by Allyson Lazar (with hat tip to Ted Greenberg for pointing out the LA Times article)
The new "Survey of Public Participation in the Arts" was released on Thursday by the NEA.
According to a newly released NEA study, museum attendance is down. This may not seem news-worthy–we are in the middle of a recession for heaven’s sake! But this December 14 article by Gregory Rodriguez from the LA Times indicates that the study reveals a deeper and more problematic trend: museum attendance is down because museums aren’t keeping up with the changing demographics of the American public.
The NEA findings corroborate the findings in a report published by AAM’s Center for the Future of Museums, which found that “only one in 10 ‘core museum visitors’ today is non-Anglo” despite the fact that “nonwhites are projected to make up roughly half of the national population by mid-century.” That means that unless museums start becoming more relevant to people of color, more and more museums will be shutting their doors.
The LA Times article specifically identifies the underserved educated, middle-class Latino demographic as the potential saviors of the museum world. But don’t take my word for it; read the article. Read the NEA study (pdf). Read the CFM study. And then act.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: attendance, CFM, demographics, future of museums, visitorship
December 10, 2009 · 1 Comment
by Megan McIntyre
White Chocolate Bread Pudding at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA. Photo by Joanne G. on Yelp.
I love going to museums – who doesn’t? One thing about many museum trips that I have come to love is the food and dining experience. The bread pudding at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, the view during brunch at the Wichita Art Museum, a fabulous prickly pear margarita at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Food and a museum visit? What an odd combo many people might be thinking, but with more museums offering multiple dining options or upgrading the selection at their café chances are if you pause for a meal during your museum visit it is going to be a good one. I have come to look forward to the confections in museum restaurants almost as much as the collections I am there to see. My love of food, museums, and having a great meal during a museum visit led me to look into the topic further and choose it as the subject for my museum studies masters thesis from Harvard University Extension School this year.
Museums have long had tea rooms, cafeterias, and cafes as part of the services and comforts they offer visitors to help make a trip to the museum more enjoyable, convenient, and allow them to stay longer. In the last twenty years these services have blossomed and come into their own. Some museums now have restaurants that are as much of an attraction as what is on the museum walls. For as many museum restaurants as there are, there is shockingly little written about the topic. As museum dining choices and experiences have grown, little has been studied about how the experiences visitors have while dining at the museum affects their overall experience or impression of the museum. Food helps makes memories for many, and the restaurant and gift shop are often the only places visitors have any significant interaction with staff. My thesis aims to look at how museum dining establishments can best service the museum and the overall museum experience visitors have. Restaurants can make money, they can be a convenience, but can they enrich your museum experience or help you understand the museum and its mission better?
With so many types of museum dining experiences out there I have created a short survey to help me learn more about how visitors view their museum dining experience. The survey takes less than five minutes and focuses on a recent museum dining experience you have had. Your feedback will help my research have a richer scope and hopefully allow me to make some meaningful conclusions about dining in the museum and its effects on the overall museum experience. Feel free to share this survey link with your friends and colleagues, the survey is active now and runs through January 15, 2010. I will be making a follow up post to share my findings in March.
Thanks for your help; I hope I have given you something interesting to think about next time you pause for a sandwich at your favorite museum. Cheers! Megan McIntyre
Museum Dining Survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LG6WVDD
Categories: Visitor Experience
Tagged: museum cafes, museum studies, research, visitor comfort
Categories: San Diego 2009
Tagged: #WMA09
by Allyson Lazar
Some of the tools that may be used by a contract registrar: cotton gloves, camera, notebook, pencils, flashlight and tape measure.
These days with so many layoffs, there are a lot of people running around calling themselves freelancers, consultants or contract registrars. But is getting laid off enough of a reason to “hang your shingle” out there and go independent? How do you know if you’re really ready to cut it in the world of museum consulting and contract work?
The “Survival Strategies for Consultants” led by museum collections specialist Ted Greenberg answered just those questions and more! The panel consisted of Mo Shannon, the former registrar at the Museum of Contemporary Art in LA who has now been independent and caring for the collections of private collectors for 15 years; Alice Parman, an interpretive planner from Oregon who has worked in the past both in museums and exhibit development/design firms; and Gail Anderson, who went independent as a management and strategic planning consultant after 25 years in the field.
