Upcoming
150 Words or Less (Writing in Museums)
Museums use objects and physical spaces to tell stories that spark curiosity and help visitors connect to the richness of human cultures and understand the natural world. Museum guests can often engage all of their senses, but text usually plays a central role in their experiences.
During field trips to the Magnes and BAMPFA, participants will explore and analyze museum writing and the conditions that affect reader comprehension and interest. Drawing on insights from the field trips, students will draft a museum writing sample, critique their peers’ writing, and revise their own work.
This workshop will meet during the weekend of March 14 through March 16, 2025, in the Geballe Room of Townsend Center for the Humanities (220 Stephens Hall). March 14 and March 16 will be half-days. March 15 will be a full day. Refreshments will be provided.
Hannah Weisman is executive director of the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at UC Berkeley. As a museum educator turned director, Weisman takes a people-centered approach to her work, seeking ways to help people make connections and build community in museum spaces and with material culture.
Workshop applications will open soon, and will be available in our Deadlines section.
Sound Stories: An Introduction to Audio Storytelling
What makes a great story, and what makes a story sing in audio? Pushkin Industries senior producer and host Benjamin Naddaff-Hafrey takes students through the process of building an audio story — from story-hunting, sourcing, reporting, and researching to drafting and editing. Drawing on his experience making chart-topping narrative shows Revisionist History and The Last Archive and working with authors such as Jill Lepore and Malcolm Gladwell, Naddaff-Hafrey teaches students how to look for stories and build them into full podcast episodes. Students should bring ideas for their own podcast episodes, as they learn to hone and build audio stories from the ground up.
At the end of the workshop, students will have made a short audio story.
Benjamin Naddaff-Hafrey is a senior producer at Pushkin Industries, where he writes and hosts on Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History and The Last Archive, a podcast about the history of evidence. He has been a producer at NPR, and his writing has appeared in New York Magazine, Smithsonian, the Yale Review, and Aeon among other publications. He is also a musician and has composed scores for BBC Radio.
This workshop will meet virtually on the afternoons of March 21, April 11, April 18, and April 25. It will meet in person on April 4 (afternoon) and April 5 (10 am to 2 pm) in the Geballe Room of Townsend Center for the Humanities (220 Stephens Hall).
Workshop applications will open soon, and will be available in our Deadlines section.