Frequently Asked Museum Questions

Every day, I get a couple of emails asking questions about museums.  Thought I would put together a blog post of “Frequently Asked MuseumPlanner Questions”.

1. “How do you start a museum?”
Since 1992, I have been part of opening and expanding more than thirty-five museums.   Most of my work has been with science centers, children’s museums and natural history museums.
Link: “How to start a museum”

2. “How do you raise money for a museum?”
Link: “Museum Fundraising” blog post

3. “How do you get a museum job ?”
Link: “Getting a Museum Job”
Link: “Getting Started in Museums”

4. “How much do museum exhibitions cost?”
Link: “2011 Museum Exhibition Cost Survey”
Link: “How Much do Museum Exhibitions cost?”

5. “How do you create a museum exhibition?”
Link: “Exhibition Design Part I – Planning”
Link: “Exhibition Design Part II – Design Phases”
Link: “Exhibition Design Part III – Fabrication”
Link: “Exhibition Design Part IV – Installation”
Link: “Exhibition Design Part V – Maintenance”
Link: “Exhibition Design Part VI – Evaluation”
Link: “Creating a Traveling Exhibition”

6. “How do you Start a Science Center ?”
Link: “How to Start a Science Center”

7. “What do you do (Mark Walhimer) ?”
Link to “What do you do?” 

8. “How do you increase museum attendance ?”
Link: “How to Increase Museum Attendance”

9.  ”What is a museum?”
Link “What is a Museum?” 

10. “What is Museum Strategic Planning?”
Link: “What is Museum Strategic Planning – Part I“
Link: “What is Museum Strategic Planning – Part II Feasibility Studies”

Did I miss any Frequently Asked Questions?, if I did please add them in the comment section below, thanks! -Mark

How to Increase Museum Attendance
A few weeks ago I received a phone call from Geraldine Fabrikant a writer at the New York Times.  Geraldine was writing an article about “what are small museums doing to increase attendance” and wanted to know if we could talk.  We spoke several times by phone and email, the results of her research was an article in the New York Times The Particular Puzzles of Being a Small Museum including quotes from me.   Over the course of our conversations we talked about the changes in museums since 2008 and how museums are changing their business practices.

Given the tougher fundraising climate and the difficulty many museums have had driving visitation, they have been forced to rethink marketing and fundraising.  The biggest change I have seen is museums are becoming “communities” instead of places to visit. The change from a location to a community has changed the process of driving attendance to museums:

• Using Social Media to build an online community for the museum
• Using online community to drive visitors to museum
• Having in-person events, lectures, music, drinks, films at museum
• Replicating the in-person experience for online visitors who can’t visit the museum
• Museums can now be thought of as “clubs” instead of places

How to increase museum visitation:

1. Pre – Visit - The museum visit starts before a visitor walks into the museum.  The visitor’s experience starts with a “pre-visit” including social media, online museum information and online communities all building to a paid museum visit.
2. Brand First – I firmly believe in “Built to Last”, that we each choose our brands and those brands need to be built for a specific audience . Museums have been late to building a brand, but creating a museum brand is part of creating community.  Often museums try to include everyone, I believe it is better to build a strong community audience and build from the community base, both online and in-person.
3. Local First – Local community needs to be the first museum priority, then moving onto tourism, then become a destination.  Part of thinking local first is becoming a local community resource.
4. Membership - The thinking behind museum membership has changed from a monthly newsletter to a “museum club membership”.  Museum members now have personalized access to the museum as a community member.  Membership vs. Admission.  Some museums are now pricing membership, equal to less than two family visits, making a membership sale easier.  Some museums have seen an increase in attendance by becoming free and a resulting increase in fundraising.
5.  “museuming” :The experience of visiting a museum or multiple museums.  Museums are social by nature, often visitors go to museums to see and be seen, it is part of the experience.   When people “museum” they expect a certain level of treatment and an elevation of their experience.
6. Satellites - The creation of other museum sites including “pop up museums”, museum programming at for-profits and smaller temporary museums in available locations.
7. Meet the Visitor – Understand what your audience wants and consistently deliver.  Social media is developing into a “community building” tool for museums.  Many museums are using social media to develop their audience both online and in-person. Examples include, being open late, beer and wine events and 3D printing events.  I am seeing a shift from museums being exhibition driven to event drive.  Exhibitions become part of the personalized events and programs that accompany an exhibition.
8. Partnering - Museums are creating strategic partnerships to fund museum programming.  Seek partnerships with for profits and non profits to drive attendance.   Some museums are creating multi-museum passes to drive attendance between museums.  Look for other revenue streams including retail, restaurants and consulting for other organizations.
9. Ladder Up – Give visitors a clear path of interaction with the museum, an example:  social media, reading the museum’s blog, participating in online discussions, an in-person visit, event participation, museum membership, museum donation, volunteering at the museum and becoming a museum committee member.
10. Personalized -  I love the new Rijksmuseum website, visitors can curate their own “collection” choosing from the museum’s collection. Part of personalizing the museum experience is providing enough information about the museum for the the visitor to feel a sense of ownership, an example would be the excellent  Indianapolis Museum of Art’s Dashboard.

