How do you choose the right architect for your museum? Is architecture about more than a building? Is architect selection about more than architecture? What is a design “brief”? Why are museum projects on “elephant time”? Are anonymous open design competitions a good thing? What comes after “good design is good business”? Susanna Sirefman (Presiden…

What if every museum were more like ... a children’s museum? Why is play “agnostic”? Can you design an entire museum for every generation, all at the same time? How are children’s museums like (and not like) other museums? How did they get that way? Wait, could we make an entire exhibition out of nothing but cardboard boxes? What is “co-learning”? …

What can we learn from one of the most complex AI projects in any museum today? What is the history of AI in museums? Can we add AI to our experiences without a complete renovation? How do you teach an AI about 775 different football teams? How can AI put visitors literally into a story? Is AI accurate enough for a museum? What about bias? Doesn’t …

What if the secret to better museums was … neuroscience? How can museums inspire human creativity? How much media should be in a gallery — or should there be any? How soon should you get feedback on your exhibition ideas? Can museums help us all “escape the algorithm”? What does knitting have to do with visitor satisfaction? In this episode, we’ll …

What if a museum were more like a laboratory? What if our exhibits were experiments? What if our galleries were more about questions, rather than answers? What if we didn’t fear failure as much? What if scientists, artists, and technologists all created exhibitions together? What happens when you edit an exhibit about editing DNA? Should every proj…

What if we're doing community engagement … wrong? How long should the process really take for a museum or exhibition? What’s the difference between demographics and psychographics? What does it mean to “move at the pace of community”? Why do community engagement experts sometimes cringe when they hear the word “charrette”? And what exactly does “co…

What if we combined immersion, emotion, storytelling — and games? We all want “engagement” … but what is engagement? How can our projects create it? What are the elements that go into it? Can game theory and play teach us how to make our experiences better? What is “narrative transportation”? Why are emotions key to memory creation? And what do Ren…

Can a statue change American history? How do we decide who gets a statue? What happens when you realize how many people deserve a statue but never got one? What’s the difference between a “forensic sculpture” for an interpretive exhibition, and one you’d put in a fine art show? Why are some museums just not complete without a bronze statue of the m…

How do you make a museum display case disappear? This episode is a masterclass in museum display case design. To the untrained eye, museum display cases look like what you’d find in a gift shop. But under the hood, they couldn’t be more different — and they are 100% unique to the museum world. Secrets we’ll reveal: art envelopes, non-offgassing, ai…

Can a building tell a story? How do you design a glass wall to be ... mist? What if architecture, landscape, and exhibitions were all thought of as one thing? What changes when you etch barbed wire into a handrail? How can the floor plan of an entire museum relate to a nautilus shell? What does “A.D.R.O.I.T.” stand for? We’re going to find out, so …

How would you design an exhibit — if an animal’s life depended on it? What is the number one reason people come to the National Aquarium? When should you take ego out of design? What is a “machine for living”? Which is right: “know-feel-do” or “feel-know-do”? (Hint: might not be the first one.) Why would an aquarium visitor want to hear from the pe…

How do you make an institution that's both a museum and a memorial — at the same time? How are exhibitions like theater? Is a museum a group experience, or a personal one — or is that a trick question? When is it time to trust your gut? Why is collaboration so important? When is a single milk can the most important object in a museum? How can one s…

Is there an organization for the exhibition field? A new initiative is picking up steam. The exhibition community in the US, some say, has recently gone from having “nearly one” professional organization — to none at all. That’s because of the unexpected 2023 dissolution of NAME, the National Association for Museum Exhibition, a group within the Am…

“The client’s role is not to solve the problem — it’s to state the problem.” What’s the client’s perspective in major cultural projects? What are “client user groups?” What’s the difference between advocating for the client, and advocating for the project? How do you “inhabit your project?” How might a single gender-inclusive restroom project chang…

Can you get big press with a small budget? (Hint: Yes.) For museums, small firms, and independent consultants, this episode is packed with literally dozens of ideas from a master of scrappy PR. What is the #1 tip about PR, if you forgot all the others? How do you get a journalist’s attention? How do you get in the news without something new? Who sh…

Have we lost a sense of playfulness in our work … and could we get it back? In museums for children, why does “analog usually beat digital?” What’s a “climbing structure”? What are design metaphors, and why should planners beware of them? How can exhibition teams better empathize with one another’s fears and concerns? Why should a museum profession…

How do new museums make money — really? In this episode, we lift the veil on new museum projects and money. What is “the peril of the bicycle wheel”? Is it bad to rely on “anchor funding”? How many kinds of revenue should a new museum project have? What happens if you have the wrong number? (Hint: eh, not so good.) How much money do endowments make…