Though they each have markedly different backgrounds and areas of expertise, each one of these panelists is doing well right now, despite the downturn in the economy. Perhaps that’s because each one of them made the conscious decision to go independent, rather than being forced into that position, and each one has taken the time to be strategic in their approach to working on their own. They all seem to love the flexibility that freelancing affords, but they caution that you have to know yourself and if being your own boss is right for you: working, managing yourself, looking ahead to new clients and projects, tracking your time (often in 15-minute increments) and tracking receipts. You have to be aware of and prepared for the additional costs associated with freelancing: health care, insurance, a higher tax rate, office expenses and marketing.
Marketing is critical–both informally through word of mouth and building connections with vendors as well as museums, and formally, primarily through websites these days. It’s also important to very carefully and strategically determine your particular skill set and area of specialization and your geographic focus–are you willing to travel? if so, how far?
Naturally a good portion of the discussion was devoted to the ever-important topic of how to set billing rates and fees, and although this is critical, I found the overall discussion even more useful. What I took away from the session was that, done right, independent consulting can be a great way to serve the museum field in a way that is both personally and financially rewarding, but you really have to examine yourself first to determine if it is the right step and if so, you must be strategic about how you approach your business.
Categories: San Diego 2009
Tagged: #WMA09, consulting, freelancers
by Allyson Lazar
Handouts from the Museum Trustee Association
Bright and early last Wednesday morning I sat in on a session on Director/Board Relations at the annual WMA conference, moderated by Jim McCreight, President of the Museum Trustee Association. His panelists were Mo King, Immediate Past Chair of the Mingei International Museum in San Diego and Derrick Cartwright, formerly the Director of the San Diego Museum of Art and now the Director of the Seattle Art Museum.
As a relatively new member of the WMA board, I thought it would do me some good to listen to some pros talk about leadership, the role of the board, building a strong board and how to maintain healthy board/director relations–and I was right! I learned a lot in this session, so I thought I’d share some of the helpful nuggets of wisdom I gathered from the session.
Two-way trust, transparency and support are key to board/director relations. Mutual respect is necessary.
The board must:
- understand their fiscal responsibility
- preserve the mission
- set policy
- be committed to the mission, strategic planning and fundraising
The director must:
- communicate effectively with the board, and in a timely fashion, particularly if there are problems
- be able to deal with constructive criticism
- handle small problems quickly before they mushroom
“If the relationship between the Executive Director and the Chair fails, you’re sunk.” — audience member
“If they are getting the job done, you don’t have to like them.” — Jim on differing styles
Tips for a strong board:
- Strategically identify board prospects–and identify them early on.
- The board should evaluate itself according to its Board Contract.
- Commitment to the mission is crucial–fundraising alone is not enough.
- Well-run, well-organized board retreats are good for keeping a board energized.
- Have orientation meetings for new board members with the Executive Director, the Chair and the Immediate Past Chair (and possibly the Development Director).
- Make sure new board members know what is expected of them in terms of both money and time.
- Maintain communication!
What would you add to these lists? Comment below!
Categories: Administration · Leadership · San Diego 2009
Tagged: #WMA09, boards, Leadership
November 4, 2009 · 1 Comment
by Allyson Lazar (disclosure: I moderated this session)
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Technology seems to be a key buzz word in the museum world these days. Many people are still a little tech-shy, but that changes day by day. But while people may feel less afraid or daunted by the idea of online technologies, they still aren’t always quite sure what to do with them. The session on free, shared, online tools at last week’s WMA conference introduced some of the ways that Internet technologies can help with everyday projects in museums such as digitizing collections and curating and developing exhibitions and sharing information with the public.
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Lynn Bethke of the brand new Museum of Culture and Environment at Central Washington University opened the session with a brief overview of the types and range of tools that would be discussed and then demonstrated how several of these free, shared, online tools help her in her daily quest to digitize her collection. Some of the software she uses includes: Picasa and the GIMP for photo editing; IrfanView for batch photo processing and Kompozer for web page editing. Her presentation can be viewed here.
