This summer, the IMA was fortunate to have the opportunity to host the meeting for the Association of Art Museum Directors. We interviewed some of the visiting members and assembled this mini-documentary about their meeting:

We hope everyone enjoyed their visit!

Filed under: New Media

When is a lamp not a lamp?  When it’s designed by California architect Greg Lynn—who’s coming to the IMA to dialogue with IMA CEO Maxwell Anderson Wednesday evening.

Call it a mod beehive, a jaunty porous blob, a bold yellow organ.  In the hands of Greg Lynn, form reigns…with materiality a close second.  Lynn is credited with coining the term “blob architecture.”

I first heard the name Greg Lynn last year while reading a piece in The New York Times Magazine about architects with an ardor for sailing.  Guys like Lynn and Frank Gehry regularly hit the waves in sleek, complex contraptions in a true test of human-made forms vs. the energies of nature’s elements.

Preview Lynn’s design perspective with this recording of a talk at the Univ. of Michigan.

Filed under: Design, Education, Public Programs, The Toby

This blog post began like many of our new media projects at the IMA. I was meeting with my colleagues in the Nugget Factory, kicking around ideas for this blog post. Actually, we were also literally kicking a soccer ball around. We keep one in our area for creative brainstorming and because I love Soccer (did someone say 2010 World Cup – England vs. USA, what?).  All of a sudden, Dan Dark kicked the ball and hit my coffee mug, which of course exploded all over my sweater. True story. And a blog post was born. Spontaneity.

Dan Dark, Senior New Media Producer

It’s the first time I’ve been doused by coffee in a creative meeting, but I’ve also been pranked countless times by my colleagues.

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Filed under: New Media

Last week in part one of this series, we looked at a working definition of transparency on which to base the context of our conversation.  There was some good discussion in the comments about the concept in general and specifically about the differences between the valuation of museum collections and deaccessioning practices.   Thanks to those of you who commented, and/or tweeted about the article.

Saying that transparency is a “good idea” is not enough to address concerns that many museums have about sharing  information in this way.  Today, we’ll spend some more time examining a few reasons why museum administrators should seriously consider an open approach to transparency as a strategic choice in running the museum.

Again, please chime in with thoughts / questions / analogies / etc…  Your thoughts really add to and enrich the conversation.  Do you think this would work in your museum?  What would be the biggest concerns that would arise?

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Filed under: Musings, Technology

Not really sure what live blogging is….but I’m blogging today for the IMA from Museums and the Web 2009 being held here in Indianapolis.  In a few minutes, our Director and CEO Maxwell Anderson, will give the conference opener, Moving from Virtual from Visceral.  Pretty cool.  This conference is becoming so web-by, that they are now even featuring live tweets during his presentation on a projector.

Live MW2009 Twitter Feed

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Filed under: Current Events, New Media, Technology