Connection Cafe

FEBRUARY 25, 2014

Last week Ginny Fitzgerald, the Director of Visitor Services and Membership at Chicago History Museum, joined us to host a webinar about how she prepares her team for peak attendance times. Chicago History Museum defines their summer season as June 1 through August 31. Ginny has over 17 years of experience in visitor services.

Arts 32

Arts Culture Business Chicago 32

Museum 2.0

JUNE 27, 2012

A year ago, I wrote a post speculating about whether events (institutionally-produced programs) might be a primary driver for people to attend museums, with exhibitions being secondary. Many museums, big and small, thrive on events. At our museum, about 68% of casual visitors (non-school tours) attended through events this year.

Museum 53

Museum Arts Dallas History 53

Museum 2.0

JULY 6, 2011

It's a rough week for cultural practitioners. When I came to become the director of The Museum of Art & History two months ago, we were on the financial brink. This is the first time I've really grappled with the reality of "the museum as a business." Well, they only cost me $8 apiece. Let me explain.

Business 50

Business Minnesota Museum Netherlands 50

Connection Cafe

AUGUST 1, 2019

From offering customized marketing messaging, transferring and cross-referencing data, deciding personal injury claims for insurance firms, to enabling financial fraud detection, the business sector is driving innovative applications of artificial intelligence technology. That’s why they can also come in handy in museums.

Museum 29

Museum Game Chicago Indianapolis 29

Museum 2.0

NOVEMBER 23, 2011

An exhibiting artist approached me recently at an evening event at the museum. But it's a question that many museums seem to address inadequately. It's interesting to me that so many museums debate admission fees but don't get comparably riled up about open hours. If we're open every evening, it cripples this business.

Museum 55

Museum Open Artist Audience 55

Museum 2.0

JUNE 26, 2013

Over the past three years, the Detroit Institute of Art (DIA) has served as the museum poster child for the debate on the public value of the arts. Last year, the DIA was saved from financial crisis by voters in its three neighboring counties who elected to take on an additional property tax to support the museum.

Detroit 52

Detroit Museum Michigan Arts 52

Museum 2.0

JUNE 28, 2017

The podcast offers incredible stories behind the making of businesses like Chuck E Cheese, Southwest Airlines, and Zuumba. One of the biggest questions on my mind as I listen is: why isn’t my industry scaling up the way these businesses do? Precarious business model. Too complex and diversified a business.

Culture 21

Culture Organization Model Podcast 21

Museum 2.0

MARCH 24, 2020

The last ten years saw our work move toward the service sector as rentals become a very real part of our business model. The museums of the world are collaborating to bring you #MuseumGames every Sunday, with a new crossword puzzle each week featuring clues from all sorts of museums. ??: The work we do matters.

Museum 20

Museum Work Time Doc 20

Museum 2.0

JULY 26, 2010

I've been spending time recently interviewing people who run unusual cultural and learning venues. From a museum perspective, I think there's a lot to learn from these venues' business models, approach to collecting and exhibiting work, and connection with their audiences. Skill-sharing free schools.

Culture 49

Culture Alternative St. Louis Los Angeles 49

Whole Whale

SEPTEMBER 20, 2022

AS works with nonprofits across a wide range of industries, including arts and culture, the environment, foundations, and government. Their services include those related to fundraising, organizational effectiveness, and business intelligence. Website: [link]. Alexander Haas. Website: [link]. Changing Our World, Inc. Website: [link].

Consultant 52

Consultant Fundraising Phoenix Atlanta 52

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

FEBRUARY 23, 2016

I’ve been busy interviewing people who work for nonprofits for my next book, The Happy Healthy Nonprofit: Strategies for Impact without Burnout , with Aliza Sherman. How cultural norms influence participation. A team culture that prioritizes collaboration and excellence. ½ Generous medical, dental, and vision insurance.

Product 50

Product Time Create Museum 50

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 8, 2018

You run a regional museum. This is the plan that plunged the Berkshire Museum into hot water. In July, the Berkshire Museum released its $60,000,000 New Vision , along with a funding mechanism: selling 40 of its most valuable artworks. It states that museums can only sell objects to purchase or care for other objects.

