“Cost per square foot” is a useful ratio. Likewise “occupants per square foot” and “sales per square foot”. What other “per square foots” could be useful? Here’s one: “words per square foot”. Say we have 50 paintings in a 50 x 50 room (2,500 SF). Now let’s write labels …

Why have a strong organizing principle for my exhibition? Don’t visitors just go wherever they want? Yep. And that’s exactly why you need a strong organizing principle. Because whatever principle you use, no visitor will follow it like a duty. …

What can we do when a display is old and culturally out of date, but we have no resources to refresh it? Many exhibitions have this problem, and solving it is so expensive we often do nothing. But In some cases, there is a clever temporary way to refresh a display. …

Is lighting art or science? If you’re a curator tasked with lighting design, where do you start? Lighting designers Steven Rosen and Ted Mather (Available Light) join host Jonathan Alger (C&G Partners) on Making the Museum to discuss "Revealing the Story with Light". …

The Euro 2024 right now is huge. It’s the big European soccer showdown every four years. The viewership of the final game equals half the entire population of Europe. Hundreds of people work for years for each team. Yet despite that scale, it has only one goal. …

At the school track meet today, our event is a sprint, once around the track. We’ll use all our fuel to win. Halfway through, the coach yells surprising news: the event has been changed midway. It is now a marathon. Instead of half a lap, we have 26 miles to go. What? …

How do new museums make money — really? What is “the peril of the bicycle wheel”? Is it bad to rely on “anchor funding”? Amy Kaufman (Principal, Amy Kaufman Cultural Planning) joins host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to discuss “The Money Pie Chart”. …

Can you invent a genre? For sure. But inventing one from scratch is rare. Treasures of Tutankhamun was the first blockbuster. Ateliers des Lumières pioneered immersive projection. Meow Wolf was the first … Meow Wolf. But for each success, a hundred others lost their bet. …

Remember the “Lone Ranger” remake years ago? Johnny Depp played Tonto. You might not. It flopped. The audience expected a classic western, but got a comedy-action movie, and that disappointed them. For exhibitions, genre expectations are critical. For example: …

It’s genre week! I’m excited. We’ll explore what genre means, how to work with genre expectations, and even how to invent a new one. First, what is it? A genre is a category of art, literature or music where all works share characteristics. Imagine bookstore sections …

In Do Nonprofits Make No Profits?, I asked you: So if “nonprofit” doesn’t mean “no profits” — then what does it mean? Thanks to everyone who wrote in! Here’s a good start from one reader: I’m going to say “nonprofit” means that “mission takes priority over profit”. …

We could pack endless content into our experiences … but people can’t absorb that. A single idea in a gallery is powerful … but that’s not efficient. How do we find balance, in between those extremes? Here’s a loose rule of thumb to try: One idea per surface, at most. …

What’s the role of wonder in experience design? Can we really design for all five senses? Jennifer Lemmer Posey (Curator of Circus at The Ringling) joins host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to teach some “Circus Lessons for Museum Professionals”. …

Don’t create an actual line representing time. Don’t put it on a wall. Don’t make it flat. Don’t make a straight line, if you must have a line. Don’t have each event point at a spot in time. And while we’re at it, here’s one last idea: …

Exhibition planning and design is a team sport. Yes, it does take experienced team leaders to finish projects on time, on budget, to rave reviews. But that doesn’t mean great ideas are exclusively the domain of a leader, or even the senior members of a team. …

Do museum stores actually make any money? What are they really for? Can a store act like an exhibition? David Franke (museum store architect) joins host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to discover what’s “Beyond ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’”. …

Today we have a guest author: the government. There is always a healthy debate about what “museum” means. But if we’re looking for an IMLS grant, their definition is clear. Over to you, Code of Federal Regulations § 3187.3! …

Morning, Bob. [Morning.] Got the content hose? [Yep.] Good. Which gallery are we doing? [Roman.] I think I did half of that yesterday. It’s a blur, right? [Yep.] OK, here we go. Look, that wall is totally empty. Let ‘er rip. [Right.] Whoa, that new hose is something. …

Sometimes you have an object that feels a little too big for its display case. Sometimes you have an object that’s just the right size. And sometimes the object feels small compared to its case. But wait. Why does “big case, little object” have to be a bad thing? …

“Nonprofit” is short for “nonprofit business”. Harvard, the Smithsonian, and the Met (either one) all have employees, bring in money, pay their bills, and offer things that people want (like, ahem, exhibitions). So does a nonprofit make no profits? The answer might surprise you. …