This is an Eval Central archive copy, find the original at rka-learnwithus.com. By: Emlyn Koster Spurred by the art-dominated sections on Museums in The New York Times, Emlyn reflects on this sector’s pressing need for a balanced profile between people/society and non-human life/nature. Eminence of Art Museums Titled ‘Reinventing the Future,’ the May 23, 2021 […]
The Chief Fill-in-the-Blank Officer: A Trend in Museum Restructuring
This is an Eval Central archive copy, find the original at rka-learnwithus.com. Combining experiences at the helm of nature and science museums with insights from literature and courses on leadership, Emlyn Koster reflects on the corporate roots of this trend and its application to the museum sector. An unfortunate paradox surrounds the subject of organizational […]
Improving Our Museum Labels Through A Harm Reduction Lens: Part 4
This is an Eval Central archive copy, find the original at rka-learnwithus.com. By: Rachel Nicholson Having drafted new labels, we want to ensure our approach is actually meaningful to our audiences at the Nelson-Atkins before putting them on the walls. We’re currently in the process of evaluating our new labels to better understand their impact […]
Improving Our Museum Labels Through A Harm Reduction Lens: Part 3
This is an Eval Central archive copy, find the original at rka-learnwithus.com. By: Rachel Nicholson, Jocelyn Edens, and Ariana Chaivaranon In our workshops with curatorial colleagues (which we wrote about in the last post), we continually heard certain ideas rise to the surface about shared principles for interpretive text at the Nelson-Atkins. These included: Complexity: […]
Join us for the Saint Louis Art Museum’s Virtual Summit on Diversity
This is an Eval Central archive copy, find the original at rka-learnwithus.com. RK&A was honored to work with the Saint Louis Art Museum in 2019 to evaluate their longstanding Romare Bearden Graduate Museum Fellowship, which prepares outstanding museum professionals from historically underrepresented groups (particularly people of color) to become leaders in the field. The Bearden […]
Improving Our Museum Labels Through A Harm Reduction Lens: Part 2
This is an Eval Central archive copy, find the original at rka-learnwithus.com. By: Rachel Nicholson “If you want to go fast, go alone; but if you want to go far, go together.” – African Proverb In my last post, I wrote about harm reduction as a philosophy and how it might be applied to rethinking […]
Earth Day at 51: Why Museums Must Embrace the Anthropocene
This is an Eval Central archive copy, find the original at rka-learnwithus.com. Whether or not public programs are again canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Earth Day each April 22 warrants the engagement of the museum sector. Emlyn Koster explains why. “Earth Day 1970 gave a voice to an emerging public consciousness about the state […]
Improving Our Museum Labels Through A Harm Reduction Lens: Part 1
This is an Eval Central archive copy, find the original at rka-learnwithus.com. It’s always a pleasure to share this page with our friends and colleagues in museums. Today we’re delighted to share the first post in a new four-part series by Rachel Nicholson from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (located in Kansas City, MO). Every […]
Museum propulsion and performance: orchestral insights
This is an Eval Central archive copy, find the original at rka-learnwithus.com. The next time our senses are filled with an orchestral experience, Emlyn Koster suggests we take away some contemplative lessons for the needs of museums. A lecture titled ‘The Two Solitudes’ by novelist and chemist C.P. Snow at the University of Cambridge in […]
Vision-Driven Leadership: Now More Than Ever
This is an Eval Central archive copy, find the original at rka-learnwithus.com. Emlyn Koster urges the museum sector to combine operational recovery efforts with strategic pathways towards a more holistic societal and environmental future. “The very subject of our discussion shows the painful anxiety and uncertainty with which we search for our proper function in […]