Are Vanishing Field Trips Creating The Lost Museum Generation?

Every type of museum should keep working to make their institution accessible and appealing to their youngest visitors.

That is what I kept thinking about when Susie Wilkening of Reach Advisors gave a Skype talk to my Bank Street graduate class yesterday.

Susie shared many interesting findings and insights regarding her Museum Audience research (much of which can be found on the Museum Audience Insight blog) but the one that stood out for me was the notion that if people don't get into the "museum habit" through visits when they are young (by 7 or 8 or so at the latest) they probably won't consider museums "necessary" (not just "nice") when they become adults. 

If children don't visit museums while they are still in grade school they simply won't grow up to be "Museum Advocates."

Perhaps these findings struck me because I'm a parent who just naturally wants to visit museums with my family (because that's what my family did when I was a kid.)

Maybe the importance of fostering positive attitudes in children toward museums resonates with me because of the parallels in research studies about children's attitudes toward science, in general, and science careers, in particular.  (Basically if you don't make science interesting/fun/compelling in elementary school, you've lost them in the upper grades.)

But I think more than anything, I'm seeing the scary ramifications of the "No Child Left Untested" mindset of current public school education that sees field trips to museums as "unnecessary."   As research on Museum Advocates shows, the first (and perhaps) only exposure children from lower socioeconomic households and families with lower educational attainment have to museums is through field trips. 

So what happens to the pipeline of early museum visitors that we want to grow up to be active adult consumers of culture if there are no museum field trips?  Museums already have a "demographic problem" in the fact that museum visitors tend to skew "Older" and "Whiter" than the way population trends (as projected by the census) in the U.S. are heading.

It's scary.  And it makes me fear for a robust future for museums filled with truly diverse audiences, not just the affluent and highly-educated (two groups, regardless of race or ethnicity,  that are clearly tied to early family visit to museums.)

I'd say it also reinforces the importance of both Children's Museums and child-friendly offerings in every type of museum.

I'd love for ExhibiTricks readers to share positive examples of programs, exhibits, and institutional attitudes that foster a love of museums in our youngest visitors.  Leave your thoughts and ideas in the "Comments Section" below or send me an email and I'll gather all the thoughts up to share in a future post.



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Another Cautionary Tale For Museums: What Happened To The Millennium Dome?

I happened upon the Danny's Land blog today, and aside from the fact that Dan Howland points out both Laurie Anderson's and Thomas Dolby's favorite oddball amusement parks (That would be "Dollywood" for Laurie and "Diggerland" for Thomas) he also offers a free PDF download of a treatise called "Dome and Domer: The Increasingly Stupid Story of the Millennium Dome."

The premise of the Millennium Dome: "Let's spend lots of money to build a ginormous new attraction with lots of flashy technology --- so many visitors will come, that it will be self-supporting!" certainly sounds familiar to museum people.

Unfortunately, initial bursts of civic enthusiasm and bucketfuls of municipal money do not make for long-term, sustainable business plans for museums. (See our previous posts on COSI Toledo and The Mark Twain House.)

Some of the important lessons learned from The Millennium Dome fiasco outlined in "Dome and Domer" are obvious in retrospect: the people who designed it weren't the people who had to run it, there was no cohesive "vision" to the entire enterprise, simple things like throughput and lines weren't taken into consideration, and tons of money was frittered away on bozo ideas like robotic pubic lice (!)

Obvious though such points about the 'Dome may be, there are still many museum projects hoping to survive on good intentions rather than sound business fundamentals.

Rather than detail here the many hilarious (and scary!) goofups that ultimately doomed the 'Dome, I'll let you download and read "Dome and Domer" for yourself.

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Sustainable Museums Part 3: Goodbye Mark Twain House?

I've written previously of the tricky business of not just opening, but also sustaining, museums in posts about COSI Toledo.

A recent article in the NY Times describes how Mark Twain's historic home (and museum) in Hartford, CT may now be in danger of closing due to lack of funds. This is a shame since I know from visiting Twain's home that it is beautiful and obviously of historic and cultural importance.

However, reading between the lines of the Times article, one has to wonder if the museum designed by "starchitect" Robert A.M. Stern (which cost $19 million, almost double the initial projections!) needed to be as large and grand as it ultimately became. Also, if your museum was losing money and cutting staff, would you eliminate key marketing and development positions?

There is also something unseemly when museums play the same sort of "chicken" game that the owners of sports stadiums pull --- "if you don't give us more money, we'll close the place down!" The Cradle of Aviation Museum on Long Island, which was funded largely by Nassau County, recently tried to make a similar argument.

The leadership in Nassau County told the Aviation Museum to "go fly a kite" and forced them to change their top management as well as institute a more aggressive fund raising plan.

It will be interesting to see how the greater Hartford community responds to the financial crisis at the Twain House and Museum.

(On a somewhat related note, I am offering a prize to anyone who can point me to a complete and definitive list of museums which received "earmarks" in the most recent Federal Budgets.)


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COSI Toledo: Act 2?

I just received word that the fine folks at COSI Toledo, which "officially" closed at the end of 2007 (see this previous ExhibiTricks post) have decided to keep in the game by offering a suite of outreach experiences to area schools. It's my understanding from personal communication and news reports that the museum facility remains closed to the public, and that all of the exhibits have been wrapped up and stored.

I wish the folks in Toledo luck. Perhaps now that they are starting from "square one" (in the sense that many museums first operate as a facility "without walls" providing outreach programs, etc. before they gain a permanent home) COSI Toledo may be able to garner important community and political support and reopen in a revitalized form.

If not, I sure hope all the exhibits find good homes!

Sustainable Museums. What happened to COSI Toledo?

In case you hadn't heard, COSI Toledo closed down permanently on December 31, 2007, after 10 years of operation.

I think it's a little sad and scary that one of the early "brand(ed) names" of the science center business, COSI, has taken such a drubbing in both its greatly expanded Columbus location, as well as in its now-defunct Toledo satellite.

Unfortunately, the news of museum closings, like COSI Toledo's, begs several important questions: 1) Are the traditional business models of museum operation truly sustainable? 2) Is the public really willing to support museums directly (through admissions, contributions, etc.) and/or indirectly through taxes, millages, etc.? 3) Should the IRS that grants 501 (c) 3 non-profit status for museums insist on more realistic business plans? All tough questions, which I don't claim to have the definitive answers to, but I am interested in starting a dialogue. So, what do you think?


Here's a link to some comments on the situation from some people who live in Toledo.

UPDATE: Now the folks at COSI Toledo are trying to make a go of it by offering outreach programs to local schools.