How to Create Meaningful Museum Engagement: 10 Best Practices from 150 Episodes

The Art Engager

After 150 episodes exploring engagement in museums and cultural organisations – including 101 solo episodes and 49 guest conversations – host Claire Bown shares 10 of the most powerful insights that have emerged over four years of thinking deeply about engagement principles and practices.

For this milestone episode, Claire revisited the entire back catalogue, re-listening to past episodes and looking for patterns. What she found were 10 essential insights about engagement that can shift how we think, plan, and work in museums today.

What comes through again and again is the power of simple, intentional adjustments. These are practical strategies you can try out straight away.

Four years and 150 episodes of exploring what really works in museum engagement – distilled into 10 essential principles for anyone working in museum and heritage education.

The Art Engager is written and presented by Claire Bown. Editing is by Matt Jacobs and Claire Bown. Music by Richard Bown. Support the show on Patreon.

SHOWNOTES

Every single episode of The Art Engager podcast webpage: https://thinkingmuseum.com/every-single-episode-of-the-art-engager-podcast/

‘The Art Engager: Reimagining Guided Experiences in Museums‘ is now available worldwide through your favourite online platforms and retailers. Buy it here on Amazon.com: https://tinyurl.com/buytheartengager

The Art Engager book website: https://www.theartengager.com/

Support the show with a simple monthly subscription on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/TheArtEngager

Make a one-off donation: https://buymeacoffee.com/clairebown

All of the mentioned episodes:

149 Art, Play and Joy at Compton Verney with Geraldine Collinge

144 6 ways to create powerful connections in museum experiences

137 How to use The Universal Questioning Practice

136 What are Questioning Practices?

131 Stimulating the senses: using smell to engage visitors with Sofia Collette Ehrich

130 The power of inquiry, curiosity and questioning with Trevor MacKenzie

125 How to build rapport in museum and gallery programmes

99 Striking the right pace in museum programmes: less is more

96 7 Ways to Make Time and Space for Silence

95 How silence is a superpower in museum and gallery programmes

90 How to Create Intellectual Comfort

87 How to ask more open-ended questions

81 7 Ways to Refresh your Practice in 2023

72 Reacting to art with our bodies with Rachel Ropeik

61 How mindfulness and drawing can help us to connect with art with Karly Allen

57 Bitesize: How to End Well – Creating a Strong Conclusion for your Programmes

52 From Good to Great: Personal Growth & Development for Museum Educators

49 Inspiring Creative Writing Through Art with Mary Hall Surface

44 The 4 elements of a great introduction

29 How to develop a reflective practice

12 6 Best Practices for Sharing Information