This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Nina comments on opening up museums to participatory culture to change organizations and the community. She said that giving people special tools to participate will encourage people to feel valued. She sees artifacts as social objects in museums.

Nina Simon is Executive Director of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (MAH), which has gone through a radical transformation over the past year to become a thriving central gathering place. Opening up the MAH to the community has more than doubled attendance and introduced new levels of collaboration, dynamism, and relevance to the museum. Simon teaches radical exhibition design in the University of Washington Museology graduate program and writes the popular blog Museum 2.0. Her 2010 book, The Participatory Museum, was named "a future classic of museology" and is used as a text in cultural organizations and graduate programs internationally. Previously, Simon worked as an independent consultant to over 100 museums and cultural centers around the world, focusing on participatory community engagement. She served as curator at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, Calif., and was the Experience Development Specialist at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C.