The Participatory Museum

by Nina Simon

Visitor participation is a hot topic in the contemporary world of museums, art galleries, science centers, libraries and cultural organizations. How can your institution do it and do it well? The Participatory Museum is a practical guide to working with community members and visitors to make cultural institutions more dynamic, relevant, essential places. Museum consultant and exhibit designer Nina Simon weaves together innovative design techniques and case studies to make a powerful case for participatory practice. "Nina Simon's new book is essential for museum directors interested in experimenting with audience participation on the one hand and cautious about upending the tradition museum model on the other. In concentrating on the practical, this book makes implementation possible in most museums. More importantly, in describing the philosophy and rationale behind participatory activity, it makes clear that action does not always require new technology or machinery. Museums need to change, are changing, and will change further in the future. This book is a helpful and thoughtful road map for speeding such transformation." -Elaine Heumann Gurian, international museum consultant and author of Civilizing the Museum "This book is an extraordinary resource. Nina has assembled the collective wisdom of the field, and has given it her own brilliant spin. She shows us all how to walk the talk. Her book will make you want to go right out and start experimenting with participatory projects." -Kathleen McLean, participatory museum designer and author of Planning for People in Museum Exhibitions "I predict that in the future this book will be a classic work of museology." --Elizabeth Merritt, founding director of the Center for the Future of Museums

Genres: Museums, Nonfiction, Museology, Art, Design, Education, School

388 pages, Paperback

First published February 26, 2010

About the author

I write crime stories about strong women.

My newest novel, MY SISTER IS GOING TO KILL ME, will be released in August 2026. It is a fun, twisty mystery about two mismatched sisters who must catch a murderer as they barrel down the Grand Canyon on a whitewater rafting trip.

My first novel, MOTHER-DAUGHTER MURDER NIGHT, is a New York Times bestselling mystery about a grandma, single mom, and teenage girl who come together to solve the murder of a naturalist who washes up in the Monterey Bay.

Writing has always been my joy. In college, I was an electrical engineering student by day and a slam poet by night. After a brief stint at NASA, I started designing interactive exhibits and eventually became a museum director. I wrote two books of nonfiction about creating participatory, relevant cultural institutions.

Then, my mom got sick. I quit museum work to care for her, and I found myself turning to fiction, and mysteries, as a way to escape and find pleasure during a hard time. I wrote my first novel by my mom's side, featuring a detective/hero based on her. Now, my mom is doing better, and I'm gratefully spending my days writing, reading, and cherishing the people in my life.

I live off-the-grid in the Santa Cruz mountains. You can find out more about me at https://ninaksimon.com/

I write a very occasional newsletter at https://ninaksimon.substack.com/

Reviews

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book says it is about museums, but it has been popular amongst the ALA Think Tank Facebook group, full of public and academic librarians. It has some great advice for designing participatory exhibits and spaces, and I got a lot out of it from a library perspective too.

"The best participatory experiences are not wide open. They are scaffolded to help people feel comfortable engaging in the activity. There are many ways to scaffold experiences without prescribing the result." - She gives an example of a poster making activity that wasn't wide open but started with artifacts from the show that people could use, more of a remix than full-fledge creation.

"Visitors come in the door knowing who they are, but they may not know what content is of greatest interest to them." - She talks about designing themed guides for museum exhibits (I like... souvenirs, I like... to be inspired, I like... to wallow in angst, etc.), but I know we can improve our website at least in this way. Can we also overhaul some of our physical space?

Staff picks... not a new idea but would be easy to implement, although I feel like we tried this before.

The Human Library - brilliant idea, we could use this to teach the idea of libraries and librarians.

Interactive tree collage! With questions! I could use this in the first month of classes, asking upperclassmen to share one tip about the library or research. I saw tree collages at ACRL, with clothespins... must investigate.

[nini · Rating 3 out of 5]

“good evaluation of participatory projects is probably the greatest contributing factor to their slow acceptance and use in the museum field.” ; come back to us teach intro to eval .. helped me get further into seeing the public is a positive light again BUT it starts w staff so am i safe yet? no!

