Plinth

A non-profit digital magazine dedicated to museums and cultural institutions.

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Editor's Note: Fall 2014 -

Plinth Editor Laura Mitchell talks about the exciting changes happening to the magazine and the issue's Education themed articles.

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Touch & Film: Video Container: Touch Cinema at the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami -

Keah Fryar on exploring issues in contemporary art at the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami (MOCA)’s 2nd edition of the video series Video Container.

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A Community’s History at the Missouri History Museum -

Telling the history of of the areas residents and visitors at the Missouri History Museum.

Curator Sharon Smith talks about why it is important to represent LGBTQ history in community museums and how hers already has 100 years of it, and is about to get more.

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The Art Museum and the University: Expanding a Shared Vision at Yale University and Beyond

The Art Museum and the University: Expanding a Shared Vision at Yale University and Beyond

By Jaime Ursic with Laura Mitchell

University museums occupy unique positions in cultural environments: they operate at the nexus of campus and community, accessibility and rigor, lived experience and scholarly expertise. Particularly as the broader museum field asks questions about its future and seeks new approaches to education, public engagement, and inclusive museum practices, the university…

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Taking a Chance on the Wheels of Steel: New Programming at the Harvey B. Gantt Center

Taking a Chance on the Wheels of Steel: New Programming at the Harvey B. Gantt Center

By Jonell Logan, Director of Education and Public Programs, Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts+Culture

A longstanding relationship exists between musicians and visual artists. From Bob Thompson’s brightly colored, jazz-inspired visual remakes of classical scenes to Rashaad Newsome’s Shade Compositions, 2012performed at SFMoMA, the creative dynamics of sound and visual expression…

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STARTing Our Engines at the Tucson Museum of Art

STARTing Our Engines at the Tucson Museum of Art

This article is part of Plinth’s features series, which provides an informal space for in-depth analysis and conversation on issues in the museum field.

By Michael Fenlason with Katie Perry

“This changes everything.”

I stared at that sentence for half an hour before deciding to use it as my subject line for an email to my CEO, the Tucson Museum of Art’s Robert Knight. Like most museums, we had…

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Controversial Content: The Arab American National Museum’s exhibition on the Arab Spring

Controversial Content: The Arab American National Museum’s exhibition on the Arab Spring

By Elizabeth Chilton

As the revolutions in the Arab World continue to unfold, many in the United States are ambivalent – perhaps, in part, because we are not sure which of the players wear the white hats.  Should we cheer a revolution against a dictator who defends his position by killing more than 100,000 civilians and ripping his country apart? Should we root for protesters seeking democracy if…

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Heroic Efforts at the Indiana Historical Society 

Heroic Efforts at the Indiana Historical Society 

By Christian Hernandez

It’s a bird … it’s a plane … it’s … I.M. HERO!

I.M. Hero, an enthusiastic volunteer, begins his first day at the museum and realizes that it is under attack by Deteriora and her evil agents. Will the hero save the museum? How will he defeat the Agents of Destruction? Who will help him? Find the answers to these and other questions in Deteriora and the Agents of Destruction.

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Interwoven Narratives: Exploring Elaine Reichek: Eye of the Needle at the Boca Museum of Art

Interwoven Narratives: Exploring Elaine Reichek: Eye of the Needle at the Boca Museum of Art

The Boca Museum of Art’s exhibition featuring the conceptual and embroidered works of Elaine Reichek. This is not the first solo show for Recheck, who has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), The Jewish Museum of Art, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and other international museums. Reichek is a conceptual artist that focuses on the plight of minorities such as Native Americans, Irish,…

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The White Coats are Coming!: A Museum Visit Helps Improve Diagnostic Skills of Medical Students

The White Coats are Coming!: A Museum Visit Helps Improve Diagnostic Skills of Medical Students

By Jaime Ursic

For over a decade, the Yale Center for British Art has welcomed first-year students from the Yale School of Medicine to look at paintings in the largest collection of British art outside of the UK. Before the students’ eyes adjust to the natural light of Louis I. Kahn’s Entrance Court, they are divided into groups and asked to leave behind their white coats. A specially trained…

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Queering the Museum at the Museum of History & Industry

Queering the Museum at the Museum of History & Industry

Spike Mafford, via MOHAI

For museums, access involves acknowledging the diverse histories and cultures of the communities they serve. Access in museums also serves as a pathway to social justice, as museums acknowledge that there are differences that could either unite us or separate us and participate in the ever-changing dialogues of social justice and equity. Given their roles in their…

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Artists in the Museum: Artist Interventions at the Portland Museum of Art

Artists in the Museum: Artist Interventions at the Portland Museum of Art

Biennial Artist Intervention 2013: Nate Aldrich, courtesy of PMA

Portland, Maine, may not have the Portlandia hype associated with that other Portland, but it has so no shortage of creative energy and has carved out a thriving artistic identity in its own right. The small city is filled with galleries, artist studios, and creative collaborations, and its flagship museum, the Portland Museum of…

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Museum of the Month: Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising

Museum of the Month: Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising

Midriff top, Louella Ballerino, 1946, Gift of Patricia Marks, 2003.45. FIDM Museum Collection. 

Name of Museum: FIDM Museum & Galleries Type of museum: Dress & Textile Museum Location: 919 S. Grand Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90015 Admission cost: FREE! Hours of operation: Open during exhibitions only; hours are usually 10-5, Tues-Sat. Museum contact for information: [email protected],213.623.5821

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Flowers and Fabrication at the American Textile History Museum

Flowers and Fabrication at the American Textile History Museum

The mission of the American Textile History Museum(ATHM), located in Lowell, Massachusetts, states that the institution “tells America’s story through the art, history, and science of textiles.” In two recently opened exhibitions, Flowers in the Factory and Inventing Lowell, the museum brings together these threads in unexpected ways, illustrating 19th-century Lowell through both personal and…

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A Novel Idea: Library and Archives Conservation

A Novel Idea: Library and Archives Conservation

“I never expected to be researching how best to care for a mummified ear of 107-year-old corn,” says Iowa State University (ISU) Library and Archives Conservator Melissa Tedone without a kernel of irony. But this corn isn’t just any corn, she continues: “This particular ear of corn was the Champion Ear of the World at the 1907 Corn Exposition in Chicago, IL.”

Photo of Melissa Tedone working “at…

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