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

“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.

Starting a museum, simple words.  I started this blog as a way to clarify my thinking, as a by product the blog as become the world’s most popular resource for museum planning.  My most popular blog post has been “10 Steps to Starting a Museum“.  Four years after starting the blog, I now have enough content to put together a book, “Starting a Museum” planning to publish by Spring 2013.

The Word “Museum”

Museum: An organization in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which  researches, communicates and exhibits things and ideas, for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment,  my definition from a previous blog post.

I do not believe a museum is a collection.  Many collecting museums have gone through fires or natural disasters, to reopen and rebuild their collection.  Of course a museum losing its collection is a catastrophe, but museums have continued to overcome such disasters.  I don’t believe a museum is the building, many museums have moved to new buildings.  A museum is it’s mission and the intent and communication of that mission.

Expoloratorium’s Mission:
The Exploratorium is a museum of science, art, and human perception founded in 1969. The Exploratorium’s mission is to create a culture of learning through innovative environments, programs, and tools that help people nurture their curiosity about the world around them.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Mission:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded on April 13, 1870, “to be located in the City of New York, for the purpose of establishing and maintaining in said city a Museum and library of art, of encouraging and developing the study of the fine arts, and the application of arts to manufacture and practical life, of advancing the general knowledge of kindred subjects, and, to that end, of furnishing popular instruction.” The mission of The Metropolitan Museum of Art is to collect, preserve, study, exhibit, and stimulate appreciation for and advance knowledge of works of art that collectively represent the broadest spectrum of human achievement at the highest level of quality, all in the service of the public and in accordance with the highest professional standards.

American Museum of Natural History Mission:
The American Museum of Natural History, to be located in the City of New York for the purpose of establishing and maintaining in said city a Museum and Library of Natural History; of encouraging and developing the study of Natural Science; of advancing the general knowledge of kindred subjects, and to that end of furnishing popular instruction.  To discover, interpret, and disseminate — through scientific research and education — knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe.

The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis:
To create extraordinary learning experiences across the arts, sciences, and humanities that have the power to transform the lives of children and families.

As descriptive as each mission is they don’t fully communicate the “how” to accomplish the mission of each museum.  I use the term “museum voice”, as a descriptive  in addition to the mission statement, to more fully describe “how” the museum communicates.   As examples, (I am making these up), The Exploratorium will speak with you as the smart hip neighbor who is a little wacky but such an expert that you respect and admire their opinion, The Met is your very rich great great grand father who you only know from his books, photos and memoir, but he is a legend in the field of Art, The AMNH Is the older aunt who has traveled the world as a research scientist whose opinion and knowledge is beyond reproach, the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis is the forty year old young mother who works as a child physiologist and wears Jimmy Choo shoes.   Each would communicate in a different manner.  I believe a museum is a combination of the mission and “museum voice” that describes the museum.

I believe museum exist on spectrums such as;  Collecting / Non-Collecting, Highly Interactive /Low Interactivity,  Academic / Informal, Inward Focused /Outward Focused, Early Childhood / Mature each museum exists on a point on each spectrum creating a matrix.  Today most museum are categorized by type, such as  Children’s Museum, Natural History Museum, Art Museum, Science Center and History Museum as examples.  I believe we are at a juncture in museums.  In the future I believe large “destination”  museums.  (Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, AMNH, Exploratorium, The Met) will continue to follow the typcial designations but smaller museums will become community based mixes of all of the types.   The reality is every community cannot support a museum of each type, so the community based museums will become hybrids.  Recently I consulted on a very large international “Art Museum”.   I put “Art Museum” in quotation marks, although the museum has a very significant Art collection, from top to bottom they do not want to think of themselves as a typical Art museum and all of its associations (old, stuffy, snobby, off putting) but instead as an amalgam of many of the disciplines, Art , Science, Philosophy, Community and Technology.  Slowly more of these types of museums will emerge.

