Writing & Publications
A published author, experienced editor, and frequent contributor to museum-related publications, Marsha shares her learnings and insights with the world through her writing.
Change is Required: Preparing for the Post-Pandemic Museum is a timely response to the new challenges faced by museum professionals in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the nested crises of the pandemic challenged American museums, adapting to novel circumstances and uncertainty became the order of the day; improvisation in policy and practice the new norm.
Amidst upheavals and disruptions, a number of American museums have charted new directions for themselves and their communities. In Change Is Required, a unique array of 50 museum professionals — representing different disciplines, positions, and experiences — share their thinking about assessing needs and possibilities, managing people and resources, and building productive new relationships with neighbors, communities, and partner organizations.
These authors argue that change is necessary — inside and beyond the museum. It is futile and unproductive to default to the old “normal.” To achieve greater relevance, impact, equity, and inclusiveness, museums need to reconsider their leadership models, organizational culture, internal structures, and community collaborations. Bristling with personal passion, informed by experience, and focused on the future, the essays in this volume convey the urgency to rethink traditional museum practice, offering visionary — yet practical — routes to future museum success in a volatile, complex, and ambiguous world.
In its depth and range, this book constitutes an invitation to join in the growing, lively discourse about possible futures for museums in America. The invitation extends not only to museum professionals, but to all those interested in cultural affairs and institutions.
Change is Required is available for purchase here.
Engage with two webinars presented by MuseumExpert.org featuring Marsha and contributors to Change is Required:
“Change is Required: A Discussion” featuring Marsha and contributing writers Su Oh, Frankie Vagnone, and Sam Moore;
“Change Is Required: Museums and Healing: For Ourselves and For Our Publics” featuring Marsha and contributing writers Andrea Jones, Mariruth Leftwich, and Izetta Mobley.
This volume of collected essays is an immensely valuable gift to museum professionals. It is a banquet of possibilities offered by people willing to share their experiences of one of the most difficult times through which we as humans and professionals have ever lived. But as with any memorable banquet, I advise readers to approach the feast with small plates filled with only enough that can be digested in a single sitting to fuel their courage to embrace uncertainty, inspire adaptive leadership skills, and spark hope for transformation as we grow to embrace lessons learned during the pandemic and how they will shape the future of museums.
-Erika Sanger, Executive Director, Museum Association of New York
A remarkable exploration on the future of museums that contains powerful responses to the challenges we're facing, reflections on past and potential practices, and calls to action that offer the possibility for change.
-Jim Imholte, Executive Vice President, The Bakken Museum
Partnership Power: Essential Museum Strategies for Today’s Networked World is a community of practice in book form. Beginning with a rich introduction and essay by Marsha (about which reviewer Ben Garcia of the American LGBTQ+ Museum opines, “Read the seven pages that constitute the introduction. Because you will be changed by it. Seriously. And then jump to the first chapter and read another 12 pages, because it is as powerful a rationale for expanding and centering notions of partnerships in museums as you will ever read.”), and followed by a collection of pieces by Marsha and fellow museum experts, Partnership Power examines museum-related partnerships, collaborations, and networks within today’s dynamic, ever-changing environment.
Through perspectives from other, related sectors, including libraries and other nonprofits; current museum case studies from a broad and diverse spectrum of museum types; and proven tools, tips, and resources, Partnership Power serves as an invaluable primer for museums and museum professionals wanting to create and sustain effective partnerships and collaborations. The volume helps solve the partnership puzzle, focusing on the essential attributes of sustainable and relevant collaborations, within communities, states, and nationally, including examples of broader multi-institutional networks that are increasingly important to maintain relevance in this hyper-connected world. It contains words of wisdom from museum leaders, funders, community organizers, and researchers—both industry experts and newcomers--on what authentic partnership means, how partnerships evolve, the benefits of partnerships as well as the challenges they present.
Partnership Power is available for purchase here.
Read Ben Garcia’s full review here.
Listen to Marsha discuss the power of partnerships on Episode 4 of the Stop, Collaborate, and Listen! podcast, “Power Pretzel”.
Hear Marsha’s thoughts on new ways of thinking about museums and museum experiences on the “Positively Powerful Partnerships” episode of the Positive Turbulator Podcast.
Finally, a book that offers a dynamic paradigm shift where partnerships are essential for thriving in our twenty-first-century ecosystem, one defined by disruptive change and expanding networks. Provided are numerous examples of cross sector partnerships and strategies inspiring out-of-the-box thinking and a call to action.
-Barbara Henry, Principal, Barbara Henry & Associates, Transforming Museums
Partnership Power is a fascinating exploration of the history, reality, and potential of relational collaboration and networking for the museum sector. Marsha L. Semmel's thoughtfully curated set of case studies surface an evolving recognition of the rights and responsibilities museums have always had as elemental pieces of a larger whole.
-Brian J. Carter, Executive Director, 4Culture
Museum Leadership, Organizational Readiness, and Institutional Transformation: How does a new, untested director transform a static and financially challenged organization into a dynamic and relevant museum? By reshaping organizational culture, emphasizing values, taking risks, connecting to diverse audiences, and reminding all stakeholders about “what it means to be human.”
In this Museum article of the March/April 2017 issue, Marsha Semmel uses a real-life case to instruct on principles of leadership that apply in and beyond the museum.
Click here to read the article.
Museum Leadership in a Hyper-Connected World: Six Skills for Leaders at All Levels, Marsha’s article in the May/June 2015 issue of Museum, focuses on essential leadership attributes for museum professionals that also apply to most sectors today.
From strategic agility to rigorous prototyping, Marsha succinctly explains each skill and provides practical applications and references for additional learning.
Read the full article here.
In Generational Inclusion: Shattering Stereotypes and Challenging Assumptions, an article on the American Alliance of Museums blog and originally published in Informal Learning Review No. 144, Marsha contributes an in-depth recap of takeaways from her co-facilitation of a cross-sector, cross-generational forum.
How to make work meaningful and foster collaboration in workplaces that now span up to five generations? How do generational stereotypes adversely impact organizational culture? Marsha addresses these essential questions and more in this impactful piece.
Click here to read the article.
Responding to the VUCA World, an article penned by Marsha for the Informal Learning Review No. 169, explains how the term, VUCA — coined by the military decades ago and meaning volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous — has since migrated through the for- and non-profit sectors, and how it applies today amidst the nested crises of COVID-19 and a long-overdue national reckoning with systemic racism.
This brief article packs a punch and challenges readers to overhaul “normal” practices and principles and to cultivate an adaptive response to today’s uncertainties.
Click here to read the article.