#aam2011: Our presentation

I thought I would share our presentation from our session at #aam2011 today. I was honored to share the stage with Ashely Remer of the Girl Museum, Jon West-Bey of the American Poetry Museum and brilliant moderator Paul Orselli of the Paul Orselli Workshop.

What is it about? Our experiments, and why we think approaches such as these are good for the future of museums.

San Francisco Mobile Museum, Maria Mortati, #aam2011

View more presentations from Maria Mortati

It was a lot of fun to share the work. Thanks, all!

Here We Come: #aam2011

Hi.

We're delighted to be participating on a panel with Girl Museum and the American Poetry Museum at the American Association of Museums conference. Our panel is this Sunday from 1:15 p.m., room 372E and is called "Future of Exhibiting: Voices from Non-traditional Museums".

We'll be sharing our experiences and perspectives the work we've done with our alternative museum projects. I'll post links to slides and additional materials soon!

A Cause for Reflection with the Center for the Future of Museums

If you've been following, you've probably heard that we participated in a blog series with the AAM's Center for the Future of Museums. They've called it "Museums and the Spectrum of Control". It looks at a set of projects which challenge the notion of authoritative museums in unusual ways.

In Part 1, Barbara Stauffer chief of temporary exhibitions at the National Museum of Natural History shared her work on a project where they invited the community to crochet pieces for a giant "coral reef" installation.

In Part 2, I shared our brief history of playing with both the idea of a mobile platform and participatory projects.

For Part 3, Streetcolor talked about her experiences with 'Yarnbombing' in relation to museums.

Finally, we had a bunch of emails amongst ourselves reflecting on how reading about each other's processes impacted our thinking:

"Closing the Loop"

It's great when you're doing experimental work to have a chance to reflect. Grazie, CFM.

Image: CC/Flickr/Basyke

Free SHRINE: Gone But Not Forgotten: A Burro Story 1982-2010

By Marcia Stuermer

Clarissa was a town burro from Murphy’s, an historic Gold Country town who died earlier this year. She was 27. She was an affectionate and wildly loved animal- the result of a University of CA program that rounded up feral burros in Death Valley and adopted them out.

No one could visit the town without paying a visit, usually with a treat. After her death, her shed was turned into a giant memorial of flowers, notes and other gifts. Often townspeople paying their respects could not hold back tears. The town of Murphy's will hold a tribute in her honor on August 6th. It is rumored that they might even erect a statue in her name. It’s yet to be determined if the town will adopt another burro to hold court.

Let me tell you, I have never heard such a sound as the earth-shaking braying that would come from a delighted Clarissa when she was aware that someone had brought her food! I hope that sound will continue to echo on that corner of Murphy’s Main Street for many years to come.

Note: Marcia Stuermer also created this piece for our first exhibit, "Looking for Loci".