We’re crossing the continental divide to see who will take the Western region and go on to fight the Eastern Champ for the right to rep the USA in the International Dance Off Thunderdome. AND IT’S GOING TO BE A WILD RIDE!
If you missed the previews or just want to enjoy them again, you can find the videos in today’s match up below. Please read the rules for voting, and then submit your vote for your favorite! Check back tomorrow for the results, and the next round of videos! Don’t despair if your fave #MDO5 museum gets knocked out in an early round - several Judges Choice Awards will be announced on Thunderdome day!
MUSEUM DANCE OFF 5: THE LAST DANCE VOTING RULES
Anyone can vote, from anywhere in the world.
No registration required, but you have to complete a captcha.Voting for each group will be open for 24 hours, from 8am - 8am.
All timing will be synced to the US Eastern Time Zone. You can vote as many times as you wish. Come back the next day to vote for a new set of museums!
With 40% of the votes in Australia Group 1 Showdown, NFSA will move on to the Australian final!
Today all the entries from the UK and Western Europe are competing for a spot in the International Dance Off Thunderdome Finale! if you missed the previews or just want to enjoy them again, you can find the videos in today’s match up below. Please read the rules for voting, and then submit your vote for your favorite!
Check back tomorrow for the results, and the next round of videos! Don’t despair if your fave #MDO5 museum gets knocked out in an early round - several Judges Choice Awards will be announced on Thunderdome day!
There were so many entries from Australia that we had to split them into two groups. The winner from each group will face off in a national showdown, with the winner going on to represent Australia in the Museum Dance Off Thunderdome.
Today we are voting on Group 1 - if you missed the previews or just want to enjoy them again, you can find the videos in today’s match up below. Please read the rules for voting, and then submit your vote for your favorite!
Check back tomorrow for the results, and the next round of videos! Don’t despair if your fave #MDO5 museum gets knocked out in an early round - several Judges Choice Awards will be announced on Thunderdome day!
MUSEUM DANCE OFF 5: THE LAST DANCE VOTING RULES
Anyone can vote, from anywhere in the world.
No registration required, but you have to complete a captcha.Voting for each group will be open for 24 hours, from 8am - 8am.
All timing will be synced to the US Eastern Time Zone. You can vote as many times as you wish. Come back the next day to vote for a new set of museums!
This is the last group of previews for Museum Dance Off 5! Voting will begin MONDAY at 8am Eastern Time!
These are the final two of the three groups representing the Western US. The winner of each group will compete in a regional showdown to determine who faces off against the winner of the Eastern Group Showdown.
This is your official notice to start planning your Museum Dance Off 5: The Last Dance videos!
As you might have surmised from the title of this year’s edition, this is the last planned Museum Dance Off competition. I am *amazed* at how much energy the museum community has put into this competition the last 5 years, and it’s a truly astounding journey to have taken. Everyone one of those videos has brought me pure joy. However, after Museum Dance Off 4, I received some really vitriolic attacks. I mean, I know the internet can be full of jabronis, but I liked that our corner of it was free from the trolls. Well, the trolls found us. They scared me. They took the joy right out of it. I actually didn’t plan to do another Dance Off because of this. (That’s all I’m going to say about it / please don’t ask.)
But you guys, wow, you guys will not let Dance Off go! Some of you have already filmed your entries for this year! You email me every day asking when the deadlines will be!
So, I decided to throw one last blast and go out on top. To have something for for 5 years on the internet is an amazing feat in and of itself, so let’s end this on a high note. Life today is different than it was five years ago. Jobs are different, families are different, everything in the world is different. MDO is a major time and financial commitment and the current model isn’t sustainable with current responsibilities and commitments. Depending on what happens over the course of this competition, our little judge’s committee is considering new formats for next year that will still highlight our community, and still keep you dancing, but it will be a different animal than what we’ve done the last 5 years.
Anyway. If you’ve ever wanted to enter, this is the time to do it.
THE IMPORTANT STUFF:
Entries must be submitted by 11:59 pm (EDT) on Monday March 26th, 2018. (see below for more info on submitting your video). Voting will begin on April Monday, April 16th. (More details on that later.)
Like Museum Dance Off 4, the match-ups will be by Region, and regions will compete in different rounds until a Regional Champion is declared. The winners of the Regional rounds will go on to compete in the final Thunderdome Round.
Since this is an *International* Dance Off, we hope that these regional rounds will put people on more even footing in terms of time zones. Plus, each region will have a Champion Museum! It won’t eliminate time zone differences, but it should help greatly reduce the night and day peak voting differentials up until the Thunderdome Round.
In previous years, the bulk of our entries (about 80%) have come from the US and Canada, so we are dividing those into Eastern and Western Divisions (see below for definitions). The Eastern and Western Division winners will compete against each other to become the Regional winner, who advances to the Thunderdome Round.
After the entry deadline, when we know how many museums we have and from where, we will announce the final voting schedule and notify the museums about when they will be up.
Same as last year, the Regions are:
United States (Eastern Division - States & Territories East of the Mississippi River. Western Division - States & Territories West of the Mississippi River)
Canada (Eastern Division - Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island. Western Division - Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, & All Territories)
UK/Western Europe
Asia
Australia, New Zealand & Oceania
Eastern Europe*
South America*
Africa*
Antarctica*
One winner from each of these regions will enter the Thunderdome finale!
*We’ve never had an entries from these regions before, but we’re really hoping this might be the year we do! If no one enters from these regions, they will be dropped. If only one museum enters in a division, it will be grouped into the division with the closest time zone.
Entries are due by 11:59 pm (EDT) on Monday March 26th, 2018. Submit your entry here: http://bit.ly/MDO5EntryForm.
