Ms. Smith and Museum Colleagues:
Speed walking in a museum?!? While the walkers' first few laps may arouse concerns of appropriateness and safety, and their mid-session laps may build cumulative annoyance (cacophonous chatter, olfactory overload), by their 50th circuit, this constituent conundrum may reveal an opportunity.
If indeed our current best practices in the field encourage museums to allow visitors to create their own experience and derive their own meaning; and encourage museums to truly embrace the interests of our members, stakeholders, and community, why not seize a new opportunity for relevance brought to the fore by these speed walkers?
A spacious art museum with wide hallways might consider:
A new membership level for speed walkers! ($1000 per year includes a monthly gala serving electrolyte-replacing sports drinks and awarding ribbons for mileage achievement.)
Museum-branded t-shirts and sweatshirts. (These big-dollar members could trot your museum logo proudly around town.)
A designated walking track with painted lanes (... to keep the peppy striders from wandering off into the Conservation Department.)
An "Art on Track" exhibit along the route, like billboards along a highway, perhaps with European baroque-era paintings of the overfed noble class as exercise motivation. (To encourage learning about art, walkers could enter a monthly art trivia contest based on the rotating exhibition. The prize could be a pair of fresh spongy insoles.)
To monitor these avid walkers in a program that is sure to grow, or course the museum will need a pricy customized software application. (To track mileage fairly and accurately, this software will undoubtedly need to integrate data from computer chips provided to the walker/members, and from a video system ... new and separate from existing museum security cameras.
Finally, in absorbing a good lesson from museum pioneer P.T. Barnum, an innocuous "Exit" sign could be posted at the far reaches of the walking loop. If and when the walkers exceeded the museum director's threshold of tolerance, the director could push a button to change the sign to: "This Way to the Walking Loop" ... which would lead them all out back into the parking lot.
That is more than enough folly for today. But in conundrums there are opportunities.
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Reginald Bacon
Independent Museum Professional ... and Circus/Vaudevillian Emeritus
Newburyport, Mass.
varietyarts@comcast.netwww.VarietyArtsEnterprises.comwww.VarietyArtsPress.comwww.CrankyTypographer.com------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 08-22-2019 05:12 PM
From: Amy Smith
Subject: Museum "speed walkers"
We have a couple (longtime members) who use the Museum (essentially) to speed walk during their lunchtime.
I've tried to find information in the AAM resource library (maybe how there's a safety issue with them?) but would appreciate any assistance/advice on how to handle them. My preference would be to graciously ask them to not speedwalk here.
At times, they speak very loud to each other and when we have galleries closed (exhibition transitions) it really seems to annoy Museum staff (we are not a large Museum) as they then continually circle the long hallway near the administrative offices. I am not aware of any of our visitors complaining at this time.
We certainly want to be open, inclusive and accessible to all, but I really think that the only reason they have a membership is to be able to speed walk when it's warm outside (We are in Bakersfield, CA, so it's HOT here right now) and we are close to their place of work.
Any suggestions are appreciated!!
Thanks!
~Amy
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Amy Smith
Executive Director
Bakersfield Museum of Art
Bakersfield CA
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