Making the Museum

Can AI be trusted to translate all our museum catalogs, artwork labels, and gallery guides well, by itself? (Hint: Nope. And we’ll find out why.)

Can a machine capture what an artist really meant? What happens when a technically correct translation is culturally embarrassing? Why do museums need both linguists and reviewers? Is there such a thing as “universal” Spanish? How can you make a museum multilingual without starting completely over? And when does translation become part of the artwork itself?

Will Lach (Director of Sales, Eriksen Translations) discusses “Lost in Translation: The Multilingual Museum i...

Why can’t we just ask our visitors what they want?

Why bother evaluating our design ideas? Which type of evaluation is the biggest bang for your buck? Why is “timing and tracking” a great way to find out if your exhibition works? What is the “button-mashing code?”

Jessica Sickler (Principal, J. Sickler Consulting) discusses “Testing the Right Thing at the Right Time” with MtM host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners | The Exhibition and Experience Design Studio).

Along the way: Lego, dinosaurs, and Monets.

Talking Points:

1. Reasons (plura...

[ASTC 2026 Special] Science changes fast. How can science museums keep up?

What’s a “technology toolkit”? Can one interactive turn into another? Can you do that same trick with a whole room? What about a whole exhibition? What’s “Wizard of Oz-ing”? Do constraints make for better design? How could museums work together to solve the challenges they all face? A special episode for ASTC 2026, where Mike will be speaking about this and more.

Mike Horvath (Vice President of Exhibits, Museum of Science, Boston) discusses “Innovation Secrets of the Museum of Science” with...

A very special episode of Making the Museum, for the 25th Anniversary of 9/11.

The unique, unforgettable story of the architect who found himself on the 9/11 debris pile right after the tragedy, working for years to save artifacts for a museum he could only imagine. What do you do when your two largest museum artifacts aren’t there anymore? What is the “Bilbao Effect Upside Down”? How is architecture a stage for a story?

Mark Wagner (Design Principal, Arts & Culture Sector Leader, Stantec) discusses “The 9/11 Museum, 25 Years After 9/11” with MtM host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners...

If we’re not studying our visitors, how can we fulfill our mission?

What is a net promoter score? And what should a museum’s net promoter score be? How do you ask a survey question if you want a meaningful answer? What is capacity building? What is COVES, and how can people get involved with it?

Ryan Auster (Manager of Learning Metrics, Museum of Science, Boston) discusses “Improving Visitor Experience with Data” with MtM host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners | The Exhibition and Experience Design Studio).

Along the way: OERs, excellen...

What could museums learn right now — from their competitors?

What’s happening out there that museums should know about? How can museums compete with a sports venue that has 18,000 seats, each with its own interactive controller? What do IP, KPI, and F&B mean? What if museums went out and learned from theme parks, advertising, corporate centers … and even casinos?

Renée Hampton (Strategic Partnerships Manager, Electrosonic) discusses “What Museums Can Learn from Casinos, Theme Parks, Sports, and More” with MtM host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners | The Exhibition and Experience Design Studi...

How can exhibitions create positive change in the world?

Why is play the key? How can we build trust with a community that doesn’t know us? Why should exhibition makers preserve their “beginner’s mind”? What can exhibitions do climate change, polarization and global conflict? How do we measure our impact?

Femke Bijlsma (Partner, Kossmanndejong) discusses “Make Space for Change (The New Book)” with MtM host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners | The Exhibition and Experience Design Studio).

Along the way: un-discipline, Santa Claus, and eating the story.

Talking Poin...

Museum lobbies have a huge influence on visitor experience. But what makes a good lobby?

What is a “liminal space” in a museum? How does research actually work? What does “peer-reviewed research” actually mean? What do researchers hope their outcomes will be? Which department of a museum is even responsible for the lobby, and all the other “spaces in between”?

Dan Clevenger (Principal), Monika Smith (Principal), and Helen Ho (Senior Associate, Senior Design Researcher) from DLR Group discuss “Liminal Space Research” with MtM host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners | The Exhibition and Experience Design Studio...

How do you build a museum?

How do you build the right project team? How do you engage with community? What does it mean to plan a museum? What does it mean to design a museum? How do you align your budget with your purpose? How do you build the story of your museum project?

Jamē Anderson, Monteil Crawley, Sarah Ghorbanian, and Chris Wood from SmithGroup discuss “Building a Museum: This is Not a Manual (the New Book)” with MtM host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners | The Exhibition and Experience Design Studio).

Alo...

How do you design for all ages at the same time?

What is “serious fun”? Does nature ever go out of style? How do you create content for both Native and non-Native audiences? What do education staff do when a gallery has no text panels? What are “Native sensibilities”? Why is Blue Deer blue?