Public 40

Public Build Museum Detroit 40

Bloomerang

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

Corporate sponsorship package Your nonprofit may have strong relationships with corporate partners in your community, whether they’re small businesses, large corporations, or anything in between. The package could feature free items donated by the business.

Artist 77

Artist Classes Arts Local 77

Museum 2.0

JULY 2, 2014

I''ve been reflecting a lot recently on our museum''s work on " social bridging "--bringing people together across cultural, ethnic, geographic, generational, and socio-economic differences--and how to take it outside. Not that bonding with people we already know is bad, nor that we don''t want to support it at the museum.

Design 47

Design Community Museum Hype 47

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

And then there's the Berkeley Ace hardware store, which has a basement lair devoted to model trains. When you find a bar with your favorite song on the jukebox, or a museum room that feels like your grandmother's living room, you suddenly feel a strong affinity and are able to see yourself reflected in the space. What's going on here?

Museum 34

Museum Los Angeles San Francisco Model 34

Whole Whale

MAY 20, 2021

AS works with nonprofits across a wide range of industries, including arts and culture, the environment, foundations, and government. Their services include those related to fundraising, organizational effectiveness, and business intelligence. Website: [link]. Alexander Haas. Website: [link]. Changing Our World, Inc. Website: [link].

Consultant 52

Consultant Fundraising Phoenix Atlanta 52

Museum 2.0

JULY 1, 2011

I've now been the Director of The Museum of Art & History in Santa Cruz for two months. But the point is that the MAH, like just about every other museum in the known universe, was content to define the museum experience as something removed from the outside world, a rarefied church-like space of refined artistic reflection.

Museum 31

Museum History Arts Work 31

Museum 2.0

MAY 3, 2010

Like many people in the arts, I'm interested in new models that help people combine mission-driven work with an entrepreneurial spirit. The idea is that you specify your values, relationships, and assets, and then match those up with potentially fruitful legal structures, financing models, and growth potential. The good news?

Structure 31

Structure Model Social Profit 31

Museum 2.0

OCTOBER 3, 2011

I'm working on a keynote address for next week's Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums conference in Baltimore. The speech is in memory of Stephen Weil, one of the giants of contemporary American museum thinking--a radical in a bowtie who strove to "make museums matter." What are the most important problems in the cultural sector?

Problem 53

Problem Museum Baltimore Culture 53

Museum 2.0

MARCH 14, 2017

This is the second installation in a series of posts on the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (MAH)'s development of Abbott Square , a new creative community plaza in downtown Santa Cruz. I’ve seen again and again how outdoor programming has impact beyond what can happen inside the museum.

Public 27

Public Museum Arts History 27

Museum 2.0

JULY 27, 2011

As she said (and I'm paraphrasing): We're not in the business of giving people food or a bed in perpetuity. We're in the business of finding a solution to this problem. I'm trying to reposition our museum as a cultural hub supporting creative and intellectual community growth. These museums work differently.

Advocacy 44

Advocacy Public Service Homeless 44

Museum 2.0

SEPTEMBER 7, 2010

For years, I've been fascinated and a bit perplexed by the Elsewhere Collaborative , a thrift store turned artists' studio/living museum in Greensboro, North Carolina. Her business, and ours, has always been about surplus. The business began with Sylvia and her husband buying repossessed furniture from NY during the Great Depression.

Collaboration 36

Collaboration North Carolina Museum Artist 36

Connection Cafe

AUGUST 27, 2014

Why Not Mirror This At Your Museum? This model focuses on engaging members through ongoing interactions while still allowing members to choose when and how they want to interact with you. A points based model gives your members control over how and when they want to redeem their rewards. Think about it! Special Benefits.

Program 40

Program Difference Badge Build 40

Museum 2.0

APRIL 1, 2009

On Monday, I gave the keynote at the Museums in Conversation conference in Tarrytown, NY. Greed, because creative greediness motivates us to hunt down and steal the best design techniques the world has to offer, and generosity, because giving those great ideas and applications away is the only way to change the larger cultural landscape.

Museum 20

Museum Conversation Columbus Local 20

Museum 2.0

MAY 13, 2008

I once asked Elaine Gurian how museums can change. Here's the problem with both of these ways: they require circumstances that are outside of most museum employees' control. Where's the opportunity for risk in museums that are too big to avoid the media microscope? There's more attention these days on the "from the top" model.