Follow Sharon on Twitter
Next Sharon Leon, Director of Public Projects for the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University spoke about one of CHNM’s projects, Omeka. Omeka at its most basic is a web publishing platform–like a blog–for museum collections that can be used as a research tool. However, that is not really doing Omeka justice. Omeka allows museums to create detailed, rich pages about collections objects, including text, photographs and videos, that can be used to develop online exhibitions. And because Omeka adheres to strict metadata standards, searching for information and keeping the information portable are simple tasks. Sharon’s presentation can be viewed here.
Bob Ketner, Virtual Community Manager for the Tech Virtual, is also working on developing
Follow Bob on Twitter
exhibitions–only while he does the developing in a virtual space, ultimately the exhibitions are created in a physical space. The Tech Virtual is a “collaborative online design platform for developing museum content”–a virtual testing ground for exhibition development and evaluation. The Tech Virtual makes use of Second Life–where only a person’s imagination limits what can be designed and built–as a virtual space for building potential new exhibits. Bob’s presentation can be viewed here and in addition he also has a list of resources available here.
Along with describing the various tools they use, the three panelists also addressed such questions as, “What does free really mean?” All of the software that they discussed is free to download, free to use. Space for hosting information and maintenance or customization of databases, software, websites, etc is not free–but it can still be cheap. And just in case words like “free” or “cost-effective” aren’t enough to get your board on board with these technologies, the panelists also pointed out that these tools allow for both evaluation and data collection–both key to the metrics that are so important to funders these days.
Although it wasn’t mentioned much directly in any of the presentations, online social networking was also very present in the session. Sharon was “tweeting” the session on Twitter using the tag #wma09 for easy searching. In one particularly great moment, James Leventhal in the audience asked about a creative commons plugin for Omeka and Sharon responded by tweeting that suggestion to the Omeka development team who were in their afternoon meeting. Talk about instant gratification!
Both Bob and Sharon mentioned that their projects are currently looking for volunteers as well; the Tech Virtual is looking for museums who are interested in making use of this virtual workshop for developing content and Omeka is looking for volunteer museums for a new hosting program that is going into Beta–that is, in addition to simply offering the software, CHNM is now offering to host museum websites that make use of the Omeka software. Anyone reading this post who is interested in either of these programs, please visit Bob and Sharon’s websites and contact them!
Categories: Collections · Curation · Exhibitions · San Diego 2009 · Technology
Tagged: #WMA09, freeware, open source, shareware, Technology
October 29, 2009 · 1 Comment
Never fear, there will be more blogs posted about specific sessions coming to WestMuse, but I wanted to take a moment to point everyone in the direction of a fantastic set of conference photos, courtesy of Lydia Johnson and to share a few of the places and moments that have made this conference so great for me. Thank you to everyone who organized a session, a pre-conference workshop, a lunch, an event, or who facilitated discussions and presented ideas and of course to everyone who came and made this conference so rich and successful.
A post-WWII display at the San Diego Air and Space Museum. SDAM is where we volunteered for CSI: Registrars and where a closing reception was held for conference organizers. They have the most amazing shop in the basement where volunteers build real planes!
A koala naps at the San Diego Zoo. Douglas G. Myers, CEO of the Zoo, graciously offered free admission to the Zoo and the Wild Animal Park for early arrivals to the conference, along with a discount at the shops!
A display of art books at the Atheneum in La Jolla. Set in a beautiful historic library, the Atheneum is an inspiring home to art and music collections that also hosts live music events.
The Santa Fe railroad passes a small country fair at the San Diego Model Railroad Museum. Hidden away in a basement in Balboa Park, the SDMRM offers 27,000 square feet of railroading fun--making it the largest accredited model railroad museum in the country!
The flight deck of the USS Midway. Docents donning leather jackets indicating over 2000 volunteer hours served guided WMAers through the longest-serving aircraft carrier in the Navy fleet, including up here to the flight deck. President and CEO "Mac" McLaughlin gave a rousing welcome and extended a shop discount, free simulator rides and gifts of signed coffee table books to the attendees.
San Diego made a stunning backdrop for the conference. Thanks to the Host Committee and the VP for Programs for providing us with such an amazing and inspiring setting!
