Your Input Please!
Help me shape the path forward for "The Savvy Museum Visitor"
Thank you for being with me! As I shape this new path here on Substack, I’d love your feedback and suggestions. I’ll share a few general thoughts and then lay out some of my ideas. For me, when I step into a new project, I get filled with too many ideas and they generally need to be shaped and toned done a bit, that’s why I need your help. :)
The Savvy Museum Visitor is meant to be a place of discovery and reprieve. A space to step away from daily stress and anxiety where you can discover the new, revel in the familiar, expand your knowledge, and bolster your wellbeing. While the main focus is museums, I’ll also include other heritage and cultural attractions that appeal to us for their history, beauty, and the respite that they bring us.
Most of the information posted here will be free. This includes Exceptional Museums, Wellness, and Notes - daily snippets about museum and related wellness aspects. I’m adding articles on a regular basis, often daily. At the same time, paid subscribers will get access to a few perks. At the moment, these include access to my stories about my time as curator of Biltmore House - written like chapters in a book. Also, paid subscribers will have access to ongoing - I’m thinking monthly - Museum Chats via Zoom.
Here’s where I could use your thoughts. The following list is things roaming around my brain. Please send me a message or comment and share your thoughts. I’d really appreciate it!
Museum Chats: Possible Topics
The Good, the Bad, and the Unexpected of Museums
The Denver Museum of Art, The American Writers Museum, or other individual museums
Historic House Museums, Art Museums, Science Museums, or other categories of museums
Chatting about books about museums, art, heritage, and culture
Art History Snippets
Zoom sessions about art history and decorative art topics. Possible subjects include Paul Revere silver, the Dun Emer Guild, Donegal carpets, CFA Voysey, Charles Rennie Macintosh, the history of seating furniture, 19th century historic interiors. Any interest?
Wellness Art Meanders: Thoughts
Zoom sessions where the focus is respite and rejuvenation via art. Each session would provide restful ways to admire various types of art, while de-stressing and boosting our overall wellbeing. They might be 30 minutes long, or maybe an hour. Thoughts?
Downloads
Checklists or information sheets to enhance your museum visits. They might be visual games you could do at museums. Or treasure hunts. Or activities to engage children in museums. This idea has been in my mind for a while but is not yet fleshed out. Maybe?
Wild Out-There Idea!
There are conferences for cat lovers, and RV owners, and quilters. What about a gathering for museum lovers? It might include speakers from museums. Or panel discussions. Or games. Or the opportunity to role-play creating a museum exhibit. While such an event might have speakers or facilitators from museums, the audience would be museum visitors, especially savvy museum visitors! Weird or intriguing?
So, that’s my brain dump for today! I’m delighted that you’re here and look forward to your thoughts!
-Susan
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We love the idea of a gathering of museum visitors! It would also be a chance to find out all the different museums out there AND not just art museums but varieties of art - like photography! However, photography is also included in SO many different types of museums. Would be fun to expore what's out there and new possibilities for photography in our case!