Linda Norris - Creativity in Museum Practice

Linda Norris and Rainey Tisdale

First published 2014 by Left Coast Press, Inc.

Published 2016 by Routledge
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Norris, Linda.
Creativity in museum practice / Linda Norris, Rainey Tisdale.
pages cm
Summary: "With this book museum professionals can learn how to unleash creative potential throughout their institution. Drawing from a wide range of research on creativity as well as insights from today's most creative museum leaders, the authors present a set of practical principles about how museum workers at any levelnot just those in "creative positions"can make a place for creativity in their daily practice. Replete with creativity exercises and stories from the field, the book guides readers in developing an internal culture of creative learning, as well as delivering increased value to museum audiences"Provided by publisher.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61132-307-8 (hardback)ISBN 978-1-61132-308-5 (paperback)ISBN 978-1-61132-309-2 (institutional eBook)ISBN 978-1-61132-703-8 (consumer eBook)
1. Museum techniquesSocial aspects. 2. Creative thinking. I. Tisdale, Rainey. II. Title.
AM7.N67 2013
069'.4dc23

2013029489

ISBN 978-1-61132-307-8 hardcover
ISBN 978-1-61132-308-5 paperback

There is a scene in the 1984 cult classic heavy metal band mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap where lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel (played by Christopher Guest) is showing director Marty DiBergi (played by Rob Reiner) the tools of his trade, his guitar collection, with all the intensity of a veteran curator. He tells DiBergi about each piece: what makes it special and how he uses it to make great music. They get to a Marshall amplifier, and Tufnel explains that its an exceptional amp because the volume knob doesnt just go to ten, it goes to eleven. When you are performing live and you need that extra kick, you can turn it all the way up to eleven and really knock the socks off the audience. DiBergi tries to reason with Tufnel that you can have amps with a volume knob that goes to ten that make the same amount of noise, but Tufnel wont have it. He knows he has a magic amp.

Wouldnt it be amazing if museums had a magic amp, one that made our work reverberate and resound through the stadium of public life with all the power and gusto of an electric guitar cranked up to eleven? In fact we have such a magic amp: it is creativity.

On the walls and in the storage of museums, large and small, art and history, science and archaeology, are tangible signs of human creativity. Whether its inventing the more perfect fishing jig, illustrating a scientific principle, or seeing the world the way no artist had beforeits all evidence of our human impulse to solve problems and create new ideas. For centuries now museums have been spending countless hours and enormous resources collecting and preserving this evidence of human creativity. But are they ignoring the creative capacity sitting right in front of them, in their own workers? We believe the daily creative life of museum workers behind the scenes both needs and deserves more attention in order for museums to reach their full potential.

Creativity is a word that gets thrown around a lot these days, and it means different things to different people. So what exactly do we mean by creativity in museum practice? For the purposes of this book, creative museumsand creative museum workersproduce new ideas and new ways of seeing things that add value either internally (to the staff and to operations behind the scenes) or externally (to a public audience). Creative museum practice includes idea generation in any museum department (inventing bold new interpretive methods, management techniques, or even fundraising strategies), creative problem solving (finding a graceful way to move past entrenched challenges), andwhat most people think of firstartistic creativity (making the museum aesthetically appealing).

Lets unpack this definition a little. First, note the words new and value. Creativity is about moving humankind forward, building on what has come before. An idea does not have to be mind-blowingly transformative to be creative, but it does have to be at least a little new, even if it is simply an established idea applied in a new way at your organization, or a new combination of two previous concepts. And it is not enough to have a new idea if it doesnt add valueproblem-solving value, social value, intellectual value, aesthetic value. Second, this definition encompasses both back and front of the house: staff and the public. The creative impulse is often not as evident in our offices as it is in our galleries. Its time to change that. We need to build creative cultures in our conference rooms, our collections storage areas, our staff lounges, and our boardrooms to support our missions more fully and move our institutions forward. And third, this definition doesnt just refer to artistic creativity; it conceives of creativity broadly, across all museum sizes, disciplines, and departments. In other words, were not letting anyone off the hook. There was a time when a lot of museumshistory, natural history, archaeologyassumed that creativity is only for contemporary art museums, or when museum development officers or registrars or administrators might have argued that creativity is only for exhibition designers, or when tiny volunteer-run museums felt they could leave it to the big guys. That time has passed.

This book explores how to unleash the creative potential of all museum workers and all museums in the service of a more creative society. We wrote it because we believe that each of you whether youre a curator, a marketing manager, an educator, or a security guard; whether youre just starting out in your career or running the showhas a deep well of creative energy, an amp that goes to eleven, just waiting to be tapped. And once you figure out how to tap it, you establish a win-win situation with far-reaching effects: your own work gets stronger and more rewarding, and your museum becomes a significantly more interesting place to spend forty hours of each week not just for you, but also for your co-workers. Your colleagues throughout the field stand to benefit, too, as they look to your work for inspiration. But most importantly, society wins, because creative museums help kids, parents, teachers, workers, seniors, civic leaderseveryoneuncover their own creative passions and use them to solve nagging problems, make discoveries, invent useful and beautiful new things, build fulfilling careers, and connect more meaningfully with each other.