Michigan Museums Association - *Session Block 4

Concurrent Sessions

Wednesday, 10:15a-11:15a

Harnessing A.I. for Smarter, Faster, Museum Marketing (Red Cedar A)
Bringing Back Kids Town: Using the Prototype Method for Audience Focused Exhibit Design (Red Cedar B)
Drag-and-Drop Digital Preservation for Local History Collections (Michigamme)
A Home's History is Our Story (Big Ten B)
Reframing the Collection: Art Access Through Technology at Michigan's Capitol (Big Ten C)

Harnessing A.I. For Smarter, Faster, Museum Marketing

Tommy Karr, Edsel and Eleanor Ford House
Malea Tipton, Edsel and Eleanor Ford House

Artificial intelligence is transforming museum marketing, enabling faster data-driven decision-making, insightful record analysis, and enhanced messaging. This session explores how AI—specifically tools like ChatGPT—can help museums refine their strategies, optimize digital advertising, and craft compelling content with greater efficiency. You'll learn practical ways to integrate AI into your workflow to save time, improve engagement, and make a bigger impact, without sacrificing the creative spark that makes museum storytelling unique.

Attendees will participate in live demonstrations and hands-on activities using ChatGPT, including refining brand voice, simplifying content for accessibility, designing campaign concepts, and analyzing audience feedback. Please come prepared with a ChatGPT account (the free version is perfect!) and a laptop or tablet to follow along. You’ll receive step-by-step prompts and resources you can implement right away. We'll also address the ethical and legal dimensions of using AI—exploring bias in language models, copyright concerns with AI-generated content, and data privacy best practices. Whether you're just starting or looking to expand your toolkit, this session offers a responsible and empowering introduction to using AI in your museum’s marketing.

Location: Red Cedar A

Bringing Back Kids Town: Using the Prototype Method for Audience Focused Exhibit Design

Melanie Depcinski, Michigan Science Center
Angela Cavanagh, Michigan Science Center

Using the concept of exhibitions as prototypes, institutions can accelerate bringing experiences to their guests in a flexible format that responds swiftly to audience engagement and feedback. In this session, we will explore what the prototype method entails and how we used it at the Michigan Science Center to reactivate our beloved Kids Town gallery.

Location: Red Cedar B

Drag-and-Drop Digital Preservation for Local History Collections

Chelsea Denault, Michigan Digital Preservation Network
Regina Gorham, Kalamazoo Valley Museum

The Michigan Digital Preservation Network is a member-centered, collaborative statewide project to bring affordable and easy-to-use preservation services for a wide range of cultural memory organizations of all sizes and technical abilities. A key part of fulfilling this mission was to develop an accessible and interoperable workflow to transfer content from MDPN members to the LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe) preservation service. Chelsea and Regina will share a use case for museums, as well as a live demo of the complete workflow, focusing on both the member-facing experience and what happens to user content after being transferred to MDPN.

Location: Michigamme

A Home’s History is Our Story

Fern Linzinger, The Henry Ford
Heather Bruegl, The Henry Ford
Sage Sampson, The Henry Ford

In this session, attendees will get a behind-the-scenes look at how The Henry Ford is bringing the past forward in Greenfield Village through the installation, restoration, and opening of the Dr. Sullivan & Mrs. Richie Jean Sherrod Jackson Home. We’ll explore how the Jackson Family’s generosity, connection to community, and willingness to sacrifice were pivotal in supporting voting rights and the Selma to Montgomery marches of 1965. As many of our established civil freedoms and norms are currently being challenged, how we develop our guest experience of this historic building, and the stories housed within, has never been more crucial. Our goal is to share with attendees our approach, internal conversations, and examination of our institutional responsibility centered on the Jackson Home to directly inspire and guide our communities today.

Location: Big Ten B

Reframing the Collection: Art Access Through Technology at Michigan’s Capitol

Shayla Croteau, Michigan State Capitol
Barbra Thumudo, Michigan State Capitol
Joshua Risner, Michigan State Capitol

Though the Michigan State Capitol is the seat of state government, we function, in many ways, like a museum. Our goal to preserve the past while inspiring the future has led us to seek out new ways of interpreting and presenting our building’s history, particularly using technology. Our Art Department was created in Fall 2024 as another step towards professionalizing our history and educational work. Join us to learn how we are reframing our portrait collection using the lens of global art history and increasing our art’s accessibility through a new website, on-site and virtual exhibitions, and smartphone tours.

Location: Big Ten C

The Michigan Museums Association is supported in part by an award from the Michigan Arts and Culture Council.

Thank you to our Partners!

Michigan Museums Association 313-334-7643 PO Box 5246, Cheboygan, MI 49721 lcbrisson@michiganmuseums.org