Thanks for the feedback, Grace! We're glad you could make it, and even if you're unable to join live, if you register you'll be able to access the recording after!
And I enjoyed participating in my first AAM meeting a couple weeks ago in Denver--thank you and your team for doing such a great job.
Original Message:
Sent: 06-02-2023 04:59 PM
From: Grace Belizario
Subject: Join Us for Gather's Virtual Conversation June 15 on Museums and Digital Transformation with Jay Mollica, Pérez Art Museum Miami
Thanks for sharing! I really enjoyed "Belonging and Museums" with Geoffrey Cohen this past week. I hope to hear this next session with Jay Mollica (schedule pending).
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Grace Belizario
Senior Manager, Member and Volunteer Engagement
American Alliance of Museums
Arlington VA
Original Message:
Sent: 06-02-2023 02:31 PM
From: Robert Urstein
Subject: Join Us for Gather's Virtual Conversation June 15 on Museums and Digital Transformation with Jay Mollica, Pérez Art Museum Miami
Everyone is welcome to join us for our upcoming virtual convening with Jay Mollica, Director of Digital Engagement at the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) on Thursday, June 15 (1pm ET/10am PT).
Museums and Digital Transformation with Jay Mollica (Pérez Art Museum Miami)
Join us on Thursday, June 15 at 1pm ET/10am PT for a conversation with Jay Mollica, Director of Digital Engagement at Pérez Art Museum Miami, to discuss his current work with PAMM, previous work with SFMOMA, and thoughts around museums and digital transformation in the post-pandemic era. How can all of us–regardless of our roles in museums–can better understand and effectively use digital tools to make art, learning, and culture more accessible to more people in both our local communities and beyond.
In this discussion with Jay we will:
• Explore the multiple meanings of "digital transformation" in museums, and why "digital strategy" should be integrated into a museum's overall strategy and not stand apart from it.
• Consider what we can learn from pandemic era experiments and incorporate those insights into ongoing virtual and digital experiences that can reach and serve audiences near and far.
• Discuss specific examples and practices from PAMM and elsewhere that use digital tools as part of an overall strategy to democratize access to art, learning, and culture.
...and much more!
About Jay Mollica:
Jay Mollica is a technologist working in art and culture, and currently the director of digital engagement at the Pérez Art Museum Miami. Before joining PAMM in 2020, Mollica worked as the creative technologist at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art where he led experiments in art and technology and modernized the museum's digital platforms. His work has been featured in the New York Times, The Today Show and Fast Company. In 2018 he won the Webby Award for best app from a cultural institution for his project Send Me SFMOMA. He also writes about his work in museums, technology, design, and architecture. He holds a master's degree in Interactive Media Art from NYU, and is a visiting fellow at University of Miami's Institute for Data Science and Computing. Missed our May 31 Convening on Belonging and Museums with Stanford's Geoff Cohen?
On May 31 we welcomed Stanford social psychologist Professor Geoff Cohen, author of the new book Belonging: The Science of Creating Connection and Bridging Divides for a virtual conversation about his book and how we can apply some of these science-backed strategies to make our organizations, workplaces, and relationships with others stronger and more inclusive. If you missed the talk live, you can visit Gather's community site to watch a recording of the program. A few key takeaways from our conversation with Geoff Cohen:
Belonging matters. Belonging matters through the lifespan, in nearly every interaction we have. While individual traits contribute to your health, fulfillment, and success, just as important and maybe even more important is your sense that you belong there, that you feel at home, and that you're valued. Rather than a luxury item or "nice to have," belonging is an essential human need and its absence has detrimental consequences for the individual (health and well-being) and for society (more divisive, more fragmented).
Belonging uncertainty has adverse effects and decreases engagement and participation. When an individual has doubts about whether they are fully accepted in a particular environment or ever could be, those threats shrink their "horizon of possibility" and rather than being prone to engage, participate, and share views and interactions with others, they instead provoke defensiveness and protectiveness.
Situation-crafting is a way to think about making small changes that have big impacts. There's often more potential for change in a situation than we imagine. To tap into that potential requires us to be aware of something that's often difficult for us to fathom: that the situation as others see it may be different from the way we ourselves see it. But with tailored, targeted, and timely interventions (changes) we can make changes to situations that can allow more people to feel a sense of inclusion and belonging.
Getting perspective instead of taking perspective. Instead of trying to imagine another person's perspective we should be asking for it--what social psychologists call perspective getting. We often get those perspectives wrong when we try on our own to put ourselves in another's shoes and imagine how they feel. Instead, we should ask them how they feel. One example is through the kinds of questions that Art and Elaine Aron developed in their well-known 36 questions exercise.
We've added the Arons' 36 questions to the recording page on Gather Community site as a PDF under Materials that you can download and share.
We hope to see you on June 15!
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Rob Urstein, PhD - Co-FounderGather
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Robert Urstein PhD
Co-Founder, Gather Learning
San Francisco CA
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