Your museum
detective agency,
open for business.
It's time to resolve your museum mysteries, from prototyping exhibits to evaluation capacity building, from visitor studies to community listening.
Hone the skills you need to connect with your audiences, inside and out.
As Featured In
LEARNING FROM MUSEUMS, 2nd Ed.
THE DIGITAL FUTURE OF MUSEUMS
TEACHING THE
MUSEUM
NATURAL HISTORY DIORAMAS
About
I'm Kate Livingston,
and I'm passionately curious.
I started ExposeYourMuseum LLC in 2010 to help museums get out of their own way– and on to amazing things. I prioritize facilitating honest conversations, elevating marginalized voices, building capacity, engaging creatively, and strong, clear communication to inspire innovation, inform strategy, and drive decision-making.
I'm equal parts evaluator, coach, facilitator, strategist, creative, and change-maker.
I am based in the Mile High City (Denver, CO) and work worldwide. I am committed to inclusion and anti-racism, which I embed deeply in my work. (Here's one example.) My pronouns are they/them and she/her.
Consulting + Coaching Services
Not just museums!
I work alongside zoos, aquariums, historical sites, science centers, performing arts organizations, and all varieties of arts and cultural organizations. From comprehensive evaluation, to leadership coaching, to participatory staff workshops– I will craft a customized plan to ensure you achieve your goals.
Evaluation
Whether complementing a large-scale federal grant, investigating an exhibit or program, or supporting a capital campaign, understanding visitors and audiences is an essential part of organizational planning and decision-making.
Capacity Building
& Training
Develop the skills you need in-house to better understand your audiences. Write stronger survey questions. Mobilize staff to collect data. Conduct focus groups. Expanding your toolkit can lead to a dedicated culture of internal evaluation.
Individual & Team Leadership Coaching
Through powerful questions, mindful experimentation, and the exploration of new approaches, professional goals can be achieved. Get the support you need to navigate transitions, culture change, leadership, and effective teams. Learn more here.
Community
Insights
Who is currently not engaged with your institution--and what can we learn from them? Meeting and listening to non-visitors where they live, work, and play helps provide often-overlooked insights, particularly into marginalized communities.
Meeting & Retreat Facilitation
Facilitation means “to make easy.” External facilitation of staff meetings or board retreats can bolsters effective, collaborative teamwork so you can stay present, participate fully, and focus on your most innovative, exciting work.
Digital Engagement & User Experience
Does your website audience look like those onsite? Should it? Is your social media presence providing a viable return on investment? Do you need an app? Keep pace with new media audiences through analytics, strategy, and user testing.
Grant Writing &
Evaluation Plans
Have an upcoming proposal with no evaluation plan? Unsure how to embed evaluation into your grant writing? Unclear on how to tailor your proposal to the specific funder and potential reviewers? Teaming on grant writing ups your chances for funding success.
Organizational Development & Change
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Take a closer look at your organization’s effectiveness, internally and externally. Through inquiry, organizational assessment, systemic learning, and change management, you will be better prepared for the future ahead, whatever it brings.
Strategy
Whether embarking on a new strategic plan, revisiting an existing one, or venturing in a bold new direction, a solid theory of change, clear goals, and measurable outcomes are essential in envisioning the future and staying the course.
Clients
I have the coolest job in the world.
My clients are why.
I have worked with some of the most interesting, inventive, curious, visionary, focused, collaborative, reflective, and ready-to-learn people out there. My clients are ready to take risks, do things differently, challenge themselves, and grow throughout the process.
I prioritize clients and projects with clear inclusion, access, equity,
and anti-oppression missions and values.
PROJECT PROFILES
Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History (Detroit, MI)
How can a museum new to evaluation cultivate and grow its evaluation capacity so that it's embraced and utilized across departments?
In this 3-year IMLS project, Kate serves as the Museum’s dedicated evaluation coach, demonstrating key evaluation approaches and methods, then transitioning evaluation to the Museum’s internal team– leading to a culture of in-house evaluation.
What Clients + Collaborators Say
GEORGE LUNA-PEÑA
I see our work together as critically important for issues of equity and inclusion in the field. And I couldn’t have asked for a better evaluation partner in this work. I’ve especially appreciated Kate’s commitments to anti-racist and inclusive ideals, but, more than that, the way she lives out these ideals through her work with us. I know Kate has approached her conversations, sometimes very challenging conversations, with our cohorts of apprentices, in ways which have made them feel safe, heard, and empowered. I’ve felt the same in my own conversations with Kate.I’m happy and proud to say that The Broad was just awarded a second National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to continue our work.In large part, the lessons learned from working with Kate on the evaluation of the project, and the ways we can evolve the work as a result, were the reason why.
George Luna-Peña
Program Manager, Diversity Apprenticeship Program, The Broad
Los Angeles, CA