Miscellany for the Masses

Okay, the tabs are getting out of control--again--so it's time to write a blog post! Not necessarily a coherent or cohesive one, mostly just a post to remind myself of some of the cool, thought-provoking items that I have been meaning to think about for the last little while.

First off, wish I'd known about the Pepsi Refresh Project sooner than 4 days before it ends. Probably would have if I'd been paying better attention. Ah well. While it is most likely too late to submit an idea for funding, it is not to late to vote! So go. Check it out and vote for a cool idea that needs some funding.

I don't doubt that in the not-too distant future I, too, will be able to be like Tom Cruise in "Minority Report"(minus the being framed for a crime I haven't committed yet part, I hope). In some ways, I think this is what some iPhone apps and possibly the Microsoft Surface are trying to achieve. But what I want to know is: so what? Other than no longer requiring proficiency with a mouse for computer-based interactives in museums (and many systems have already managed to do away with the mouse), what real substantive changes and value will this technology be bringing to museum visitor experiences? How will this significant change in interface affect the kinds of content that we can offer?

I will be the first to admit that performance artist Marina Abramovic's $460 Energy Blanket sounds pretty off-the-wall--and yet I really, really dig it. But then again, I am a fan of usable art. That's why I was a subscriber to The Thing.

I love this for so many reasons. A) I like the idea of recreating art--especially when it involves elaborate photo shoots in museums (so long as they are done safely...) B) Flavorpill is a great group that let's folks know about fun, cool happenings C) I'm a sap and I like the idea of love in museums.

Still need to digest/think about this one a little more. Sure, it sounds very reasonable that there exist three basic types of social media for museums: content-sharing; internal (ie Basecamp or yammer for project management) and social networking (Facebook etc)--except that it also sounds rather simplistic. I remember a couple years ago when I was trying to categorize types of online philanthropy and came up with a whole bunch! So, for example, where *does* development/online giving fall into these three categories? Anyway, like I said, needs more thinking.

To file under my growing list of "democratic" exhibitions, there is the Museum of the Bohemian. One of these blog posts I should really share that growing list.

Oooh, this is a fun little article: museums--known, loved and praised for authenticity and authoritative imparting of knowledge--basing exhibits on *not* knowing--on guesswork and on objects that may be the real dealio or may not be. Cool.

This is aimed at marketers, but it is very relevant for museums. The five future trends listed here are: 1. the changing demographics of the US 2. the necessity of understanding culture beyond ethnicity to remain relevant 3. gaming, gaming, gaming 4. micro--micro-actions, micro-loans, micro-donations, micro-support, etc. 5. a revival of humanist spirit. Not sure about that last one, but I feel pretty confident that the other 4 are right on, so who knows?

The fact that Virginia Homes is marketing their homes directly and specifically at women--almost exclusively--is fascinating to me for a couple of reasons. 1. This points to a serious shift in both our nation's demographics and division of labor--clearly, women have been breaking through the glass ceiling because they are the primary home-buyers now. 2. What, if anything, does this mean for museums--both in terms of visitorship (and appealing to audiences) and in terms of staffing? We are already heavily populated by women in the museum field--even at executive levels. Are men a dying breed in our field? 3. I think it's amusing that they call themselves Virginia Homes and call themselves the first home designers for women--weren't Virginia Slims the first cigarettes designed for women?

Not surprising, in fact, to me this almost doesn't count as news, but it is still sad to hear conclusively that yes, the economy has been hurting us, continues to hurt us and is forcing nonprofits to close or merge.

Two points of interest for me in this article. First is that, despite the fact that many of the larger museums that lost a lot of principal in their endowments in 2009 have regained that money, they are not returning their budgets to pre-economic downturn levels and are instead continuing to budget conservatively. Is this economic prudence, or is this an instance of management taking advantage of the fact that they were able to make their employees do more with less--less staff, less funding, less pay? Second is that I find it very interesting that, while its colleagues were suffering, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco had a good year--largely thanks to John Buchanan and his love of traveling blockbuster exhibitions--in this case, King Tut. Once again I find myself asking: are blockbusters the savior to museum financial woes?

Okay, those tabs are closed now. I know I got some of them from the Center for the Future of Museums and I suspect that at least one or two came from Art Wolf as well. Can't remember where the others came from, but thank you to all for sharing these with me and making me stop and think a moment.

Entitlement, Bail Outs and Getting Real

Harsh words from Todd Cohen over at Inside Philanthropy:

Fueled by their sense of entitlement, nonprofits and foundations find plenty to complain about rather than taking the tough steps required to advance their mission...The economic crisis has handed nonprofits and foundations a rare opportunity, maybe a final chance, to stop their sobbing, get rid of their entitlement mindset and build market-driven business models.

To cope in the real world, nonprofits and foundations need to get real.

Instead of looking to foundations and government to bail them out, nonprofits need to get their own houses in order.