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very readable discussion of ways that museums can increase participation, through guest contributions, collaborations, hosting community events, etc. This would be a little hard to use as a reference, it's really a book that you read through and attempt to keep its main points in mind for the future. Simon is right on the money with a lot of this, for example, I (and I'm probably not alone here) hate museums that ask questions of the public that are just supposed to 'get you thinking', or questions to which the museum already has the answers, and think that this is really connecting with people somehow. Or similarly, museums that ask for feedback but don't tell you what they are going to do with it, and you know it is just headed for the garbage. Simon calls them out on this, and points out that for people to feel valued as guests, museums need to ask questions that are specific, and personal, and have answers, and allow people to contribute feedback that is actually necessary, and utilized, and improves the exhibit somehow. Simon also includes lots of case studies of museums finding effective ways to encourage participation, and some that describe how museums fail in this regard.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book I want to press into the hands of all my museum colleagues and say "Read this before you make any more plans about the future of your museum."
I've been reading Nina's blog (www.museumtwo.blogspot.com) for years now, so her big ideas--ways to help visitors engage with the museum, ways for museums and visitors to work together and talk--weren't new to me. But it was revelation to have all those ideas in one spot.
This is one of those books I read with a pencil in hand--underlining key points and good ideas, as well as jotting notes in the margin for ways to apply these ideas to my museum.
For non-museum readers, I would also recommend this book to anyone trying to build a community. It's really all about making certain places, whether it's a library or a museum or a coffeeshop, an integral part of people's lives.
Probably one of the best books on museum theory and practice I've ever read. This is one where I'm ready to start applying some of the ideas tomorrow. Look out!

[H. Givens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome! Provides an entire theoretical basis for participation in museums. Why and how! Plus plenty of case studies for inspiration. Basically you can read this for theory, take the arguments to your institution as needed, and return to it as a methodological guide for any project. Brilliance.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is useful for thinking about how visitors and partners can participate, collaborate, and co-create with museum staff to produce a more dynamic experience for all. I'm curious how Simon would update this book as Covid has affected museum participation so much

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found something that made me want to jump up and down on almost every page of this book. As a museum worker, I long to see more of the community engage with museums, and throughout Simon's book I consistently had the thought: "YES! Someone totally GETS everything a museum could be!"

The examples she uses of participatory models are extremely poignant. Simon has the ability to imagine how incredibly innovative systems like Nike + can be relevant to the museum industry, and does a marvelous job of explaining these insights. This is a book absolutely everyone who works in any cultural institution should read. Let me revise that: it should be a MUST read.

[Betsy McGee · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Nina Simon's ideas about make museums more interconnected with their guests and communities, but I could have taken or left this book. It would be wonderful if all museums could be participatory, but I feel that, in all honesty, there will always be a place for the cold, look-but-don't-touch museums of old. To me, the book borders on "preachy" in some places. That being said, the book is an absolute must for anyone looking into museums as a career.

[Mathies · Rating 5 out of 5]

- Packed with a bunch of great examples and case stories
- Nicely split between a introducing theoretical part and a more practical second half
- At times it can feel a bit out-dated, but Nina's blog http://museumtwo.blogspot.dk/ provides for great supplementary reading

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-written and thought-provoking deep dive into the nitty-gritty of how museums can take visitor and community participation to the next level and beyond. Nina Simon includes a mind-boggling array of case studies, some in museums and many in adjacent realms. There is much to think about here, much that will inspire creativity and adaptation and experimentation.

The place where I feel Simon was the least helpful was answering the WHY... WHY put in this effort and change established ways of thinking and doing things? Right at the very end, she gets imaginative about what embracing this kind of participation could look like... And it really doesn't even sound like a museum anymore. So I find myself asking WHY museums? Or is this just ANOTHER agenda being foisted on museums who are supposed to solve all the world's problems? Don't get me wrong... I think there's some EXTREMELY valuable things in this book, and participation to some degree is an important thing to work towards. But the author really didn't answer the Why or stick the landing.

[Maja · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really insightful look at how museums can become more open to public participation. This was done with a really easy to follow tone which I enjoyed and find lacking in many other academic books. I also found the numerous case studies very helpful and intriguing. However, perhaps a little too much attention was paid to these as I found myself getting lost in the sauce a little bit with all of this info dumping about a particular exhibition or event. I also found myself wanting a little more focus on why participatory museums are important. This was certainly touched on but I would have referred in depth reiterations of these points relating to the content of each chapter. Right now, I find the idea certainly interesting but it’s so subversive of the traditional museum that there needs to be more reason to put the effort in.

