fund them separately, but that’s just us. Architecture can be awesome, in the real sense of the word: “causing awe.”

Ironically, a typical rare book on display — say, that Gutenberg Bible of yours — can’t be read. It’s beige, dimly lit, filled with text in a dead language, and behind glass at an angle.

Even if it were none of that, it shows two random pages. And even it were an English-language romance thriller about Taylor Swift that visitors can browse for free, no one came to read.

Exhibitions, like movies, are primarily visual. You can watch good movies with the sound off. Some films have no words at all. But you can’t have one with only words. Exhibits are the same.

Let’s test that real quick. Which would you rather visit?