Categories: San Diego 2009
Tagged: #WMA09, great museums, photo-blogging, photographs
October 27, 2009 · 1 Comment
by Allyson Lazar
Bob Welch, Keynote #wma09
This morning’s keynote address by journalist/storyteller/author Bob Welch was a rousing feel-good, inspirational affirmation of all that we, as museum professionals, do and love. In his address, he answered the question, “Why is history important?” Certainly the old adage holds true that those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it, but Mr. Welch’s comments went far beyond this idea to give a more complete and robust answer to the question.
I cannot begin to try to adequately capture all that he said and shared in one short blog post, so instead I will just recount little snippets that I found particularly resonant. Some may be direct quotes, others are paraphrases but all are his ideas. I just think they are worth parroting.
- The past informs us to be better caretakers for the future. We do not live in a vacuum; we have inherited a legacy and we will leave a legacy for those who come after us. As keepers of our cultural heritage, it is our duty to leave “the campsite better than we found it.”
- History inspires us and thereby changes us. When we feel inspired, we are motivated to act in new ways that are in accord with our inspiration.
- History dispels myths and corrects misconceptions of and from the past.
Mr. Welch went one step further, too; he spoke about how to present history through storytelling–and after all, storytelling is really the business that we are in. Here are some of his pointers on storytelling:
- You need the confidence to know you have a story to tell and the humility to ask people to help you tell it better.
- Storytelling can and should be used to unlock other people’s (the audience’s) stories (create resonance).
- The object is not important. What the object represents is important. What the object represents is dreams. The object fuels the imagination.
Finally, Mr. Welch gave us a vital equation that we should all take to heart as we struggle through these tough economic times:
desperation + imagination + dedication = Good Things.
Categories: San Diego 2009
Tagged: #WMA09, history, storytelling
by Allyson Lazar (disclosure: I moderated this session)
You’re a registrar or a collection manager in a museum. Maybe you are understaffed because the administration just told you that you had to let go of a couple people–or maybe you’ve always been understaffed. You are hoping beyond hope that you’ll have enough money in the budget for that acid-free cardboard–you really need it! The rainy season is coming again and you are wondering where the new leaks will be this year.
Sound familiar? Maybe all of these worries result in you daydreaming about the corporate world and how your counterparts who work with corporate collections fare in these situations.
NOMA Website for "Dreams Come True"
Well, those who attended last weeks’ Corporate Collections and Museums session at WMA 2009 will wonder no longer! Panelists Lella Smith of the Walt Disney Animation Research Library and Allan Peterson and Juan Colato of the Wells Fargo Museums shared with the audience the realities of working in the museum profession but within the umbrella of a for-profit corporation.
Each panelist described the tricky balancing act they have to perform at work: ensuring that their practices live up to museum standards of collections care while always keeping in mind the company’s bottom line and figuring out how to demonstrate the necessity of their departments to the corporate heads. Although there are some obvious differences between corporate collections and museum collections, there are some shared values and beliefs:
- An emphasis on mission;
- A belief in the importance of authenticity;
- A recognition that institutional history is important for branding and long-term success and
- A commitment to measuring the effect/impact on audiences.
Wells Fargo History blog post about "Women Making Financial History" on "Guided by History"
The panelists also described some of the ways in which corporate collections can collaborate with nonprofit museums to great success. Wells Fargo History has partnered with the virtual International Museum of Women to create a new exhibit, Women Making Financial History. Meanwhile, the makers of the latest Disney animated movie, The Princess and the Frog, wanted to give something back to the city of New Orleans after doing a lot of site research there for the movie, and thus was born a new exhibit that is about to open at the New Orleans Museum of Art, Dreams Come True.
But partnerships between the nonprofit and for-profit world don’t always go so smoothly. The panelists had some suggestions to help facilitate future cross-sector endeavors:
- Look for mutual benefit when considering a partnership;
- Don’t assume that the corporate collection has a lot of money;
- Remember that everything the corporation does is driven by its bottom line and
- Be aware that just because they work for a corporation does not mean that the employees of a corporate collection don’t have museum backgrounds or don’t know or follow museum protocols when it comes to collections care, registration and loans.
Categories: Collections · San Diego 2009
Tagged: #WMA09
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