Friday December 5, 2025 | 12:30 - 1:30 PM PST | ZoomJoin MESC for a special virtual conversation with UC Irvine Langson Institute Orange County Museum of Art about their award-winning Orange County Young Curators (OCYC) program. Recently featured in The New York Times and the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), this program is redefining youth engagement in the arts.OCYC connects high school juniors and seniors from across Orange County with museum professionals and artists to learn about contemporary art and cura ...Continue Reading

Hi Heidi,  This is, oddly, one of my favorite museum education subjects! For the marketplace fruits and vegetables in our discovery center, we order from displayfakefoods.com. They are not necessarily the most economical, but the foods hold up well. Specifically for potatoes, you can get the small red or yellow potatoes, but the larger "kids" potatoes also look good and are solid plastic. They have white beets that might work as a stand-in for sugar beets.  Always love brainstorming ways to cr ...Continue Reading

Hi All, We are currently sourcing some items for an interactive play feature in our historic Train Depot’s freight room. The exhibit focuses on imports/exports from our community, and we have a small-scale interactive for our littlest visitors to play being the freight handlers/importers/exporters of goods. We’re running into issues finding a great place to source play/replica food that can withstand a lot of love. Hoping some children’s museum folks or museum educators can chime in here with recommendations! Thi ...Continue Reading

*What's the difference between facilitating dialogue vs. other question-based interactions with visitors?* I think it really matters because dialogue is the only method that is specifically designed to open visitors' minds to new perspectives. And we need this more than ever right now. This is one way that museums can contribute to helping Americans listen to each other. *The problem: *In my work as a consultant, I was noticing that we don't have a great way to measure whether guides/educators ...Continue Reading

Museum educators,Here's a design problem I can't stop thinking about: We build educational technology to deepen visitor learning, but those tools often compete with the very learning we're trying to support.Apps pull attention to screens. Interactive displays become the attraction. Digital labels turn contemplation into reading sessions.I've written about why this matters and what alternative approaches might look like:https://thormartinbaerug.com/2025/11/05/how-were-building-museum-technology-that-gets-out-of-the ...Continue Reading

Hi Audra,  I'd recommend Jenn Paul (www.scribearts.org). I've worked with her on a paleontology children's book and am currently working with her to update our family/early learning space in our museum. She also has museum/exhibit experience in addition to illustration and design.  *Devra Hock-Reid, Ph.D.* she/her/hers /Assistant Curator, Science Education/ _Devra.Hock-Reid@sos.nj.gov_ Phone: 609-292-5420 /Mondays Telework – Please call via TEAMS/ P.O. Box 530 205 West State Street Trenton, NJ 08625-05 ...Continue Reading

If you've ever felt stuck between competing priorities, misaligned teams, or unclear communication across your museum, you're not alone. As educators, you know first-hand the importance of relationships and managing relationships in all directions in your museum may be one of the biggest challenges you face. If you want to learn practical, actionable approaches for navigating those challenges with confidence join the upcoming two-part workshop, *Building Strategic Relationships: Managing Up, Down, and Side-to-Side ...Continue Reading

Join us for an information session about the University of British Columbia’s Master of Museum Education (MMEd) program. ? The MMEd is a unique graduate degree program focusing on the study of education and learning that occurs in museums and other informal learning contexts such as, art galleries, science centres, parks, and historic sites. ? This program draws together museum professionals, educators, and those with an interest in using the community to support teaching and learning, and to ...Continue Reading

Folks, The museum where I work doesn’t have an in-house designer or design team. Therefore, I’m looking for recommendations on designers that you have or currently work with.   We are seeking bids for a designer to help us design a children’s picture book as well as a coloring book. If you have a designer you’d recommend, I’d love to know!   Additionally, if you have been involved in creating a children’s book for your museum, I’d also love to talk with you about the experience.   Thanks all, Audra *Au ...Continue Reading

Dear Museum Colleague, I am a museum director and a doctoral student in Interdisciplinary Leadership at Creighton University, conducting a research study on leadership practices in museums. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the transformational leadership of museum leaders and their implementation of activities that broaden community reach or strengthen workplace culture. Museum professionals in all leadership roles are invited to participate, including directors, department heads, ma ...Continue Reading