Understand your local community and their needs, build a museum brand, create enthusiasts who can spread your message and drive visitors to your door.

Contact me if I can be help with increasing your museum’s attendance, including a review of your facility, social media strategy, strategic planning and exhibition design.

Museum Planning LLC

I receive several emails a week asking “what do you do?” (in addition to writing the blog).  The easy answer is “help kids who learn differently”, but that is not a direct answer.  All of the projects I will work on are for informal educational institutions (science centers, children’s museums, traveling exhibitions, natural history museums, art museums).  I will forever be thankful to the museums of my childhood.   My work and this blog has become a passion in support informal education.

My firm Museum Planning, LLC has been part of starting more than 35 museums.  Because of my previous experience working at museums, I think of my firm as a “Freelance Exhibitions Department”.  We join your team to, expand, energize and create a museum.  This approach has worked very well. We become part of museum team, always thinking of the benefit to the project.  The end of the day, I believe strongly in the mission of informal education and want every new museum to succeed.

Services Include, in order of process:

Consulting
(a) Board formation and development
(b) Development of Museum Mission
(c) Development of Museum Charter
(d) Development of Board of Director’s bylaws
(e) Development of Board of Directors Sub-Committees

Museum Feasibility Studies 
Program Development
(a) Review of institutional documents;
(b) Creation of Exhibition Narrative
Phase II – Business Planning
(a) Create a preliminary project budget
b) Create a preliminary project schedule
(c) Museum staffing requirements (as related to museum operation)
(d) Market Research of area
(e) Facility Costing, Capital Costs (Preliminary Estimates)
(f) Costs to opening
(g) Initial Operating Costs projection
(h) Research of comparable institutions
(i) Recommendations

Museum Master Planning 
Phase I – Program Development
(a) Conduct interviews with the client and designated consultants
(b) Develop an organizational plan and organizational chart for Museum, including both
public and private (back-of-house) spaces
(c) Develop an architectural program. The program to include space use, size,
adjacencies, unique characteristics and specialized technical requirements necessary for
each space.
(d) Make recommendations for other consultants, engineers and design/technical consultants.
The result of the services during Phase I will be a Program Development Package, including, five case studies of benchmark Museums, Organizational Plan, Architectural Program, Project Schedule and recommendations for any additional consultants
Phase II – Master Plan
(a) Collaboration on architectural plans;
(b) Create Exhibition Narrative;
(c) Create Visitor Venn Diagram;
(d) Sample umbrella concepts;
(e) Sample style boards;
(f) Sample graphics for interpretation for “look and feel”;
(g) Renderings

Exhibition Design
(a) Refinement of Exhibition Layout;
(b) Design Development Exhibition Floor Plans;
(c) Drawings of thematic elements;
(d) Material and color palette;
(e) Information of specialty effects;
(f) Data Sheets: exhibition information for each exhibit to include exhibit description, electrical requirements and sources for purchase;
(g) Graphics for each area;
(h) Exhibit label copy; and
(i) Exhibition budget.

Project Management
(a) Negotiate and manage the purchase of custom exhibits;
(b) Coordination with building architecture during construction;
(c) Mark Walhimer on site for installation;
(d) Coordinate graphics with project architect;
(e) Coordinate casework and specialty effects with project architect and fabricators;
(f) Work with vendors to prepare maintenance and repair manuals
(g) Coordinate casework;
(h) Coordinate exhibits with project architect;
(i) Site visits to fabricators to inspect exhibits prior to shipment;
(j) Shipping Coordination
(k) Review of exhibits upon arrival at museum ;
(l) Supervise installation crews;
(m) Art direct on site changes;
(n) Supervise lighting aiming; and
(o) Coordinate with exhibition vendors
(p) Staff Training

Often museums will start with a traveling exhibition prior to a permanent location, or create a traveling exhibition once the museum is opened.

