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Honest conversations with leaders shaping the future of cultural institutions.
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What Is Cultural ANIMALS?
Cultural Animals: Museum Leadership Lab is a podcast created for museum professionals who want clarity, strategy, and innovation in their leadership.
Every episode brings forward in-depth conversations with directors, CEOs, and cultural visionaries who share practical insights—from visitor engagement and funding models to digital transformation and operational efficiency.
The goal: deliver real, applicable knowledge to help cultural institutions thrive in a rapidly evolving landscape.
Topics We Cover
Leadership & organizational culture
Fundraising, memberships & financial sustainability
Strategic planning & operational efficiency
Digital transformation & technology adoption
Crisis management & future-ready museums
Visitor engagement & audience development
Workforce models & staff development
All Episodes in One Place
Explore every episode of Cultural Animals: Museum Leadership Lab below.
New conversations are added regularly, each featuring insights you can put into practice immediately.
The Real Business of Museums: A Conversation with Nik Honeysett
In this premiere episode of Culture Animals: Museum Leadership Lab, Nik Honeysett, CEO of the Balboa Park Online Collaborative, shares how museums can balance mission and sustainability through leadership, technology, and smart strategy.
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Doubling Attendance: Marketing, Mission, and Museum Leadership with Adam Smith
In this episode of Cultural Animals: Museum Leadership Lab, Adam Smith, President and CEO of Exploration Place, shares how he doubled museum attendance while cutting marketing costs. Drawing on leadership experience across institutions like the National Museums of Scotland and the Comic-Con Museum, Adam offers practical strategies on pricing psychology, free advertising, team building, and creating a mission-driven culture that helps museums grow and engage more visitors.
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Running the Numbers on Glass: What 25 Years as a Museum CFO Really Looks Like with Dave Togni
In this episode of Cultural Animals: Museum Leadership Lab, Dave Togni, Chief Financial Officer of the Corning Museum of Glass, unpacks what 25 years in museum finance really looks like. From navigating COVID-19 to managing operational change, Dave shares practical budget benchmarks, board strategy, and why frontline staff may be one of the most overlooked drivers of financial success in a modern museum.
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From Blueprint to Bloom: How Jamie Maslyn Larson FASLA Is Transforming Tohono Chul Botanical Gardenst
In this episode of Cultural Animals: Museum Leadership Lab, Jamie Maslyn Larson FASLA, CEO at Tohono Chul, shares her unexpected journey from leading landscape architecture projects across New York and Copenhagen to reimagining a 49-acre botanical garden in Tucson. With no prior nonprofit experience, Jamie took a design-driven approach that nearly doubled attendance, broke down internal silos, and transformed the garden into a vibrant cultural hub for the local community.
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The Journalist Who Learned to Lead: Jonathan Foerster on Building a Museum That Matters | Veevart
In this episode of Cultural Animals: Museum Leadership Lab, Jonathan Foerster, CEO at Golisano Children's Museum of Naples, shares how a career in journalism became the unexpected foundation for nonprofit leadership. From learning to raise funds with no formal training to nearly doubling museum membership while raising prices, Jonathan breaks down the strategies, mindset shifts, and community philosophy that turned a post-Covid slump into sustained growth.
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