“Starting”

Starting a museum can be the process of founder deciding to create a museum, leading to community involvement, design, building, fabrication and opening.  But, as museums continue to morph, “starting” can also mean an existing museum, with an existing collection, reinventing itself.  I have seen many examples of this recently, Curiodyssey is an existing Natural History Museum in San Mateo.  The Director Rachel, realized that the museum needed a new direction.  The museum changed it’s name, changed it’s logo and most importantly changed its focus.  Before the rebranding the museum was a more typical small natural history museum, displays or local taxidermy, fauna, and local history.  With the new refocus the museum is now more in the model of a smaller Exploratorium, highly interactive exhibits grouped around themes of science and natural history.  The collection is the same, the building is the same, but the museum voice is very different  focusing outward instead of inward.  When I think of a typical natural history museum the museum voice is “here are the objects, and the content please absorb”, an outward museum voice is “here is something to interact with, now what do you think?”  I would include the process of Curiodyysey as Staring a Museum.

When I use the term “Starting a Museum” I am referring to how I see the future of museums, some will be new museums, some will be museums reinventing themselves.  I thought it was important to define how I see the future of museums and how I think of starting a museum.

I have started work on a book tentatively called “Starting a Museum”.   More than “How to Start a Museum”, the book will explore the question “How could a museum be started?”.  I will need lots of help and hope that I can call on the readers of this blog as active participants in the creation of the book.  My big questions for the book, “what will the museum of 2050 be like?”, “What is the business of museums?” and “what are new business models for museums”.  Most people who start a museum have never started a museum before, the book will serve as a resource for the fundamentals of museums as well as future thinking about museums.  I will be looking to add specific editors and contributors in the areas of Fund Raising, Grant Writing, Art Handling, Registration, Board Management, Conservation and Finances and hoping that each book editor can than serve a similar role in an online forum.

My thought is to create an outline on Google Docs from previous blog posts, then work with a content editor (job description link) to refine the objectives of the book.  Once the first draft is in reviewable form invite people to comment on the book.  Then release as an ebook.  Simultaneously I would like to create an online forum for each of the areas of the book.  The forum be a place for discussion and more detailed analysis of the topics covered in the book.  Once the book has been thoroughly commented on and reviewed as an ebook, publish the book as a softcover.

If you are interested in being the content editor or an editor of a specific area (Fund Raising, Grant Writing, Art Handling, Registration, Board Management, Conservation and Finances) please contact me

This posts is one of many for the book, future posts:

Spectrum of Museums

Book Introduction

How to Start a Museum

Starting a Museum

Curation

Web 3.0 / Museum 4.0

Mobius Science Center Bubble Diagram

What is “Museum Strategic Planning?”.  We are starting up a Feasibility Study for a new New York museum and been thinking about, “where does strategic planning end and museum planning start ?” As part of my thinking created a definition of Museum Strategic Planning: The thinking and organization to change an aspect of a museum.  Would love to hear feedback on the definition.

There is not a standard process by which museums are started, sometimes the building comes first and a museum founder finds support for repurposing the building, sometimes the museum founder funds the feasibility study to see if it makes sense to form a non profit and sometimes a museum is formed as an outgrowth an existing organization.  What does seem to be a constant is a “Museum Founder”.  A Museum Founder often has the idea to start a museum (sometimes also the financial resources) and after a process similar to “How to Start a Museum” (link), will start creating support within the community for the project.

A possible order of starting a museum

1. Idea of a museum
2. Museum Founder
3. Community Support
4. Board of Directors
5. Business Status (For Profit, Non Profit, C Corp)
6. Museum By Laws
7. Feasibility Plan
8. Mission Statement
9. Business Plan
10. Fund Raising
11. Locating Preview Facility
12. Locating Permanent Home
13. Museum Name/  Logo
14. Human Resources – Setting or Changing Personal Requirements and Guidelines

* More details of process at “How to Start a Museum”

Often the plan is the easy part, the thinking and the consensus is the tough part.  Possible museum strategic planning work includes:

