My Year of (R)EVOLUTION
To me, this word says change while leaving room for multiple possibilities. It says tear-down-the-Bastille radicalism and steadfast growth over time. It says spinning something on its head to see it from a new perspective, and it says changing form until things look entirely new. It includes room for power, the energetic force that keeps things moving and power, the quiet dedication that wears away stubborn resistance bit by bit.
It’s change as a lightning bolt and as a slow drip of water on rock.
Making a Survey That Doesn’t Suck (and Embracing Vulnerability in the Process)
I am trying to live my values of TRANSPARENCY, VULNERABILITY, and COLLECTIVITY, and in that spirit, I sent out a survey this past summer to professional contacts, asking them how they perceive me and my work.
Reflections on Tumult & A Year’s Worth of Weekly Affirmations
I’m giving myself a sabbatical of sorts from a professional field that is both still dear to me and seems hopelessly mired in harmful behaviors.
Sustaining and Maintenance: Reflections on MCN2019 (aka: MCN should always be in San Diego)
The doors to the field seemed to be open in both directions this year, not just offering a one-way path out … MCN2019 felt like self-care for the maintainers of cultural sector transformation.
MCN2018: In Praise of Presence
In a moment where the world feels consumed by divisive rhetoric and relentless, reactionary anger, this year’s MCN conference took a different path.
Performing Possibility: 24 Hours with Taylor Mac
[Taylor Mac’s] collective engagement transforms the experience, creating a magical place of possibility where harsh truths and awkwardness mingle with triumph.
There’s No Right Way to Visit a Museum: Creating a New Summer Experience at the Guggenheim
Anyone who knows me knows that I’m always trying to offer visitors an unexpected experience during their time in the museum. I like delight and surprise (who doesn’t?), and I heartily believe that an art museum is ripe to provide both of those things.
It’s Time to Listen: This Guggenheim Project Showed the Importance of Lending an Ear
An interdepartmental team of curators and educators came together to brainstorm ideas for how to take action in response, and after some discussion, we decided to focus in on this section: “Always be just as ready to listen as you are emboldened to speak out for or against others.”
MCN2017: Are You OK, Friend?
It was a conference where I was alternately drained by, gaining from, and giving back to a community I love. And that’s what things we love do for us. We love them when they’re messy and maddening, and they’re always there when we need them.
#MCN2016: A Love Letter
The MCN community is a tribe of rabble-rousers. We rouse museum rabbles. We don’t accept that because something’s already out there, it’s necessarily out there at its best. We question and poke and push, because we know there are better things ahead, and we want to reach them. We want to create them. We want to share them with all the people who visit museums, physically or virtually.