tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58777605213957593832024-03-08T11:12:03.481-08:00Curating the Future: Museum AdministrationUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877760521395759383.post-40559197383196705442011-11-20T03:28:00.000-08:002011-11-20T03:28:59.610-08:00Occupy MuseumsIt has been a while since I posted anything, for many reasons. I have been motivated to write about Occupy Museums, but haven't found the time to do the research. I think it is incredibly important that with budget cuts at museums, they continue as places where knowledge, beauty, and enjoyment can be had by all. Occupy Museums reminds us that art isn't a priviledge for the wealthy, but a healthy outlet for all people. No matter what you think of the rest of the Occupy movement, I hope everyone who works for museums-staff, volunteers, or board members-supports the idea that museums should be open to all!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877760521395759383.post-51149721376615284222011-05-19T09:16:00.000-07:002011-05-19T09:16:34.905-07:00Chicago's Newest Exhibit: BridezillasChicago's Art Institute is one of the hundreds of museums that rents space to generate funds. Recently, they installed a mural by Pae White that covers the windows along the popular terrace that many brides hope to host receptions on. <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-05-17/news/ct-met-art-institute-wedding-20110517_1_art-institute-s-modern-wing-erin-hogan-terrace">The brides are not taking this sitting down</a> (and not just because its cocktail hour!).<br />
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I, for one, am a bit agog at the idea that you can rent an art museum and then make a complaint when it displays art. There are about 10 couples at the time of the article who are making a formal complaint about the work obscuring the windows on the terrace. Fine, I understand, you saw it one way and you would like it to stay that way. I've planned a wedding, I have no problem with the idea that you would like to get what you pay for. They are expensive, and an important opportunity to put forward a good impression with your new family and friends. That said, if you are the kind of person that likes to manage every detail, maybe a museum isn't for you.<br />
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'"This isn't against the artist themselves; it is an amazing opportunity for them," Gonis said. "But in fairness, the institute needs to keep in mind the other individuals who have contracted the space."' So now the venue supposed to put its program of display on hold because the renters don't like the art in the art museum? I am very uncomfortable with what this means for museums. I hope (and assume) that the Art Institute will keep the mural up and stick to their guns about content and presentation. This isn't content censorship. This is about people who think that because they paid a bit of money, they should have some say in how the museum is run on a transactional basis. If AI caves, this sets a dangerous precedent!<br />
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Comments, as always, are welcome!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877760521395759383.post-47597022187753161022011-05-14T04:17:00.000-07:002011-05-14T04:17:31.938-07:00A Quick RundownSo I haven't been keeping up much. Lots of articles get read, like <a href="http://aamhouston.wordpress.com/2011/05/03/join-us-as-houston-hosts-the-aam-annual-meeting%E2%80%99s-first-ever-community-service-project/">this one</a> about the AAM conference's first ever community service project, reflecting the trend in museums' expanding definition as a community space, or "Deciding What Not to Do", which came to me in two forms: <a href="http://historicsites.wordpress.com/2011/04/24/the-non-profit-challenge-deciding-what-not-to-do/">here</a> and an article I read in the Economist or somewhere that basically covers the same ideas abut on a personal level. The truth is, I haven't been doing as much work with museums in the past couple of months and am starting to feel a bit unengaged. I feel like its a good time to get some fresh perspectives out, so keep an eye on this space for a guest blogger or two.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877760521395759383.post-53815459773301230722011-04-07T06:12:00.000-07:002011-04-07T06:34:47.909-07:00The Huff about CloughI am still following the controversy about the Smithsonian/National Portrait Gallery censorship of A Fire in My Belly. It has been interesting to see how people are drawing parallels between this incident and the culture wars of 15 years ago. I have to admit that at first I wasn't very happy about the way the whole thing went down, but after reading a profile about G. Wayne Clough and his managerial style, I feel like I understand where he was coming from. A lot has been made of the fact that he pulled a piece that was essentially hidden--visitors had to choose to show the piece on a computer amongst a menu of other videos--and how that makes it worse. But I have thought about it, and feel like without knowing that he was scaring off major funders, this was probably his justification for it in the first place. If you go to the movies to see a PG-13 film, and there's a nickelodeon with possibly dubious content to the side, who is going to really miss it when you decide its not appropriate? Making a minor edit shouldn't mean much, right? Apparently the Andy Warhol Foundation, and several others, those with institutional memory reaching back to the 1990's, disagree.<br />