• Feasibility Plan – Is the Museum financially viable?
• Mission Statement – In a statement, define the purpose of the museum
• Museum By Laws – The laws by which the Board of Director governs the museum
• Board Direction – Assembling and directing a museum board of directors
• Creating Business Status – For Profit, Non Profit, Corp C
• Locating Preview Facility – Negotiating with city officials, negotiating with a landlord
• Locating Permanent Home – Negotiating with city officials, negotiating with a lanlord
• Fund Raising – Creating the strategy of a Capital Campaign
• Museum Expansion – Defining the institutional impact
• Redirection – New Mission, New Museum Name, New Logo, New Location
• Business Planning – Dealing with economic difficulties
• Human Resources – Setting or Changing Personal Requirements and Guidelines

Then there will be the need to create a “Feasibility Study”, a proof (or non-proof) that the museum is financially viable.  The time between the idea of starting a museum and getting to the point of contracting a feasibility plan can be from months to years.  Sometimes the organization already has non profit status and a Board of Directors, sometimes the founder funds or finds finding for the feasibility plan.

In my mind it is easy to see grouping Museum Planning with Museum Exhibition design, they need to go together to be successful.  Too often strategic planning happens at a different level.  Most often Museum Strategic Planning happens on the level of a museum founder, museum funders, politicians museum board members.   In a perfect world the path from the pieces museum strategic plans / museum planning / exhibition design would be seamless, sorry to say that is seldom the case.  Often the cause is time.

As a rough guide it takes between 5 and 10 years to start a museum, from the idea of a founder to museum opening.  Over and over I am surprised that every museum has a founder, sometimes the founder is the person who originally came up with the idea.  Sometimes the founder is someone who has taken the idea and has the resources or inclination to move the process forward.  Often, I get an email, we just got back from (insert name of city) and visited the (insert the name of museum) and would like something like that in our community”.  Most of my experience is with Science Centers, Children’s Museums and Natural History Museums, so most often those are the types of contacts I receive.

Having sat in several board rooms crafting mission statements I would say that honesty can be the most important value.  Too often mission statements are crafted around phrases such as “world class”.  If possible leave the ego at the door and craft the vision, strategy and mission around “your visitor” and their needs.  Then work to communicate messages across all mediums (exhibit text, museum signage, logo, website, staff training, etc.) to “your visitor”.

I have now finished the seven part series “Museum Exhibition Design“.  I hope others found the process helpful.  The process of writing the series helped me to clarify the differences and order of:

Step 1. Museum Strategic Planning

Step 2. Museum Master Planning

Step 3. Museum Exhibition Design

* As a side note.  I am not a lawyer and can’t form for profits / non-profits, not a CPA and can’t set up accounting systems for a museum, not a Human Resources expert and can’t comment of Human Resource requirements and I am not a Museum fund raiser, although I have worked on raising millions of dollars for museums.

Museums and the internet, an amazing combination!   A blog or a website is a form of communication, a museum’s introduction to the world.  Your internet presence is your chance to communicate with the visitor before they visit your “bricks and mortar” museum.  As with any good communication, be a good listener, share information and be polite.

When I was the Director of Exhibits at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan (1994-1997), I was at a meeting and Andy the Museum Director, said, “Content is King”, it was the first time I had heard the term (the term is from the Bill Gates article 1996).  With that one quote, my thinking about museums had changed, now the content of museums would be accessible both “in person” and on the internet, a very significant change in framework.

Museumplanner.org is now the world’s most followed website for information on museum planning and exhibition design (Alexa ranking 262,000).  I have been blogging since 2007, looking back now I realize how little I knew about writing and blogging.  I would like to share some of what I have learned.

1. What is your question? Maybe more than anything, the internet is a forum for answering questions.  Museumplanner.org is based on two questions, “How do you start a museum?” and “How do you design an exhibition?”.  I have found it fascinating that as I narrow the focus of the blog, the topic broadens and I find more and more to write.  Keep the content of your museum’s website (and your museum) narrow, answer questions.  Decide what questions your museum / website / blog will answer.  Be a good sharer, answer as many questions as questions you ask.