What’s the role of wonder in experience design? What can the circus teach us to make our exhibitions better? (Spoiler alert: a lot.) Could being “with it and for it” be the secret to success for museum projects? How much technology is too much? Can we really design for all five senses? Can an exhibition be a high-wire act — literally? Jennifer Lemm…

Do museum stores actually make any money? What are they really for? Can a store act like an exhibition? What does “cap rate” mean? How big should a museum store be? What percentage of visitors go into one, and how many of them buy something? Why should you get an expert to design your store, and what happens when you don’t? David Franke (museum sto…

Why is economic planning so vital to any new museum project? What happens if you don’t do it? What is “dark tourism”? Why do economists think about audiences? Can a museum have “ROI”? Which is more important, a profitable museum event, or one that advances a museum’s mission? What can economics teach us about how to make our projects better? James …

What is the “humanities gap” — and why is it a huge opportunity for museums? Why can’t everybody be a philanthropist for the day? What does “cultural literacy” mean, and how can it unlock new approaches to the collections we put on display? Why could a shortfall in humanities funding suggest new ways for museums to be relevant? Why shouldn’t a muse…

We might think a design concept is the first step — but it’s not. What do you need to ask yourself, before you even start? What does your community want from your new museum, and how can you find out? What happens when you have funding for 10 staff, but you design a museum that will take 25 staff to operate? What’s more important, the cost of creat…

Why is “70/50” the gold standard? Should it be? Who decided? Does every gallery really need to be 70 degrees, plus/minus two? Does every storage space really need to be 50% humidity, plus/minus five? Is that a reasonable goal for most museums? At what cost? What’s the difference between “AA” climate control, and just “A”? How much energy could we a…

What if chaos in cultural projects is something to embrace, not fear? Can chaos theory give us new insights about how to manage complex work? Are we advocates for the owner of a project, or for the project itself? What are the three things upon which the success or failure of a project depends? Sometimes, is it better to let a few things change, ra…

What’s the secret to success, when a project lasts years longer than planned? What keeps us going when our work takes more time? How does the subject matter of a project relate to the form of a project? Why should we be thinking equally about the budget for what happens after a project opens? What is the “architecture of delight”? Why do “reverbera…

What is a “growth mindset” — and why is it more important than ever for our industry? What happens when we combine museology with the fast-growing field of positive psychology? How do exhibition teams get through projects with tough subject matter? Why should we always “put our own oxygen mask on first”? What’s the opposite of love (hint: not hate)…

Can an eye-catching museum revitalize a city? The answer might surprise you. Getting the right designer is vital. If you don’t like a painting you can put it away, but if you don’t like a building, you can’t take it down. Why is it important to have the goals of a complex museum project fit in a mantra of a few words? What comes first in museum arc…

How can we raise the voices of people of color in museums and exhibitions — and what stands in the way? What is Museum Hue? What constitutes a sustainable museum job, a sustainable career? What percentage of staff at museums are folks of color, and what roles do they have? What do we see happening in the exhibitions that museums create? Many cultur…

What do technologies like the Apple Vision Pro mean for exhibitions and experiences? For people who create cultural destinations, the pace of technology has now become so fast it’s hard to keep up. AR, VR, AI. What’s happening in the “near future” of the technologies that will define our field for years to come? What is spatial computing? Are proje…

Great projects happen because of great teams. But how do you build that team in the first place? Who should a museum hire first, to start a major project? How do you decide whether internal staff should run a big project, or if you need help from outside? Should you hire an architect before you hire an exhibition designer, or vice versa? Who else d…

How can we make digital experiences work for all visitors — whether kids or grandparents? Hint: it has to do with recognizing “diverse digital literacies.” When should you bring in a creative technologist? Why should you aim for the strong verbs? What is “sneaky attract mode”? How do you do paper prototyping? Are a lot of digital experiences in mus…

What’s the very first question we should ask — before we start our projects? Should we start designing … by designing? How do we make sure we understand our audience, before we start making experiences for them? Why is prototyping so important? How many of our ideas should we expect to survive the creative process? And what does microbiology art ha…

Cultural projects should be data-driven — but which *kind* of data? What’s the difference between the “big data” we all know — and “thick data”? Which is more important? (Hint: trick question.) What does cell phone data have to do with sculpture gardens? What’s a “two-hour ring”? What if we just recorded visitors narrating their entire experience —…

What if there were just five important things to remember when you build a museum? What if the most important one of them all — had nothing to do with architecture? Which costs more in the end: building the museum, or operating the building? (The answer might surprise you.) Is it better to be bold, or to be subtle? What’s the difference between how…

