Research Projects
I have been actively involved in many research and programmatic projects over the years. Below is a selection of research projects that focus on my work around museum education and visitor-centered curation, librarian curators, and on going programs. A list of my publications is below.
Publications
Jacobs, A., Williams, A., Bradley, D. S., Jeon, M., & Shields, S. S. (2025). Gameful learning: Reflections on co-designing an art gallery board game. CoDesign, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/15710882.2025.2604229
This research outlines collaborative design for game development as art museum facilitation. Falk and Dierking’s contextual model of learning and Hakkarainen et al. collaborative learning theories framed our study of the question: what insights can we gain from the process of co-designing a board game for gallery facilitation? Our findings led us to think more deeply about strengths and drawbacks that board games can bring to museum programming. First, the importance of discussion throughout game development and of social mechanisms in games became apparent. Second, tensions between the different opportunities of complex and simple games ran throughout our findings. Third, the relevance of tailoring our game to the academic gallery re-contextualised the museum for players. We set out to create an analog, collaborative game that facilitates conversation and artmaking related to the exhibition. The frictions inherent in introducing a new activity in this setting could not have been overcome without all the streams of co-design ideas from our core team, playtesters, and the games and artworks we worked with.
Bradley, D. S., Mathews, C., Pellini, L., & Sherman, L. R. (2026). Beyond the gallery: Hybrid art exhibitions in the academic library. In Wang, Z. & Hamilton, M. J. (Eds.), Creating digital exhibitions: A guide. Rowman & Littlefield.
The book explores digital exhibition planning and implementation for the field of physical and digital museums. This chapter focuses on the exploration and implementation of a hybrid exhibition within the context of an academic library gallery space. It walks through the case study of deciding how to implement a hybrid exhibition, including the process of utilizing the existing program website, marketing for the exhibition, and balancing on going submissions.
Sherman, L. R., Barmon, J., Bradley, D. S., & Mathews, C. (2024). Creating art in the library at Florida State University: Integrating art exhibitions and academic libraries. Art Documentation 43(1), 129-150.
This article traces the development of the newly formed Art in the Library Committee at Florida State University Libraries, with a special focus on its exhibitions programming. The scope of this study spans planning the first Art in the Library exhibition in mid-2022 through the fall 2023 show. The conclusions offer lessons learned and takeaways aimed at art librarians and other information professionals working specifically in academic libraries who may be interested in founding such an art exhibitions program at their home institutions.