2. What are the words? I literally and figuratively “own the words “Museum Planning”, I have tried to purchase all of the related domains and make sure that my content is always related to topics of museum planning.  Be very specific in the key words of your website / blog.  The more specific the key words the better.

3. Be Local  The Arizona Science Center (Alexa 652,00) becomes a local resource for science in Arizona and Phoenix area, the Mobius Science Center (Alexa 5,000,000) requires association to the Spokane area.  I find it very interesting associating Alexa ranking with museums, (the lower the Alexa the better).  I have ongoing research into the correlation between the world’s largest museums and their online ranking, the interesting part is often smaller museums have a higher online visitation than their larger counterparts.

4. Move People. Literally and figuratively, tell personal stories.  …and the internet is like a lint ball, as you move it around it gathers more lint.  Move people from Facebook to twitter, from twitter to youtube, from youtube to Linkedin, each time you move people around you gather more people.  You will notice that I try to be consistent with my naming, twitter.com/museumplanning, facebook.com/museumplanning, “own the words”

5. Be yourself I started a blog as a way to organize my thoughts, I am still amazed that people are interested in my thinking. I am a strong believer in “Built to Last”, that companies have a “personality” and will attract similar clients / customers.  I am consistently surprised that many of my clients are from the business world and bottom line driven, I tend to attract business minded people.  On the internet your writing is your “voice”, have a clear and consistent ”voice” .  The internet is a form of communication.  The internet has grown into a forum where each user has a persona, even if you don’t want to have a persona, you become a noob.   I have a website walhimer.com but I think of my website as a portfolio, it is a static form of communication, a place to direct potential clients who are interested in our projects.  A blog is a converstation, every participant in the converstation has a voice.  As with any conversation it is important to be polite and communicate your point of view.  I spend, (time working of online projects) 90% of my time working on my blog and 10% working on my website.  If I was to make a recommendation, I would suggest the same to any “start up museum”, spend time your time on your blog.

6. Tools Use the tools of the internet:

10. “It is still virtual”  I am a sculptor by training and I believe that an online experience will never replace an “in person” experience.  …But, it is worth trying.  I like to think “Pre-visit”, “Visit” and “Post Visit” an online experience can support and compliment an “in person” experience.  A visitor’s online experience before visiting the museum can be as important as the in-person experience. The online experience can be 2/3 of the visitor’s experience.

Frequently Asked Questions About Museum Master Planning and Exhibition Design:
1. How do you start a museum?
http://museumplanner.org/starting-a-museum/
2. How do you get a museum job?
http://museumplanner.org/getting-a-museum-job/
http://museumplanner.org/getting-started-in-museums/
3. How much do museum exhibitions cost?
http://museumplanner.org/2011-museum-exhibition-costs/
http://museumplanner.org/how-much-do-exhibits-cost/
4. How do you design an exhibition?
http://museumplanner.org/museum-exhibition-design-2/
http://museumplanner.org/museum-exhibition-design-2/
5. What is the future of museums?
http://museumplanner.org/hub-museum-4/
http://museumplanner.org/predictions-for-2010-2011-2012/
6. What is Museum Master Planning?
http://museumplanner.org/museum-master-planning/
7. How do you raise money for a museum?
http://museumplanner.org/museum-fundraising/
8. How do you create a traveling exhibition?
http://museumplanner.org/museum-fundraising/

Do you have a question about Museum Master Planning or Exhibition Design that has not been answered on museumplanner.org?  Enter the question in the comment section below.

“How to start a Science Center”.  Designing a Science Center can be divided into ten steps that include; project objectives, exhibition design, coordination with building architecture, fabrication and installation.  Exhibition design is visually communicating casework, lighting and equipment the creates the visitor experience while considering aesthetic and functional perimeters.

