Phillip RatliffJun 17, 20201 minVirtual Field Trips for Museums and Historic SitesHow will museums and historic sites continue to offer field trips to students? It’s a question leaders in Alabama’s cultural sector are a...
Phillip RatliffApr 24, 20201 minFree webinar: Financial Triage for COVID-19The National Association of Certified Analysts and Valuators is offering a free webinar. Financial Triage for COVID-19. This webinar help...
Phillip RatliffApr 24, 20201 minPut down that paintbrush/shovel/scrub brush and read this!I'm happy to talk about how clients are finding funding and redirecting staff to low-cost interpretive updates and installations with Bac...
Phillip RatliffApr 23, 20201 minC2CB is providing free consultations to arts and culture nonprofits weathering shutdownsClient-to-Consultant Bridge (C2CB) is providing pro bono consulting and advisory services to small businesses and arts and culture nonpro...
Phillip RatliffApr 23, 20202 minFree COVID-19 Resources for Arts and Culture Nonprofits Our friends at the Dance Foundation in Homewood, Alabama have assembled several resources specifically for arts and culture nonprofits as...
Phillip RatliffMar 23, 20202 minCan you name the Alabama town in which Alabama's first Supreme Court convened? It's not Montgomery. Formed in 1820 under harsh economic conditions, Alabama’s first Supreme Court would be unrecognizable to us today. To help today’s Alabam...
Phillip RatliffMar 19, 20201 minBeautiful art from some of the world's great museums can be found onlineNo, digitized images of masterpieces aren't quite the same as the real things. But in the age of self-quarantine, don't let the perfect b...
Phillip RatliffMar 18, 20205 minMuseum, Zoo, and Aquarium Fans: Ideas for Coping During Self Quarantine You’re neither living inside a media bubble nor indifferent to the plight of your neighbor. You know that there’s a pretty scary pandemic...
Phillip RatliffMar 12, 20201 min"Alabama Justice" exhibit a finalist for the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award On March 11, the American Bar Association announced that Alabama Justice: The Cases and Faces That Changed a Nation is a finalist for a S...
Phillip RatliffMar 12, 20203 minExhibit Brief: Alabama JusticeCan the federal government forbid businesses from refusing to serve customers on the basis of race? In 1883, the Supreme Court ruled that...
Phillip RatliffFeb 14, 20201 minVisitation and Value in History Museums and Historic Sites and Houses Dr. Bob Beatty is a museum consultant from Franklin, TN and on the Johns Hopkins museum studies faculty. In this article, Dr. Beatty runs...
Phillip RatliffJan 28, 20204 minNew Voices. Old problems. A dispatch from the Alabama – Georgia joint museums conference. The annual state museum conference is a tough sell that just gets tougher. On the face of it, getting away for three days to hear from ne...
Phillip RatliffDec 4, 20192 min30,000 foot view: GPS-triggered audio stories Site interpretation isn’t just about what we take in through our eyeballs. Audio storytelling is a powerful interpretive tool — especiall...
Phillip RatliffDec 4, 20192 minIn the studio: a quick guide to audio story production The script is in the can. The experts have fact-checked it, and your team of grammarians have declared the copy squeaky clean. Now you’re...
Phillip RatliffDec 4, 20192 minAudio Story Scriptwriting 101The story’s the thing. That’s the Backstory mantra. We recite it every time we produce a museum exhibit. And it’s central to our audio st...
Phillip RatliffDec 3, 20193 minGPS-triggered audio stories that your public will loveThanks to GPS-triggered mobile apps, the future of audio interpretation is here. That’s not hyperbole. Because it is so intuitively linke...
Phillip RatliffDec 3, 20191 minThe Auburn Villager features Backstory exhibit2019 was quite a year for Backstory. The traveling exhibit Alabama Justice is one reason why. Here’s a link to an in-depth story, posted ...
Phillip RatliffDec 3, 20191 minBackstory exhibit makes national newsThe Associated Press featured Alabama Justice: The Cases and Faces That Changed a Nation in its round-up of state news. Click here for th...
Phillip RatliffDec 3, 20192 minOutdoor signage the Backstory wayIt's a bang-for-your-buck issue. If your public ignores -- or is flat-out confused by -- your outdoor signage, you've essentially tossed ...
Phillip RatliffNov 5, 20192 minWhy you should choose custom exhibits over off-the-shelf Whether they come to your gallery space from off the shelf or through a custom process, interactive exhibits aren't complicated in their ...