Museum 31

Museum Place Model Project 31

Museum 2.0

JANUARY 11, 2012

For years, I'd give talks about community participation in museums and cultural institutions, and I'd always get the inevitable question: "but what value does this really have when it comes to dollars and cents?" We're hearing on a daily basis that the museum has a new role in peoples' lives and in the identity of the county.

Audience 47

Audience Museum Participatory History 47

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 4, 2015

In pop culture-land, relevance is all about now. If people on the street are talking about X, the museum should be talking about X too. Now" is not an easy business model to chase--especially for institutions rooted in permanence. I used to work at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, CA. What's trending.

Content 20

Content San Jose Museum Miami 20

Museum 2.0

MAY 9, 2012

Last week, I was in Minneapolis for the American Association of Museums annual meeting. Kathleen McLean led a terrific session called "Dangerous Ridiculous" about risk-taking in museums. Interestingly, at my museum, our team is naturally better at ridiculous than we are at dangerous. I found this idea really powerful.

Reflection 43

Reflection Columbus Museum Participatory 43

Museum 2.0

JULY 12, 2010

But then I started finding more humble projects related to broader issues, and I began to see Kickstarter as a potentially fascinating space for museums and cultural institutions. Why should cultural and arts organizations care about Kickstarter? Kickstarter is a symptom of changes in donor culture.

Fund 49

Fund Museum Pledge Game 49

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 31, 2009

In 2006, John Falk and Beverly Sheppard, seasoned museum researchers and practitioners, released a co-authored book entitled Thriving in the Knowledge Age: New Business Models for Museums and Other Cultural Institutions. It’s indicative of the ways the museum world to me is a very conservative world.

Knowledge 26

Knowledge Interview Museum Model 26

Museum 2.0

AUGUST 29, 2012

Residents in the three counties that pay the millage will receive special benefits : free admission to the museum and expanded educational programming. Your cultural outlet is art galleries and symphonies. Successful argument: Great museums improve quality of life and the value of the region. Rebuttal: none.

Detroit 49

Detroit Arts Public Support 49

Museum 2.0

APRIL 11, 2017

This is the sixth in a series of posts on the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History ( MAH )'s development of Abbott Square , a new creative community plaza in downtown Santa Cruz. John would run Abbott Square Market , a multi-vendor food and drink business, adjacent to the plaza, adjacent to the museum. Money is on the table.

Technique 29

Technique Museum Exercise Structure 29

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

SEPTEMBER 3, 2009

Community Funded Reporting : The news industry is dying but in its wake are new business models to support investigative journalism. Where does it surpass the traditional advertising model? Museum APIs: What Are They Good For? In Museums, context can be hard to come by. What is it? How does it work?

Social Media 79

Social Media Cancer Jordan Kiva 79

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

AUGUST 12, 2009

About three months ago Beth Kanter wrote about the Crowdsourcing of Vision at the Smithsonian Museum. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars have been spent on visioning, strategic planning, culture change initiatives, coaching and more effective internal communications. From yesteryear to tomorrow Enter social software.

Aggregator 82

Aggregator Model Leadership Method 82

Connection Cafe

SEPTEMBER 12, 2017

While AR has a host of applications for the commercial sector ( IKEA is using it to allow customers to place furniture in their home before they buy it and car makers like VW will use AR in their upcoming models), it can also be used to create impactful, substance-filled interactions. Don’t miss out on bbcon 2017. Register today!

Arts 31

Arts Create Social Application 31

Museum 2.0

FEBRUARY 16, 2010

There are many folks who've written about the problems with "value" membership and have recommended that cultural institutions reorient toward offering "affinity" or "relationship" memberships. Value membership is a big business, especially in a tough economic climate. Annual pass holders tend to be a high-churn group.

Museum 30

Museum Childhood Model Children 30

Connection Cafe

APRIL 29, 2015

In that spirit, MCON 2015 will focus on the idea of influence, specifically the people and ideas that influence us in the areas of art, media business and place: Art: Designers and artists whose projects are increasing awareness and inspiring action. Business: Companies and leaders who are transforming old business models.

Generation 20

Generation Activities Active Activism 20