Shoshana Wasserman (Deputy Director) and Kimberly Rodriguez (New Media Specialist) from First Americans Museum, and Bill Smith (Principal, Storyline Studio) discuss “Serious Fun at the First Americans Museum” with MtM host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners | The Exhibition and Experience D...

How can we make our exhibitions more sustainable — in every way?

Where do we start? What can museum teams learn from sustainability advancements in architecture? What’s a “red list?” What is the difference between embodied and operational carbon? What does it mean to do “design for deconstruction?” And when can we all buy the upcoming “Sustainable Museum Exhibition Handbook?”

Douglas Flandro (Exhibition Designer & Director of Sustainability, CambridgeSeven) discusses “What is Sustainable Exhibition Design?” with MtM host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners | The Exhibition and Experience Design Studio).

Along the way: museum egos, dark sk...

One in four people has a disability. Why aren’t we designing museums better for them?

What is inclusive design? How does it relate to universal design, or the ADA? Which disciplines and departments have to get involved to make a museum truly inclusive? What happened when the military tried to design for the “average” jet pilot? If we design for better accessibility, are we designing for our own future selves?

Sina Bahram and Corey Timpson (Principals, Prime Access Consulting) join host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to discuss “Inclusive Design Will Change the Worl...

Is there a better way to collaborate?

What’s the secret to good feedback? How do you manage 40 people in a room? Are group facilitators ever truly neutral? Should you tell your teammates their responsibilities, or have them tell you? What’s a RACI chart? If collaboration is so important, why hasn’t there been a book about it — until now?

Emily Saich (Vice President of Exhibitions) and Joey Noelle Scott (Director of Exhibition Projects) from the Monterey Bay Aquarium discuss their new book “A Collaborative Approach to Exhibition Making” with host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G...

Is a museum where experiences happen — or is the museum the experience?

Can a museum be designed to inspire? What is the Medal of Honor? What role does a bold design idea have in making a project happen? Does the mission of a museum inspire the people who make it? Can everyone have a mission?

Bassam Komati, AIA OEAB (Partner, Viñoly Architects) discusses “Making the Medal of Honor Museum” with host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners | The Exhibition and Experience Design Studio).

Along the way: floating blocks, extra helicopters, and going a...

What are the (top) secrets of better collaboration?

Is collaboration like a game of ping pong? Or more like ballroom dancing? Is there a better way to disagree? Does having constraints make design ... better? How is an exhibition like a film? And what happens when your project feels — in this case, even literally — like “Mission: Impossible”?

Barbara Miller (Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs, Museum of the Moving Image) and Danae Colomer (Director of Exhibition Management and Design, Museum of the Moving Image) discuss “Mission: Collaboration” with host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners | The Exhibition a...

How do you choose the right architect for your museum?

Is architecture about more than a building? Is architect selection about more than architecture? What is a design “brief”? Why are museum projects on “elephant time”? Are anonymous open design competitions a good thing? What comes after “good design is good business”?

Susanna Sirefman (President, Dovetail Design Strategists) discusses “The Art of Choosing a Museum Architect” with host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners | The Exhibition and Experience Design Studio).

Along the way: cello studies, Winston Churchill, and two lions named Patience and Fortitude. <...

What if every museum were more like ... a children’s museum?

Why is play “agnostic”? Can you design an entire museum for every generation, all at the same time? How are children’s museums like (and not like) other museums? How did they get that way? Wait, could we make an entire exhibition out of nothing but cardboard boxes? What is “co-learning”? And why don’t more museum people visit … other people’s museums?

Along the way: teaching artists, art teachers, and what we really mean by “caregiver.”

Talking Points:

1. Children’s museums, th...

What can we learn from one of the most complex AI projects in any museum today? 

What is the history of AI in museums? Can we add AI to our experiences without a complete renovation? How do you teach an AI about 775 different football teams? How can AI put visitors literally into a story? Is AI accurate enough for a museum? What about bias? Doesn’t AI take away jobs? And how do you specify exactly what shade of college football orange you want to an AI — if you can only use words?

Ki...

What if the secret to better museums was … neuroscience?

How can museums inspire human creativity? How much media should be in a gallery — or should there be any? How soon should you get feedback on your exhibition ideas? Can museums help us all “escape the algorithm”? What does knitting have to do with visitor satisfaction? In this episode, we’ll learn some unexpected tricks of the trade from a renowned museum leader.

Lynda Roscoe Hartigan (The Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Executive Director and CEO of the Peabody Essex Museum) discusses “Creating Effec...

What if a museum were more like a laboratory?

