Museum Techmuse

Parent’s Choice Gold Award

What a way to end the week – just got an email this afternoon that Conservation Central, which we developed for Smithsonian’s National Zoo, has won the “Parent’s Choice Gold Award.” We were so pleased to join other website winners, including Scholastic, WGBH (for Arthur and Zoom), and other illustrious winners who serve family audiences.

And that’s the important message: we are developing media for museums and zoos that encourages family learning – before, during, and after the museum visit. 

Doll’s Day Out

Mothers, grandmothers, and granddaughters brought their dolls in to the Mercer Museum this past weekend and recorded their stories on Storytelling Kiosk about them. Wow. Felt like we tapped into something archetypal. Visitors eagerly lined up to record their stories. Conversations about dolls between visitors abounded. “Is this Tiny Tears? Or Betsy Wetsy?” Hand stitched clothes, two girls who add a braid of hair to their handmade doll at each sleepover – (and now, a story for each braid), a mother who updated her 50’s doll with a 70’s outfit for her daughter…

Conversations between visitors about personally meaningful connections to exhibits is the gold standard. Asking visitors to bring in a significant object and record a story about it in a special program is a powerful way to promote this. I was amazed at the power of the doll.

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