Welcome to our weekly museums in the news roundup. Italy offers to share disputed statue with Getty Museum (Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California) Castle museum shows why Charlie Brown was a real winner (Castle Museum, Santa Rosa, California) Selfridge Military Air Museum gets new displays …
The registration deadline for this very interesting, very useful NEMA workshop is next Monday, so run to the website now to sign up! *** The Membership, Development, PR and Marketing Professional Affinity Group Presents: Best of Times, Worst of Times: Making the Most of What …
One of the best ways to learn about museums is to visit museums. Lots of them. In class last week, several of us were remarking on how much fun it is to visit museums with fellow museum-folk.
And so, a poll. Would you be interested in regular, recurring museum visits with members of the Tufts community either to locations on public transportation or to locations with transportation provided, to include perhaps some kind of group lunch afterward to digest information and delicious food? (Second question: could that sentence have been any longer or more complicated?)
Please note: you can choose more than one answer in this poll. If you’re up for any wacky hijinks that might ensue, in fact, you should check all three of the first boxes.
[poll id=”2″]
Welcome to our weekly museums in the news roundup. Museum keeps pace despite changes and turmoil around the world (C.M. Russell Museum, Great Falls, Montana) Children’s museum goes for regional appeal (San Diego Children’s Discovery Museum, San Diego, California) Raiding the Creation Museum with peaceful …
I recently finished reading Thomas Hoving’s memoir, Making the Mummies Dance. Hoving was director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1967 to 1977. He was a fascinating, polarizing figure, and passed away in 2009; his obituary in the New York Times is a thoughtful …
I don’t know how many museums are unionized (I’d love to hear about any, if anyone has some leads), so the specific problem that the Detroit Symphony Orchestra is facing might not have a direct correlation to museums – but other aspects certainly do.
Essentially, the orchestra’s private employment difficulties have spilled out into the public arena via that ever-popular venue for over-sharing, Facebook. Fans of the orchestra are up in arms; the management of the orchestra has made some bad public relations blunders (for example, demanding to know how many of the complaining Facebook fans had ever donated money…), and the striking musicians have set up their own Facebook fan page.
You can listen to the NPR story here.
What can museums learn from this?
Well, there’s the constant lesson that people keep learning about the internet: it’s public. It’s very, very public. That website you made back in 1995 as a stunt for your friends? Yeah, it’s still there somewhere.
Inherent in that broad publicity is a responsibility in two parts. First, be careful what you say out there. Just because the internet makes it easier to be anonymous doesn’t mean it makes it easier to escape repercussions. It also doesn’t remove the necessity of being thoughtful, sincere, and polite – a lesson the majority of anonymous commenters have yet to internalize. The responsibility for civil discourse in the internet age belongs to both sides, moreover – to a museum and its fans.
Second, be honest. Be transparent. Share with courage and emotion. If we’re moving into this brave new world of anonymity and computer screens, it’s incumbent on us to establish human connections to the people behind the usernames. This goes double for museums, I think, which are traditionally regarded as secretive organizations. I’m not saying over-share. I’m saying be honest and sincere about what you do share. Commit with emotion, and people will respond.
(Maybe a third lesson is don’t piss off your donors. For these purposes, donors also includes “potential donors” which is everyone from your elderly grandmother to the three year old who came to the family concert last week. Make bold artistic choices, not boneheaded managerial ones.)
Anyone else take anything else from this? Any other observations on online conduct in the information age for nonprofit organizations?