As a state park interpretive center with a small exhibit gallery (perhaps 4,000 sq. ft. of space when you count nooks and crannies), our reason for being is interpreting a large Devonian fossil bed. Filled with static (non-interactive) exhibits and plummeting attendance, I developed a plan for temporary exhibits - mostly made in-house. (My previous career was at a science center and I worked with many traveling exhibits.)
We did one photo contest-based exhibit (waterfalls), celebrated the bicentennial of John James Audubon at our park, fishing, many were paleontology-themed, and even rented a traveling exhibit called "Fossil Art." Attendance was rarely boosted to any statically significant level, but it kept our name "out there" in the community. Our only "blockbuster" was a full-building dinosaur exhibit that saw our visitation increase by 60%. When we had a similar exhibit two years later there was no increase.
So what do we do at our park now? Our museum underwent a complete renovation of our exhibit gallery in 2015. We opened in 2016 with more interactives - and no room for even a small temporary exhibit. I have shifted my effort toward creating more new programs. Attendance varies with equal publicity: we had 240 come for a one-hour geode program in January! (Who knew?) Last year I had one on 'photographing nature with your smart phone' that had no one attended. That will continue for the foreseeable future.
From the perspective of a visitor: my family has gone to museums both local and in nearby cities (two-hour radius) to see special exhibits. But my family is really into movies so those exhibits included the Lord of the Rings, The Hunger Games, Star Wars (costumes) and Titanic (about the ship, not the movie). Most other type of extra-fee exhibits do not attract my family's interest, even if it's local.
Consider other activities to increase visitation if temporary exhibits don't work.
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Alan Goldstein
Interpretive Naturalist, CIP
Falls of the Ohio State Park / Interpretive Center
Clarksville IN
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Original Message:
Sent: 10-04-2018 10:37 AM
From: David Beard
Subject: Visitation Increases for New/Traveling Exhibits
I am looking for some general input from other museums on whether or not the average new or traveling exhibits you have increase visitation in any significant way. Large "blockbuster" exhibits like Titanic or King Tut are always a big draw and allow an upcharge to boot. But most of us will never be able to either afford or have space for most of these. My personal experience at seven museums has been not much of a bump. Statistically insignificant, actually. It seems that the opening receptions are a big draw and count toward visitation, but those are not the general audience. An exception was at a small, local museum that dusted off an old exhibit about interesting ruins exposed in a local reservoir during a drought. This was, however, THE local museum and FREE to boot!
Can any of you give me any examples of any percentage increase that you note for your new/traveling exhibits? My board seems to think there is some magic formula that I can use to predict the ROI for future exhibits.
Thanks in advance.
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David Beard
Executive Director
USS KIDD Veterans Memorial Museum
Baton Rouge LA
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