What’s the #1 thing to know about experiential technology? How long do LED walls last? (The answer will surprise you.) Is a project done when it opens, or are growing pains normal? What happens when you use technology just to have technology? What’s an “integrator”? Is sustainability a thing in experiential tech? How? What missteps waste money, rui…

What if there were a better way? Are the normal exhibition planning and design methods actually way too risky — and is there a way to “de-risk” them? Are our concepts not good enough, because we’re not developing enough of them, fast enough? What would happen if we merged effective web techniques like “Agile” with established physical development p…

What’s the A in DEAI, and why are the ADA guidelines not enough anymore? What’s intersectionality? What’s a “user expert”? If ADA isn’t our goal, what comes after? This is a must-listen episode, featuring two of the most important voices in museum accessibility today. Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) is joined by Beth Ziebarth (Smith…

How can exhibition teams help to decolonize design? What are the pitfalls cultural organizations should watch out for in their DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) initiatives? What’s a supertoken and why are cluster hires a better strategy? And what does it mean to approach the process indigenous-first? The new book, “Decolonizing Design: A Cult…

What if the best way to market an exhibition — wasn't marketing? What do we need to do better to help visitors find us in the first place? When they do, how do we engage them? When visitors arrive at our institutions, do they know where to go? What happens to the visitor's experience when we haven't thought enough about the restrooms, the stairs, o…

Three podcast hosts join forces in a single show to discuss the latest in experience design. It’s a fast-paced three-way session covering half a dozen broad themes, and countless smaller ones. What are we hearing out there? How can we apply it to the work of cultural institutions? Is the biggest creative trend of them all the resurgence of … empath…

What if there were a high-quality, peer-reviewed journal for the whole exhibition community? What if it featured the leading organizations, practitioners and ideas that shape the whole industry? What if back issues for the past 30 years were available — for free to see online, right now? “Exhibition,” the Journal of Exhibition Theory & Practice, pu…

What if accessible design was for everybody, starting with … ourselves? What if we are all only temporarily enabled? How can a broader philosophy of access benefit every visitor? What does a WWII veteran have in common with a mom carrying a baby? Could TikTok and the rise of “quiet social media” teach us something we missed? Phillip Tiongson (Potio…

What is this thing we call a traveling exhibition? Do they make money? Are traveling exhibitions the same as temporary ones? How can anyone plan a project for a space they’ll never see? Carol Bossert (Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service / Smithsonian Affiliations) joins host Jonathan Alger (C&G Partners) to reveal the “8 Principles…

It’s a rare moment when a leading designer swaps jobs to lead a nonprofit member organization. And then has to lead that organization through a global pandemic. What unique insights does an experience like that give you — and what can we all learn from it? Cybelle Jones (CEO of SEGD), joins host Jonathan Alger (C&G Partners) to discuss what she’s l…

(P.S. Will you be at AAM in Denver? Drop a line if you’d like to catch up there, or see if we can find Phil & Monique at the grab-and-go café.) If a project is over budget, who does the cutting? How early should you estimate costs on a project? What should you do with expensive suggestions? How do you make your own cost estimate? Host Jonathan Alge…

What’s it really cost to build a museum? How can we find out if a project is financially viable — before we start? What are the most common ways museum projects get in financial trouble? Kris Collins, Managing Director of the Cultural practice group for MGAC, joins host Jonathan Alger (C&G Partners) to discuss “A Museum is a Business”. Along the wa…

How do you keep a huge cultural project on track? How do you guess the future? What’s a contingency — and why is it the difference between success and failure? Project manager Beth Van Why (Becker & Frondorf) joins host Jonathan Alger (C&G Partners) to reveal the Secrets of Complex Cultural Project Management. Along the way: recovering architects, …

What are “streakers, strollers and studiers”? How can we plan better projects using the “attract, reveal, reward” system? What’s a “wunderkammer”? What can we expect in the upcoming “Exhibition and Experience Design Handbook”? Professor, designer, and museum director Tim McNeil (UC Davis) joins host Jonathan Alger (C&G Partners) to preview his upco…

What’s the best way to organize the content in our experiences? What tricks are we forgetting to try? And what if you learned there were five ways to do it — and only five? Host Jonathan Alger (C&G Partners) does a solo show on “L.A.T.C.H.”, the framework proposed by TED founder Richard Saul Wurman, where there are just five ways to organize any ki…

Is everything “phygital”? Are all our projects now neither physical nor digital, but both? How can a “phygital mindset” lead to better experience design? Exhibition designer and “phygital architect” Alin Tocmacov joins host Jonathan Alger (both partners at C&G Partners) to hash out some key principles, in “8 Ways to Be Phygital”. Stops along the wa…