Friday, May 2, 2008
Museum in Transition
I hope you all enjoyed the visit to The Schenectady Museum & Suits-Bueche Planetarium. As I've mentioned, this museum is a great example of an organization reexamining their mission and the process that results. As we learned, the museum offered a little bit of everything: art, history, science, and technology. Now with a new mission, exhibits, and education programs, the museum has strengthened their role in the community and seen their attendance increase dramatically. It will be exciting to watch how the museum continues to grow and develop. What did you take away from our trip? Any ideas for the Yager Museum?
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4 comments:
I thought the trip was really wonderful. I haven't been to that museum in a really long time and i could really notice the differences in the exhibits. I think that the museum's plans to move to downtown schenectady is a great idea > the rennovations that have been on going in the city are really changing the atmosphere and i think the museum would be a great addition to the downtown area.
as far as the yager goes i think the story of the schenectady museum is a real inspiration > they are proof that by relooking and reconfiguring the mission of a museum your museum will prosper > i also think this is a great example of the idea that you can not be everything to everyone
i was also impressed by the museum's decision and commitment to change and old mission to try to fill a need they saw in the community. I though the interactives, exhibit design, and events were very close to the mission of making an environment for families and ppl of many generations learn about science. Whatever prior knowledge you had, you could take away something. i think they succeeding in making a creative and 'inventive' space.
for the yager to consider: who is the museum for, what is its focus and how can a place that supports the mission be created.
I liked how even though there were lots of interactives and visuals, it wasn't over-stimulating. It also seemed as though the idea of Multiple Intelligences had been considered when planning the exhbits, because there was a lot of different content, explained in different ways, for different learning styles.
The Yager Museum needs to focus its audience or intent. And as we discussed earlier in the semester, when talking about the Containers exhibit, the Yager needs exhbits which are more exciting, appealing and can target differnet styles of learning.
first I'd like to address the Yager Museum. I think based on our class assessment of the museum's possible intended audience pertaining primarily to the campus community, the museum does not need to use Web 2.0 resources to spread the word about the museum to the extent of some of the Web 2.0 outlets we have discussed in class. HOWEVER... I think since the Schenectady museum does have a larger intended patronage, that they need to use more web 2.0 outlets than they are currently using- both for networking to collaborate with other educational organizations / institutions, and with individual educators. I think the Schenectady museum needs to make it's new education-based mission a more prevalent statement on it's publications like brochures and advertisements on websites.... for example their website. I think it is also important for the Yager museum to include it's focus on engaging and educating the Hartwick College Community in it's mission statement, and also make it's mission statement more publicized. - Jess
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