Creation of Traveling Exhibitions
Program Development
(a) Review of documents;
(b) Creation of Exhibition Narrative
Business Planning
(a) Create a preliminary project budget
(b) Create a preliminary project schedule
(c) Museum staffing requirements (as related to museum operation)
(d) Market Research of area
(e) Facility Costing, Capital Costs (Preliminary Estimates)
(f) Costs to opening
(g) Initial Operating Costs projection
(h) Research of comparable institutions
(i) Recommendations
Marketing
(a) Press
(b) Social Media
Exhibition Design
(a) Conceptual Design
(b) Schematic Design
(c ) Design Development
(d) Construction Documents
(e) Project Management
(f) Negotiate and manage rental agreements
(g) Design of each exhibition layout
Installation
(a) Transportation
(b) Exhibition Installation
(c) Art Handling
(d) Staff Training

Museum Project Closeout 
Punch List, Project Accounting, Warranty Issues and Remediation
(a) Create project punch list;
(b) Work with vendors to correct issues of punch list;
(c) Work with vendors to address warranty issues;
(d) Approve final vendor payments; and
(e) Art direct any changes to the exhibition spaces post-opening

Please contact me if I can be of help, Mark

Museum Exhibition Design Photos
I have always taken photos and notes when I visit a museum, now I use Pinterest to document the visits.  You can visit my Pinterest Boards on Pinterest.  Below are my Pinterest boards by cateogory.  All photos copyright Mark Walhimer.

Art Museums

“Ron Mueck” at Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso

Museo Rufino Tamayo

MUAC

Museum of Modern Art

“Ernesto Neto” at Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso

Museo Modo

Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar

San Jose Airport

Museo Dolores Olmedo

Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History

Newark Museum

Hong Kong Museum of Art 

M+ Mobile

Ghibli Museum

Museo de Arte Moderno

Richard Serra at Toronto Airport

Art Galleries

“Rafael Lozano-Hemmer” at OMR

Chelsea, NYC, July 2012

Le Meridien Chambers Minneapolis 

Zona Maco 2012

Science Centers

Science Museum of Minnesota

Universum

“Sexualidad” at Universum

Hong Kong Science Museum

Hong Kong Space Museum 

Children’s Museums

Mid-Hudson Children’s Museum

Minnesota Children’s Museum

History Museums

Museo Nacional de Antropologia e Historia

Minnesota History Center

Hong Kong Museum of History

“Alcatraz: Life on the Rock”

“Alcatraz Landing”

Centro Cultural Espana

Museo Franz Mayer

Museo Culturas Populares

Lands End Lookout

Thomas Edison National Historic Park

Morris Museum

In 2012 I visited a total of sixty-three museums, often visiting a city for work, then taking a day to visit the local museums.  My favorite exhibitions were in New York City, Mexico City, Minneapolis, Hong Kong and Washington, D.C..  When I am visiting a museum exhibition, I am looking for layers of information, starting from an exhibition statement.   I am a strong believer in Pre-Visit, Visit and Post-Visit, does the exhibition support an online pre-visit orientation ?, does the exhibition have an exhibition statement with supporting layers? Is there information for resources post-visit?  Does the entire exhibition hold together with one voice? Does it present the information in a constant manner?  Is the exhibition attractive, inclusive and welcoming?

The best exhibitions are the result of a curatorial vision. Kudos to the curators, exhibition developers and exhibition designers and fabricators of these exhibitions. Below are my selections for the “Best Exhibitions of 2012″

Best Exhibition of the 2012

Science Center: Universum, “Sexualidad” (Click on photo above for my exhibition photos)
I believe exhibitions have the ability to change people’s lives and Sexualidad is structured to communicate and encourage  conversation, with the goal of giving visitors the tools to make personal decisions.   Most of all, I was impressed by the courage of Universum to present such a difficult topic as sexuality in as “flat” and helpful a manner.     The exhibition includes difficult topics such as incest, abuse by clergy, sexual attraction, contraception and reproduction.  The information was factual, flat and helpful.  I visited the exhibition twice and each time I was impressed by teenagers and couples paying attention and learning. The exhibition includes varying levels of privacy, from the personal viewers for topics such as incest to small theater areas for biology topics.  The exhibition had a clean and minimal aesthetic, incorporating glass, white frosted acrylic and many back light panels with interaction when appropriate.  Kudos to Universum!