And instead of squealing like stuck pigs over the loss in the value of their endowments, foundations need to dig deeper and invest what is needed to help nonprofit equip themselves to take on the social and global problems they exist to address.

What do you think--do you agree?

Public Radio in Baltimore Helping out Non-Profits

Once again, I love seeing this sort of thing--non-profits helping out non-profits. WYPR in Baltimore will be giving free air time to local arts groups for the next six months, including the Walters Art Museum and the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History.

"It's all about the economy," said WYPR President and General Manager Anthony Brandon. "It's a time when arts and cultural institutions are under constant economic pressure. It's important for us, as a community, to understand and support that which keeps our city alive."

I couldn't agree more!

One Museum That Really Stands to Benefit from the Financial Crisis

While most other museums around the country are viewing our current economy as a disaster, one museum in New York sees it as an opportunity for a new exhibit. The Museum of American Finance opened an exhibit yesterday called "Tracking the Credit Crisis," examining the events that led up to the recession. Although Leena Akhtar, co-curator for the exhibit, readily admits that, "You cannot really document history until well after the fact," the exhibit hopes to explain the current financial situation in terms that anyone can understand.

Coping Strategies: The Beginnings of a List

Okay. So every day I read about more badness happening in the museum world due to the economy. But all of this "badness" is actually the implementation of coping strategies. What are these strategies and which museums are implementing them? Here's the beginning of a list, I imagine it will continue to grow.

Lay-offs
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Getty
Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego
Detroit Institute of Arts
High Museum
Philadelphia Art Museum
San Diego Art Museum

Delay of Capital Projects
Cincinnati Art Museum
Indianapolis Museum of Art
St. Louis Art Museum
Museum of Tolerance

Raised Admission Fees
Art Institute, Chicago
Brooklyn Museum

Cancellation of Programs
Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego
Dallas Museum of Art

Selling Collections
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis

These could all be construed as negative strategies. But there are some more positive strategies being employed, too. It's just that these can tend to have a smaller economic impact. These strategies include creative fundraising idea employed at the Queens Museum of Art, innovative programming at MOMA and the Hammer, new advertising campaigns and reaching out to new audiences through the Internet like at the Brooklyn Museum.

Sources:
Sign on San Diego
Dallas News
New York Times
Employment Spectator
Sign on San Diego
WBUR
New York Times
LA Times
New York Times

Museums Beat Casinos, 54-32

More interesting reports regarding museums and the down-turned economy. According to the recently released economic census, museums saw a 54% increase in receipts between 2002 and 2007, whereas theme parks, casinos and other competing leisure time destinations only increased 32%. AAM President Ford Bell is quoted as citing the fact that more museums tend to focus on value-added (my term, not his) ancillaries to round out one's visit to a museum, such as improved dining and shopping experiences. But casinos and theme parks offer all of those "enhancements" (Bell's word) and enticements, too. So why the significant difference in the increases? Is it that the entertainment industry has been offering value-added experiences for longer, so they didn't have as far up to go? Or is that the American public really does love museums that much more than gambling and Mickey Mouse? I sure hope it's the latter rather than the former... What do you think?

What's up with Sports Museums?

So, two sports museums in two of the largest metropolitan areas in the nation have folded within a month of one another, and now the company running one of them, the Sports Museum of America in NYC, is filing for Chapter 11.

I would really love to know what went wrong here. I didn't visit either museum but I heard that at least the one in LA had a lot of heart. I don't think it's that the American public just isn't interested in sports museums--there are so many rabid sports fans out there, you'd think that a museum housing the equipment and uniforms of sports legends would be a no-brainer. Plus there is the fact that the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY has been going strong for ages--and it's not exactly in an urban setting with a large population.

So, seriously, what happened here, folks? Any thoughts? Any clues?

It's also interesting to note that these were both for-profit museums. Would they have managed to stay afloat had they been nonprofits or would that have killed them more quickly? I will be watching other for-profit museums (the International Spy Museum in DC, Pirate Soul in Florida, Museum of Sex in NYC) with interest to see how they weather this financial storm.

Fresno Met Can't Pay Bills

This story from the Mercury News makes me really sad, not just because it's yet another museum on the brink of financial ruin, but for more personal reasons.

Just about a year ago, I chaired a session at the California Association of Museums annual conference with one of the staff members from the Fresno Met as one of my panelists. I was so inspired by what she had accomplished there--maintaining memberships and membership revenues despite the fact that they didn't have a building--and that construction that was supposed to last for one year lasted for three years!

To me, the story that the Fresno Met had to tell was truly remarkable, so it makes me doubly sad to see them now, a year later, in such awful trouble. What on earth happened? Was the timing just wrong thanks to the economy that completely tanked? Was it a matter of the fallacy of "if you build it, they will come"--that is, did the Fresno Met just assume that once the new building was open that they could relax? Whatever it was, and perhaps it was a perfect storm of unfortunate circumstances, I hated seeing this in the news.