Open Forum

We're a mid-sized natural history museum looking to increase the number of traveling exhibitions we host in our temporary gallery (2000 sq.ft.). We currently fill the space mostly with in-house projects, which can be a strain on staff and don't always bring in the numbers we'd like to see. Unfortunately we don't usually have the budget to bring in flashier exhibits. Where do you look for funding for these types of things? Being in a very small city, we haven't had much luck asking corporate sponsors for such a large sum.

We recently discussed getting the board involved--specifically, creating an exhibits subcommittee tasked with finding money each year to rent traveling exhibits. Do any of you have a model like that? Do you find it to be successful?

Thank you in advance for your help!

------------------------------
Beth Stricker
Director of Exhibitions
Paleontological Research Institution
Museum of the Earth & Cayuga Nature Center
Ithaca, NY
------------------------------

We have a changing gallery, too, and its' small size (about 700 sq ft), ironically, helps to keep costs down.  We only rarely (very rarely, since I don't have the cash for rentals, either) use it for rental shows . . . a lot of them don't fit the space, anyway . . . and use it instead for "focus topics" that we do ourselves.  Small staff . . . me and a curator . . . and our purpose revolves around anything having to do with local history, so we have the flexibility to look for topics that no one has done anything on, or content that isn't served regularly by another museum in the area.

Don't worry about the numbers . . . you're not going to fit a blockbuster into 2k sq ft anyway.  Find aspects of your collection and mission that are neat and build on those by focusing on them, using the small size to your advantage.  We have an overview exhibition that walks people through local history, but there's not a lot of depth, so the changing space is our in-depth area . . . women's education in the 18th and 19th centuries . . . local Indians . . . local furniture makers . . . prehistoric Alexandria . . . World War II homefront . . . a locally-based airline . . . stoneware manufacturing . . . silversmiths . . . work by a local artist showing people and scenes around Virginia . . . the Civil War's impact here (our most recent one) . . . those are a few examples of how much we bounce around, topically.

My 2 cents . . .

------------------------------
James Mackay
Director
The Lyceum
Alexandria VA
------------------------------

Hi Beth,

We do have a Board committee tasked with fundraising.  They work with me and our Development Director to manage our fundraising efforts.  Having those dedicated volunteers makes it possible for the staff to have a much broader outreach, more exciting ideas, and the ability to be much more effective.

For your temporary gallery, we don't currently have a fossil-based traveling exhibition available.  We had one based on the Burgess Shale fossils, but it is now permanently installed at a site in Canada.  However, we do have several based on various aspects of nature and science that would be a nice complement to your other exhibitions.  People are often very intrigued by the combination of art and science, and an art exhibition brings in an audience that might not otherwise be familiar with your offerings.  Most venues who have rented our exhibitions report that their highest attendance of the year occurs when they show our artwork.

"Seasonal Palette" (http://www.saqa.com/memberArt.php?cat=8&ec=3&ex=5) would be lovely in your museum.  "Earth Stories" and "Radical Elements" would also work well.  The full listing of our 9 traveling exhibitions can be found here: http://www.saqa.com/memberArt.php?cat=8&ec=3  We will be adding four new exhibitions to the roster this year: "Wild Fabrications," "Food for Thought," "Balancing Act," and "Concrete and Grasslands."

Our rates are very reasonable, just $4,500 to rent a 35-piece exhibition requiring 150-200 linear running feet of exhibition space (price includes all shipping and insurance).  All you have to do it hang some nails and put up labels (all hardware and labels are included). 

------------------------------
Martha Sielman
Executive Director
Studio Art Quilt Associates, Inc.
http://www.SAQA.com
Storrs Mansfield CT
------------------------------