About

ReadySetMuseum

ReadySetMuseum is a consultancy offering a range of museum services from a seasoned evaluator and content developer.

The ReadySetMuseum blog is an ongoing conversation about museum visitor studies, exhibit development, and exhibition and program evaluation. Because museums are a bit more complicated than “ready, set, go.”

Are you interested in learning more about the museum services that ReadySetMuseum can provide for your organization or project? Please contact the ReadySetMuseum team to tell us about your needs.

The ReadySetMuseum Blog

In their shared blog, Dorothy and Valerie share their experiences as museum professionals and enthusiasts. They exchange ideas about designed informal learning spaces from differing perspectives as an evaluator and a content developer. They compare their museumgoing experiences living in Chicago and San Francisco, two major centers of the museum world.


Valerie Grabski (The Studies Person)

Photo of ReadySetMuseum's Valerie GrabskiValerie is fascinated by how people interact with, think about, and use museums (all cultural spaces, museum is a very broad term). She views museums as inherently people-centric spaces. She sees visitor studies and evaluation as the tools that allow for dialogue between the many people that inhabit those spaces.

Valerie holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan in Anthropology and an M.A. in Museology from the University of Washington. Her thesis explored how people use museum spaces in airports.

Dorothy Bayern (The Stories Person)

Photo of ReadySetMuseum's Dorothy BayernDorothy sees museums as time machines, teleporters, and empathy laboratories, where people step outside of their normal experience to try out new ways of thinking. She enjoys translating the passion of content experts to museum visitors.

Dorothy studied at the University of Oregon, earning a B.A. in Anthropology and an M.S. in Folklore. She has developed exhibitions for the University of Oregon’s Museum of Natural and Cultural History, the Lane County Historical Museum, and the Chicago Academy of Sciences/Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.