[Jeff Goodman · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be fair, this was a 4 or 5 star book in 2010, when it was published. It was so innovative and forward-looking that a lot of the concepts have since been adopted. Still a great resource to have handy and reflect on. If you can only get one, Nina Simon more recent book, The Art of Relevance, is probably the better buy. And, hopefully she will have another amazing book that will be outdated in a few years soon!

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book probably deserves a higher rating than I gave it. It is loaded with examples for museums, historic sites, libraries and other institutions of how to go beyond the typical one-directional information sharing process with its visitors. Some of the suggestions are strictly for larger venues, employing expensive high tech equipment and services. Others are as simple as markers and sticky notes.

Perhaps it was a little overwhelming for me in one take, and there was definitely a fair amount of repetition. It's a book that I know will prove useful to me, but it is not an easy read.

[Laurel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a truly great book on museology but I have to admit it took me a long time to get through it over a period of years because it is so dense with ideas and case studies. Now I need to go back to all the pages I flagged to see what I wanted to do with them. :-) Simon's Art of Relevance is a much quicker read to get started and for sharing with boards, etc.

[Charity · Rating 4 out of 5]

By the end I felt like I was reading the same thing over and over again, but otherwise a good (though tough) read. I am definitely more of a "traditional" museum visitor and don't really like participating in group activities with strangers, but I really appreciate Simon's perspective and plan to keep it in mind as I pursue my public history MA.

[Meghan Schiedel · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you think museums are stodgy and boring than haven’t been to a good one! Nina Simons participatory museum gets me excited about working in the field and feeling optimistic about the ability to reinvent what we think of as traditional museum models. Although she doesn’t cover social justice explicitly this book is extremely reliving to the social justice work going on in many museums.

[Laurel · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good book for organizations, especially cultural institutions to make themselves more participatory. Case studies and clear examples populate the pages. In my opinion the second section of the book was more engaging.

[Ruth Yetter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read

This was a mandatory reading for my history class. It has made me look at museums in a different way. It has been helpful in trying to be creative and finding ways to be engaging.

[Lenka · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book, full of interesting ideas and examples.

[X · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not in this field at all but I still enjoyed reading this. It made me want to visit a museum, which I haven't done in years.

[Mallory Spiers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another reading for school but extremely fascinating!

[damagedways · Rating 1 out of 5]

This class quite literally had me drop out of school for the rest of the year and never want to go to a museum ever again.

[Laura Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read that is still applicable today. Top down and bottom up participatory change

[Evan · Rating 5 out of 5]

veldig spennende og godt skrevet!1!

[Seema Rao · Rating 5 out of 5]

A seminal work that questions all the received expectations of museum work.

[Narr]

If you work in museums, you NEED to read this book. Largely because everybody else is. Or at least says they are.

I want to hate Nina Simon, but I don't. She IS a business woman selling a product which she's happy to help you with (please make no mistake) and yes I think she can be a little too Pollyanna at times, but I tend to agree with her and find I like many of her ideas. What I do (really) hate is the cult that has grown up around her. Her ideas are good, but they're not the only ones. I guess the cult is to be expected. I mean, she's made it easier for museums to appear to be creative, without actually being creative. For that alone, I expect they'll put up a golden statue of Nina soon.

[anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been reading Nina's Museum 2.0 blog since 2007. I always loved her ideas and examples, but really wanted a holistic framework in which to understand her ideas and place the clear applications she presented. The Participatory Museum is just that. I found it useful as someone working on a web application as well as someone interested in working in the museum field someday.

I think the book is great for cultural professionals, volunteers, museum lovers, educators and anyone interested in the ways people engage with content and knowledge. Nina's advice is both extremely practical and offers a different theoretical framework with which to approach many areas of cultural engagement.

[Ed Smiley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is for those interested in museum interactivity, or participatory events. It is written by our new head of the Museum of Art and History in Santa Cruz CA.

Having met Nina, and having seen her enthusiasm, I was able to appreciate this book more than some general readers.

She argues fairly persuasively that participation and collaboration with the community is a meaningful value for public cultural institutions, form an adjunct to, not a substitute for, or an alternative to, its other missions. This book gives a wealth of examples and detailed analysis of their implications.

[CloudsJen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this book to everyone working in the museum field. This book provides an opportunity to open up a conversation at your museum about the future of museums and how we will act, look, and remain relevant.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book. Given the evolution of visitor expectations in the "Experience Economy," this book could easily be titled The Future of Museums. It will be exciting to see how institutions embrace and execute these ideas in the coming years.