REIMAGINED PERFORMANCE & FUNDRAISING

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How Are We Performing Today? This is a Museum of Modern Art NY project examines the "shifting conditions and rising popularity of performance-related art, and its evolving—and frequently ambivalent—relationship to the museum". It draws upon the double meaning attached to 'performance': The live element in the arts – current cultural production;  and  The benchmarking for economic productivity and thus relevance. MoMA's conference is very much to do with understanding the "character and consequences of new performance formats and strategies used by artists, curators, and institutions".  Notably, it explores how performance is "tied to the experience economy—in which memory itself is a product—and how it is framed institutionally".  Importantly via this conference is engaging with its Community of Ownership and Interest around the world and is asking questions like: "Where and under what conditions does performance art emerge today?  How can artists and institutions address performance's migration from the margin to the center of contemporary art discourse?  What kinds of transformations or conditions might be necessary to create a meaningful or critically engaged performance art program within the museum?" Interestingly, in doing all this the flip side of 'performance's' double meaning comes into play given that MoMA is deepening its engagement with current theory and practice relevant to 'current cultural production'—reflecting on  changing paradigms, parameters, modes of production, and presentation.AND all the while the institution is being  'entrepreneurial'  and in a multidimensional way. GO TO: http://auxiliarymuseumtasmania.blogspot.com.au/ for more information

Making Museums Matter

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Nina Simon has a well earned and hard won reputation as a passionate and unabashed "museum activist" on the international stage – and a rather successful one. Primarily, Nina Simon has been an advocate for community participation in museum programming in a 21st Century context.

Recently she presented a talk at a TEDx Conference [TEDx link] where she shared her experiences at Santa Cruz's Museum of Art & History and the story of how the MAH transformed the museum into a thriving cultural center by opening it up to its community. 

Furthermore, by collaborating with diverse groups, celebrating the uniqueness of Santa Cruz as 'place', the museum both invited and honoured the participation of all its visitors. Accordingly, MAH has been able to increase its visitor numbers in a spectacular way through more dynamic participatory programing. It now offers a reference model for museums wishing to improve their standing in their community.

What's more, MAH is now financially sustainable, and consequently more successful by any measure. The link to the 15 minute video below is well worth the time to watch it as Nina talks about the ways her museum members managed to turn the institution around (financially & culturally) and what worked. Clearly, what Nina Simon has to say has a wider application in other institutions beyond her own that are seeking to succeed in a 21st Century context.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO

A graph from the video that demonstrates MAH's current success

LINK HERE

Nina Simon is the Executive Director of The Museum of Art & History @ McPherson Center in Santa Cruz, California. Prior to joining the MAH, 2008-2011, Nina ran a design firm called Museum 2.0 that worked with cultural institutions worldwide on audience participation. She also maintains the Museum 2.0 blog, focusing on ways that museums can integrate social networks, user-focused design, and etc. into our institutions ... click here to read more on Nina

Nina is also the author of "The Participatory Museum" a book that is gaining international currency a standard text of a kind in 'musueology'. Nina also presented "Discourse in the Blogosphere: What Museums Can Learn from Web 2.0." Museums and Social Issues Fall 2007

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