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Instead, I have come to focus my upset on the Smithsonian establishment, who recruited not from the arts (which would be fine, especially with so many science initiatives within the organisation), or from museums, or elsewhere in the government. Instead, Clough came to SI from Georgia Tech, a fairly well-known and well-regarded American university. It isn't that being the head of a university, with its myriad departments and priorities, is so different from being the head of the Smithsonian's 19 museums and various research arms. It's that recruiting someone with experience in museums/public policy/the arts would be familiar with the institutional personality and memory of the Smithsonian. It's the same reason I wouldn't expect the head of a school district to go run a retail company, or the head of a hospital to go run a bank. Many of the skills are transferable, but there are certain skills and mindsets, even acknowledging that these came sometimes become toxic, that make experience in one kind of organisation ineffective in another. Clough's predecessor was from banking. When Clough goes, whether it is next month or next year, I wouldn't bet on a public servant/museums/arts person replacing him. And I certainly don't think the Directors will heed the findings of the People for the American Way report that found five bullet points for museums seeking to respond to future flare-ups:<br />
<blockquote>'"Don't Panic: Have a Plan and Follow It" (a piece of common sense that Clough <a href="http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/36684/what-smithsonian-chief-g-wayne-clough-learned-about-censorship-at-georgia-tech/" target="_blank">has a history of ignoring</a>); "Defend Core Principles" (of which freedom of expression should be key); "Understand and Expose Your Opponents" ("Exposing the extremist records, anti-freedom agendas, and general disregard for the truth demonstrated by right-wing culture warriors can undermine the impact of their attacks"); "Embrace Debate" ("The best response to irresponsible speech is more speech.... Short-circuiting debate by trying to avoid controversy prevents art and arts institutions from having this potentially transformative impact on public debate"); and, finally, "Demonstrate Accountability".'*</blockquote>In the end, I'm not sure who's not getting it--Clough, or the SI board.<br />
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*The 5 points as quoted (including link to another time when Clough was soft on LGBT rights in the face of right wing bullying) and a review of some of the protests directed at Clough can be found <a href="http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/37340/the-culture-wars-are-back-a-summit-at-the-corcoran-draws-lessons-from-the-smithsonians-wojnarowicz-censorship-scandal/?utm_source=nlda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter">here</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877760521395759383.post-46440147253729875032011-03-22T15:05:00.000-07:002011-03-22T16:57:48.665-07:00Art, Literature, and Museum Experience Ethics<a href="http://blogs.artinfo.com/lacmonfire/2011/03/21/william-leavitt-fake-fakes-the-philip-k-dick-disneyland-prank/?utm_source=nlda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter">This blog post comparing P.K. Dick and William Leavitt</a> provided an interesting (and art-targeted) additional point to a trip I took recently to <a href="http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-theworkhouse/">Southwell Workhouse</a> with my partner and some of his historian colleagues. We were led around by one of the academics who had advised the National Trust when they first acquired the property. Because we had our own tour guide, we forewent the usual audio guides and enjoyed a mixed history of the building. This led to quite the discussion on the presentation, the omissions, and the modifications made, and something like a case study in how museums tell mediated truths.<br />
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When one enters the first room on the audio guide tour, a narrator explains the divided entrances that sort men, women, and children. According to our subject experts, not only was this a fabrication at Southwell, it just wasn't done. To most people educated in the Western world, there is only one thing this particular set up can evoke: the Holocaust. Torn between understanding the need to make a point about the difference between workhouse life and the outside world, and making a respectful, educational, but accurate presentation of life in a Victorian institution, I ended up disappointed. <br />
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Walls were whitewashed so that no trace of graffiti or other signs of the building's former inhabitants are visible. The museum literature pointed out that in the Workhouse, there was nothing but time. Inmates, they claimed, cleaned every facet spic and span constantly, despite the presence of large amounts of Workhouse-era graffiti when the building came to the trust. There was no mention on maps nor models as to where the mentally unfit, whether the result of syphilitic dementia or a genetic defect, would have been contained (in a part of the House not open to the public, we found out). The courtyard still drains into the cellar, yet the building has dehumidifiers and the only problems with damp were almost certainly intentional and on the top floor.<br />
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The rooms are unfurnished because apparently they went unphotographed and no one is sure of the type of furnishings or their layout. Despite the fact that there are dehumidifiers at work in at least portions of the house, it is unheated to preserve the sense of chill.<br />
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These two sets of facts when combined created a troubling picture of the visitor experience at Southwell. With an understanding that our group did not receive the full experience the way the National Trust expected us to, I still had a hard time with the way the house was edited. Not including furniture in room displays to prevent inaccuracy portrays the exhibition as highly concerned with facts. On the other hand, whitewashing both the walls and the layout conceal certain truths that would make the experience more accurate. I understand there are logistical concerns, such as the fact that once the graffiti is preserved in situ as an exhibit, visitor movement would be severely restricted. I am not asking for this kind of full disclosure.<br />
