Collective Paper Aesthetics

Eventually, I really did make it to Phoenix — and what a week it was.

It began in Tucson, with a tour of three very different institutions: Tohono Chul, a botanical garden; Children's Museum Tucson and Flandrau Science Center and Planetarium, a university-embedded science centre. Three very different settings, each with its own way of connecting with its community.

Then came 2.5 full days at the Association of Science and Technology Centers conference — packed with conversations, presentations, new connections and plenty of ideas to take home. And, of course, some memorable evenings: from a night at Arizona Science Center to an evening at the Arizona Museum of Natural History.

A big thank you to Marcus Monenerkit, Director of Community Engagement at the Heard Museum for taking the time to meet in person and opening my eyes to the importance of community-rooted museum practice — and to the many ways cultural institutions can build meaningful relationships with the communities around them.

I was equally happy to connect with Tiffany Lippincott, Curator of Engagement at Phoenix Art Museum , and to have the chance to walk through the museum together on a day when so many art educators from across the region were visiting.

I left Phoenix with many new ideas, questions and connections — and a renewed curiosity about how participatory design, STEAM learning and creative environments can help museums create meaningful experiences for diverse audiences.

Thank you to everyone who made time for a conversation, shared a project, introduced me to someone new, or took the time to reconnect. I’m looking forward to continuing these conversations and seeing where they lead.

AudienceEngagement

The core idea behind the HEART Board pyramid is learning by doing — trying, sometimes succeeding on the first attempt, sometimes needing a second or third. Making things together will be at the heart of the studio’s presentation at Association of Science and Technology Centers this Friday, where 1,600 professionals from science and technology centers across the US come together.

📅 Friday, September 18
⏰ 12:20–12:35 PM — co-creating from sphere to tower and back

Pictured: the Creative Spark installation, co-created with and for Young V&A at Christmas 2025. Built on the HEART Board pyramid model — redesigned with a five-point star perforation instead of the original heart shape — it took shape over a single weekend as hundreds of families folded flat-pack elements into two modular forms: the truncated tetrahedron and the truncated octahedron.

The three vibrant cold foil prints, created in workshops where old toys became drawing tools, were brought to life through the vision of Alex Bowie and Haidee Drew.

Curated by Alex Newson and Trish Roberts, with thanks to the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the United Kingdom for supporting this hands-on participatory project.

Photography by Peter Kelleher for the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Looking forward to presenting at Association of Science and Technology Centers 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona this week!

Designing for Participation: How the HEART-board Pyramid Engages Communities in STEAM Learning

📅 Friday, September 18
⏰ 12:20–12:35 PM

The session will explore how hands-on, open-ended design can create opportunities for participation, collaboration and STEAM learning—across different ages, settings and communities.

There will also be a chance for some hands-on interaction, just like the enthusiastic father in this photo, who started exploring the HEART-board Pyramid while waiting for his child to finish a one-hour robotics course at the Bledsoe-Miller STEAM Center Bledsoe-Miller STEAM Center in Waco, Texas, this winter.

I’m especially excited that Lindsey Helton, Executive Director of the Bledsoe-Miller STEAM Center, will be joining us in person. The Waco project is a great example of how these materials can become a starting point for engagement beyond the formal programme itself.
For museum, science centre and STEAM professionals, I hope the session will offer practical ideas and inspiration for designing designing participatory experiences, temporary exhibitions and public programmes that invite people to participate, experiment and connect with each other—and perhaps spark conversations about how similar approaches could work in your own context.

📸 ticomendoza Mendoza
The Waco project was initiated by Doreen Ravenscroft (Waco Cultural Arts Fest ) in collaboration with Robin McDurham and Lindsey Helton (Transformation Waco ), with support from the Texas Commission on the Arts.

PublicArt ParticipatoryDesign

Congratulations to the AKOpanel team on the official opening of your new headquarters and showroom in Dalfsen.

The transformation of the former Praxis location demonstrates how material choices can bring together acoustic performance, fire safety, colour, design and sustainability in one space.

One detail we particularly like: each square metre of AKOpanel gives approximately 55 discarded PET bottles a new life. A nice reminder that sustainable material choices can also contribute to the character and atmosphere of an interior.

In the picture: our presentation at the Forward Furniture exhibition during Dutch Design Week | DDW 2025, photographed by Aldwin van Krimpen .

We’re looking forward to developing and realising our first project together.

The MacroFractals are back!

From September 11–27, MacroFractals—created for Fundación “la Caixa” by Collective Paper Aesthetics —returns to Museo de la Ciencia CosmoCaixa Barcelona.

This interactive family experience invites participants to explore the fascinating world of fractals—patterns that repeat across different scales, revealing connections between geometry, nature, and the infinite.

