Making the Museum is a newsletter and podcast about exhibitions for museum leaders and teams.
NEW! The MtM Glossary of Museum Exhibitions (BETA)
Written and hosted by Jonathan Alger | MtM is a project of C&G Partners | Design for Culture
Core and Shell
In architecture and construction, core and shell refers to the parts of a building that get built before the interior is fitted out. The core typically includes elevators, stairwells, and systems. The shell includes the structure, walls, and roof. …
The 2-Minute Seating Rule
Why do some museum experiences have seating, but others don’t? How long can you reasonably ask a museum visitor to stand still while watching a video or using an interactive? That question has an answer. Two minutes. …
Media Wall or Chain-Link Fence?
Which is better, a media wall or a chain-link fence? Stay with me. Let’s imagine two exhibition experiences, which I shall invent at random. Option 1. Media Wall: A giant, 10-foot-tall, 20-foot-wide, high-resolution, interactive media wall. Option 2: …
We’re Not Our Visitors
All of us at the table in our planning sessions have one thing in common. We’re not our visitors. But sometimes we act like the project is for … us. Like: “I know this will be a library for teens, but it’s too chaotic for me. Can we make it more spa-like?” …
10 Reasons Intro Theaters Are Worth Considering
Intro theaters are classic — but oddly uncommon, given how worthwhile they are. Here are 10 reasons to consider one in your next project: 1. Background Basics: An intro theater gives essential background — so visitors are “already into it” …
[Podcast] Lost in Translation: The Multilingual Museum in the Age of AI, with Will Lach
Can AI be trusted to translate all our museum catalogs and artwork labels? (Nope.) Will Lach (Director of Sales, Eriksen Translations) discusses “Lost in Translation: The Multilingual Museum in the Age of AI” with MtM host Jonathan Alger. …
The One Rule of Exhibitions
Strategies, principles, tricks, and tips abound. But the One Rule of Exhibitions stands alone [dramatic music]: Exhibitions are primarily a medium for communication. Said another way, exhibitions are a channel used to send messages …
The Paradox of Exhibitions
What is the Paradox of Exhibitions? Exhibitions display collection items that we otherwise preserve and keep away from the public. Unless they are digital items, they have physical form. We take them out of their drawers. We bring them into the light. And …
Patagonian Toothfish
Sometimes the museum idea we’re working on is a bad idea. But every once in a while, it’s a good idea, waiting for a better name. The Patagonian Toothfish was a deep-sea species nobody wanted to eat. Until one day …
The Megagallery Problem
Quick, which is better: A. One giant megagallery, a single truly huge room, with lots of mini-exhibitions in the same space. B. Physically separate galleries, totaling the same size as a megagallery. I used to think A for sure. Bigger is always better, right? Well …
All the Variations on Design-Bid-Build and Design-Build
Based on the last two MtM emails, you might think Design-Bid-Build and Design-Build are your only two choices. And if you’re new to these ideas, that’s a fine place to start. But real exhibition projects are often messier. Let’s find out how messy. …
Podcast: Testing the Right Thing at the Right Time, with Jessica Sickler
Why can’t we just ask our visitors what they want? 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 Iron Chef Constraint
Iron Chef was a Japanese cooking show, later adapted for the U.S. The premise was totally unreasonable. First, the host declared a surprise ingredient, like: Shrimp! Then two chefs battled to invent five-course meals around it …
Low Budget, Low Lighting
Low exhibition budget? Turn off some lights. Light reveals everything you wish you could hide: cheap finishes, empty corners, imperfect details. But darkness lets those things vanish. Darkness: the cheapest construction material of all. …
Don’t Build the Bubble Diagram
Behold the bubble diagram: a simple planning tool anyone can create. It’s a top-down view with bubbly shapes representing topics and experiences. But sometimes, we believe our own bubble diagrams a liiiiittle too much. …
Podcast: Innovation Secrets of the Museum of Science, with Mike Horvath — An ASTC 2026 Special
[ASTC 2026 Special] Science changes fast. How can science museums keep up? Mike Horvath (Museum of Science, Boston) discusses “Innovation Secrets of the Museum of Science” with MtM host Jonathan Alger (C&G Partners) …
Four-Facet Framework
I tried to make a giant list of exhibition genres. Yes, a very MtM things to do. But I kept getting stuck. At first I couldn’t figure out why. Then I realized that the genre names we sometimes use in the industry aren’t all the same kind of category. …
A Genre is a Promise
If we are going to stick with an existing genre, we'd better commit. Because genres, regardless of medium, are all about creating expectations. Remember the “Lone Ranger” remake years ago? Johnny Depp played Tonto. You might not. It flopped. …
Inventing an Exhibition Genre
We all want to do new things in exhibitions. The most impressive new thing is perhaps inventing an entire new type of exhibition: a new genre. But inventing a genre from scratch is difficult, and rare. Inventing a new sub-genre is a little easier. …
The Security Guard and the Restroom Sign
A visitor walks up to a security guard in an exhibition and asks: “Where’s the restroom?” The guard points. Directly above the guard is a huge sign that says: RESTROOMS → This is hilarious (except maybe to the security guard). Yet …