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To go back to the blog entry, I am quite happy with the mechanical bird method of production--as long as visitors realise they are seeing mechanical birds. Maybe the National Trust (or any number of other museums) is a bit too conservative to embrace the latest thinking. A post-modern, post-structuralist approach that lets all the wires hang out would encourage visitors to explore the ideas behind why the exhibition is the way it is, while the house is maintained in its current state. Instead of leading visitors to believe that the Workhouse is the way it is because that's how it always was, there is a tremendous opportunity to discuss Victorian Ideals and how the museum (and by extension, the National Trust in this case study) represents them. <br />
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I will leave the slippery slope between informing and entertaining for another entry. If museums are presenting "The Truth", don't they have an ethical obligation to draw a visible line between fact and interpretation? Should museums make a commitment to telling the truth, or labelling interpretation, throughout the experience?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877760521395759383.post-8284990701565352992011-03-02T12:29:00.000-08:002011-03-02T12:29:46.369-08:00An Interesting AdvertisementApparently LACMA will be placing this in 3D movie theatres across the US... What do you think?<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/rteCxCjBFIk?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877760521395759383.post-8381497352781511212011-02-24T04:09:00.000-08:002011-02-24T04:09:29.669-08:00The Economist gets ArtyEveryone keeps talking about <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/18175675">this</a>. It's an article in The Economist about how business has taken a turn to being a bit art-obsessed. And I don't mean what's hanging in their lobbies.<br />
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The interesting part to me was talking about the fact that artists know how to tell stories and that is an important marketing tool to business. I naturally thought to myself "but museums also know how to tell stories!". I've written about museums expanding to function as community centres, and bulking up their bank accounts by going in more commercial directions. The thought of museum exhibition designers being loaned out or freelancing to help marketing agencies is an interesting one. An even more pressing issue, however, is internal cooperation. <br />
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One of the complaints I've heard from staff who work in admin is that they feel a bit disconnected from the actual work of the organisation. The more accountants, marketers, development workers and other professionals who don't work directly with exhibits and day-to-day operations can gain input, the better. If a curator can help the marketing staff tell a story, they should, just like accountants rely on budget justifications to know why departments spend what they do. It's so important with our shrinking pool of resources to work as a team. So maybe next time you have a staff meeting, try sitting next to someone from another department, or ask someone from another team to lunch. Or maybe something like <a href="http://www.aam-us.org/pubs/mn/glasser.cfm">this award-winning program for staff at an American regional museum.</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877760521395759383.post-5630643313536391602011-02-16T09:14:00.000-08:002011-02-16T09:14:35.440-08:00Investing in CultureThis has been kicking around for a while already, but I wanted to give it some press. Mission Models Money has released their Capital Matters report, which discusses the sick funding cycle of museums and cultural organisations (in the UK but it could be anywhere, and not restricted to culture) that feed into this idea of "using" funders, rather than having a mutually beneficial relationship that views funders as investors.<br />
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<a href="http://www.missionmodelsmoney.org.uk/programme/capital-matters/">Here</a> is the page on their website to download from. There is a space for comments on the page, and in the coming months, they will be publicising some of the conversation the report inspires.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877760521395759383.post-31479484526850997692011-02-10T04:17:00.000-08:002011-02-10T04:17:54.401-08:00It's been too long!In the process of changing continents, I dropped the upkeep ball. I've seen a lot of great articles in the last month and a half, but just have a couple to share. One is from an art history blog, and one is about a developing story.<br />
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Linked below is a two part article about museum security. It's interesting advice for all sizes of museum. One of the points is to have your security guards greet guests. Don't have security guards? A volunteer who is willing to just say "hi" or "hello" can be just as effective. As the article reminds us under point number 4 (about CCTV use), surveillance is a great deterrent. If would-be thieves and vandals feel they've been noticed, they're less likely to commit a crime.<br />
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<a href="http://blogs.artinfo.com/secrethistoryofart/2011/02/04/ten-cost-effective-steps-to-improve-security-at-your-museum/">Part One</a> and <a href="http://blogs.artinfo.com/secrethistoryofart/2011/02/05/ten-cost-effective-steps-to-improve-security-at-your-museum-part-ii/">Part Two</a><br />
