Museum Gallery Carts: Ubiquitous Yet Overlooked

Last year at the Association of Midwest Museums conference, I attended a fantastic session on Gallery Carts. It started off with exploring what we as a group thought of museum gallery carts. Everyone had a response because, well, many museums have gallery carts. 

Photo: Maryland Pink and Green
Art Cart at the Walters Art Museum

At the session, which included a presentation by the Chicago History Museum and a zoo (I unfortunately do not recall the name of this zoo), I was really inspired by the different directions each institution had taken. The Chicago History Museum had redesigned their gallery carts to interact with students, while the zoo had maintained their carts for all visitors. Yet both had transformed their carts from plain, grey boring to exciting, colorful and inviting, reflecting the theme of their institution or specific activity at the cart.

After the session, I attempted to do some investigation into gallery carts. I saw gallery carts everywhere. There were many at the museum I was currently working for and there were others scattered across the many museums I visited. Yet, there was almost no literature on these carts. These carts are known by many names and I tried many variations with little success. The one article (Here Come the Touch Carts) I was able to locate was written in 1976 and can be found by a quick search of Curator. Though it is informative, many things have changed since 1976.

There's plenty of new (as in since 1976) literature out on how visitors learn in museums, what they learn, if they learn at all. Also, the recent trends in museums are toward participation of visitors, creativity and technology. As for gallery carts, the one trend some carts already use is creativity. As you can see in the Art Cart at the Walters Art Museum, visitors are encouraged to create art while at the museum. While it might not be the most creative enterprise on the museum's part, you can't deny that the visitors are at least exploring their creativity.

Since that session in July of last year, I've been thinking a lot about gallery carts and their purpose in museums. What audience should we be designing carts for? Does it depend on the museum? Should carts only talk about one subject or idea or theme? Or should they be multi-purpose and allow facilitators to change out the activities as needed? There are many questions currently unanswered by the museum field.

This summer, I'm going to be thinking quite a bit about gallery carts. Some volunteers and interns will be working on redesigning the gallery carts at my current institution. I'll try to provide some updates throughout the process, thinking about how our museum needs gallery carts to function while bringing in some museum educational theory. 

In the meantime, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Maybe you have an answer to my questions above. Or maybe you have questions of your own. 

I'd possibly like to write a paper on gallery carts based on my experiences this summer. If you're working on a gallery cart project in the near future, it would be great if we could collaborate. Comments are appreciated!

Thoughts on Volunteering

As a Volunteer Coordinator, it's my job to think about creating volunteer opportunities and a great environment for volunteers. In my private life, I also volunteer at a variety of organizations. Since I have the background of coordinating volunteers, I often have to keep myself quiet when I volunteer so as not to seem critical. I'm there to help with a project, not to tell people how to run the show. On the other hand, it might be better to tell an organization how they could have done things that would help inspire volunteers and in turn improve the project they're working on. I know it's hard to take constructive criticism as I've been on the receiving end and don't always take it well (something I'm working on).


I've decided to offer a few thoughts on my volunteering experiences. These ideas have influenced how I run my volunteer program and I believe that having been a volunteer has made me better equipped to run a program. In advising anyone who is interested in becoming a Volunteer Coordinator, be a volunteer first.


Make it Easy: This might be the hardest idea on my list. Personally, I run a volunteer program that requires 3 1/2 months of training. However, I try to simplify it by providing a schedule, keeping in contact with trainees and making myself available as often as possible. At big events, I make sure to greet volunteers and direct them to their stations. When beginning a new task, I provide exact instructions.


Give a Reason: Volunteers are likely there for a reason - they believe in your cause, want to get out of the house, want to make new friends. That list goes on and on. But you can get so much more out of a volunteer opportunity when the organization provides information on why what you're doing is important. Sometimes you need volunteers to send out mailings. Encourage them to read the mailings to find out what it's all about. Tell them why what they're doing is important.


Give Feedback: Inform your volunteers of how what they did helped your mission. What kind of impact they made. Let them know that you appreciate their time. There are many ways to do this and there's so many blog posts and articles out there to get inspired. 


I hope this information helps you to craft a great program or to recognize all that volunteers do!