History Museum, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

(Click on photo for link to “Museum Exhibitions Change Lives”)

Towards the end of my tour of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, I stood at the back of the exhibition theater and cried, I know of no better response to an exhibition.  I was touched on an emotional, intellectual and spiritual level.  See my blog post, “Exhibition Change Lives”

Children’s Museum – Minnesota Children’s Museum

(Click on photo above for my exhibition photos)

I have not been to the Children’s Museum of Minnesota since it opened in 1995 and wasn’t sure what to expect.  After touring the galleries, I asked to speak with the Director of Exhibition, only to congratulate them on the continued excellence.  The galleries are fun, lively, but never childlike.  Children’s museums have an opportunity to address children as developing people, with interests and desires of their own.  When given the opportunity they can make their own decisions and explorations with the guidance of adults.  The Children’s Museum of Minnesota is such a place, being welcoming, fun, exciting while never talking down to children. Instead it gives children an opportunity to explore and reach.  The building architecture is incorporated into the experience, offering graphics for both adults and children.  My only criticism is the lack of a museum collection as an introduction to a museum experience.

Art Museum - Museo Rufino Tamayo

(Click on photo above for my exhibition photos)

The exhibitions coincided with the building renovation and the museum re-opening.  I loved the entry Art piece of the exhibition “Primer Acto” by Douglas Gordon ”Off Screen” 1998, placing the visitor at center stage.  ”Primer Acto” played with the boundaries between artist, museum and visitor.   “Tomorrow was already here” is an artist’s look at previous visions of the future. The museum reopening included  excellent programming to accompany each exhibition.  There are programming areas in each exhibition areas which include selections of books and videos to support the exhibitions.

Corporate Installation - Le Meridien Chambers Minneapolis

(Click on photo above for my exhibition photos)
You will notice that two of the exhibitions are from Mexico City and two from Minnesota, I do not find this a coincidence.  The best exhibitions are the result of a community and the art installations at the Le Meridien Chambers Minneapolis Hotel are brilliant.  When I first checked into the hotel, I wasn’t sure if I was in the right place, thinking I must be in the lobby of the restaurant and seeing the restaurant’s art collection.  I asked and was told “yes, the art is part of the hotel” and was given an art guide.  When I  arrived at my room, I found the same level of Art installed in my room.  Hotel guests can find more information about the art in their room (including prices) and a guide to the Art in the public areas.

Notable Exhibitions of 2012 (Links to each):
Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso - Ernesto Neto
OMR - Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
MUAC
Centro Cultual Espana- I loved the basement exhibition, seeing the layers of history of the development of DF
Science Museum of Minnesota

I do not believe in crowd sourcing of exhibitions and don’t see how any of the exhibition above could have been created through the methods of crowd sourcing.

In the interest of full disclosure, none of the museums above are clients.

Photo by Andrew Osokin

Happy Holidays!

Wishing you a happy holiday season,

- Mark

museumplanner.org had a wonderful 2012 – Thank you all !

Accomplishments in 2012:

• Museum Planner continues to be the world’s most followed resource for Museum Planning and Exhibition Design (Alexa ranking)
• Museum Exhibition Design blog series, Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI
• Created “Museum Trends / Museum of the Future” website
• “Museums are for the Rich” blog post
• “Museum exhibitions change Lives” blog post
• A work in progress, “2012 Top 10 Science Centers” blog post
• Museum Feasibility Study blog post
• “Museums and the Internet” blog post
• 2012 Museum Exhibition Cost Survey
• Created “Museum Planning” group on LinkedIn
• Continue to define the best practices of museum planning and exhibition design
• Changed Company Name to Museum Planning, LLC
• Continue to answer the “Fequently asked questions”
• Launch of museum-exhibits.com
• Museum Planner on Facebook
• Museum Planner on Twitter
• Museum Planner on Pinterest
• Linkedin Group Sculpture Science & Museums
• Alcatraz: Life on the Rock opened at Liberty State Park
• Consultant to M+
• Feasibility Study for a new museum in New York
• Designed new exhibits for “Alcatraz Landing”
• 2011 Best Exhibitions

Plans for 2013

• 2013 Museum Exhibition Cost Survey
• Top Museums 2012 Report
• 2012 Best Exhibitions
• More content on kinetic sculpture
• More content on “Museum 4.0″
• museumexhibits.com to become the internets most respected website for “off the shelf exhibits and interactive sculpture”
• Interactive sculpture installed at a museum
• First draft of a book on museum planning
• “Museum U“ - set up online museum class content
• Apply for Hub Museum as a NFS Grant
• Science Center project
• Continue to build green-exhibits.org as a resource
• Continue to build museumaccess.org as a resource
• Continue work on “The Future of Museums” lecture
• Continued success of “Alcatraz: Life on the Rock”
• More great clients in 2013 !

