Building a Museum: This is Not a Manual (the New Book), with Jamē Anderson, Monteil Crawley, Sarah Ghorbanian & Chris Wood
Will you be at AAM 2026 in Philadelphia this week? Me too! Hit REPLY if you’d like to connect IRL.
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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).
Along the way: a one-year process that took ten years, a mystery fifth guest, and branching out to herbal supplements.
Talking Points:
1. Why a book like this?
2. How do I build the right project team, and what does it mean to engage with the community?
3. What does it mean to plan and design a museum?
4. How do I align budget with purpose?
5. How do you write a book?
6. How do I learn more from my network?
How to Listen:
Listen on Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/making-the-museum/id1674901311
Listen on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/6oP4QJR7yxv7Rs7VqIpI1G
Listen at Making the Museum, the Website:
https://www.makingthemuseum.com/podcast
Links to Every Podcast Service, via Transistor:
https://makingthemuseum.transistor.fm/
Guest Bios:
Jamē Anderson is a vice president and director of SmithGroup’s national team of architects, planners, and engineers who focus exclusively on cultural capital projects. Her career is dedicated to cultural institutions, having held roles at the National Gallery of Art and Smithsonian Institution in addition to her tenure at SmithGroup.
Monteil Crawley is a senior principal at SmithGroup and a leading expert in the design of museums and cultural facilities, shaping a unique design vision for each facility and institution. He has spent his career with SmithGroup designing prominent spaces and places that celebrate and reveal the history and culture of the United States.
Sarah Ghorbanian is a principal at SmithGroup who specializes in the planning and project management of complex cultural projects. She is an expert at coordinating the intersection of architecture and exhibition design to create compelling, holistic, and engaging experiences for museum audiences.
Chris Wood is a vice president at SmithGroup and leads the firm’s Washington, D.C., studio of design and engineering specialists devoted to cultural projects. He leads design teams for cultural capital projects of all scales and is a recognized expert in the planning and design of museums and collections facilities.
About Making the Museum:
Making the Museum is a newsletter and podcast on exhibitions, written and hosted by Jonathan Alger. MtM is a project of C&G Partners | The Exhibition and Experience Design Studio.
Learn more about the creative work of C&G Partners:
https://www.cgpartnersllc.com/
Links for This Episode:
The Book: https://www.smithgroup.com/buildingamuseum
SmithGroup: https://www.smithgroup.com
Jamē Anderson: Jame.Anderson@smithgroup.com
Monteil Crawley: Monteil.Crawley@smithgroup.com
Sarah Ghorbanian: Sarah.Ghorbanian@smithgroup.com
Chris Wood: Chris.Wood@smithgroup.com
Links for Making the Museum, the Podcast:
Contact Making the Museum:
https://www.makingthemuseum.com/contact
Host Jonathan Alger, Managing Partner of C&G Partners, on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanalger
Email Jonathan Alger:
alger@cgpartnersllc.com
C&G Partners | The Exhibition and Experience Design Studio:
https://www.cgpartnersllc.com/
Making the Museum, the Newsletter:
Like the show? You might enjoy the newsletter. Making the Museum is also a free weekly email about exhibitions for museum leaders and teams. (And newsletter subscribers are the first to hear about new episodes of this podcast.)
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