Museum Audience Insight

Buried in Magazines

One day, feeling overwhelmed by my massive stack of unread magazines, I started a list of magazines and journals come into my home and office.  When I mentioned this to my friend Alison Buchbinder, a second-year fellow in the Winterthur program, she said I should "definitely post this to the blog" because the variety, and rationale for subscribing, were so interesting.

So here it is - almost thirty different subscriptions.  Why so many?  Some are, obviously, relevant to the museum field, others reflect personal interests, and a few are to give me a better understanding about a particular audience that may, or may not, come to museums.  One is a mystery, another is a mistake.  The three tween magazines come to my incomparable dog so I can track who they sell his name to (no credit card offers have come to Shadow K. Wilkening . . . yet).   

Now I think nearly 30 is pretty excessive, but James has told me that he gets far more than that.  My colleague Sally is also inundated in the name of research.  And this does not even include online subscriptions and e-newsletters. Is it any wonder there is a backlog??

Susie's Subscriptions:

Newspapers

• Boston Globe
• Quincy Sun (my local weekly)
• Wall Street Journal

Journals

• The Journal of Heritage Stewardship (National Park Service)
• Museums and Social Issues

Magazines

• Adorn (Gen Y research - I think it is fascinating that Gen Ys are so concerned about "embellishing life," in this case through crafts)
• Better Homes and Gardens (it was free, Baby Boomer research mostly, but I do like the recipes)
• Bon Appetit (actually, my husband gets this)
• Common Ground (National Park Service)
• Cottage Living (a mistake - it was free but I checked the wrong box and got this instead of Old House Journal.  Oops.)
• Country Living (UK, not US - I just love it)
• Discovery Girls (tween research)
• English Heritage
• Family Fun (another free one, Gen X parent research)
• Fast Company (fabulous business magazine)
• Girls Life (tween research)
• Gourmet (actually, my husband again . . . )
• Historic New England Magazine
• History News
• Martha Stewart Living (a gift from a friend, comes in handy for Boomer women research)
• Media (not sure why this comes to me)
• Museum
• National Geographic Traveler (one of those free ones, again)
• National Trust Magazine (UK)
• Newsweek
• Preservation (National Trust, US)
• Seventeen (tween research)
• Smithsonian
• Vogue (Gen Y research, though I am a fan of their food writer)

Want to help me make it to 30?  Let me know if I am missing a key subscription by submitting a comment below!

Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Colbert . . . Colbert??

Steps away from the Hall of Presidents at the National Portrait Gallery a new portrait has been put on display. No, it is not one of the many presidential contenders in this election year - it is the satirist (and some would say denied presidential candidate) Stephen Colbert. 

In case you have missed the phenomenon that is The Colbert Report, this comedy show on Comedy Central satirizes political pundit shows, such as those found on rival cable news stations.  It is incredibly funny, and it draws young adult audiences, particularly young men, extraordinarily well. 

This month, on the show, Stephen Colbert attempted to donate his portrait to the Smithsonian.  When the National Museum of American History turned him down, he went to the National Portrait Gallery.  While they did not accept the donation, they did agree to display the portrait for six weeks . . . . outside the restrooms near the Hall of Presidents (you can seen the video by going to Comedy Central's website). 

What a smart, savvy decision by the folks at NPG!  Not only did they receive priceless good publicity, but they did so in a way that directly reaches a demographic - young adults, men in particular - that do not visit art museums in large numbers.  Additionally, by being willing to make fun of themselves they actually made their museum more relevant to this audience.

I bet they will see a spike in attendance because of this publicity - and I also bet that a lot of these visitors will come away from the museum thinking they are pretty cool (and that they have cool other stuff on display too!).   

So, quoting Mr. Colbert from his show:

"Go to Washington.  Go to the National Portrait Gallery.  Go to the second floor . . . and use the bathroom."

Artists, Presidents, and E-mail Footers Part II (with a dash of YouTube)

Groundhogs may help attendance in Lincoln, as I mentioned in my post on Groundhogs and E-mail Footers, but they inspired Carri Manchester of Olana State Historic Site to step up her footer as well!  Check it out:

Additionally, Carri's footer includes a link to Olana's YouTube video - a great marketing tool in and of itself (and probably worthy of its own post).

So Carri, are you going to e-mail me regularly now so I can see your changing e-mail footers?

- Susie

Community Outreach, One Coffee at a Time

Yesterday my husband and I were having brunch at a neighborhood cafe in Dorchester, MA.  And then I noticed Jeremy's cup of coffee.  The mug featured the James Blake House, owned by the Dorchester Historical Society.

I scanned the restaurant, and saw at least a dozen of these mugs, all in use.  What a fantastic win-win!  This tiny historical society reaches a key group of potential supporters and visitors while the neighborhood hangout shows its community engagement.  And the cost?  A couple of dozen mugs.

Have you seen any great marketing ideas?  Share them with us by clicking on "comments" below.  If you have a picture, e-mail it to me at susie at reachadvisors dot com.

- Susie

Rethinking the Historic House Museum

New Solutions for House Museums: Ensuring the Long-Term Preservation of America’s Historic Houses
Donna Ann Harris

A few weeks ago, a colleague in the field shared with me the story of a house that had been donated to a women’s organization. This group or women are absolutely determined to turn that house into a museum, despite receiving advice that the site would draw few visitors and not be economically sustainable. It is a story I have heard often, and it is a story that always breaks my heart as I look at the deteriorating condition, and low visitation, at so many house museums across the country.

