Museum Hack

So Museum Hack is a company that I came across when searching for articles for the Museum Admin class. Basically, it's a company in New York City that does small group tours of the Met and the American Museum of Natural History. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, as they tout on their website, "it's not your grandma's museum tour". They advertise themselves as being tours for people who don't like tours basically. Instead of doing the basic tour, hitting all the expected collections and pieces, the guides share the stranger, wilder, and lesser known stories hidden in the collection.

One blogger wrote a review of a Museum Hack tour that she took. The tour started with a group huddle and a “hands-in-1-2-3-museums!” cheer, at one point each person demonstrated what the author called a “power move” that defined them in front of strangers in the middle of a gallery, and they were “molded” into a Rodin sculpture while thinking about the artist’s process, among other things. The tour took the Met, which is huge, and can be overwhelming, and made it accessible and gave visitors the best highlights.

I LOVE the sound of a tour like this. While it is geared towards people who don't like traditional tours, it's the kind of thing that the most seasoned of professionals will enjoy, particularly because they focus on telling the less commonly known stories. There are a slew of positive testimonials and reviews online for the company from people who love museums and had been to the Met a dozen times before their Museum Hack tour, and from people who are self-professed museum haters. The consensus seems to be that everyone loves it.

Because it's an independent company, I'm not sure how feasible it is for more institutions to offer similar tours. However, it's definitely a model that I think museums can benefit from. Public history relies on accessibility, and making yourself appealing to as many types of people as you can. Just like a traditional tour though, the Museum Hack model might not appeal to everyone either. The concept is a worthy one, but is one that needs to be considered alongside other existing options as well.

Links: http://www.museumhack.com/
https://museumminute.wordpress.com/2014/03/26/hacking-the-museum-experience/