Museum Sage is a life-coaching experience that helps you solve your problems, transform your life, and learn about art one artwork at a time!
Looking at art can channel the power of your right brain to produce fresh insights into personal questions. That’s why Museum Sage is practiced in art museums and other art spaces. It can be played solo but it’s a deeper experience with a partner or a group.
A short animation describes the 7-step process. (You guide your friend through it, then your friend guides you.) The first step is to come up with a question about your life — it can be big, small, complex, or simple. There’s a Random Question Generator to give you suggestions like, “What’s a tiny step I could take toward my financial vision?”; “What are my options when it comes to love?”; “What can I be proud of in my relationship with __________?”
You select an area of the museum to play in, go there, set the app’s timer, and walk meditatively while looking at the floor. When the timer goes off you interact with the piece of art that’s closest to you by describing it, talking about memories or associations that it evokes, and “listening” to the art’s advice for you. Other players comment on how they see the art responding to your question, and you commit to a small action step you can take in the next few days to address what the encounter has suggested to you. You walk away with fresh insights and a commitment to action.
There’s something magical about the Museum Sage process — if we ask the Muse to show up to play, she does! It’s intimate to be witnessed by those closest to us as we ask our life questions (and playing with like-hearted strangers is also wonderful). Invite a friend to meet you at your local museum, gallery, or public art space, and start getting insights into your problems and opportunities right away!
“I’m always on the hunt for examples of people “hacking” museum content in interesting ways. Museum Sage basically turns the museum into a giant Tarot deck.”
– Elizabeth Merritt, VP Strategic Foresight & Founding Director, Center for the Future of Museums at the American Alliance of Museums
“Museum Sage was the single most powerful experience that I’ve had in a museum — and I’ve been going to museums my whole life and worked in them for the past five years."
– Caryne Eskridge, Yale University Art Gallery Fellow