Kathleen McLean

Kathleen McLean directs Independent Exhibitions, a museum consulting firm specializing in exhibition development, design, programming, and planning. Since 1974, McLean has created a wide range of exhibitions in history, art, and science museums, and interdisciplinary and children’s museums, many of which focus on social issues and public participation.

In 2018, McLean received the American Alliance of Museums’ Distinguished Service to Museums Award. In 2006, she was selected for AAM’s Centennial Honor Roll, as one of 100 museum professionals who made a significant contribution to American museums over the last 100 years.

From January 1994 to September 2004 McLean was Director of the Center for Public Exhibition and Public Programs at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, California. From 1986 to 1990, she established the first exhibitions department at Brooklyn Children’s Museum in New York. 

McLean is co-author of The Convivial Museum; co-editor of How We Visitors Changed Our Museum, Visitor Voices in Museum Exhibitions, Are We There Yet? Conversations about Best Practices in Science Exhibition Development; and author of Planning for People in Museum Exhibitions. For 10 years she was exhibition editor of Curator: The Museum Journal, and has published and spoken on museum design, informal learning, and exhibitions.