Bass Museum of Art

admin — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 17:11:36 +0000

Honesty is such a lonely word

Belinda Rawlins — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 22:11:22 +0000

At the Transmission Project, you hear us talking about the concept of honest practice rather than best practice. We believe it is equally, if not more, instrcuctive to examine more than what worked. We want to know about surprises, the unexpected, even the failures.

I perked up when, in my RSS reader, I spotted this in a recent post at Museum 2.0:

What’s the best way to share information about your experiments–what worked and what didn’t? Publish.

There are many other fabulous reports out there to learn from, but there are far more languishing in file cabinets. I was a bit surprised as I worked on the book at how often I could get access to a evaluation report with some sleuthing and asking–and how infrequently those reports were publicly available in any form. Please, if you go to the time and expense of evaluating your institution’s projects, find a way to share what you’ve learned.

Nina Simon shares evaluation and research studies on participatory projects in museums. I highly recommend checking out these links as much of what you’ll find has great application in many public engagement efforts.

Check back here regularly for artifacts and stories from the projects we support at the Transmission Project. And let us know what you learn.

Transmission Project - museum

Bass Museum of Art

Honesty is such a lonely word