Maxwell Anderson’s entire speech was extremely insightful but if I have to pull out one particular topic it would be the idea of “transparency” in museums. Exposing the operations could help with funding as potential donors will respect what takes place behind the “velvet rope” and will want to be a part of it. Dr. Anderson further stated that technology does assist with “post-visit enrichment.” Knowledge simply does not end as soon as visitors exit out the front doors and technology acts as the foundation in which it will be able to continue to grow and transform.

At about minute 14, Max said, "So, what I hope all of us are working towards, as we move on in building these platforms and building the baseline for information exchange is to go beyond the virtual to something which is tactile, and sensual, and allows you to think about creativity in a different way, allows you to understand how, terms of museology, what we collect is so often an act or artifact of some time ago, or recently, that has stories behind it, and telling those stories becomes a key issue, not so much reflecting them in digital format and assuming we've accomplished enough."
While I think this is valiant, and correct, I think that the day to day inner workings and the funding doesn't necessarily always allow for a museums staff to be creating these learning environments for the visitor. The real problem solving comes from museum staff who are struggling for money and are still connecting in a effective way with their constituents. And I don't think that that is something that can be generalized. It comes from hard work, creative thinking, and listening to your audience.

I found Maxwell Anderson's address to be not only insightful, but informative as well. I particularly enjoyed his comments on the importance of transparency within museums. Transparency leads to a better visitor experience because it allows insight into many parts of the museum that normally the visitor would not have access to.

Anderson is correct when he comments that visitors are interested in more than just the final product, that being the finished exhibit, but the process of putting it together as well. The IMA website allows access which enables the visitor to gain a more holistic view of their gallery exhibits.

Certainly a very thought provoking talk from Dr. Anderson. I feel that the most insightful commentary dealt with, in Anderson's words, "Using voyeurism" to show staff in action and make a case for museums in a time of economic privation and help visitors become more engaged with the museum. I also like how he embraces the fact that as the activities of museums increasingly occur in cyberspace, there will be many people who use the site but do not come to the physical space. What Anderson describes as the "experiential element that is a substitute for being on-site" (interviews with artists, etc) is very important in accommodating this new model of serving visitors online. Showing behind-the-scenes activity and featuring artist interviews are also very important acts of transparency and educational outreach for purveyors of contemporary art in my opinion, and those are certainly aspects of exhibition work that I have personally been working to illuminate through blogging. It is crucial to expose these elements to the public so we may "lift the veil" from the often mysterious world of contemporary art exhibitions.

I found the comments made by Max Anderson in relationship to the connection between the museum's galleries and opportunities for learning extensions to be highly relevant. A museum visit can be a very random experience - a friend takes us, we are in a new city with time to kill. A robust online presence and the level of transparency described in the lecture and practiced at IMA exposes "visitors" on a whole to new level of information to process and digest independent of curatorial process.