The Human connection company
When Covid struck at the beginning of 2020, museums around the world felt the impact as people were advised to stay home and avoid large gatherings. Cultural institutions large and small, public and private, were forced to close their doors. Many temporarily switched to virtual programming as a stopgap measure.
Some, like Planet Word, delved deeply into the potential of virtual programming and have determined that as museum goers begin re-engaging the physical museum, virtual programming will remain a key component of the museum of the future. That is because virtual programming is uniquely suited to:
(a) unlock new curatorial content;
(b) build global audiences; and
(c) deepen audience engagement with institutions over time.
Opening a museum during lockdown
When Rebecca Roberts became Curator of Programming for Planet Word, she knew that her approach to programming the new museum of words and language would be different. “We are not a traditional, artifacts behind glass, text on a wall kind of an experience,” Roberts said. “Everything in the museum is immersive, voice activated, user-directed; there is a karaoke room, joke telling gallery, speech making gallery, and a jaw dropping magical library.”
Beyond embracing interactivity and innovation, Roberts and the Planet Word team also committed to building a local community. They wanted Planet Word to be a cultural hub for the D.C. creative community to meet, exchange ideas, and celebrate a side of D.C. the world rarely sees.
With these two goals in mind, Planet Word was set to open with a splash in May of 2020.
Then the pandemic struck. Planet Word, like all museums and cultural institutions, had to shut its doors and contemplate a daunting question: What could language, innovation, and community look like without a physical presence?
Thinking through how to make virtual programming a valuable addition to, not a substitution for, the in-person museum experience.
With museums closed, Roberts was hesitant to embrace virtual programming at first. “There was a knee jerk feeling that we needed to do virtual programming because other museums were, but we knew that jumping the gun was not smart,” Roberts said. “If we were going to do virtual, we were going to do it for a reason — to add something to what the museum was already doing.”
Planet Word took a few months to pause and come together as a team to discuss further. They reevaluated their programming goals, recommitted to the benefits of the in-person, immersive museum experience, and thought deeply about what virtual programming could offer that wasn’t already a part of their existing programming. They decided they would do virtual programming only if it could add value to their museum, not just become a pale substitute for it. This required rethinking some of the goals of the museum.
“The whole purpose of programming in the physical space was to get folks in the door and for locals to feel like they were getting something special in their community. We needed to figure out what the advantages to virtual are that we couldn’t do in person.”
Roberts recognized that in order to deliver successful virtual programming, there was a lot she and her team at Planet Word had to learn. They felt very strongly that they should not just be throwing stuff up on Zoom. They also knew that they did not have the infrastructure necessary to create and host the level of programming consistent with their vision.
So Planet Word turned to expert partners to help them through the transition. We at Shared Studios –– leaders in creating meaningful human interaction in the virtual space –– were one of the first partners they engaged. Working together, we explored what virtual programming could achieve, identified compelling participants, and launched a virtual event series that was technically seamless. Over the past eight months of working on museum programming in the virtual space, Roberts and Planet Word reached several conclusions about virtual events.
Lesson 1: Virtual programming can help develop unique, unexpected content with expert partner organizations
Planet Word partnered with the National Museum of Mathematics (MoMATH) to create a series of virtual programs on the intersection of math and language. This topic was not previously on Roberts’ radar but has yielded great fruit, opening new avenues of exploration of seemingly “out of the box” topics. In the physical space, cross-museum partnerships can be logistically challenging, especially if they involve the sharing of artifacts. But most museums wish they could collaborate more often.
After all, as Roberts says, museums are competing with an array of alternatives (both virtual and physical) that patrons may choose to occupy their time, and rather than competing with one another. Partnering with outside groups and with other museums make museums more interesting, appealing, and accessible. It isn’t a zero sum game.
“I'm super proud of the DiverCities programming - I think it's really innovative, interesting, and creative,” Roberts said. “Our partnership with Shared Studios has been an enormous success both in terms of us learning who our audience is and how to do virtual well, and helping us figure out the logistics when we were not prepared.”
Planet Word also partnered with us at Shared Studios to launch DiverCities, which brings global voices together to explore the intersection of language and social justice issues, such as gender equality.
“Our partnership with Shared Studios was so different from everything else. We were able to book global guests, which would've been entirely impossible in the physical space,” Roberts said. “We were able to explore topics that were a little bit edgier and talk about things that had a social justice component, like the power of language to affect change.”
Lesson 2: Virtual programming can expand a museum’s community and audience — across the globe
Expanding into the virtual space also expanded Planet Word’s audience. “We are part of a lot of local communities, and our dream has always been for Planet Word to become a hub for creative Washington working around words,” Roberts said. But expanding into virtual programming showed Planet Word that they are part of a number of other communities as well. “It helped us discover that we are also part of the arts and culture community, museum community, linguistic community, global artistic community, and beyond. The fact that we've been able to explore that has been a delightful surprise.”
Creating a community of partners had the unexpected benefit of expanding the Planet Word community in D.C. and around the world and, as the museum is opening its doors again, bringing more participants into the physical space.
Lesson 3: Virtual programming can deepen audience engagement with the museum over time, creating more loyal and committed supporters
Planet Word also deployed virtual programming to deepen its relationship with audiences. For example, it partnered with the Oasis Institute to create small, intimate programs for lifelong learners to dive deep into different topics around language. Many Oasis participants were already avid museum goers but by partnering with them on virtual events, Planet Word deepened and strengthened ties with this audience.
As Roberts prepares for the lifting of COVID restrictions, and awaits the return of tourists and D.C. creatives to the historic school that houses Planet Word, she does so with an expanded understanding of who the museum will serve and how. In addition to serving the creative community in D.C. Planet Word can intimately serve global creative, linguistic, and artistic communities, forging meaningful bonds between residents of Washington D.C. and communities worldwide.
Roberts now sees that, emerging from the pandemic, museum patrons have come to expect virtual programming and virtual programming helps museums better understand and serve their audiences. "The way people are engaging with museums is changing and it's time for museums to start listening to that instead of thinking that they will be the same as they were when people were kids,” Roberts said. “We don't know all the variables and we are still learning who's attending our programs, what time of day, etc,” Roberts said.
Continued virtual programming will help identify and unlock more of the curatorial avenues that help serve and expand the museum audience. Planet Word is using virtual programming to create a global meeting place and digital community on top of the rich community it is building in-person in Washington D.C. and, in doing so, is helping chart the future of museums.
As Roberts now says, "We will never give up virtual programming."