Open Forum

I'm posting on behalf of a museum in our state. They are relocating to a much larger facility and asked about resources to help determine how much they should expect to increase their existing budget. Any help would be much appreciated.

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[Ben] [Barbera]
[Board President - Wisconsin Federation of Museums]
[Director of Collections and Exhibitions]
[Milwaukee County Historical Society]
[Milwaukee] [WI]
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Hi Ben,
Although now several years old, 

• How Much Do Museum Exhibitions Cost?
• Starting a Museum

"Starting a museum is very expensive; as a rule of thumb, the exhibition space is half of the overall space, a 4500 exhibition space becomes a 9000 square ft building at $200 per square foot of new construction is $1.8 million, plus approximately, $150 to fit out the gallery spaces, $675,000, total $2,475,000 in start-up costs plus operating costs. If you use an average of $40 per square ft for operating costs, your yearly operating costs would be $360,000 (salaries, utilities, maintenance), not including an endowment. Create a business plan. Can you earn at least 50% of your yearly expenses? Be conservative with your annual attendance figures. Too many museums have gotten into trouble using optimistic attendance figures. Attendance in a new museum's second and third years can fall off 20%-30% (or more). Plan for the third year of operation; too many museums only plan for the museum's opening. Plan to your third year, not to opening."

I never published the 2017 Exhibition Costs survey. The issues of costs per square foot were causing too many issues, and I backed away from doing the surveys.

All the best, 
- Mark

The biggest mistake of new (or expanding) museums is to optimistically build their plan to open the doors, rather than conservatively to account for sustainability.  There are too many examples of museums opening or expanding only to run into financial difficulties very soon after. 

Here at the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame we have put together budgets for expansion based on various projected square footage numbers.  Each one contains a line item for 3 years of operating expense.  This OpEx amount allows the museum to operate for 3 years without assuming a single nickel of new revenue. 

Granted, this is very conservative approach but we feel it is in the best interests of our donors, sponsors, supporters & other constituents.

My 2 ¢


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Ken Avallon
Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame
kavallon@phillyhall.net
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