Recently, for a Kera Collective coffee break, where we talk about relevant research and news, we read this thoughtful post by Sarah Jencks on AAM’s blog about why museums need a civic strategy. It made me think about some resulting general questions: can a museum meaningfully engage in civics? What does it mean for a museum to have a civic strategy? And how can engaging in civics create a reputation of trust for museums when thinking about community work? These are seemingly simple questions, but I believe that museums as institutions have to think deeply about their standing before attempting to incorporate civic engagement.

For one of our recent Coffee Breaks, a bi-weekly team meeting where we discuss cultural institution-related news or research, I led a conversation about preserving digital content, inspired by the recent deletion of federal website pages and the Internet Archive’s initiative to preserve them. It’s something I’m passionate about!

We finally gave our newsletter a name—one that reflects our vision and values. Meaning making is at the heart of our work. It’s what happens in museums, and it's what we do every day at Kera Collective. This is a space where we share what we are curious about and what we’re making sense of, together and as individuals.

This is The Meaning Maker.

I am an obsessive podcaster, never missing an episode of Hidden Brain with Shankar Vedantam or Revisionist History with Malcolm Gladwell. I recently found a new addition to my queue (via a Revisionist History cross-post): No Small Endeavor. All three podcasts share many of the same guests and same topics of discussion. But, I was particularly interested in how Lee C. Camp—the host of No Small Endeavor—approaches the podcast from his perspective as a professor of theology and ethics. The goal of the No Small Endeavor podcast is to explore what it means to live a good life. Therefore, I was intrigued with how often he returns to the topic of attention, finding it worthy of my (ahem) attention.

Toward the end of last year, our fearless leader, Stephanie Downey, wrote about why you need a logic model. Because we often help clients build logic models for programs and partnerships, I want to expand on the why by discussing more about the how and share some tips for creating a logic model that works for you and your organization.

Information is powerful. That is clearer than ever. What we do—or don’t do—with it shapes how we make sense of the world. Our staff picks this month show what happens when information is erased, challenges our assumptions, and emboldens us to innovate.

As an evaluator with extensive experience in exhibition evaluation, I’m passionate about the intersection of evaluation and experience design. Recently, I spoke with Brenda Cowan, Professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), about this topic. Over the past two decades, Brenda has played a key role in shaping and growing FIT’s Exhibition and Experience Design Masters program, consistently emphasizing the importance of evaluation in training future designers. We discussed why she believes it’s crucial for emerging designers to understand how evaluation happens and how it supports their work. Enjoy these highlights from our conversation!

About 10 years ago, I stood in front of my first-ever class, a newly minted teacher. I was nervous: I was still a graduate student. What did I know about teaching? As the class began, I calmed my nerves by wielding one of the few tools I had in my back pocket: an icebreaker question. “Would you rather battle a lion or fight a shark?” The students laughed; they each answered, showing a bit of their personality with each response. My nerves began to settle, and I thought, “Oh, yeah, I forgot. My students and I create this space of dialogue together, and we can use questions to build connections.” As I grew as an educator over the next couple of years, I loved facilitating learning. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the role of facilitator—I liked (as the cool kids might say) “holding space” for inquiry, critique, and dialogue. So, I went on to explore other facilitation roles; I served as a writing tutor, and I trained to become a museum docent.

Responding to uncertainty and loss with resilience and imagination isn’t easy. But we believe it’s essential to thrive in our current world. This month, we spotlight three resources that describe how museums are rethinking “business as usual.”