I’ve been on the hunt for museum book clubs. I’m particularly interested in programs that have some form of social media or online component to supplement and extend whatever is happening on-site at the museum. So, of course, I turned to Twitter and Facebook to crowdsource ideas. Here is what I received within a few hours. Thanks musetechsocialmediaverse! You never fail to remind me why this is such an amazing field to work in.
Please let me know in the comments if you can think of others. I’m also interested in non-museum programs (e.g., at libraries, nonprofits, etc.) that are running book-centered programs with an online component. Or just interesting models for discussing books online in general.
Museum book clubs with online components
- Museum of Science Boston – Book Club for the Curious with a Goodreads group and a Google Group
- Hammer Museum – Libros Schmibros Facebook page
- DiMenna Children’s History Museum at NY Historical Society – monthly book club and blog for families
Other museum book clubs (no known online component)
- Minneapolis Institute of the Arts – monthly book tours connecting content to gallery objects, no online component
- New Orleans Museum of Art – monthly book club
- New Orleans Biennial (Prospect 3) – artists discuss books that have been important in their lives
- Rosson House – Rosson Reads, monthly book club led by docent of literature of the early 19th/20th century (period of the historic house interpretation)
- Museum of Fine Arts, Houston – Bayou Bend book club
- Crystal Bridges – book club through the library
- Florida Museum of Natural History
- Cleveland Botanical Garden
- Portland Art Museum – Partners with Literary Arts to host multi-week reading seminars connected to exhibitions and permanent collection
- National Building Museum – Building zone book of the month program for 3-5 year olds
- Nasher Museum
- Kunstsammlung NRW- every 3 months a special guest chooses a book for the café linked to the collection
- Nantucket Historical Association – for winter residents
- Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
- Hol Art Books – Museum Books Club, list of art-related books
From Gwen Fernandez:
I saw that Mashable also has a monthly book club that they are promoting on Instagram (and likely other platforms) with the hashtag #MashReads.
I work with public libraries and we have a collaborative online reading group. It has a monthly discussion via twitter, using the hashtag #rwpchat for read watch play as it is a discussion which includes games, films, television and music as well as reading in all formats. It has a theme each month, and almost anything can be included. There are partner libraries in New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, and England.