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The other article that really got my interest this week was about the Chinese mummies that are/are not on display at the <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2011/02/08/133570520/with-china-treasures-under-wraps-pa-museum-takes-dummy-mummy-route">Penn Museum</a> right now. On one hand, the Chinese say this is a simple problem of not checking all of the bureaucratic ins and outs, while the director of the museum says it's all one big misunderstanding. If I had to make my staff replace objects with photos and papier-mache, I would be very disheartened. They say the visitors like it, but I keep going back to grad school discussions about the power of the object and reproductions. Has anyone seen the mummies at any point in their current tour, or the exhibit at the Penn?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877760521395759383.post-91032079024777492022010-12-31T10:28:00.000-08:002010-12-31T10:28:48.521-08:00New Media and Supporting the Old InterfaceArianna Huffington posted <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/museums-20-what-happens-w_b_801372.html">this</a> a few days ago, about how much New Media to let into museums. I've been entertaining holiday guests and too busy to post till now, but I have been thinking about what she says.<br />
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It isn't that Huffington provides great insight into where museums are or should be going. It is more important because how often do museums have thoughtful, literate people who are not trained in museum studies, or with a PhD in Art History or 10 years of experience running a science center, but who have embraced new media, talk to them about new media and offer this hands-off point of view.<br />
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I think that as an outsider Huffington has missed some of the point of a few of the museums she gives as examples' various web-based projects--that some of them are much more experimental than she seems to think--because most people who come from a traditional museum background see only the telos of the closed museum. However, when museum audiences embrace a post-modern vision of the museum as the final authority on how it does business, but not necessarily on every detail, this kind of new media begins to make more sense.<br />
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This conversation is one I keep coming back to. How do museums embrace the changes in how we interpret objects, present information, use the internet, in a way that makes sense to people who have grown up with a completely different conception of museums? What does rebranding museums as a place of dialogue rather than education look like? How do we get people like Arianna Huffington to see where we are going and get on board? Or do we just have to wait for a younger generation to come forward and carry on museums as they have always understood them?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877760521395759383.post-67962194068616270452010-12-13T17:13:00.000-08:002010-12-13T17:13:01.359-08:00A Tug of WarI have been wondering how diversifying funding streams would affect things like the Smithsonian family of museums since the Fire in my Belly debacle broke. Today the Warhol Foundation has announced that unless the portion of Wojnarowicz's video that was a part of the Hide/Seek exhibit (scroll down for details) is restored, they will not consider funding future requests from the Smithsonian Institution. The New York Times article can be found here: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/13/warhol-foundation-threatens-to-end-financing-of-smithsonian-exhibitions/.<br />
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There are many issues to unpack in this development. Will the government move to ban outside support from Smithsonian exhibits so they can continue to censor as they please? Or will the Smithsonian find itself in a place to fight back? Are we re-enacting the culture wars like it may have seemed a couple of weeks ago, or is there a greater shift at the horizon?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877760521395759383.post-55954099836245698372010-12-12T11:25:00.000-08:002010-12-12T11:25:35.858-08:00Blog rollSo today's post is a simple one. I started this blog because I could find lots of blogs about exhibitions, or collections, or museums in general, but very little aimed at administration. I'm wondering what kinds of industry blogs my readers are writing, or admiring as something a little different.<br />
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One of my favorites is <a href="http://museumssuck.com/">museumssuck.com</a>. It's no longer updated, but the author has a dark sense of humor that I can definitely appreciate.<br />
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Another not-your-usual-blog is <a href="http://petrovay.com/tmsblog/">TMS Blog</a>. It's a way to keep up with tips and tricks for The Museum System, but includes discussions of other relevant technology.<br />
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You don't need a log in to leave a comment on this blog, but if you blog yourself, please leave your URL!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877760521395759383.post-54667591515830482682010-12-03T12:40:00.000-08:002010-12-03T12:49:23.630-08:00Staff MoraleSo many of my friends have been talking about the removal of<i> A Fire in my Belly</i> by the late artist David Wojnarowicz from the <a href="http://npg.si.edu/exhibit/hideseek/index.html">Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture</a> show at the National Portrait Gallery (US), and I finally found an interview with Martin Sullivan, the Director of the Gallery, about why the Smithsonian chose to remove the piece. You can hear it <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/blog/2010/12/conversation-martin-sullivan-director-of-the-national-portrait-gallery.html">here</a>. In the interview, Sullivan details the difficulty of accessing the piece, which is part of a touchscreen display where users would have select <i>A Fire in my Belly</i> from within a menu including several other works. He does a great job of describing briefly the process of putting together a show, and how loan negotiations don't always come together the way curators and directors would like. He also described how the video may be hard to read as portraiture. Toward the end, with about a minute left, Sullivan starts discussing what he describes as "another moment" where we in the arts are fighting for the freedom to mount shows that have educational value, to engage, to get people talking. Its the early 1990's culture wars all over again here in the U.S., and curators and museums are going to have to contend with more than just the usual budget and logistics issues in putting together exhibits.<br />