A project the scale of a science center requires a group of stakeholders.  The group should include the founder, a money person, a scientist, a politician, an artist, a designer and a community leader.  Find a person to represent each, a person who can raise money, a scientist, an active politician who can make things happen, an artist, a designer, and a  community representative (PTA leader, Superintendent of Schools or a real estate developer are all great)

10 Steps:

1. Project Objectives - Maybe the toughest part of all.  Why are you building the science center?  What is the visitor experience?  What are the visitor outcomes? “World Class”, “Clean, Modern Aesthetic”, “Fun and Interactive” – really don’t tell you much at all. I often think that we each have a movie playing in our head’s when descriptions such as “Fun and Interactive” are used, one person’s “movie” is different from another’s.  The trick is to get all the stakeholders with the same movie.   The best method I have found is a research trip with all of the stakeholders.  Schedule a long weekend, for the 4-8 people that comprise the “core” team and go see at least 3-4 Science Centers.  Ask lots of questions and view different exhibits at the same time.  Document your findings from the trip.
2. Critical Mass – Sometimes the best way to start a project is to gather a group of smart, creative people with a pot of coffee, some good food and talk.  Talk for a couple of hours, “if you could create any type of Science Center, what would that place be?”, create quick concepts and take lots of notes.  Set up a meeting to review the ideas.  Type up the meeting notes and review the notes before the next meeting.  At the next meeting narrow your conversation to three or four concepts for the Science Center.  Work to create an “Umbrella concept”,  an idea that provides a superset or grouping of concepts that all fall under a single common category.   An umbrella concept is the central and coordinating concept that will represent a number of smaller, separate concepts.  Try to be relaxed and have fun.  This is the most important work you will create in the whole process.  A few examples, Exploratorium -”An ongoing exploration of science, art, and human perception”, Discovery Science Center – “Science Southern California Style”, “The Tech Museum of Innovation” (the name says it all), The Museum of Science and Industry – Coal Mine, Silver Streak, Farm Tech, U-505 and the Wright Flyer.  With each example the Umbrella Concept is the unifying concept for the institution a sort of “elevator speech” for the Science Center.  Take your time and try on several unifying concepts before deciding on one, make sure you have enough “critical mass” of exhibit ideas to support the Umbrella Concept.
3. Filters There is no shortage of good ideas.  Often the tough part is having a way to separate one good idea from another.  Create a set of “Exhibition Filters”; guiding principles by which exhibits are chosen or rejected.  The filters become the criteria by which the exhibits are judged to be included as part of the overall Science Center.  Examples of Exhibition Filters, “Wherever possible exhibits will be open ended with multiple outcomes”, “Exhibits will be discovery based vs. didactic” and “Exhibits and environments will be built with exposed fasteners and connections”. Make sure your Exhibition Filters are in line with your Umbrella Concept.   Run a couple of tests, “we know we would like XYZ exhibit in the science center, does it pass our Exhibition Filters?
4. Design and Research Concept Development, Schematic Design, Design Development and Final Design are the phases of exhibition design.  As the process goes through iterations, more and more details will be added to the design.  During Concept Design, you will be reviewing area themes and space allocation, schematic design, you will be reviewing rough layouts of exhibits in areas, Design development, you will be reviewing dimensioned drawings of each area and Final Design will be details of case design and AV systems.  The Fabricator will be creating Working Drawings for review prior to fabrication.  Accept and embrace that exhibition design is a never ending process, even on opening day, you will still be making changes and revisions.  Revisions are not mistakes.  What you are creating has never existed before.  Until you have hundreds of people in the science center you are not going to know how it all works.  A friend of mine says “designers are people who can see the future”, she may be right.  A design is an image of the future, but only “an” image, the “image” will change with time.
5. Architecture Sometimes the building comes first and you have to do a “force fit”, “how do you create your umbrella concept in the planned architecture?”.  Sometimes you create a the Umbrella Concept and work with an architect to reflect the umbrella concept in the architecture.  The truth is the second is much more difficult than the first.  Architects are NOT exhibition designers.  Often exhibition designers and architects think very differently.  Architects are concerned about creating spaces, exhibition designers are concerned with creating activities.   In the best relationships the architect creates a space to house the activities of the Science Center.  You want a very patient architect, by design your process will be ever changing, and that will mean changes to the architecture.  Define the spaces for the exhibitions, create “foot prints” of each exhibition area.  Include, lighting, HVAC, electrical, doors, windows and create a elevations of the space and reflected ceiling plans.
6. 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 There are thousands of science centers all over the world, there is no need to “redesign the wheel”.  1/3 of the exhibits should be original to the Science Center, 1/3 purchased from a vendor or science center and modified and 1/3 should be bought “off the shelf”.   Once you have established the areas of your science center, go visit at least ten science centers and find out what exhibits could be used for your science center. Start a data base of the exhibits that can be purchased “off the shelf”, which ones you like but would like modified and exhibits that you would like original to the science center.  To the “nah sayers”, Frank Oppenheimer the founder of the Exploratorium researched existing science class experiments as the starting point for the Exploratorium.
7. Science Center Icons Create an icon for the Science Center and create an icon for each exhibition area.  I often think about the “parking lot conversation”, when people are walking back to there car after visiting the science center “what is the one exhibit they will be talking about?”  Make sure that you have that “wow” exhibit for the science center and each exhibition area.  A few samples of icons, the Tactile Dome at the Exploratorium, The Cube at Discovery Science Center and The Hoberman Sphere at Liberty Science Center.
   
