Connecting audiences with our collection through an educational video series
By Jane Lavino
We wanted to make our collection at the National Museum of Wildlife Art more accessible and relevant. Our Museum is located in Jackson Hole, WY, which is relatively small and rural but can also feel exclusive. Barriers include mountainous and remote geography and financial obstacles (think airfare and a fancy hotel). Our solution to reaching a wider audience was an educational YouTube video series, Bisoncast. These short videos deliver exciting virtual experiences. We begin by examining art inside the building and then place it within the context of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Viewers are taken on a journey as we visit artists’ studios, climb mountains, and fish for trout…all in the name of art! This program has not been easy to launch and sustain, but it has always been fun and rewarding.
Beginning the Work
It all started seven years ago when our education staff sought to expand our audience reach by creating a distance-learning program. We spent a year researching ideas, visiting museums, consulting with museum educators, and asking questions. After careful consideration, we settled on a free video series available to anyone, anywhere, with YouTube or internet access. Bisoncast now boasts twelve episodes, and we have earned five national/international film festival selection honors for our documentary shorts.
Learning the Art of Film
To begin with, we were not filmmakers or actors—we were educators. Some of us (myself included!) were uncomfortable in front of a camera, so we hired a presentation/acting coach to gain more confidence. After debating whether to pursue a scripted or more organic approach, we settled on scripting our museum educators, but allowing our episode guests (artists, scientists, community members) to speak off the cuff. This approach helped keep the story on track, making editing easier, while still allowing some magic and spontaneity to occur on set.
Why did we decide to contract with professional videographers for a YouTube series? Our wildlife art collection and beautiful location are what make us unique. We wanted to do the art and the landscape justice. A high-quality, cinematic product allowed us to show our videos on the big screen in our auditorium and enabled us to submit episodes to film festivals.
Filming of Beyond Beauty episode.
Deciding What Stories to Tell
Coming up with ideas was the easy part. Our initial brainstorming session yielded 65 potential stories we were excited to tell. Ideas ranged from the concrete to the philosophical. We considered episodes focusing on specific artists, artistic processes, and wildlife species. We also explored conceptual topics such as virtual nature, humanity’s relationship with the wild, and transformation. We kept coming back to an essential question: “What is unique and special about this collection?” and we held onto ideas that sparked our imaginations and excited us.
Pairing from The Slipperiness of Fish episode. William Merritt Chase, Still Life: Cod and Mackerel, c. 1900, oil on canvas, JKM Collection, National Museum of Wildlife Art.
Pairing from Above the Clouds episode. Robert Bateman, Sheer Drop, 1980, oil on board, JKM Collection, National Museum of Wildlife Art.
Challenges
Our biggest challenges have always been funding and capacity. Professional videographers are fabulous and expensive. With the help of our development team, we wrote grants and spoke with potential sponsors. We never knew how much funding would materialize from year to year. On a good year, we could afford to knock out three episodes; on others, we could only produce one. None of us did this work exclusively. Other job responsibilities and time constraints were limiting factors. An ongoing challenge is building an audience. It’s hard to keep your fans interested when they have to wait months or even a year for a new episode to drop.
Lessons Learned
Audience evaluations tell us shorter is better. Initially, our episodes were each about twenty minutes long (we had so much to say!) Our current goal is to limit them to ten to fifteen minutes. People want diverse voices, glimpses behind the scenes, and more interactivity. Even small museums can do this and do it well with a measure of dedication and determination. Our Bisoncast videos will live on as a resource for future audiences and a permanent record of our work. We’ve had so much fun creating this unique window into our collection.
Jane Lavino
Jane is the Sugden Chief Curator of Education at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, WY. Over the past 32 years, she has built an award-winning program reaching over 5,000 adults and children annually. She and her team of educators make fine art relevant and accessible to diverse audiences. Recent accolades include five film festival honors for the Museum’s educational video series, Bisoncast.
In conjunction with her work at the Museum, Jane has served on panels and has taught workshops to promote arts education in Wyoming and nationally. She is a certified K-12 art educator.