Voting begins on Monday, April 16, 2018 at 8:00 am EDT.
Here are your general guidelines for submitting a video, and an FAQ for submitters/voters.
General Guidelines For Submitting A Museum Dance Off Video
Entries are due by 11:59 pm (EDT) on Monday March 26th, 2018. No exceptions!
Voting will begin on Voting will begin on Monday, April 16th. at 8:00 am EDT.
Any organization in the GLAM (Gallery, Library, Archive, Museum) family is welcome to enter. if your organization cares for artifacts and objects of scientific, cultural, historic or artistic value and importance, and you deal with the crap we complain about on this blog every day, you’re qualified to enter.
Entries should be no less than 2 minutes and no longer than 5 minutes.
Museum Dance Off is an inclusive event, so please select a soundtrack/song that does not contain gender, ethnic, religious or sexual/sexual identity slurs. We may reject entries if the songs contain offensive language. But we realize that can be somewhat subjective, so if you’re not sure, just email us and we’ll discuss it.
Staff, volunteers, docents, interns, family, friends and visitors are welcome to participate. Follow your organization’s internal policies for recording the public, or any person under the age of 18.
Museums who entered any previous Museum Dance Off are eligible to enter Museum Dance Off 5.
Upload your submission to YouTube or Vimeo. If those platforms are blocked in your country, please email us to work something out.
Community partnerships and collaborations to produce your video are welcome and encouraged, but you cannot hire a professional video production company to produce a video for you.
Museums that are part of a campus, cultural collective, system, or in the same city, state or province, may collaborate and submit one video to represent multiple museums.
You pick a song, and convince your interns, colleagues, volunteers, docents, friends, family and maybe even your visitors to dance to it. Somebody videotapes it, uploads it, submits the link and then we all vote online for our favorites. This year, museums will compete by Region, and the Regional winners will go to an international finale, The Thunderdome, to determine the overall Champion.
Why should my museum enter Museum Dance Off?
Because it’s fun. Museums are fun. Dancing is fun. Dancing in a museum: instant super mega-fun.
It’s also a chance to show your guests a different side of their favorite museum, and rally your community to vote for you. From an internal perspective, it’s a chance for staff to take a break from the routine and do something fun, creative and different. From a PR perspective, it’s a chance to engage audiences all over the world. In the last three years, several museums received local, national, and international media coverage online, via television and radio, and in print.
How is the competition structured?
This year, Museums will compete against others in regions before advancing to a final Thunderdome Round to determine the winner. That means instead of only 2 museums entering the Thunderdome, one winner from each Region will have a chance in the final round. Winners are determined by online voting.
What do we win?
Winner gets a trophy and bragging rights. There is glory, but no fortune. There will also be Judge’s Choice Awards in categories to be announced later.
My museum doesn’t have a lot of AV or filming equipment. Can we partner with another museum in our community who does have that stuff?Absolutely! Community collaborations are welcome and very highly encouraged. You could also consider partnering with a local school, college, or cultural organization to produce a video. But, you can also create something amazing with just a camera phone and open source editing software. A big production budget and fancy equipment is not a requirement for entry.
What does it cost to enter?
Nothing. This is a labor of love. There are no fees to enter or vote.
How will I know when my museum is up for voting?
When you enter, you will designate a contact person for your museum. We will email that person the schedule one week in advance of the voting during Round 1, and send ongoing updates throughout the competition.
What is no other museums from my region enter?
If there are no other entries in your division, you will be grouped into the Region that has the most similar time zone. We will contact you if that’s the case.
How do we let people know to vote for us?
Reach out to your visitors and use social media to spread the word. Your loyal, loving visitors will vote for you if you ask. This is a competition about making a great video, but it’s also about rallying your supporters, promoting your contribution to your community, and celebrating your awesome collection and staff. Social Media promotion can make-or-break your chance at winning the round so make sure to make the most of it.
The official hashtag for Museum Dance Off 5 is #MDO5
Links to voting will be posted on the WYWAAM tumbler, Facebook, and Twitter every morning at 8am EDT.
How do I vote?
Visithttp://whenyouworkatamuseum.com each weekday starting April 16 at 8am EDT and view that day’s videos. Please note that there is no voting on weekends.
Vote for your favorite video.
Encourage your friends to vote on Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook or whatever the kids are into these days using #MDO5
Winners will be announced the next morning along with a new round of videos to vote on!
What are the voting rules?
Anyone can vote, from anywhere in the world.
Voting for each pair will be open for 24 hours. All start and end times will be synced to the US Eastern Time Zone, because that’s where most of the Museum Dance Off organizers are based.
You can vote as many times as you wish. (We tried limiting it to one vote per person per day, and it’s simply not something we can enforce with our limited tech capabilities.)
Museums and individuals are allowed to encourage people to vote for their video by facebooking, tweeting, tumblring, emailing, etc. You don’t have to wait for your museum’s turn on deck; it’s fine to promote it early.
In event of a tie, voting will be opened for a special 2-hour window the next day to allow for a final voting push.
Does WYWAAM own my video?
Nope! It’s all yours. WYWAAM may take clips or screencaps for publicity and promotion, but the museum who created it retails all rights to it.
I am a reporter/journalist and I would like to talk to you more about Museum Dance Off.
Great! Email Maggie G. @ whenyouworkatamuseum at gmail dot com with the details and someone will get back to you.
My company would like to sponsor Museum Dance Off. How would that work?
We have several sponsorship options! Email Maggie G. @ whenyouworkatamuseum at gmail dot com.
I have another question not answered here.
Email whenyouworkatamuseum at gmail dot com with your questions and someone will get back to you. We really, really hate Facebook messenger so please avoid using that, if possible.