8. Fabricate Ask other science centers who they used for fabrication, ask local building contractors for the names of casework companies and speak to your local convention center about trade show fabricators.  Start a list of ten fabricators and go visit each shop and ask to meet the project manager.  Walk through the shop and look at the projects in the shop, look at the quality of the work, review the working drawings in the shop.  Narrow your search down to three  fabricators and ask each to prototype an exhibit and tell them you are choosing between three shops and one of the shops will win the project contract.  Choose your fabricator by the quality of their project manager, the quality of the shops workmanship and their reputation and response to warranty requests.
9. Prototype, Prototype, Prototype One third of the exhibits will be bought “off the shelf”, leaving two thirds that will either be original to the science center or modified “off the shelf”.  Some of the original exhibits will be from artists, some will be built by the selected  fabricator and some will be modified “off the shelf” that will be modified by the original vendor.  Start a list of the exhibits to be prototyped and group them by type.  Create a relationship with a local Art museum, library, middle school or college and prototype the exhibits there.  Test the exhibits with the public and evaluate the responses and modify the exhibits according to the evaluation.  
   
10. Install, Open and Archive Installation, opening and archiving is part of the design process.  During installation there will be lots of small (and maybe large) decisions made; changes in exhibit placement, changes in lighting, changes in exhibit parts and all of those decisions need to be captured in “as built drawings”, maintenance manuals and archived for future changes and maintenance.

Be as transparent as possible.  Include others in the process and ask for feedback, use facebook, tweeter and a blog and include people in the process.

Funny isn’t it, only one of the ten steps even mentions drawings !  Drawings are not designs, drawings are the culmination of lots of research and thinking.  Some Science Centers such as the Exploratorium don’t even create drawings until after the exhibition has been prototyped and evaluated. The best exhibit designs happen through research, creativity, evaluation and luck.

Would love to hear comments about the ten steps above.  A future post will be the “10 steps to Project Managing the Opening of a Science Center.

There are approximately 17,000 museums in the United States.  That number includes Science Centers, Natural History Museums, Art Museums, Local History and Children’s Museums.

In March 2010 I returned from a year in Asia.  As with any good trip, I had lots of time for reflection and the advantage of perspective; being on the other side of the world does that.  While sitting in my hotel in Bangkok, I started thinking of all of the museums all over the world and the current economy.  My first thought was, “How can they all survive?”.  The easy answer is “they won’t survive”.

