Category Archives: Exhibitions

Photography, Permission, and Fair Use: Where Museum Policies Get Complicated

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Do I need permission to take photos of a guided tour in a museum?

In the previous posts in this series, I looked at visitor codes of conduct, visitor photography policies, and commercial or media photography policies. Those policies are becoming more visible because photography is no longer a simple matter of “Can I take a picture?” A single image can be a personal memory, a social media post, a teaching tool, a scholarly document, a news illustration, a commercial asset, or evidence in a public debate.

This final post turns to the more complicated issues: fair use, copyright, photo releases, privacy, and ethics. As a reminder, I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. Museums should consult an attorney when writing policies involving copyright, image permissions, privacy, publicity rights, releases, commercial use, or contracts. My purpose here is to identify common points of confusion that arise when museums, visitors, writers, teachers, scholars, and photographers try to understand what permission is needed and from whom.

I encounter these questions in my own work. As someone who photographs museums and historic sites for this blog, teaching, consulting, and research, I occasionally wonder: should I ask permission from the museum before publishing a photograph of an exhibition? Do I need a model release if visitors appear in the background? Is it appropriate to photograph a historic house where people still live nearby? Does it matter if I am writing criticism, promoting the museum, or using the image in a paid presentation?

These questions are often confused with a different issue: what museums need to do when they use images of visitors for their own promotional purposes. A visitor taking a photograph in a gallery, a museum using a child’s image in a fundraising campaign, and a company filming a commercial in a sculpture garden are not the same thing. They raise different legal, ethical, and managerial questions. Policies should be clear enough that frontline staff can explain them without being expected to interpret copyright law, privacy law, or fair use on the spot.

Four Issues That Often Get Confused

Photography policies often blend several distinct issues:

  • Copyright: who owns the rights to the artwork, photograph, exhibition label, design, film, or other creative work that appears in the image?
  • Access: what conditions did the museum place on photography as part of admission, ticketing, visitor conduct, or use of its property?
  • Privacy and publicity: are identifiable people shown in the image, and is their likeness being used in a way that requires permission?
  • Ethics: even if a photograph is legally permissible, is it respectful, accurate, safe, and consistent with the museum’s values and the dignity of the people, places, and stories involved?
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Can I Take a Picture?

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Sign at the entrance to the Albuquerque Museum in New Mexico.

What Museum Photography Policies Reveal About Visitor Experiences

While examining visitor codes of conduct, I started noticing another kind of museum policy that is becoming more visible: photography policies. They appear on websites, ticketing pages, “Know Before You Go” guides, and signs in galleries, historic houses, gardens, and exhibitions. Like codes of conduct, photography policies have always existed in some form, but they now seem more detailed, more prominent, and more complicated.

At first glance, the question seems simple: can visitors take pictures? But museum photography policies reveal that this is no longer a yes-or-no issue. The better question is: what kind of photography, by whom, for what purpose, in what space, and with what effect on collections, staff, visitors, and the experience?

To explore this question, I reviewed photography rules embedded in dozens of visitor codes of conduct and visitor policy pages from museums and historic sites. This was not a scientific or comprehensive study. It was an initial scan of current practice to identify common patterns and management issues. I am not offering legal advice here; museums should consult an attorney on copyright, releases, privacy, and commercial use. My interest is in how these policies shape visitor experience and staff decision-making.

The broad trend is clear: casual, personal photography is increasingly welcomed, but excessive equipment and disruptive, staged, or commercial photography is increasingly controlled.

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What Happens When You Apply Museum Standards to a State Capitol?

The Virginia State Capitol offers guided and self-guided tours to visitors.

When I agreed to conduct a Museum Assessment Program (MAP) review for the Virginia State Capitol, I knew it would be an unusual assignment. MAP is designed for museums—institutions with clear missions centered on collections, exhibitions, and interpretation. The Capitol, however, is not a museum. It is the active seat of the General Assembly of Virginia. That distinction matters.

At the Capitol, the “museum function” is secondary—sometimes tertiary—to the work of governance. I’ve completed several MAP assessments but only choose those that relate to my expertise and interests—and the unusual environment engaged me immediately and made me wonder what would happen. Tours, exhibitions, and school programs operate within an environment defined by legislative sessions, security protocols, and shifting public access. I suspected that some museum standards wouldn’t apply. Others—especially those related to education and interpretation—would, but required adaptation. What I discovered is that the most useful part of my visit wasn’t evaluating against museum standards—it was a workshop.

As part of MAP, I facilitated a session to develop guiding principles for the visitor experience (called Education and Interpretation in MAP). Think of them as a set of best practices—but ones developed by the staff themselves, grounded in real situations rather than imposed from outside. Rather than start with abstract values (e.g., diversity, education, creativity) or a series of broad questions (e.g., why does the museum exist? what is the museum’s educational vision?), I used scenarios—real situations staff face every day.

