How can we open our exhibitions on budget, on time — to rave reviews? 

Making cost estimates, updating project schedules, and gathering precedent design ideas are all good practices. But you could do all those things and wonder why they don’t work in the end. The solution starts at the beginning: in the fundamental underlying strategies we use to plan and guide our projects. These strategies are the subject of Making the Museum.

A Growing Deck of Cards

This project offers an original toolkit of strategies, rules, and ways of thinking about exhibition planning. It does not outline a roadmap but offers strategic cards to play when needed. The mission is to help all projects be on time, on budget, to rave reviews. New “cards” are added weekly.

Help Guide the Project

With a small action, you can help guide this project. Subscribers can reply to any email and comment in just a word or two whether a particular short read is valuable, so-so, or misses the mark. Your feedback will guide the project over time.

Topics

Making the Museum touches on:

  • Planning

  • Immersion

  • Strategy

  • Audiences

  • Technology

  • Content

  • Sustainability

  • Architecture

  • Managing

  • Accessibility

  • Conservation

  • Digital

  • Contracts

  • Experiences

  • Lighting

  • Interactives

  • Your Topic Here


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Author

Jonathan Alger is the Managing Partner and a co-founder of C&G Partners. He is a practicing design team leader with over 25 years of experience in exhibitions, interactive public environments, and digital. His clients include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Boston Public Library, Bronx Zoo, Cornell University, Federal Reserve, Holocaust Museum, Japanese-American National Museum, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Library of Congress, Museum of Jewish Heritage, NASA, National Archives, National Museum of American History, National Museum of the American Indian, New York Stock Exchange, New York University, Optica, Population Council, Princeton University, Rockefeller University, Smithsonian, and the US Department of State.

Jonathan is a frequent public speaker. He has been honored by the American Institute of Graphic Arts, American Association of Museums, American Association of State and Local History, Art Director’s Club, Communication Arts, Industrial Design Society of America, National Endowment for the Humanities, Society for Experiential Graphic Design, Type Director’s Club and the Webbys. He is a National Design Award Finalist and two-time winner of the AAM MUSE awards. He served two terms as national President of SEGD, the Society for Experiential Graphic Design. Before co-founding C&G Partners, Jonathan was a Principal at the design firm Chermayeff & Geismar Inc. Jonathan graduated from Yale University, BA with honors and distinction in Architecture, magna cum laude. He lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn with his wife, two boys and two cats.

Contact Jonathan here.