Making the Museum Jonathan Alger

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 “Rethinking Climate Control in Museums”. Along the way: Jackie Kennedy, root cellars, and a wooly mammoth. Talking Points: 1. Why 70 degrees? 2. Does it have to be the premier system?3. Reconsider those loan agreements.4. Knitting at the Renwick5. Don’t fight the building.6. “Fun Puzzles”7. Look in all directions.8. K.I.S.S.: Keep It Simple Sustainably.How to Listen: Apple Podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/making-the-museum/id1674901311 Spotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/show/6oP4QJR7yxv7Rs7VqIpI1G Everywherehttps://makingthemuseum.transistor.fm/ Guest Bio: Roger Chang has over two decades of building engineering experience and currently leads the MEP team within Buro Happold’s Washington DC office. He has significant experience with complex cultural, education, civic, and government projects, including two AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) Top 10 winners. Roger regularly presents at architecture and engineering schools on integrated design, including at the Catholic University of America School of Architecture. He has presented and authored papers on high-performance design, including at Greenbuild, AIA, ASHRAE, and AAM conferences. He has a special interest in the intersection of façade engineering and building systems. He is a strong proponent of adaptive reuse and modernization projects and has worked on a significant number of buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. He was recognized in 2020 as an ASHRAE Fellow. About MtM: 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 Show Links: Roger by email: Roger.Chang@burohappold.comRoger on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/changkey Buro Happold on the web: https://www.burohappold.com   MtM Show Contact: https://www.makingthemuseum.com/contacthttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanalgeralger@cgpartnersllc.comhttps://www.cgpartnersllc.com Newsletter: Like the episode? Try the newsletter. Making the Museum is also a one-minute email on exhibition planning and design for museum leaders, exhibition teams and visitor experience professionals. Subscribe here: https://www.makingthemuseum.com 

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 we help?
 
Jon Maass (Director, MAASS) joins host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to discuss "Embracing Chaos".
Along the way: high-performance buildings, that word “program” again, and whether projects need overseers, therapists or cheerleaders.
Talking Points: 1. Chaos theory studies things that are impossible to predict.2. Museum projects are chaotic and that’s a good thing.3. A project is a cultural exercise, with its own diverse culture.4. Museum owners are not built to build buildings.5. Teams who excel at museum projects are rare.6. Change during the process is inevitable, so embrace it.
How to Listen: Apple Podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/making-the-museum/id1674901311 Spotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/show/6oP4QJR7yxv7Rs7VqIpI1G Everywherehttps://makingthemuseum.transistor.fm/ Guest Bios:
Jon Maass is an architect, builder and maker of things. His history of designing and building structures informs and supports his work as an owner’s representative, helping numerous cultural institutions realize new mission-driven projects and restore important cultural touchstones. His work is process driven, emphasizing proper planning at the project’s outset and relentless pursuit of its stated goals. Jon received degrees from the University of Michigan and the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York, where he was amongst the first recipients of the Menschel Fellowship. His creative history began in the theater where we he designed and built stage sets for numerous Off- Broadway and Off-off Broadway shows throughout New York’s East Village. He continues to teach at Cooper Union, helping young architects understand how to navigate the design and construction process toward making exceptional buildings.
 
About MtM: 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 Show Links: MAASS on the web: https://www.maass.works
MAASS by phone: +1-917-578-0190
Jon Maass by email: jm@maass.works
 
MtM Show Contact: https://www.makingthemuseum.com/contact https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanalger alger@cgpartnersllc.com https://www.cgpartnersllc.com Newsletter: Like the episode? Try the newsletter. Making the Museum is also a one-minute email on exhibition planning and design for museum leaders, exhibition teams and visitor experience professionals. Subscribe here: https://www.makingthemuseum.com 

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?
 
Regina Bain (Executive Director, Louis Armstrong House Museum & Archives) and Sara Caples, (Principal and co-founder of Caples Jefferson Architects) join host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to discuss the new Louis Armstrong Center project that all three worked on.
Along the way: why everyone should take acting classes, and what it’s like being inside a cello.
Chapters:
1. Louis and Lucille’s House
2. We’ll Open in Three Months
3. A Golden Curve
4. Serious Acting
5. The Reverberations Matter
6. Patience and Pushing
7. Letter to Your Earlier Self
8. Budget Beyond Opening
How to Listen: Apple Podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/making-the-museum/id1674901311 Spotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/show/6oP4QJR7yxv7Rs7VqIpI1G Everywherehttps://makingthemuseum.transistor.fm/ Guest Bios:   
Regina Bain is an artist and educator serving as the Executive Director of the Louis Armstrong House Museum. In the midst of the reverberations of slavery, Jim Crow laws and the great migration, Armstrong became America’s first Black popular music icon. The Museum preserves his home and archives and develops programs grounded in the values of artistic excellence, education and community. This year, Ms. Bain recently opened the new 14,000 sq. foot Armstrong Center housing a multimedia exhibit curated by Jason Moran, a 75-seat performance space, and the 60,000-piece Armstrong Archives — the largest archives of any jazz musician and one of the largest of any Black musician. Previous to her appointment at LAHM, Ms. Bain served as Associate Vice President of the Posse Foundation — a national leadership and college access program. Bain’s efforts helped to increase Posse’s national student graduation rates for four consecutive years. Bain is currently the co-chair of Culture @3’s anti-racism subcommittee and recently served on the Yale Board of Governors.
 