Thank you for the great year!  Looking forward to completing more research on the topic of Museum Planning & Exhibition Design at museumplanner.org and working with more great clients in 2013.

~Mark Walhimer
Museum Planner

Museums are communication.

As I am writing this blog post,  I am watching a blinking LED.  I have always been interested in electronics, computer programming and Art.  As a kid I took computer programming then on a punch card, took Art classes and worked in the basement on electronic projects.  In the past I have toyed with Basic Stamps, now I am starting to learn about Arduino and learning Arduino code.  All just for fun.

As I stare into the blinking LED I am empowered and encouraged, I want to learn more, I want to “do”.  This is the kernel at the center of all museums, the sense of wonder and the pursuit of knowledge.  I learned how to program the Arduino and make the LED turn on and off, I now own that knowledge it is mine forever.   As I watch the blinking LED, here sits an important lesson, the ownership of knowledge and the transfer from provider to user.  It doesn’t matter the topic or discipline, Art, Science or History, it is the same communicating with the public and ownership of knowledge.  I talk about constructivist learning and that blinking LED is a great reminder.   Theoretically I understood how to make the LED blink, but not until I deconstructed how I thought it worked and relearned how to make it work did I own the knowledge.  It is mine and can’t be taken away.  That transfer is a delicate dance between content provider and receiver of information.  In this case I learned in my own way, trying different approaches, reading, making changes.

Museums are an informal form of communication and the relationship between museum and visitor is tantamount, in the relationship, Museum to visitor, Museum (as Peer) to visitor, visitor to visitor, museum to other museums, creating a matrix of communicators.

Work benches are gone.  Most kids don’t grow up with a work bench in the basement any longer, museums are the new “workbench”, luckily a communal workbench for sharing ideas and communicating.

None of the rest really matters, technique for communication, place of communication, the voice does matter, the rest is just icing.

Thanks for listening, now I need to get back to the Arduino and see if I can make a button turn the LED on and off.

Science Center Exhibition Design – Part I

I have been enjoying writing in series.  So far, I have worked on Museum Exhibition Design, Museum Strategic Planning and Museum Trends (which has become it’s own website museumtrends.org) and now I would like to start a series about Science Center Exhibition Design.  In part, I was inspired by an article by By Edward Rothstein “The Thrill of Science, Tamed by Agendas” in the New York Times.  An excerpt from the article:

“A science museum is a kind of experiment. It demands the most elaborate equipment: Imax theaters, NASA space vehicles, collections of living creatures, digital planetarium projectors, fossilized bones. Into this mix are thrust tens of thousands of living human beings: children on holiday, weary or eager parents, devoted teachers, passionate aficionados and casual passers-by. And the experimenters watch, test, change, hoping….”

It is exactly this active visitor participation that got me first so excited about science centers in 1992 (when I started work at Liberty Science Center).  In the article Mr. Rothstein discusses several recent (the article was written in 2010) incarnations of new science centers.  What strikes me about the article and the examples is the sense of “experimentation” in Science Centers, each example is different in character and approach.  It is this sense of “experimentation” that is leading the museum field.   The blog series will explore how I see science centers leading the museum field.

Future posts in the “Science Center Exhibition Design” series will include; “A Definition of the Spectrum of Science Centers”, “A History of Science Centers”,”How Science Center Exhibition Design is Different”, “The Future of Science Centers” and the “The Future of Science Center Exhibition Design and Fabrication”.

Links to my previous exhibition design posts:
Part I, Museum Exhibition Design – Planning
Part II, Museum Exhibition Design – Design Phases
Part III Museum Exhibition Design – Fabrication
Part IV Museum Exhibition Design – Installation
Part V Museum Exhibition Design – Exhibition Maintenance
Traveling Exhibition Design
Science Center Exhibition Design

Link to the Largest Science Centers:
World’s Most Visited Science Centers

A listing of some of my favorite Science Centers (needs updating)

* Image by Museum Planning, LLC rendering of Trans Studio Science Center

“What is a Museum Feasibility Study?”

