Making connections between the past and the issues of our complicated present day can be intimidating. Many museum professionals—even senior staff and boards of directors—feel unprepared. How will our visitors react? What about our funders? Will we be seen as partisan?

These misgivings are understandable! But a modern, purpose-driven approach to planning and interpretation can breathe new life and creativity into an organization. This approach can be a rallying point, creating deeply meaningful experiences for your visitors and staff alike.

We can help get you there!

What We Do

Dialogue Training for Museum Educators and Leadership Teams

Dialogue. The respectful, open-hearted exchange of life experiences and perspectives. It’s the bedrock of personal growth and reflection. And yet it’s in short supply in today’s public discourse.

This is where we come in.

A dialogic approach to interpretation is less about delivering information (although that remains critical) and more about asking thoughtful questions. It’s about giving up some authority, and making space for visitors. In its many forms, dialogue becomes the foundation for deep reflection, meaning and impact at your site.

Our workshops will guide your educators or leadership team through a set of strategies, both innovative and established, and look at best practices from other sites. You’ll even role play best and worst-case scenarios. Building confidence and buy-in from the team is key!

Interpretive Planning / Program and Exhibit Development

A strong interpretive plan works back from the organization’s mission and vision, in close collaboration with the site’s leadership, front line staff, and community. It takes a fresh, open-minded look at what is possible. Why is this site important? To whom? How can our visitors interact with our content, or with each other? What conversations do we hope they will have at the dinner table tonight?

We look with fresh eyes at the stories your site tells, and the questions it asks. As a visitor-centered vision forms, strategy and workflow follow. The result is a tight, actionable plan for the next chapter in your site’s interpretation.

Strategic Planning

Working back from your organization’s mission and vision—even rewriting them!—we establish a roadmap for your organization, and how you will achieve it. This planning requires careful analysis of audience demographics, community needs, cultural trends, and financial resources. Collaboration with stakeholders, including leadership, staff, donors, and the local community, is crucial for successful implementation.

Flexibility is essential, as strategic plans need to adapt to evolving organizational circumstances. This plan will serve as a tool to align growth with mission, and contribute to enduring impact and relevance.

Facilitated Retreats

We can structure and facilitate your leadership retreats, community listening sessions and planning processes to bring out the best in your group. Working back from core values, we create inclusive, warm spaces where honest and direct communication can flourish. We can handle all the planning, from writing the agenda to synthesizing the findings into action steps and graphic summaries.

Public Speaking and Keynote Presentations

Sean is a highly sought speaker for conferences and professional gatherings. He has provided the keynote speech for more than a dozen museum conferences. Sean’s presentations on the challenges and extraordinary potential of the museum field are fast paced, highly visual, and meant to inspire.

Sean also meets enthusiastically, often without charge, with classes at the undergraduate and graduate level. Many of the students have read one of Sean’s articles in advance.