Sara Caples AIA is Principal and co-founder of Caples Jefferson Architects PC. Sara's early experience was focused on the design and direction of large projects, especially in the public realm. Since founding the firm in 1987 with Everardo Jefferson, she has remained committed to designing cultural, educational, and community centers for neighborhoods underserved by the design professions. Sara is a frequent lecturer at schools, community, and professional organizations. She has served as a visiting professor at Syracuse, CCNY, University of Miami, and Yale. Sara and her partner Everardo are currently William B. and Charlotte Shepherd Davenport Professors at Yale School of Architecture, and Everardo and Sara worked together on the design of the Louis Armstrong project. CJA has been honored with AIANY’s President’s Award and awarded the AIA’s New York State Firm of the Year. With work widely published from Architect Magazine and Domus to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Their most recent book is Many Voices: Architecture for Social Equity.
 
About MtM: 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 Show Links: Louis Armstrong House Museum: https://www.louisarmstronghouse.org/
 
Louis Armstrong (Artist) on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/19eLuQmk9aCobbVDHc6eek?si=lYvi-xRYRXyPTNj7TpzuqA
Images

What is a “growth mindset” — and why is it more important than ever for our industry?
What happens when we combine museology with the fast-growing field of positive psychology? How do exhibition teams get through projects with tough subject matter? Why should we always “put our own oxygen mask on first”? What’s the opposite of love (hint: not hate)? What’s contemplative science? How can we learn from the latest news about the Rubin Museum? Do we sometimes all take ourselves … too seriously?
Dr. Kiersten F. Latham (President & CEO, Sauder Village) and Professor Brenda Cowan (Graduate Exhibition & Experience Design, SUNY Fashion Institute of Technology), join host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to discuss the new book they’ve edited: “Flourishing in Museums”.
Along the way: yogic theory, growing towards the sun, and even a few museum dad jokes.
Talking Points:
1. Flourishing starts with intention, and means living and working with an abundance perspective.
2. Healthy museums have a growth mindset internally and externally: with staff, visitors, communities, and the profession.
3. Museum people must do self-care, and also offer care and support to staff, colleagues, communities, and the system itself.
4. To flourish we must go bold with change: address what’s uncomfortable, deconstruct dysfunctional systems, and even redefine what a museum is.
5. Flourishing takes many forms for the book’s authors, who address war, sexual abuse, discrimination, and regret — as well as fun, playfulness and magic.
6. Positive museology is a fluid and developing project that aims to change how museums function and the way they are seen in society.
How to Listen:
Apple Podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/making-the-museum/id1674901311
Spotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/show/6oP4QJR7yxv7Rs7VqIpI1G
Everywherehttps://makingthemuseum.transistor.fm/
Guest Bios:
Dr. Kiersten F. Latham is President & CEO of Sauder Village, a living history museum complex in Ohio, USA. She has worked in museums for over 35 years. Prior to the Village, her professional journey spanned many kinds of museums and positions within them. She has led museum studies programs at Michigan State University and Kent State University, founded the experimental MuseLab, and has taught all aspects of museum studies. Dr. Latham has conducted research on the meaning of museum objects, conceptual foundations of museums as document systems, numinous experiences in museums, user perceptions of ‘the real thing,’ and positive museology.
Brenda Cowan is a Professor of Graduate Exhibition & Experience Design at SUNY/Fashion Institute of Technology in New York where she teaches exhibition development and evaluation; object and museum studies; research and audience studies. Her background includes work for museums and design firms in the roles of interpreter, exhibition developer, education director, evaluator, and project manager. She is the co-editor of the recently published Flourishing in Museums: Towards a Positive Museology, as well as Museum Objects, Health and Healing both published by Routledge Taylor & Francis. Brenda is a Fulbright Scholar in the disciplines of museums, objects and mental health. Relatedly, her theory of Psychotherapeutic Object Dynamics (www.psychoherapeuticobjectdynamics.com) has been presented at conferences and institutes internationally and published with the National Association for Museum Exhibition and the Society for Experiential Graphic Design. She is currently co-host of a podcast titled Matters of Experience.
About MtM:
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
Show Links:
Book Publisher: https://routledge.pub/Flourishing-in-Museums Book Email: flourishingmuseums@yahoo.com Book Website (in progress): www.flourishingmuseums.com 

Can an eye-catching museum revitalize a city? The answer might surprise you.
 
Getting the right designer is vital. If you don’t like a painting you can put it away, but if you don’t like a building, you can’t take it down. Why is it important to have the goals of a complex museum project fit in a mantra of a few words? What comes first in museum architecture, practicality or creative genius? Should you choose your designers by design competition? If not, what’s the alternative? What are the three things a designer needs to do, to win a major project?
 
