Museums are not businesses. Exhibits don't turn a profit. Earned income does not cover operating costs. If these three statements were not true there would be "commercial" museums all over the place. There is a reason museums are nonprofit entities. There is no profit in collecting art, artifacts or scientific specimens and keeping them for the long term for public benefit. Alas, occasionally a museum trustee or two never grasps this reality or doesn't want to. Perhaps that is the case with one or two of your trustees. I always find such conversations annoying because they are based on trustee refusals to accept a robust philanthropic fundraising role.
I am unfamiliar with any museum organizations (AAM, AASLH, ICOM, etc.) that articulate the profitability of exhibitions in any documentation but would love to know if this is the case. Budgeting for exhibitions usually happens as part of board designated annual budgeting processes. Requiring exhibitions to be popular (read - make money) is a fools game. Predicting exhibition popularity, based on institutional mission, is very difficult. There are many attendance variables over which museums have no or little control.
Unfortunately, as director you have to respond to an inapplicable and skewed trustee instruction...but you can't describe it as such. There are certain trustees who love to talk, especially if lengthy and convoluted conversations help them avoid giving or getting money. Perhaps lengthy discussions which include board members who understand the real, noncommercial, role of exhibitions may subdue wrong-headed thinking and you can arrive at wording that does not cause unrealistic expectations for which you will ultimately be accountable. That wording can be written into several documents including those relating to collection management, long-range plans, or meeting minutes..
Museums are practical places so as I think about how to write the sort of "policy" requested of you, I am frankly stumped. I am familiar with your museum and its community. How many Paul Evans or George Nakashima exhibitons can you present? (Bucks County mid-century modern furniture makers.)
This same sort of business-first approach also subsumes conversations about museum gift shops...but that is another topic for discussion.
Good Luck,
Steve
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Steven Miller
Executive Director
Boscobel House and Gardens
Garrison NY
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-23-2017 02:08 PM
From: Lisa Tremper Hanover
Subject: Exhibitions/Economic Benefits
In the process of updating our Collections Plan in consultation with our Collections Committee (which includes our Board Chairman and Board President), the Chairman wanted to add a statement about the economic benefits of curating exhibitions that draw an audience the benefits our earned income via admissions. We stated that the Collections Plan was not the right vehicle for such a statement and that the AAM has guidelines to this effect. The President wanted to know/see exactly where that was stated by AAM.
We were able to steer the conversation back to the core philosophies of a collecting plan. The idea, however, of articulating in writing, in some document, that while the Museum is not in the business of mounting exhibitions that will only enhance revenue, we need to be mindful that a mix of exhibition offerings that are "popular" is desirable, was still on the table. (THAT's a mouthful.....).
If there is a thread already in place that discusses this, terrific. If not, guidance appreciated.
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Lisa Tremper Hanover
Director and CEO
James A. Michener Art Museum
Doylestown PA
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