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. ...

Sexy browsing is when an interactive experience is the equivalent of an analog book, diagram or filing cabinet, but done with appealing technology. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s just not the only thing. ...

Which is better, a media wall or a chain link fence? Let’s imagine two exhibition experiences, which I will invent at random: 1. Media Wall. A giant, 10-foot tall, 20-foot wide, high-resolution, interactive media wall. Next: 2. Chain Link Fence ...

“Want to get married under a giant extinct lizard skeleton?” ”I thought you’d never ask.” Exhibition halls and rotundas can make excellent event spaces. In convention centers, generic is the norm. But in museums, that doesn’t necessarily apply. ...

Strategies, principles, tricks, and tips abound. But the One Rule of Exhibitions stands alone [dramatic music]: Exhibitions are primarily a medium for communication. Half of the strategies we cover here at MtM relates to the One Rule. ...

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”  (Albert Einstein) This rule comes up regularly in exhibition planning discussions. For good reason. It’s applicable to every project we do. But wait, there’s more. ...

A colleague tells me that a metaphor of mine resonates with people she shares it with. It’s a slightly broader topic than the normal MtM beat. Here it is: There are pirates attacking the ship. Also, the ship is on fire. (Stay with me here.) ...

One day soon, that sparkly new tech will misbehave. And non-technical owner organizations likely won’t be able to keep up. How can we make our tech-heavy exhibitions less prone to failure? Here’s an easy idea, one I like partly for its blasphemy. ...

Quick, what’s your new exhibition based on? A. Thing-based. B. Idea-based. C. Wait, is this a trick question? If your exhibition is thing-based, you have amazing things for visitors, and you could match ideas with them. But let's look at B. (And C.) ...