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It is a great moment to talk about the let downs of curating: of not getting the show to have the look or feel originally conceived--because of budget, because of difficulties securing loans, because of the controversies the show might stir up. Integrity--of curators, institutions, even artists themselves--rests largely on the shoulders of administrators and boards and I think its important to support them as they work to make the best out of our current climate. I'm wondering if any readers want to share stories about how they made the best of a bad situation in putting together a show, or how administrators or board members have made their jobs easier, by making phone calls, taking the heat, or trying to get the impossible accomplished.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877760521395759383.post-5239045862786651222010-11-24T12:56:00.000-08:002010-11-24T12:59:04.619-08:00grant deadlinesIn about 30 minutes, I am teleconferencing with an agency that wants me to write a grant for them. I am about to tell them no. <br />
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I have worked with the agency over a period of several years to secure funding, and design and revise programs. They were recently put between a rock and a hard place when a partnering agency let them know that they would not be included in next year's funding application. In a panic, and deservedly so with only three weeks until the deadline, this agency wants me to respond to the same RFP they were just cut from. This entails creating a community collaborative of at least 10 partners, who will all have to assist in a needs assessment. Meanwhile, agency staff have to plan how to expand programming from one very well-established, precision targeted and long running program to include a program for foster youth, outreach to parents and the community at large, and possibly provide service opportunities for participating youth. Instead of finding a bullet for their new funding problem, they are hoping for a buckshot miracle.<br />
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I can see the amount of time and energy required--not just for writing the RFP response, but also hiring and training new staff, writing or researching new curriculum, and other strains that the organization may wish they were up to conquering. Their enthusiasm is met only by the fear that with a loss of funding, other funders will pull out as well. It is every organization's worst nightmare.<br />
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Instead of just telling them no, I have found a similar but smaller grant that has a deadline 3 months away. This grant from the same funding source is specifically targeted to programs that provide information and education, and has about half the minimum funding requirement compared to the RFP they approached me with. The additional funding they will receive will allow them to take the 6 months between award notification and the start of programming to have plenty of time to focus on their strength, information and education programming, and expand their program to already identified additional target populations while fortifying their position with current funders. There is no need to create a collaborative, and a much smaller set of documentation requirements. <br />
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Sometimes it is hard to say no to a chance to apply for funding. It can often feel like any money is better than no money. But when a deadline is short and everything seems impossible, listen to your gut instinct. No one at the agency was that excited about doing the work that the RFP would have required, which should have been the first sign. They contacted me because they hoped I could work a miracle. Hopefully, by finding a more appropriate funding source with a longer deadline, I have.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5877760521395759383.post-84839898220020540602010-11-20T14:14:00.000-08:002010-11-20T15:02:32.157-08:00KickstarterI thought a great way to start off this blog would be to share a review of a website called Kickstarter. It's an innovative idea for creatives who need to raise funds, but it can be really useful for museums too. Basically, for my American readers, it's like a PBS fund drive. If you donate a certain amount of money toward a goal of say, $5,000 toward publishing a new exhibition catalogue, you get a reward (like say a past exhibition catalogue or some gift shop surplus stock). The difference is that only if the campaign makes the goal, then peoples' cards get charged. If the goal isn't met, no one pays.<br />
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One organization's experience: <br />
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/%20http://www.pbs.org/idealab/2010/11/the-pros-and-cons-of-using-kickstarter-to-fundraise316.html">LocalWiki and Kickstarter</a><br />
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And the actual Kickstarter website: <br />
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<a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/">kickstarter.com</a><br />
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It's a new way to generate unrestricted funds, requiring a lot less effort than an event. Of course it has some drawbacks, but that's why I was so excited to see a review.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0