Making the Museum

What’s the secret to success, when a project lasts years longer than planned?

What keeps us going when our work takes more time? How does the subject matter of a project relate to the form of a project? Why should we be thinking equally about the budget for what happens after a project opens? What is the “architecture of delight”? Why do “reverberations matter”? Which is more important: patience, or pushing? (Hint: it’s a trick question.) And most importantly, why should everybody visit the house of Louis and Lucille Armstrong in Queens, New York?

Regina Bain (Executive Director, Louis Armstrong House Museum & Archives) and Sara Caples, (Principal and co-founder of Caples Jefferson Architects) join host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to discuss the new Louis Armstrong Center project that all three worked on.

Along the way: why everyone should take acting classes, and what it’s like being inside a cello.

Chapters:

1. Louis and Lucille’s House

2. We’ll Open in Three Months

3. A Golden Curve

4. Serious Acting

5. The Reverberations Matter

6. Patience and Pushing

7. Letter to Your Earlier Self

8. Budget Beyond Opening

How to Listen:
Apple Podcasts

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/making-the-museum/id1674901311
Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/show/6oP4QJR7yxv7Rs7VqIpI1G
Everywhere
https://makingthemuseum.transistor.fm/
Guest Bios:

Regina Bain is an artist and educator serving as the Executive Director of the Louis Armstrong House Museum. In the midst of the reverberations of slavery, Jim Crow laws and the great migration, Armstrong became America’s first Black popular music icon. The Museum preserves his home and archives and develops programs grounded in the values of artistic excellence, education and community. This year, Ms. Bain recently opened the new 14,000 sq. foot Armstrong Center housing a multimedia exhibit curated by Jason Moran, a 75-seat performance space, and the 60,000-piece Armstrong Archives — the largest archives of any jazz musician and one of the largest of any Black musician. Previous to her appointment at LAHM, Ms. Bain served as Associate Vice President of the Posse Foundation — a national leadership and college access program. Bain’s efforts helped to increase Posse’s national student graduation rates for four consecutive years. Bain is currently the co-chair of Culture @3’s anti-racism subcommittee and recently served on the Yale Board of Governors.

Sara Caples AIA is Principal and co-founder of Caples Jefferson Architects PC. Sara's early experience was focused on the design and direction of large projects, especially in the public realm. Since founding the firm in 1987 with Everardo Jefferson, she has remained committed to designing cultural, educational, and community centers for neighborhoods underserved by the design professions. Sara is a frequent lecturer at schools, community, and professional organizations. She has served as a visiting professor at Syracuse, CCNY, University of Miami, and Yale. Sara and her partner Everardo are currently William B. and Charlotte Shepherd Davenport Professors at Yale School of Architecture, and Everardo and Sara worked together on the design of the Louis Armstrong project. CJA has been honored with AIANY’s President’s Award and awarded the AIA’s New York State Firm of the Year. With work widely published from Architect Magazine and Domus to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Their most recent book is Many Voices: Architecture for Social Equity.

About MtM:
Making the Museum is hosted (podcast) and written (newsletter) by Jonathan Alger. This podcast is a project of C&G Partners | Design for Culture. Learn about the firm's creative work at: https://www.cgpartnersllc.com
Show Links:
Louis Armstrong House Museum: https://www.louisarmstronghouse.org/

Louis Armstrong (Artist) on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/19eLuQmk9aCobbVDHc6eek?si=lYvi-xRYRXyPTNj7TpzuqA

Images of Louis Armstrong Center Building: https://www.capjeff.com/louis-armstrong-center-new

Images of Louis Armstrong Center Exhibitions: https://www.cgpartnersllc.com/projects/new-project-the-louis-armstrong-...

What if we're doing community engagement ... wrong?

How long should the process really take for a museum or exhibition? What’s the difference between demographics and psychographics? What does it mean to “move at the pace of community”? Why do community engagement experts sometimes cringe when they hear the word “charrette”? And what exactly does “community” mean?

Nu Goteh (Founder and Principal of ROOM FOR MAGIC, and Co-Founder of Deem Journal) joins MtM host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to discuss “Community Engagement Misconceptions.”
Along the way: Red Bull, lived experience experts, and Burnt Caramel Cookie Crumble.
Talking Points:
1. What Does Community Mean?