What if our exhibits were experiments? What if our galleries were more about questions, rather than answers? What if we didn’t fear failure as much? What if scientists, artists, and technologists all created exhibitions together? What happens when you edit an exhibit about editing DNA? Should every project have a post-opening contingency — in addition to the normal kind?

Ann Neumann (Director of Galleries and Exhibitions, MIT Museum) joins host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to discuss “Museum as Lab.”

What if we're doing community engagement … wrong?

How long should the process really take for a museum or exhibition? What’s the difference between demographics and psychographics? What does it mean to “move at the pace of community”? Why do community engagement experts sometimes cringe when they hear the word “charrette”? And what exactly does “community” mean?

Nu Goteh (Founder and Principal of ROOM FOR MAGIC, and Co-Founder of Deem Journal) joins MtM host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to discuss “Community Engagement Misconceptions.”

Along the way: Red Bull, lived experienc...

What if we combined immersion, emotion, storytelling — and games?
 
We all want “engagement” … but what is engagement? How can our projects create it? What are the elements that go into it? Can game theory and play teach us how to make our experiences better? What is “narrative transportation”? Why are emotions key to memory creation? And what do Renaissance fairs have to do with museums?

 Ed Rodley (Co-Founder and Principal, The Experience Alchemists), joins MtM host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to discuss “Playful Engagement.”
 
Along the way: holodecks, Sleep No More, portmantea...

Can a statue change American history?

How do we decide who gets a statue? What happens when you realize how many people deserve a statue but never got one? What’s the difference between a “forensic sculpture” for an interpretive exhibition, and one you’d put in a fine art show? Why are some museums just not complete without a bronze statue of the main characters? Are there “statues of limitations”?

Ivan Schwartz (Founder and Director of StudioEIS), joins MtM host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to discuss “Sculpting History.”
 
Along the way: ha...

How do you make a museum display case disappear?

This episode is a masterclass in museum display case design. To the untrained eye, museum display cases look like what you’d find in a gift shop. But under the hood, they couldn’t be more different — and they are 100% unique to the museum world. Secrets we’ll reveal: art envelopes, non-offgassing, air exchange rates, and how glass is never, ever just glass. How can a display case be sealed, yet also designed to leak? What exactly makes a museum display case conservation grade? How do those little packets...

Can a building tell a story?

How do you design a glass wall to be ... mist? What if architecture, landscape, and exhibitions were all thought of as one thing? What changes when you etch barbed wire into a handrail? How can the floor plan of an entire museum relate to a nautilus shell? What does “A.D.R.O.I.T.” stand for? We’re going to find out, so notebooks at the ready.

Alan Reed, FAIA, LEED AP (President and Design Principal of GWWO Architects), joins MtM host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Part...

How would you design an exhibit — if an animal’s life depended on it?

What is the number one reason people come to the National Aquarium? When should you take ego out of design? What is a “machine for living”? Which is right: “know-feel-do” or “feel-know-do”? (Hint: might not be the first one.) Why would an aquarium visitor want to hear from the people who take care of the animals? What happens when you float an entire Chesapeake wetland on top of the ocean, in the middle of Baltimore Harbor? How have kitchens and exhibits had a similar evolutio...

How do you make an institution that's both a museum and a memorial — at the same time?

How are exhibitions like theater? Is a museum a group experience, or a personal one — or is that a trick question? When is it time to trust your gut? Why is collaboration so important? When is a single milk can the most important object in a museum? How can one single, simple philosophy inform everyone’s work, from the curators to the team making mounts for the artifacts? How are the principles of making a memorial museum different from other types...

Is there an organization for the exhibition field? A new initiative is picking up steam.

The exhibition community in the US, some say, has recently gone from having “nearly one” professional organization — to none at all. That’s because of the unexpected 2023 dissolution of NAME, the National Association for Museum Exhibition, a group within the American Alliance of Museums (AAM). But now a new effort is rising at SEGD, an international organization headquartered in the US. It takes the form of a PPG, or professional practice group, specific to exhibition practitioners. How can everyone in the field...

“The client’s role is not to solve the problem — it’s to state the problem.”

What’s the client’s perspective in major cultural projects? What are “client user groups?” What’s the difference between advocating for the client, and advocating for the project? How do you “inhabit your project?” How might a single gender-inclusive restroom project change an entire institution? Should every project have a “super contingency” in the budget?

Amy Weisser (Deputy Director for Strategic Planning and Projects at Storm King Art Center) joins host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to discuss “The Client Side...

Can you get big press with a small budget? (Hint: Yes.)

For museums, small firms, and independent consultants, this episode is packed with literally dozens of ideas from a master of scrappy PR.

