What if the secret to better museums was … neuroscience?

How can museums inspire human creativity? How much media should be in a gallery — or should there be any? How soon should you get feedback on your exhibition ideas? Can museums help us all “escape the algorithm”? What does knitting have to do with visitor satisfaction? In this episode, we’ll learn some unexpected tricks of the trade from a renowned museum leader.

Lynda Roscoe Hartigan (The Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Executive Director and CEO of the Peabody Essex Museum) discusses “Creating Effective Museum Experiences” with host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners | The Exhibition and Experience Design Studio).

Along the way: standup comedy, Iris Apfel, and moon chairs.
 
 
Talking Points:
 
1. Embrace Human Creativity

2. Design is Critical — Use Media Wisely

3. Knit Experiences

4. Escape the Algorithm

5. Know Your Audience — Get Feedback Early

6. Consider the Neuroscience

How to Listen:
 
Listen on Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/making-the-museum/id1674901311

Listen on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/6oP4QJR7yxv7Rs7VqIpI1G

Listen at Making the Museum, the Website:
https://www.makingthemuseum.com/podcast

Links to Every Podcast Service, via Transistor:
https://makingthemuseum.transistor.fm/

Guest Bio:

Lynda Roscoe Hartigan is The Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Executive Director and CEO of the Peabody Essex Museum. As a curator, scholar and museum executive, Lynda Roscoe Hartigan brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to PEM. During her time as Chief Curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, she led an internationally recognized acquisition initiative to build collections of works by Black, self-taught and modern and contemporary artists. In 2003, Lynda was appointed as PEM’s first Chief Curator and in 2016 became Deputy Director. Overseeing the interpretation and installation of PEM’s new wing, she was integral to developing and advancing the museum’s innovative exhibition program, collection stewardship, fundraising, education, publishing, digital and global leadership initiatives. Most recently, she was Deputy Director for Collections and Research and Chief Innovation Officer at the Royal Ontario Museum, Canada's largest museum dedicated to art, culture and the sciences. Lynda has returned to PEM to become the museum’s first woman director and to boldly lead the nation’s oldest continually operating and ever-evolving museum forward.

About Making the Museum:
 
Making the Museum is hosted (podcast) and written (newsletter) by Jonathan Alger. MtM is a project of C&G Partners | The Exhibition and Experience Design Studio.
 
Learn more about the creative work of C&G Partners:
https://www.cgpartnersllc.com/

Links for This Episode:

Lynda’s Email:

[email protected]

Lynda on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynda-hartigan-762b475/

Lynda’s Thesis:
"Grandma Moses and the Implications of Memory,' in Grandma Moses in the 21st Century, Jane Kallir, ed., Art Services International, Alexandria, VA, 2001, pp. 64-79.

https://www.amazon.com/Grandma-Moses-Century-Jane-Kallir/dp/0300089279

Calder exhibition:
https://www.pem.org/exhibitions/calder-and-abstraction-from-avant-garde-to-iconic

Ansel Adams exhibition:
https://www.pem.org/exhibitions/ansel-adams-at-the-waters-edge

Escape the Algorithm, PEM’s latest ad campaign:

https://www.pem.org/blog/turning-heads-pems-chief-marketing-officer-gives-the-scoop-on-the-museums-new-brand-campaign

Neuroscience initiative: 

https://www.pem.org/about-pem/pem-initiatives/neuroscience-initiative

Art Pharmacy from Mass Cultural Council:

https://www.artpharmacy.co/

FutureMuseum (PEM will be hosting museum leaders for this event on May 28 and 29, 2025):

https://www.museumbooster.com/future-museum

Links for Making the Museum, the Podcast:
 
Contact Making the Museum:
https://www.makingthemuseum.com/contact

Host Jonathan Alger, Managing Partner of C&G Partners, on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanalger

Email Jonathan Alger:
[email protected]

C&G Partners | The Exhibition and Experience Design Studio:
https://www.cgpartnersllc.com/

Making the Museum, the Newsletter:

Like the show? You might enjoy the newsletter. Making the Museum is also a free weekly professional development email for exhibition practitioners, museum leaders, and visitor experience professionals. (And newsletter subscribers are the first to hear about new episodes of this podcast.)
 
Join hundreds of your peers with a one-minute read, three times a week. Invest in your career with a diverse, regular feed of planning and design insights, practical tips, and tested strategies — including thought-provoking approaches to technology, experience design, audience, budgeting, content, and project management.
 
Subscribe to the newsletter:
https://www.makingthemuseum.com/