2. Moving at the Pace of Community

3. Engagement Isn’t Free

4. Finding Partner Organizations

5. Charrettes Are One Tactic (They’re Not a Strategy)

6. The Inherent Tensions

7. The Ice Cream Test

How to Listen:
Listen on Apple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/making-the-museum/id1674901311Listen on Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/6oP4QJR7yxv7Rs7VqIpI1GListen at Making the Museum, the Website:https://www.makingthemuseum.com/podcastLinks to Every Podcast Service, via Transistor:https://makingthemuseum.transistor.fm/
Guest Bio:
Hi, I’m Nu—a designer, strategist, and educator dancing between design, culture, pedagogy and socially-engaged art. My practice integrates and reframes design beyond aesthetics. I’m interested in how design can serve as a catalyst for meaningful social change, informed by my Liberian heritage and a commitment to counter-culture ideals. I believe in the regenerative power of creativity to reimagine what is possible and to shape more inclusive and sustainable futures.
As the Founder and Principal of ROOM FOR MAGIC (studio practice) and the Co-Founder of Deem Journal (research & narrative practice), I see design as more than a tool—it's a language that connects people, places, and histories, offering pathways to restore and reshape the world. For me, design carries within it the life of communities, the rhythm of culture, and the potential for social regeneration.
I am passionate about creating projects that not only spark imagination but also nurture a sense of being, becoming and belonging. Whether building platforms for dialogue or designing systems for change, I am driven by a vision of community-focused spaces that invite others to participate, collaborate, and thrive. Design, at its best, becomes a bridge—a way to reclaim agency and envision new possibilities.

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

Links for This Episode:
Nu via Email:

[email protected]

Room for Magic:https://www.roomformagic.com

Nu’s Personal Website:
https://www.nugoteh.com

Deem Journal:

https://www.deemjournal.com

@deemjournal (Instagram)

Links for Making the Museum, the Podcast:
Contact Making the Museum:
https://www.makingthemuseum.com/contactHost Jonathan Alger, Managing Partner of C&G Partners, on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanalgerEmail Jonathan Alger:
[email protected]C&G Partners | Design for Culture:
https://www.cgpartnersllc.com/ Making the Museum, the Newsletter:
Liked 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.
S...

Three podcast hosts join forces in a single show to discuss the latest in experience design.

It’s a fast-paced three-way session covering half a dozen broad themes, and countless smaller ones. What are we hearing out there? How can we apply it to the work of cultural institutions? Is the biggest creative trend of them all the resurgence of ... empathy?

Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) is joined by the co-hosts of “Matters of Experience,” Brenda Cowan (Professor at SUNY FIT) and Abigail Honor (Founding Partner of Lorem Ipsum Corp) — who share what they’ve learned so far from their own podcast about experience design.

Along the way: a mystery visit, disagreeing with yourself, and cocktails in the arms and armor gallery. In case anyone’s keeping track, this is a podcast about a podcast. (And it would probably be easier to summarize what we didn’t discuss than what we did.)

Talking Points:

1. Breaking Down The Silos (The purpose of “Matters of Experience”)

2. Cross Pollination (The people we interview)

3. Immersion, AI, and Empathy (The trends we are finding)

4. Experience Designers at the Table (It’s not all about architecture)

5. Collections, Repatriation and Provocation (What is happening with objects)

6. Being Playful, Seeing the Larger Context, and Owning It (Takeaways for listeners)

Guest Bios:

Abigail Honor, co-host of the podcast “Matters of Experience”, is a founding partner of Lorem Ipsum Corp. She is a curator and experience designer of award-winning exhibits such as The Warmth of Yamal, Zoya Museum and Zaradye Park and has worked with world-renowned international museums and foundations, including, the Smithsonian Museum and the V-A-C Foundation. Abigail has partnered with corporations including Verizon 5G, Google, and Snapchat and has spoken at global conferences like the Society for Experiential Graphic Design, MuseumNext, and the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts about museum design, visitor experience, and multimedia. Abigail graduated from Boston University with an MFA in film production.