The museum world is in a time of transition.   When I started working in museums in the 1980’s, it was the time of Reaganomics.  Up to then, museums were either donor-,  state-,or federally-funded institutions without much public input.  Reagan put an end to that and demanded that museums needed to change and look to corporations and individuals for funding.  At the time museum professionals were outraged. Museums were the “source” of content;  no one should interfere with the purity of the museum’s objectivity.  Looking back, this was a turning point for museums. Museums went from inward-facing institutions to being forced to ask for donations and the involvement of others.  It was painful, but the result is we have public-serving institutions.

I believe we are at a similar turning point.  Museums live and die by attendance figures: if you can’t drive attendance, you can’t keep the doors open.  Depending on the institution, only about 50% of the revenue comes from admission, the remainder comes from museum rentals, store sales, donations, grants, memberships, state and federal funding.  Donors want to know how many visitors their donations will be affecting.  For most museums, attendance is down; people are cutting back on discretionary spending.  With less state and federal monies available, museums are faced with tough decisions.

To address the need for new and additional funding sources many larger institutions (1) learned to drive attendance through “special exhibitions” and started to outsource exhibition design and fabrication.  Starting in the 1970’s with the “Tut” exhibition, museums learned you could drive attendance with “blockbuster” exhibitions, becoming a main model for increasing visitorship over the last 30 years.  Additionally, many museums, large and small, had in-house exhibition staff to design and build exhibitions.  With the downturn of the 1990’s, many began to dis-band their in-house departments and began contracting with design and fabrication firms for production of traveling exhibitions as a cost-saving option.

Today, museums have increased competition from other sources for destination dollars.  Movies, amusement parks, and themed restaurants are competing in the same field as museums.  Donors see shrinking attendance, are unsure of their own futures and are more reluctant to donate.

When I was working at Discovery Science Center in 1996, we visited ten science centers throughout the United States.  On the flight back, a board member said to me, “You know nobody travels to other science centers.  People only visit the science center near them or maybe visit a science center while on vacation.  Why don’t we find the best exhibits and buy them for our science center?”.  In 1996 it was a new model buying exhibits to start a science center; now it is the norm.

During the early 2000’s, museums were being built at a furious pace, with a race to build the biggest.  Many of them failed, closed, or became other institutions.  One result of this was an increasing awareness that museums are community resources.  Although tourists help with attendance, they are only a small percentage of overall museum visitorship.  Most museum visitors are local visitors looking for weekend and daytime activities.  The secret to being a successful museum is being flexible and visitor focused.  A small institution often has an easier to keep visitor focus.

Donor contributions are shrinking.  The success of museums is built on attendance. Smaller museums are more flexible.  Museums don’t have the resources to “renew” themselves every three months. What is the answer?

“What if”

What if, they “traded” exhibits and programs every three months?   An online “hub” of museums could provide a forum for museums to share content and make arrangements to “borrow” each other’s exhibitions.  In many ways this is already happening vis-a-vis traveling exhibitions; museums rent each others exhibitions.  What is lacking is a “network” for collaboration for sharing of content (2).

What if there was a place where parents, teachers, scientists,museum professionals, artists, students and experts could all share ideas both on the internet and in person?  The “Hub Museum” is such a place.

The Hub Museum is not one museum but a new model of a partnership of connected museums. Instead of a children’s museum, natural history museum, an Art Museum, a Science Center, the Hub Museum is all of them! Museums live through attendance and attendance is driven by new programs and exhibitions. The Hub Museum changes every three months into a new place and the exhibitions are rotated through all of the fellow hub museums.

Teachers, parents, scientists,museum professionals, artists, students and experts all gather online at “The Hub” portal. Teachers can share lesson plans and review science standards and curriculum.  Parents can view lesson plans and curriculum. Scientists can answer questions of students.  “Citizen scientists” can earn “expert” points by answering questions. Students can ask questions and learn from one another and experts. The online presence is fun and relaxed, although the content is in line with California Science Standards and National Curriculum. The Hub Museum portal is a shared online community amongst museums, parents, teachers, scientists, experts and most importantly students.

