Hello, Museum: An Illustrated Book of Inspirations to Visit and Explore

This illustrated pocket guide is your ticket to endlessly customizable and highly rewarding museum experiences, whether you're planning a day-long immersion or a meaningful visit on your lunch break.

From artist and exhibit developer Rawaan Alkhatib, Hello, Museum is equal parts inspiring and instructional, created for museumgoers seeking new and deeper experiences with public exhibits. You'll leave each museum visit feeling connected, enlivened, and inspired, guided by the book's playful activities and vibrant illustrations.

Behind-the-scenes insights from people who live and breathe museums are peppered throughout: exhibit designers, curators, museum guards, diorama painters, costumed interpreters, tour guides, museum café chefs, and many more. You'll also hear from visitors just like you: artists, writers, thinkers, parents, kids, scientists, dreamers, and more.

This one-of-a-kind guide invites you to explore every type of museum―from the venerable sprawl of NYC's Metropolitan Museum of Art to the tiny-but-mighty Museum of Stones hidden inside a London sandwich shop to the site-specific wonders of a prehistoric rock art museum in Portugal.

Exercises to elevate your experience are sprinkled throughout the book: Choose a color and let it guide you from room to room, have a friend build you a playlist to guide your visit, or look beyond the labels on artifacts to imagine their histories for yourself.

In addition to unconventional tips and tricks, you'll find:

• Life lessons from a dinosaur model-maker
• Instructions for curating your own curiosity cabinet
• A toymaker's approach to cultivating a playful museum mindset
• A list of every time the Mona Lisa has been stolen
• Intel on the best gift shop souvenirs
• And much more!

Slip this book of inspirations into your bag or back pocket to open your heart and mind to the many ways to visit a museum and its exhibits. Stay for hours or just pop in to say, “Hello, museum!” 

A FRESH TAKE: Go beyond fine art museums to engage with culture everywhere. Explore science centers, historic houses, botanical gardens, immersive installations, and quirky roadside attractions.

EXPERT AUTHOR: Rawaan Alkhatib is a professional exhibit developer whose work spans major institutions around the world, including the Museum of the Moving Image in NYC and the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi.

VISUALLY RICH & GIFT-WORTHY: Enliven both real-life museum trips and armchair explorations with original artwork, hand-lettering, and infographics. Pore over illustrations of Egyptian tombs from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, glowing signage from the boneyard of Las Vegas's Neon Museum, or a museum café snack plate piled with Viking-era ingredients from Denmark's Viking Ship Museum.

Perfect for:

• Curious cultural travelers
• Museum members and art lovers
• Design-minded readers who appreciate illustrated nonfiction
• Students of museum studies, art history, and general history
• Gift buyers and museum shop enthusiasts
• Fans of Rawaan Alkhatib’s cookbook Hot Date!

Rawaan Alkhatib is a content developer at Ralph Appelbaum Associates, the world's oldest and largest practice dedicated to the planning and design of museums and narrative environments. She holds an MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and a BA from Brown University. When she's not visiting, designing, or writing about museums, she creates work across a variety of media, including painting, textile design, and food. Rawaan is the author and illustrator of the date-centric cookbook Hot Date!, named a best cookbook of the year by The New Yorker, Real Simple, Serious Eats, Amazon, and Publishers Weekly. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her spouse and child.