We are currently working on a feasibility study for a new Museum / Art Center in New York. I thought it would be a good idea to continue our series about Museum Strategic Planning. As is often the case I would like to offer a definition of a museum feasibility study, starting with a definition of Feasible:

Feasible – “Capable of being done or carried out ‘a feasible plan,’ capable of being used or dealt with successfully : suitable.”

Museum Feasibility Study – “Proof or disproof of the financial and mission of a new institution or expanding institution’s success.”

A Museum Feasibility Study is the next step of the 10 Steps to Starting a Museum.

Too often museum feasibility studies first look at a geographic area and the existing museums and attractions, and then look at the potential visitation of a new museum or expanded museum. I have been on staff at four museums and worked with more than fifty museums as a consultant. Often I see, “Build it and they will come” based on overly optimistic Feasibility Studies and/or Feasibility Studies that don’t consider mission, potential business models, and the future of museums. I have seen many institutions get into long-term trouble with a myopic museum feasibility study. Therefore, this is how I see Museum Feasibility Studies:

Components of a Museum Feasibility Study
Area Demographics: Research the area demographics and population trends, i.e. “Is the local population growing or shrinking?”, “What is the education level of the local population?”, “Who are the largest employers in the area?”, and “What is the city/area’s socio-economic status?”
Business Model: Possible institutional business models. For instance, “Admission Based”, “Donor / Sponsor Based”, “Rental Income”, etc. and percentage of overall visitation.
Visitor Demographics: Define Visitor types, i.e. “Seniors”, “Families with young children”, “Singles”, etc. and percentage of overall visitation.
Area Partners / Competition: Includes list of major institutions in the surrounding area as potential partners and/or competitors with information such as location, website, admission prices, and annual visitation.
Area Tourism: Major attractions and areas of interests for tourists including historic sites, museums, outdoor recreation, shopping, agriculture, and so forth.
Visitor Trends: Look at various age ranges, durations of stay, accommodations, areas visited, and reasons (for vacation, business, or to see family or friends).
Benchmark Case Studies: Consider the business models of three to five comparable or varied institutions by researching their founding history, programs, organizational structure, admission prices, partners, and operating budget over several years.
Recommendations: Outline the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats facing the organization with consideration of mission/vision and the community profile.
Conclusion: Create a clear and concise summary of the findings, from evaluations to recommendations, and offer next steps.
Supplemental Materials: Include all relevant visual aids or appendices.
Bibliography: List all sources used throughout the study, i.e. demographic data from the U.S. Census, organization websites, articles, etc.

Best Practices
Future Planning: Best case scenario is that the plan of the feasibility study will be in place in three years – one year for planning, one year for fundraising, and one year for construction. Plan for at least five years out.
Plan for the Visitor: Visitors are not numbers. It seems simple, but a possible high attendance without a supportive visitorship is of little value, creating a second year dip. Museum visitorship should grow in the second year, not shrink. If your visitorship is decreasing in the second year, you are not connecting with your visitor base.
Draft Mission: I don’t think it is possible to create a realistic museum feasibility study without at least a draft of the mission statement. The mission can be very simple, but at least it is a starting point for a Board of Directors to review.
Peer Review: Politely ask Directors of your benchmark case studies if they would be willing to review your feasibility study and make comments. The data of the feasibility study may be of help with their planning.
Only Half Listen: Many times a founder or board member has a vision of the planned museum and only wants validation of their vision. This is fine if the data and visitor experience supports the founders / board members’ vision. But if it doesn’t, you are doing a disservice by rubber-stamping the vision.
Partnerships: This can be very sedative. You want the information of the study to remain confidential, but you also want to understand potential partnerships and collaborations. Without understanding the potential partnerships and collaborations, you may only be creating a Straw Man.
Plan for your Benchmarks: Once you have narrowed your potential business models, choose your benchmarks and plan your study according to the benchmark, no matter the location.
Be flexible of the of museum type: A client contacts you and requests a feasibility study for an “Art Museum.” It is tempting to create a Museum Feasibility Study based on an Art Museum similar to the one in the next county, but that may not be the best fit for the location.
Look beyond Non-Profit: The museum’s competition will be beyond other area museums. Try to understand the needs of the area.
Plan for the building: Be very general, but try to understand how the proposed museum will use the building.

Too often, I have worked with clients who in their second or third year of operations have found that their Feasibility Study was overly optimistic and find themselves laying off staff and changing programming. I believe the best practice for feasibility studies is to remain “visitor-centric,” always bringing the study back to the potential visitor and how each group of visitors will use the yet-to-be-created institution.  Contact me about having us help with your Feasibility Study.