Museums become the hub for in-person activities.   Instead of museums trying to individually create exhibitions, they are created through a network of museums all working to the same educational standards and curriculum. Instead of each museum working to separate standards and curriculum (but standards & curriculum are unique to each state – that would help give relevance, but it’s also “thinking in the box” the curriculum of the schools is shared by the museums and museums work in partnership with one another to design and build exhibitions.

Exhibitions are then shared amongst museums, so museums are always changing. Superintendents of schools, teachers and students are aware of the educational content before they visit the museum.
Still the museum is serving a different role than the school, the museum is an informal place for exploration and discovery related to the formal education at school.

Instead of the typical museum approach of hiring a “world class architect, hiring a ”world class exhibit designer”, the “Hub Museum” approach, is:
• A “Hub of content” for the museum
• Open Source content:  the museum’s content and programs are shared and available for teachers and parents
• Collaborative: the exhibits, exhibit content and programs are shared by several institutions
• Exhibit spaces are easily changeable
• Dynamic:  the visitor spaces change every three months
• Transparent :  the planning of the institution is shared and available to the community
• The Hub Museum will be an amalgam of museums; a Children’s Museum, Science Center, Natural History and Art Museum
• Shared Curriculum
• Transparency
• Museums curate their content from the “Hub Museum Network”

To make this all work the “Hub Museum” is governed by a panel of advisers who over see the content and direction of Hub Museums.  Advisers to include:

• Museum Directors
• Educators
• Scientists
• Artists
• Business Leaders
• Journalists

All content is open source.  Users agree to adhere to guidelines similar to open source software, each user can build upon another’s content, but only owns his/her content.  Using the open source software model “users own their branch, but not the tree trunk”.

The business model, of “The Hub Museum” website is for profit.  Two possible business models are being explored, one is users pay a 5% or 10% fee to “The Hub Museum” , using a similar model as guru.com or ebay.com.  A second business model is the site is supported through advertising.  Both options are being explored.

The desired result is a revitalization of museums.  Museums currently don’t value their own content and often give it way.  In this new model, museums and the visitor benefit from more agile and engaging educational experiences and museums could have a new revenue source.

What do you think?

(1) When speaking of “museums”, referring to all types of museums, including science centers, children’s museums, natural history museums and Art museums
(2) When referring to content; referring to exhibits, exhibitions, programs, staff training, teacher training and museum research

As a follow up to my Predictions for the future of Museums,  I have been thinking about the future of museums.  What if there was a place where parents, teachers, scientists,museum professionals, artists, students and experts could all share ideas both on the internet and in person. The “Hub Museum” is such a place!

Hub Museum is not one museum but a new model of a partnership of connected museums. Instead of a children’s museum, natural history museum, an Art Museum, a Science Center, the Hub Museum is all of them! Museum live through attendance and attendance is driven by new programs and exhibitions, the Hub Museum, changes every three months, into a new place and the exhibitions are rotated through all of the fellow hub museums.

Teachers, parents, scientists,museum professionals, artists, students and experts all gather online at “The Hub” portal. Teachers can share lesson plans and review science standards and curriculum, parents can view lesson plans and curriculum. Scientists can answer questions of students, “citizen scientists” can earn “expert” points by answering questions. Students can ask questions and learn from one another and experts. The online presence is fun and relaxed, although the content is in line with California Science Standards and National Curriculum. Same as the sharing of exhibitions the Hub portal is a shared online community amongst museums, parents, teachers, scientists, experts and most importantly students.

Museums become the hub for in person activities, instead of museums trying to individually create exhibitions, they are created through a network of museums all working to the same educational standards and curriculum. Instead of each museum working to separate standards and curriculum, the curriculum of the schools is shared by the museums and museums work in partnership with one another to design and build exhibitions.

Exhibitions are then shared amongst museums, so museums are always changing. Superintendents of schools, teachers and students are aware of the educational content before they visit the museum.

Still the museum is serving a different role than the school, the museum is an informal place for exploration and discovery of the formal education at school.