This Spring, Museology has hosted a series of informal conversations with visiting museum professionals. Our faculty invited some friends and colleagues to chat with our students about their current work, as well as their career paths. We’ve been delighted with the conversations we’ve had, as their unscripted responses and personal insights illuminate the paths that they took to get to where they are today, and what inspires them to make a difference in museums.
On March 31, we were joined by Margaret Middleton to chat with her about her work on the Barbie Gets with the Program exhibit at Living Computers: Museum + Labs. We discussed her approach to the exhibit and why she was interested in the project in the first place. She talked about how she incorporates her advocacy work into her work as an exhibit designer. Margaret shared with us her path to how she became an independent exhibit designer and content developer. It was fascinating to hear how her background working in children’s museums influenced her overall approach to exhibit design and the ways that she wants people to interact with her exhibits, providing opportunities for open-ended inquiry and curiosity-driven exploration.
Joe Heimlich came to the University of Washington last week to chat with us about his work in informal learning. Joe is a part of the Center for Research and Evaluation at Columbus Center of Science and Industry (COSI), as well as the Executive Director of Lifelong Learning Group, and has an extensive history researching informal environmental learning. Joe was enthusiastic in sharing his background researching how people learn about the environment. He talked with us about “learning landscapes,” meaning the ways that people learn in various contexts, as well as how they apply what they learn across contexts. Within an hour, he had us pondering the ways in which museums can do a better job of inviting visitors to help shape their museum-life experience. It was quite a conversation to start with on a Monday morning!
We’re fortunate to have friends of such intellect, wit, humor, and enthusiasm who are doing some incredible work within the museum field. We’re looking forward to more conversations like these to share in our collective successes, challenges, and work we need to do to push our field further.
–Dylan High, Museology Student Experience Coordinator