National Services Te Paerangi brings acclaimed American museum designer Nina Simon to Wellington, Christchurch, and Auckland for an insightful series of free seminars entitled ‘Engaging museum audiences’.

The seminars have generated great interest from the museum sector. More than 100 people have registered for the Wellington event, and the Auckland event has sold out. 

The seminars will provide New Zealand’s museums with new ways to incorporate visitors’ voices into their exhibitions and programmes. Engaging with the community in this way is crucial to the ongoing success of a museum.

The Wellington seminar is at Te Papa on Thursday 26 November 2009. Christchurch Art Gallery is the next venue on Friday 27 November. In Auckland, the seminar is at the Museum of Transport and Technology on Monday 14 December.

“The cultural landscape is changing. The rise of interactive and social media has made people more interested in experiences that are responsive to who they are as individuals and how they relate to their friends and family,” Nina Simon said today.

Nina noted the importance of museums being current and contemporary, saying “Museums can no longer just provide good content or fun things to do. They must also consider how to incorporate visitors as active doers, makers, and voices in museum programmes and exhibitions. This supports the desire of visitors to be co-creators, and it can also help institutions become more dynamic, relevant places for dialogue among citizens.”

The seminar will focus on strategic approaches to communicating with visitors. Participants will be able to examine techniques that Nina uses in her work.

Paul Evans, CEO of Voyager New Zealand Maritime Museum, is looking forward to attending the seminar.

“Having recently rebranded Voyager New Zealand Maritime Museum to communicate a more contemporary museum experience, our next step is to flow this brand strategy through to our galleries,” said Mr Evans. 

“Engaging our visitors in the stories of New Zealand’s great maritime voyagers is critical to our future success. I look forward to hearing Nina’s strategies for creating exhibitions that meet our visitors’ expectations for active involvement and dialogue.”

Mark Donovan, Te Papa’s new Experience Group Director, said today that Museums around the world are experimenting with virtual experiences. “We are all looking for our virtual voices and what our individual Museum 2.0 products look like. Nina is one of the international experts in this field.”

Background

Museum 2.0 is a top online museum resource that focuses on participatory museum design.

Nina Simon is an accomplished independent museum exhibition designer and runs Museum 2.0. Her portfolio encompasses many impressive projects for reputable museums and experience centres throughout the Unites States, including the International Spy Museum, Boston Children’s Museum, Denver Art Museum, and Monterey Bay Aquarium. Nina is also on the board of the National Association of Museum Exhibitions (NAME) and teaches Social Technology at the University of Washington Museology Programme.

See other presentations by Nina Simon 

National Services Te Paerangi works with museums, galleries, iwi (tribes), and related organisations. Our aim is to support these organisations to become self-sustaining and to enhance museum services through collaboration at local and national level. As part of our training role, we have developed these seminars for the museum sector.

For more information about National Services Te Paerangi, visit www.nationalservices.tepapa.govt.nz