What is the #1 tip about PR, if you forgot all the others? How do you get a journalist’s attention? How do you get in the news without something new? Who should be your spokesperson? Is press actually about the topic — or is it about just being in the news? Once you get an article, what do you do wit...

Have we lost a sense of playfulness in our work … and could we get it back?

In museums for children, why does “analog usually beat digital?” What’s a “climbing structure”? What are design metaphors, and why should planners beware of them? How can exhibition teams better empathize with one another’s fears and concerns? Why should a museum professional or designer “hyper-specialize”?

Jonathan Goldstein and Kyle Talbott (Principals, Skyhouse Studio) join host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to discuss “Six Keys for Unlocking Your Most Playful, Creative Work.”

Along the way: ancient trees, va...

How do new museums make money — really?

In this episode, we lift the veil on new museum projects and money. What is “the peril of the bicycle wheel”? Is it bad to rely on “anchor funding”? How many kinds of revenue should a new museum project have? What happens if you have the wrong number? (Hint: eh, not so good.) How much money do endowments make? And what’s so magical about thirds?

Amy Kaufman (Principal, Amy Kaufman Cultural Planning) joins host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to discuss “The Money Pie Chart”.

Along the w...

What’s the role of wonder in experience design?

What can the circus teach us to make our exhibitions better? (Spoiler alert: a lot.) Could being “with it and for it” be the secret to success for museum projects? How much technology is too much? Can we really design for all five senses? Can an exhibition be a high-wire act — literally?

Jennifer Lemmer Posey (Tibbals Curator of Circus at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art) joins host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to teach some inspirational “Circus Lessons for...

Do museum stores actually make any money?

What are they really for? Can a store act like an exhibition? What does “cap rate” mean? How big should a museum store be? What percentage of visitors go into one, and how many of them buy something? Why should you get an expert to design your store, and what happens when you don’t?

David Franke (museum store architect) joins host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to discover what’s “Beyond ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’”.

Along the way: rubber snakes, oysters, onions, and Mona Lisa as...

Why is economic planning so vital to any new museum project?

What happens if you don’t do it? What is “dark tourism”? Why do economists think about audiences? Can a museum have “ROI”? Which is more important, a profitable museum event, or one that advances a museum’s mission? What can economics teach us about how to make our projects better?

James Stevens, AICP (Vice President, ConsultEcon, Inc.) joins host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to discuss “An Economic Planner’s Advice to Museums”.

Along the way: double-edged swords, vocal impersonations, an...

What is the “humanities gap” — and why is it a huge opportunity for museums?

Why can’t everybody be a philanthropist for the day? What does “cultural literacy” mean, and how can it unlock new approaches to the collections we put on display? Why could a shortfall in humanities funding suggest new ways for museums to be relevant? Why shouldn’t a museum buy products and services from its own community?

Michele Y. Smith (CEO, Museum of Popular Culture) joins host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to talk about “A Guitar That Teaches Civil Rights”.<...

We might think a design concept is the first step — but it’s not. What do you need to ask yourself, before you even start?
 
What does your community want from your new museum, and how can you find out? What happens when you have funding for 10 staff, but you design a museum that will take 25 staff to operate? What’s more important, the cost of creating the museum, or the later costs of operating it? What’s “noblesse oblige”? What’s a “civic entrepreneur”?

Carolynne Harris (Museum Planner, Carolynne Harris Consulting) joins host Jonathan Alger (Managing Par...

Why is “70/50” the gold standard? Should it be? Who decided?

Does every gallery really need to be 70 degrees, plus/minus two? Does every storage space really need to be 50% humidity, plus/minus five? Is that a reasonable goal for most museums? At what cost? What’s the difference between “AA” climate control, and just “A”? How much energy could we all save, just by switching down one grade? Are artifact loan agreement climate requirements consistent, or is there room for improvement?

Roger Chang (Principal, Buro Happold) joins host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to discuss “Re...

What if chaos in cultural projects is something to embrace, not fear?

Can chaos theory give us new insights about how to manage complex work? Are we advocates for the owner of a project, or for the project itself? What are the three things upon which the success or failure of a project depends? Sometimes, is it better to let a few things change, rather than fight those changes for even longer? Museum staff are rarely experts in managing building projects or large exhibition productions. Why would we expect them to be? And how can w...

What’s the secret to success, when a project lasts years longer than planned?

What keeps us going when our work takes more time? How does the subject matter of a project relate to the form of a project? Why should we be thinking equally about the budget for what happens after a project opens? What is the “architecture of delight”? Why do “reverberations matter”? Which is more important: patience, or pushing? (Hint: it’s a trick question.) And most importantly, why should everybody visit the house of Louis and Lucille Armstrong in Queens, New York?

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