A new company in NY, Museum Hack, is reinventing the museum tour from the exterior in. They give high-energy, interactive travels of the Metropolitan Museum and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). The trips are pricey, individualized, NOT associated with the museums involved… and incredibly, extremely popular. Today on Museum 2.0, an interview with Dustin Growick.
Dustin is a technology instructor at the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) by day, Museum Hack tour creator/leader at AMNH by evening. How did you get involved with Museum Hack first? Dustin: About a year ago I met a couple of of people from Museum Hack at a conference. These were “preaching the museum gospel” in NYC via alternate tours on the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I used to be intrigued and wondering for more information, but also skeptical of the merits of an outside group running roughshod in The Met. So I went on the museum was experienced by a tour…and in an entirely new way. I heard incredible-and often salacious-stories behind hidden gems I’d walked past numerous times.
- Low float stocks
- In-depth knowledge of Apache Kafka
- Track Everything and Keep Receipts
- Fear. Don’t play it cling and safe from what you think is secure. If you don’t
- Do we have a defined process for eliminating rework and inefficiencies
- I like to hear the opinions of my employees
- 11 years back from Cebu, Philippines
We interacted with the art and with one another through dynamic picture issues, kinesthetic activities, and discussions. We talked about impressionism from Manet to Monet, and delved deeper in pointillism and Greek sculpture. Heck, I even learned all about a 17th century German drinking game. For the very first time in quite a while, I used to be interacting and engaging with the museum personally, the collection, and with complete strangers in a manner that highlighted the art. When the chance to design my very own two-hour museum adventure at the American Museum of Natural History presented itself, I jumped at the opportunity.
I’ve been leading my own Museum Hack trips at AMNH for approximately 9 months now. The travels boil right down to three key things: engagement, relevance and fun. I want to help people find interactive and accessible points of entry and give them the tools to curate their own experience during every museum visit.
Can you give an example of the kind of Museum Hack activity which makes this different from other museum travels? Here’s a good example which i experienced on that first tour of the Met. Within the American Portrait Gallery, a game was played by us called Matchmaker Matchmaker. Take a short while to allow a subject in one of the paintings to “find you”. It can be a individual or an pet, plus they can be the main focus of the piece or some strange-looking fellow lurking in the background.
Go to whatever piques your interest and draws you in. Use both posted information and your imagination to come up with a straightforward backstory because of this individual. What’s their name? Why are they in this picture? Where do they get that extraordinary feather boa? Look for a partner or get matched with a partner.
You now have exactly two minutes to concoct the epic love story that brings together the two people you’ve chosen. As you stand among the portraits, reveal your tale of deception, love, mystery, and intrigue with all of those other combined group. Who’s the audience for Museum Hack? You are a museum insider and a content geek. But I know that Nick Gray, the Museum Hack creator, often emphasizes that Museum Hack is for people who don’t love (or even like) museums.
I don’t think anyone who doesn’t like museums would ever pay for a tour. Again Then, quite a few most passionate participants are relatively ambivalent towards museums–or folks who are daunted by the Met or AMNH and want a far more personalized experience. I believe of us manuals as “museum personal trainers”.