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When Contemporary Art Actually Works: Lessons from the Gamble House

Japanese baskets from 20 years ago feel at home in a house that’s a century older.

A growing number of historic house museums are experimenting with contemporary art exhibitions to attract new—and especially younger—audiences. The logic is understandable: align with what feels current and visible, generate social media buzz, and compensate for the decline of traditional media coverage. But too often, these exhibitions feel short-lived and disconnected. The site becomes little more than a stage set, and the art—however compelling on its own—lands like what urban planners used to call “plop art.” It could be placed anywhere, anytime, with little meaningful connection to the place.

That’s why a recent visit to the Gamble House in California was so refreshing.

I had the chance to see From Strand to Sculpture, a temporary exhibition of contemporary Japanese bamboo basketry (February 5–April 12, 2026). The Gamble House, of course, is a textbook example—arguably a masterpiece—of the Arts and Crafts movement by Greene and Greene. Completed in 1908 as the winter home of the Gamble family of Cincinnati, the house is defined by its extraordinary attention to materials, craftsmanship, and the integration of architecture and decorative arts.

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A Luxury Art Club Reveals What Museum Membership Could Look Like

Screenshot of membership levels for The Cultivist, starting at $440 per year.
Membership levels for The Cultivist start at $440 per year and by invitation, you can join at the $15,000 level.

A few weeks ago I came across The Cultivist, a private membership program that promises art lovers “insider access” to the global art world. The club offers members free or priority admission to dozens of museums, invitations to special events, tailored trips to art fairs and biennials, and behind-the-scenes experiences with artists, collectors, and curators.

At first glance, I was skeptical. Is this simply the commodification of art and culture for wealthy travelers?

Perhaps. But it’s also worth taking a closer look, because The Cultivist reveals something important about how cultural tourists and heritage travelers—especially affluent ones—may want to experience museums and historic sites.

The organization was founded by Marlies Verhoeven and Daisy Peat, both of whom previously worked at Sotheby’s developing VIP loyalty programs for collectors. Their backgrounds are not in museums, curatorial practice, art history, or education. Instead, they specialize in relationship marketing, high-net-worth client services, and luxury experiences.  That background explains the business model perfectly.

The Cultivist is not a museum membership program in the traditional sense. It is closer to a global concierge service for the art world. Members pay an annual fee starting at $440 to access a network of museums, exhibitions, artists’ studios, and art fairs, combined with customized travel and social events. Participating US museums include the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Modern Art, Jewish Museum NY, and the Huntington Library.  In effect, the organization packages the art world into a kind of cultural lifestyle club.

From one perspective, this can feel uncomfortable. Museums have historically framed themselves as institutions devoted to public education, access, and engagement that contribute to society. A private club that sells privileged access to museums risks reinforcing the perception that the arts are primarily a playground for wealthy insiders.  But before dismissing the model entirely, it’s worth asking why a service like this exists—and why it appears to be successful.

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Public Writing as Interpretation: Advice from the Editor of Public Humanities

One of the most important roles museums play is sharing scholarship with the public—and it’s also one of the hardest. We are often asked to interpret complex events that unfolded over decades and involved many people, and in the process we rely on shorthand that makes sense to other scholars but not always to our visitors. Words like contextualize, agency, material culture, or periodization can quickly create distance rather than connection. Too often, we respond by simply “simplifying” academic work, when what we really need is something more ambitious: a distinct, rigorous form of interpretation designed specifically for public audiences.

In “How to Do Public Writing,” Jeffrey R. Wilson—director of the Harvard Law School Writing Center—offers a timely corrective: public writing is not scholarship “lite,” but a different craft altogether, one that requires clarity, narrative discipline, and deep respect for audience. Wilson is also the editor-in-chief of the new open-access journal Public Humanities, published by Cambridge University Press, and is currently developing a special museum issue—making his insights especially relevant for those of us working in museums and historic sites.

Wilson defines public writing as scholarship for people outside the academy—what he memorably calls “the folks we grew up with.” His premise is simple but urgent: as humanities education has declined and public trust in expertise has eroded, the responsibility for interpretation has shifted. Museums, libraries, and cultural organizations are now among the primary places where people learn how to make meaning from history, culture, and evidence. In this sense, public writing and museum interpretation are performing the same civic function.

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From Julia Child to Lowriders: Interpreting History at the Smithsonian on the Eve of a Shutdown

Although the federal government shutdown has started, the Smithsonian museums will remain open at least through Monday, October 6. Despite the media’s attention on 12:01 am on October 1, shutdowns don’t happen immediately because stopping a huge bureaucracy takes time, plus each agency has to determine who will be furloughed and who is essential—that’s why air traffic controllers keep working at airports but not educators at museums. Secondly, agencies can use private funds to continue operating, which is why the Smithsonian can keep the doors open a few more days.