Made from lightweight, durable, and recyclable foldable plastic modules, MacroFractals can be transformed into strong and stable 3D structures through play and collaboration. As more modules are connected, the structure continuously grows and transforms, making mathematical concepts such as repetition, symmetry, scale, and infinity tangible and engaging.

Designed for repeated public use, the modules are robust, easy to handle, and created for interactive exploration in cultural and educational settings.

We’re happy to see MacroFractals back at CosmoCaixa and to continue exploring how design can turn complex ideas into accessible, collaborative experiences.

📷 Juan Alfonso Zapata at CosmoCaixa Barcelona

🌵 By the Time I Get to Phoenix… it’s almost here! 🎶

Just over a week to go until the Association of Science and Technology Centers Association of Science and Technology Centers 2026 Conference at the Arizona Science Center in downtown Phoenix.

I’ll be there with Collective Paper Aesthetics on Friday, September 18, from 12:20–12:35 PM, presenting:

“Designing for Participation: How the HEART-board Pyramid Engages Communities in STEAM Learning”

The session will include a showcase, hands-on experience, and Q&A, exploring how participatory design can create opportunities for communities to engage with STEAM learning through making and play.

I’m looking forward to connecting with science center professionals, museum educators, designers, and colleagues from around the world—and to exchanging ideas about participation, learning, and new approaches to audience engagement.

🌵 See you in Phoenix!

AudienceEngagement ParticipatoryDesign Museums

From Kunstsilo to the World 🌏

We’re pleased to announce our next World Art Foundations Talk on Wednesday, September 30, 2026, at 9:30 EDT | 14:30 GMT | 15:30 CET.

Join Torill Haugen, Head of Innovation and Development, and Kjersti Irgens Kuhnle, Project Manager for Children & Youth, both of Kunstsilo and me for a conversation on the design evolution of the Kunstsilo Kullen modular system and its adaptation across cultural institutions worldwide, including Casula Powerhouse (NSW), THEMUSEUM (Ontario), Zuidparktheater in partnership with MuseumLAB by Museon-Omniversum, Zuidwest and Festival De Betovering, and ARoS Aarhus Art Museum.

Each installation reinterprets the Kullen system for its own site and audience — ranging from 400 to 1,000 units, in a single color or a five-color palette. Rather than replicate the mirrored monumentality of the original Kristiansand silo (2024), each iteration retains the system’s underlying geometry while developing its own visual identity: a permeable, prismatic and anti-prismatic structure that dissolves the boundary between interior and exterior. The result is a design built for adaptability, allowing curators to reconfigure the installation with ease and visitors to engage with it on their own terms.
This talk offers a rare look at how a single modular concept can be reimagined across vastly different cultural contexts — and what that process reveals about scalable design in museum practice.

Learn more about the story behind the Kunstsilo model:
https://lnkd.in/erNGxk7H

Register for the WAF Talk:
https://lnkd.in/d9BN58vr

Photo: Nazanin Valizade

✨Incredibly happy to share that I’ll be part of an upcoming World Art Foundations Talk on engaging young audiences!

On Wednesday, September 30, 2026, at 9:30 EDT | 14:30 GMT | 15:30 CET, I’ll be joining Torill Haugen, Head of Innovation and Development, and Kjersti Irgens Kuhnle, Project Manager, Children & Youth at Kunstsilo , to share a practical case study on developing a young audience engagement strategy.

👉 Learn more and join the WAF Talk: https://worldartfoundations.com/waf-talk/

We’ll talk about how strategic collaboration and innovative programming have shaped Kunstsilo’s approach to engaging young audiences, sharing our experiences and practical insights that may be useful for other museums and cultural organizations.

A big thank you to Rosalia Romano for this opportunity and for bringing us together for this conversation. 🙏

And if we’ve been in touch recently about implementing the modular system in your museum and you’d like to learn more about our experience, please DM me. I’d be very happy to continue the conversation.

Looking forward to sharing, learning, and connecting with colleagues around the world! 🌍

☀️ As we say goodbye to the summer programme at Zuiderparktheater Den Haag we’re taking a moment to look back at another summer with Vouw & BouwLAB.

For the second summer in a row, Vouw & BouwLAB brought its modular play system back to the park, inviting visitors to build, explore, experiment, and play together.

Vouw & BouwLAB is a collaborative project developed over multiple seasons at Zuiderparktheater, together with MuseumLAB Zuidwest by Museon-Omniversum and festival Festival De Betovering . Together, we reimagined a geometric modular system using corrugated plastic, cardboard, and 260 g paper, adapting it to different seasons, formats, and public contexts across the city of The Hague.

The result is an open-ended, participatory play experience that encourages creativity, interaction, and new ways of engaging with public space.

Thank you to everyone who joined us this summer and helped bring the modular play system to life! 💛

📸 Photo by Vouw & BouwLAB