Hello and welcome to my website!
This space brings together the disparate pieces of my online life, both personal and professional. Twitter feeds, blogs I read, excerpts from blogs I write, and professional links and information are all thrown together.
I enjoy museums of all types and was drawn to social media because I believe that all people with their varying backgrounds and interests can find a connection with almost any museum with the right approach. For instance, picture a typical abstract expressionist painting at an art museum. Some people will find the painting interesting because of the visual and artistic aspects of the painting, but many will not. Others might find the history of the artist and the movement more compelling, still others may be interested in the chemical makeup of the paint and others may be interested in the construction of the canvas and stretcher. Someone else may be interested in the social implications of the art movement, someone else may be interested in the psychological impact of the work on viewers and someone else may be interested in how music relates to the artwork. And this is just subject matter. Theories of museum education and exhibition delve even further into the ways to engage different types of people. There are more traditional ways museums connect with their visitors including labels, gallery layout, docents, lectures, in-gallery activities, but every day there are more ways to connect people with museums. Museums have been building communities of interaction within their walls and are starting to expand that community beyond walls. Social media is one way to expand the ways museums can connect with people and twitter is simply one tiny slice of the social media world.