Making the Museum

Three podcast hosts join forces in a single show to discuss the latest in experience design. 

It’s a fast-paced three-way session covering half a dozen broad themes, and countless smaller ones. What are we hearing out there? How can we apply it to the work of cultural institutions? Is the biggest creative trend of them all the resurgence of … empathy? 

Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) is joined by the co-hosts of “Matters of Experience,” Brenda Cowan (Professor at SUNY FIT) and Abigail Honor (Founding Partner of Lorem Ipsum Corp) — who share what they’ve learned so far from their own podcast about experience design.

Along the way: a mystery visit, disagreeing with yourself, and cocktails in the arms and armor gallery. In case anyone’s keeping track, this is a podcast about a podcast. (And it would probably be easier to summarize what we didn’t discuss than what we did.)

Talking Points:

1. Breaking Down The Silos (The purpose of “Matters of Experience”)

2. Cross Pollination (The people we interview)

3. Immersion, AI, and Empathy (The trends we are finding)

4. Experience Designers at the Table (It’s not all about architecture)

5. Collections, Repatriation and Provocation (What is happening with objects)

6. Being Playful, Seeing the Larger Context, and Owning It (Takeaways for listeners)

Abigail Honor, co-host of the podcast “Matters of Experience”, is a founding partner of Lorem Ipsum Corp. She is a curator and experience designer of award-winning exhibits such as The Warmth of Yamal, Zoya Museum and Zaradye Park and has worked with world-renowned international museums and foundations, including, the Smithsonian Museum and the V-A-C Foundation. Abigail has partnered with corporations including Verizon 5G, Google, and Snapchat and has spoken at global conferences like the Society for Experiential Graphic Design, MuseumNext, and the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts about museum design, visitor experience, and multimedia. Abigail graduated from Boston University with an MFA in film production.

Brenda Cowan, co-host of the podcast “Matters of Experience”, is a Professor and former Chairperson of Graduate Exhibition & Experience Design at the SUNY/Fashion Institute of Technology in New York where she teaches exhibition development and evaluation; object and museum studies; research methodologies and audience studies. Her background includes work for museums and design firms in education, exhibition development, and research. Brenda is a Fulbright Specialist in the disciplines of museums, objects and mental health. Her research work with museum objects, mental health and healing has been presented for the American Alliance of Museums; Museums of Hope; MidAtlantic Association of Museums; Sweden’s National Museums of World Culture; CoMuseum Athens; the American Association of State and Local History Leadership Institute; and published with Routledge, Taylor & Francis, the National Association for Museum Exhibition, and the Society for Experiential Graphic Design. 

Making the Museum is hosted (podcast) and written (newsletter) by Jonathan Alger. 

This podcast is a project of C&G Partners | Design for Culture. Learn about the firm's creative work at:
https://www.cgpartnersllc.com

Newsletter:

Like the episode? Subscribe to the newsletter! (It’s the best way to know when a new podcast episode goes live.) Making the Museum is also a very short daily newsletter on exhibition planning for museum leaders, exhibition teams and visitor experience professionals. Subscribe here:
https://www.makingthemuseum.com