As I wrote about in my November posting on Relevance and Historic House Museums, there is a growing movement in the field to rethink the uses of many historic houses that have been used as museums. Donna Ann Harris has added considerably to this movement through her book New Solutions for House Museums, as she advises readers on how to go about planning for a new use for a historic house. She also shares fourteen excellent case studies of organizations that have been through this process and developed new solutions, ranging from downshifting into a study house to selling a house, with easements, on the open market.  

In my mind, Ms. Harris’s book builds naturally on a similar book that was published in the UK.  I read The Fate of the English Country House, by David Littlejohn, several years ago, but I pulled it from my shelf this morning to compare. Mr. Littlejohn’s book focuses on the large number of English country houses that are too expensive for private owners to maintain properly, and examines various potential reuses, including their pros and cons, that a private owner might consider. Opening to the public is one of many options Mr. Littlejohn explores, as well as adding golf courses, special function rentals, children’s attractions (think the Longleat lions), turning it into a hotel or condos, or selling to a school, nursing home, or corporation.  

Both books are fascinating reads, particularly if you work in the historic house museum field. The challenge is, however, getting these books, and their ideas, into the hands and minds of trustees of struggling sites. 

- Susie

Groundhogs and E-mail Footers

I love receiving e-mail from Darren Macfee at the Lincoln Children’s Museum.  It is not because he is a great guy (he is), but because I love the footers attached to e-mails coming from LCM staff.  The footers are always clever, colorful, and timely.  They are also always changing, illustrating how very much is going on at the museum.  They make me wish I did not live 1500 miles away and that I had a small child to take to the museum!

Adding footers to your e-mail to promote upcoming events is easy to do, and many museum staff members do this routinely.  But I have never seen a museum, nonprofit, or corporation do it as well as the Lincoln Children's Museum - and it is largely due to how darn eye-catching their footers are. 

It is a little thing, but it is highly effective, consistent branding for LCM.  And 98 cent admission for Groundhog Day?  Bargain!

OK, So I Am a Material Culture Geek

The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective, edited by Arjun Appadurai

I have always been curious about how people interact with, well, stuff. I think about it a lot, from how people used their belongings to show growing refinement 200 years ago in America, to how Americans today use brands and labels to define who they are as individuals (or how they consciously avoid brands, again to define themselves). And, of course, museums tend to be filled with objects that visitors have to relate to in order to understand and learn. So I end up reading a fair amount about people and stuff.

Rosemary Krill, one of my mentors from my Winterthur days, now teaches a museum studies graduate course at the University of Delaware.  Well over a year ago she shared her syllabus with me, and this volume was on it (yes, my to-read list is very long). The articles in this book are very academic and dense, so unless you are a Material Culture Geek, it might not be on the top of your reading pile.

But one article really stood out for me. Brian Spooner, a professor of anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote “Weavers and Dealers: The Authenticity of an Oriental Carpet.” I loved this article. Not only was it well-written, but he had a number of very thought-provoking tidbits that I found fascinating. Primarily, as Westerners we seek authenticity in the goods that we buy (primarily due to the “plethora of objects and categories of objects that [industrial society] generates for our consumption” – ok, I buy that), but if a Turkish carpet is made for the Western market, is it authentic? Or has it lost its authenticity because it was made with a foreign consumer in mind, and therefore of different design and pattern than the weaver would make under normal circumstances?

Similarly, if a high-fashion handbag with an Italian name on it is made in Asia, in  the exact style and manner as an Italian craftsman would make it, is it authentic? Or if a Mexican dish is made here in Boston with peppers that are not native to Mexico, is that authentic?

And does it matter to our museum audiences? I have to think that ultimately, it does. James said to me once that all those images out there of Munch’s The Scream has only increased his desire to go see one of the originals Munch painted. As storehouses of the unique and, I will say it, the authentic, museums have tremendous opportunities to show off the authentic to audiences that are searching harder and harder for authenticity instead of pastiche.  The big question then becomes – how do we do it . . . . authentically??

- Susie

What We Are Reading

Recently, I was asked by a colleague in the field “what do you read?” She knew that we did a lot of internal research, but she wanted to know how we supplement that research. And she also wanted tips for her “to-read” list because she was overwhelmed by the huge number of books and magazines out there.

This colleague is not the first to ask. During our November Museum Conversation on Curated Brand Experiences, some of our listeners expressed interest in us sharing some of our favorite books on branding.

So we are starting a new “What We Are Reading” section on the blog so that we can share what we find interesting and relevant to museums. It is not, by any means, a comprehensive list of what we read (you are unlikely to be interested in Susie’s affinity for Maggie O’Farrell novels, for instance), and it is not meant to be a critical review either. It is simply a way to say “hey, I just read this and thought it was relevant to museums in this way . . .” Think of it as us helping you curate your to-read lists!

We would also love to hear from you! Have you read something recently that made you think about museums a new way? Something you think your peers in the field should be reading? E-mail Susie a quick write-up (susie at reachadvisors dot com), telling us why you think it is relevant to museums, and we will consider it as a “guest blog post!”