Brenda Cowan, co-host of the podcast “Matters of Experience”, is a Professor and former Chairperson of Graduate Exhibition & Experience Design at the SUNY/Fashion Institute of Technology in New York where she teaches exhibition development and evaluation; object and museum studies; research methodologies and audience studies. Her background includes work for museums and design firms in education, exhibition development, and research. Brenda is a Fulbright Specialist in the disciplines of museums, objects and mental health. Her research work with museum objects, mental health and healing has been presented for the American Alliance of Museums; Museums of Hope; MidAtlantic Association of Museums; Sweden’s National Museums of World Culture; CoMuseum Athens; the American Association of State and Local History Leadership Institute; and published with Routledge, Taylor & Francis, the National Association for Museum Exhibition, and the Society for Experiential Graphic Design.

About:

Making the Museum is hosted (podcast) and written (newsletter) by Jonathan Alger.

This podcast is a project of C&G Partners | Design for Culture. Learn about the firm's creative work at:
https://www.cgpartnersllc.com

Show Links:

Podcast: Matters of Experience

https://loremipsumcorp.com/matters-of-experience/

Abby via LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/abigailhonor/

Abby at Lorem Ipsum:

https://www.loremipsumcorp.com

Brenda via LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brenda-cowan-01bb94140/

Brenda / Museums, Health, and Wellbeing: Museum Projects

https://www.psychotherapeuticobjectdynamics.com/for-the-museum-community

Brenda / New Book: Museum Objects, Health and Healing

https://www.routledge.com/Museum-Objects-Health-and-Healing-The-Relationship-between-Exhibitions/Cowan-Laird-McKeown/p/book/9781138606203

Brenda / Research: Psychotherapeutic Object Dynamics

www.psychotherapeuticobjectdynamics.com

Show Contact:

https:/...

How do new museums make money — really?

In this episode, we lift the veil on new museum projects and money. What is “the peril of the bicycle wheel”? Is it bad to rely on “anchor funding”? How many kinds of revenue should a new museum project have? What happens if you have the wrong number? (Hint: eh, not so good.) How much money do endowments make? And what’s so magical about thirds?

Amy Kaufman (Principal, Amy Kaufman Cultural Planning) joins host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to discuss “The Money Pie Chart”.

Along the way: Latin American Art curator jokes, coat-checking 200 motorcycle helmets at once, and a pharmaceutical metaphor Jonathan will never live down.

Talking Points:

1. Museums have to make money
2. Introducing the pie chart
3. Pac Man, peace signs, and anacins
4. The peril of the bicycle wheel
5. What happens when you don’t diversify
6. What’s next: Living wages and climate action

How to Listen:

Apple Podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/making-the-museum/id1674901311
Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/show/6oP4QJR7yxv7Rs7VqIpI1G
Everywhere
https://makingthemuseum.transistor.fm/
Guest Bio:

Amy Kaufman (Principal, Amy Kaufman Cultural Planning) is an institutional planner with demonstrated success in strategy, business and facilities planning, branding, and operational implementation. She has successfully worked with organizations of all types and sizes, including museums, universities, parks, botanic gardens, visitor centers and heritage sites. She collaborates with government agencies, architects, developers, foundations, and institutional leaders to integrate a variety of goals and perspectives. She plans new institutions; and assesses performance and conducts qualitative and quantitative market research for existing organizations, integrating findings into strategic, operational and visitor experience plans. Previously, Amy was Managing Director at Lord Cultural Resources and Special Project Director at the Guggenheim.

About MtM:
Making the Museum is hosted (podcast) and written (newsletter) by Jonathan Alger. This podcast is a project of C&G Partners | Design for Culture. Learn about the firm's creative work at: https://www.cgpartnersllc.com
Show Links:
Amy Kaufman Cultural Planning

https://www.akculturalplanning.com

MtM Show Contact:
https://www.makingthemuseum.com/contact
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanalger
[email protected]
https://www.cgpartnersllc.com
Newsletter:
Liked the show? Try the newsletter. Making the Museum is also a one-minute email on exhibition planning and design for museum leaders, exhibition teams and visitor experience professionals. Subscribe here: https://www.makingthemuseum.com