I was fortunate to visit the National Museum of American History on September 30 with my “Interpreting Historic Sites and House Museums” course at George Washington University. For a couple of hours, my students analyzed the interpretation in two exhibitions that included historic buildings: Food (featuring Julia Child’s kitchen) and Within These Walls (featuring the 1750s Ipswich House, the largest object in the collection). They did a terrific job uncovering topics and themes, discussing how women are represented, and the assessing the use of objects.

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Navigating Community Engagement in Museums in a Charged Political Climate

I attended a timely and thought-provoking session at this year’s AASLH Annual Meeting called Bridging Divides: Navigating Challenging Histories Through Community Engagement on September 13. It gathered five panelists—Angela O’Neal, Columbus Metropolitan Library, Columbus, OH; Rebecca Asmo, Ohio Humanities, Columbus, OH; Jason Crabill, Decorative Arts Center of Ohio, Lancaster, OH; Kaitlyn Donaldson, Lorain Historical Society, Lorain, OH; Doreen Uhas-Sauer, Rickenbacker Woods Foundation, Columbus, OH—who shared practical advice for how museums and historic sites can continue doing meaningful work in an era of heightened scrutiny, political pressure, and declining trust. I want to share my notes here, not as a verbatim report, but as highlights of ideas that struck me as especially useful for our field.

Protecting Institutions While Advancing Mission

The panel emphasized that today’s environment did not emerge overnight, so institutions can look to history and the humanities for guidance. Two watchwords were don’t obey in advance and don’t over-comply. When regulations restrict action—such as a requirement to remove feminine hygiene products from restrooms—organizations can comply while still serving their audiences by relocating them to staffed areas. Institutions should avoid inviting unnecessary trouble, ensuring content is evidence-based, factual, and defensible. Even the naming of grants matters: choose descriptive, straightforward titles rather than attention-grabbing language that might provoke critics.

Building Credibility Through Storytelling and Relationships

Telling concrete, factual stories is essential. Because American history is often taught as headlines rather than complex narratives, museums must provide depth while remaining accessible. Community review of working drafts helps ensure relevance and reduces backlash. Listening for common ground creates ownership and fosters support. In some cases, reframing exhibits as art rather than history opens doors to difficult conversations. Festivals, events, and everyday relationship-building are as important as the exhibits themselves.

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What Happens When a Museum Asks Questions Instead of Giving Answers?

Köln City Museum

In March 2024, the Cologne City Museum (Kölnisches Stadt Museum) in Germany reopened in an unexpected setting: a former luxury department store in the heart of the city’s shopping district. The museum has been around since 1888, but a 2017 water leak forced it out of its former location. Its latest incarnation takes a bold new approach to presenting the city’s history, promoting itself with “Cologne: A New Narrative.”

Rather than organizing its permanent exhibition chronologically or thematically, the museum focuses on emotions using eight big questions to explore both the past and present of Cologne for residents and tourists. Throughout they incorporated responses and personal objects from their “Cologne Experts,” fifteen diverse residents who represented different perspectives.

From the moment you enter, the museum signals something different. The large black-and-white lobby features a central stairway leading both a half-story up and a half-story down, offering a tantalizing glimpse of what’s to come. The introductory label in the lobby reads:

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Reimagining the West Building: What’s Changing at the National Gallery of Art?

Over the past year, the National Gallery of Art has begun experimenting with how it presents art in the West Building—the museum’s original home, long known for its restrained elegance and traditional installations. While the building remains largely unchanged since it opened in the 1940s, these recent “interventions” offer a glimpse into how the museum is rethinking its interpretive and design strategies as it prepares for a broader transformation.

In a previous post, I discussed the National Gallery’s process of reimagining its West Building. Now we’re seeing that process move from discussion to experimentation. Here are three interventions currently on view, each testing new ways to engage visitors and reframe the collection:

1. Nature and Objects in Dutch Landscapes

In the 17th-century Dutch landscape paintings gallery, two display cases offer a fresh angle on how nature shapes artistic imagination. One features three European decorative objects—a silver footed bowl, an elaborate stemmed glass, and a nautilus shell mounted on a gilt stand—designed to echo the forms and themes found in nearby paintings. The other case introduces a striking contemporary counterpart: Small Crafts on Sisyphean Seas by Dario Robleto, a mixed-media work combining natural materials like seashells, coral, urchin spines, and nautilus shells. These subtle interventions ask visitors to consider how objects, both functional and fantastic, reflect the human impulse to capture the natural world.

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