Andy Klemmer (Founder, Paratus Group) joins host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to reveal “The Real Bilbao Effect”.
 
Along the way: why every architect has a bad building, how $300 per square foot can beat $3,000 per square foot, and why you should always take people to ball games.
 
Talking Points:
 
1. Words matter
2. Helping an owner be a conductor
3. Every architect has one bad building
4. Good Bilbao Effect vs. Bad Bilbao Effect
5. Architecture is practicality first, fun second
6. Why you shouldn’t hold a design competition
7. Nature, community, service, faith (& other mantras)
 
How to Listen:
Apple Podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/making-the-museum/id1674901311
Spotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/show/6oP4QJR7yxv7Rs7VqIpI1G
Everywherehttps://makingthemuseum.transistor.fm/
Guest Bio:
Andrew Klemmer established Paratus Group in 1997 to offer specialized consulting for cultural projects involving complex programs, exceptional design, intricate construction, and highly creative global teams. With over thirty years of experience, Andrew assumes a pivotal leadership role in every Paratus project. The genesis of Paratus stems from Andrew's oversight of the expansion of the landmarked Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1991 and subsequent involvement in directing the planning and programming of Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain. Paratus uniquely leads in programming, planning, budgeting, design, and construction oversight for cultural institutions, adhering to core principles from project inception to completion. Noteworthy projects include collaborations with renowned architects like Renzo Piano, SANAA, Jean Paul Viguier, and Herzog de Meuron. Andrew is active in the architecture community, contributing as a guest critic, speaker, and advisory panelist. He holds bachelor’s degrees in economics and environmental studies from Bowdoin College.
About MtM:
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
Show Link:
 
Paratus Group: https://www.paratusgroup.com/
 
MtM Show Contact:
 
https://www.makingthemuseum.com/contact
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanalger
alger@cgpartnersllc.com
https://www.cgpartnersllc.com
  
Newsletter: Like the episode? Try the newsletter. Making the Museum is also a one-minute email on exhibition planning and design for museum leaders, exhibition teams and visitor experience professionals. Subscribe here:https://www.makingthemuseum.com

How can we raise the voices of people of color in museums and exhibitions — and what stands in the way?
What is Museum Hue? What constitutes a sustainable museum job, a sustainable career? What percentage of staff at museums are folks of color, and what roles do they have? What do we see happening in the exhibitions that museums create?  Many cultural organizations began their DEI initiatives after the tragic events of 2020; how are those programs doing now? Could exhibitions be one of the best places to make visible change happen?
Sierra Van Ryck DeGroot (Deputy Director, Museum Hue) and Jinelle Thompson (Research and Partnerships Manager, Museum Hue) join host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to discuss “Raising the Voices of People of Color in Museums and Exhibitions”.
Along the way: the power of networking, Front of House vs. Back of House, and the Museum salary transparency spreadsheet.
Talking Points:
1. What Museum Hue does, and how it all started.
2. The challenge of raising the voices of people of color in the museum and exhibitions field.
3. The real numbers: percentages of museum staff who are people of color.
4. How we can bring students into sustainable careers in the arts (and what “sustainable” means here).
5. Ways to help raise the voices of people of color: Exposure, Mentorship, Support, and Networking.
6. How listeners can get involved: Museum Hue is looking for Speakers, Collaborators, Sponsors, and Partners.
How to Listen:
Apple Podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/making-the-museum/id1674901311
Spotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/show/6oP4QJR7yxv7Rs7VqIpI1G
Everywherehttps://makingthemuseum.transistor.fm/
Guest Bios:  
Sierra Van Ryck deGroot is the Deputy Director of Museum Hue. A proud alumna of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Program at Seton Hall University and Bank Street College of Education. Sierra has her BA in Art, Design and Interactive Media; Fine Arts; and Art History and M.S.Ed in Museum Education. A child of Guyanese immigrants. She is proudly born and raised in Central Jersey (NJ) which does exist and it is pork roll, not Taylor Ham. She is also half of the former Sierras co-presidential leadership team of the National Emerging Museum Professionals Network, a current board member for the New Jersey Association of Museums and participating in many side quests related to advocating for change in the GLAM sector, especially in museums, around salary transparency, actionable equity, in higher in practices, the abolition of unpaid internships, and the practice of rest for all museum workers.
Jinelle Thompson is the Research & Partnerships Manager at Museum Hue. She is an arts administrator and cultural strategist working with cultural institutions to establish equitable partnerships and programming with communities across NYC. Through qualitative research, collaborative visioning, and anti-oppressive facilitation, Jinelle develops engagement strategies for the inclusion and empowerment of communities of color. She has organized workshop and public programs with artists, organizers, and activists concerning civic engagement, immigration, voting rights, and mass incarceration. In addition to her work with museums and arts organizations, Jinelle has worked with libraries, social impact organizations, and elected officials in state and municipal government providing operations and administrative support through project and client management, strategic communications, and event administration. Jinelle holds a Bachelor’s with honors in Sociology & Political Science with a concentration in Public Law and a Masters in Museum Studies.
About MtM:
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
Show Links:
Museum Hue: https://www.museumhue.org/ Museum Hue on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin