Open Forum

Dear Museum Professionals,

The Museum of Northwest Art (MoNA), located near Seattle, would like to develop a cohort of similar museums in other regions for benchmarking purposes. Some of the areas of interest for comparison would include marketing and admission strategies, earned income streams, and business models. You may want to consider others. Below are the criteria we would like to consider for members of this peer group. We wouldn't expect other museums to fit all of these. 

We would like to share data every 3-6 months with a phone discussion to follow. MoNA would take the lead on scheduling, assembling, and sharing the data with the group. 

Let me know your thoughts. Thanks!

Criteria:
1. Fine art museum
2. Collecting institution
3. Free admission
4. Budget of $1 million or less
5. Based in rural community
6. Some tourism as well as local visitors

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Christopher Shainin
Executive Director
Museum of Northwest Art
La Conner WA
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Best of luck, and we’ll be very interested to hear how it works out!
Chris Brusatte (and Betty Brennan)
Taylor Studios, Inc.


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Betty Brennan
President
Taylor Studios, Inc.
Rantoul IL
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-25-2017 12:09 PM
From: Christopher Shainin
Subject: Peer benchmarking cohort

Dear Museum Professionals,

The Museum of Northwest Art (MoNA), located near Seattle, would like to develop a cohort of similar museums in other regions for benchmarking purposes. Some of the areas of interest for comparison would include marketing and admission strategies, earned income streams, and business models. You may want to consider others. Below are the criteria we would like to consider for members of this peer group. We wouldn't expect other museums to fit all of these. 

We would like to share data every 3-6 months with a phone discussion to follow. MoNA would take the lead on scheduling, assembling, and sharing the data with the group. 

Let me know your thoughts. Thanks!

Criteria:
1. Fine art museum
2. Collecting institution
3. Free admission
4. Budget of $1 million or less
5. Based in rural community
6. Some tourism as well as local visitors

------------------------------
Christopher Shainin
Executive Director
Museum of Northwest Art
La Conner WA
------------------------------

Original Message------

Dear Mr. Shainin,

 

What a wonderful idea! We work with a lot of small to mid-size museums and interpretive centers, and although they are more often in the natural history and cultural history sectors, they often relate to us how they share the same concerns over benchmarking. Our clients definitely voice aspirations for top-notch marketing strategies, admin practices, and business models. How wonderful if your “cohort” idea took off, and became a model for all types of museums and interpretive centers around the country! We would definitely love to hear, along the road, the success that the cohort has, and if you think it might be replicable in other parts of the country and in other interpretive sectors. I imagine that many of our clients would be very interested!

 

At Taylor Studios, we’ve also found that a lot of our clients are hoping to measure the impact of their exhibits themselves, in a manner that is academic and professional but not resource-intensive. Your cohort might also want to delve into these topics too! Things like measuring visitor demographics, average amount of time spent in exhibits, number of return and repeat visitors, and the number of exhibit visitors who take part in onsite programs and events after viewing the exhibits. I know that it falls outside of the immediate range of admin, marketing, and business measurements, but it could be valuable if you also have bandwidth to explore some of these additional topics as well!

 

Best of luck, and we’ll be very interested to hear how it works out!
Chris Brusatte (and Betty Brennan)
Taylor Studios, Inc.


------------------------------
Betty Brennan
President
Taylor Studios, Inc.
Rantoul IL
------------------------------