NAME's Review of THE GREEN MUSEUM

I am delighted with a positive review of our book The Green Museum: A Primer on Environmental Sustainability, especially since the reviewer said the book "...now has a place in our department library alongside The Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines and other documentation we consult regularly. It should be considered core reading for anyone involved in green initiatives."

We hope that others will feel the same!

The review did describe a "few missteps" and these include the absence of a strong and clear call to action, and no notice of the recycled content of the materials to produce the book.

Believe me, we jumped up and down with the publisher about that one and here's what happened: When we first requested recycled materials the publisher's staff said it was not something they could do at the moment. Six months later, on their own, when it was time to print, their research had uncovered new options and low and behold The Green Museum was AltaMira's SECOND book published with recycled materials. Though the information didn't make it into type-set, the website reads: The Green Museum is printed with soy-based ink on recycled stock. We're delighted that our work triggered this change and look forward to it spreading throughout the publisher's list and increasing the level of sustainability in each book!

As for too little call for action, check out the end of the book. In self-defense, the text was completed 18 months ago and the field wasn't sure it was ready for the book, let alone shouting a call to action, but there is a call to action, and one we continue to promote. Since green has accelerated faster than the print publishing industry can print, anything about green looks old....glad that soon the book will be available on Kindle and Sony! Elizabeth and I have an article in the works for Museum that will take a 100-year viewpoint...now that's acceleration.

Go green, and prosper.

Recession's Possible Effect on Museum Attendance

This just in - March 10th in Shaila Dawan's NYT article "A Casualty of Recession": "Holly Moreno, 30, a part-time Web site manager in the Dallas suburb of Rowlett, Tex., whose husband is a business analyst, said she had been taking their 2-year-old son to indoor playgrounds at the mall and free story-times at the library instead of paying to get into the children’s museum, their favorite wintertime haunt." http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/us/10reset.html?th&emc=th

This is the time to promote museum membership as low-cost,unlimited access: a recession-minded, cost-effective for everyone positive leisure-time activities. Right now museums should see memberships grow the way we can expect to see YMCA/YWCA memberships grwo.

Your museum or site is a safe and smart place to play with the kids, a safe and smart place to walk safely, and a safe and smart place to walk your dog safely (think Trustees of Reservations' Green Dog plan). Encourage folks to think creatively:

• "Meet your friends for a picnic"
• "Have coffee with The Masters every Saturday morning",
• or "Remember when you could spend all day wandering?"

Think about it, a solid percentage ofyour members are movitated by commitment to our institution, the rest by the return on their membeship cost. I've never been a fan of membership, but I can see how in this economy membership is a way to encourage increased visitation as users chase more bang for the buck. It's our opportunity to turn the economic transaction into a long-term friendship; but you can't do that if they're going to the library or mall instead.

Museums should be a balm to recession-weary citizens. If you're looking for a way to build public currency right now, this is it.

Watch the UK's Creative Spaces

Keep an eye on Creative Spaces, the National Museums Online Learning Project. By connecting the collections of nine National Museums, the site offers users a chance to learn from all the collections.

I particularly like the notebook feature. If you were Darwin, you'd be creating a field notebook and collecting specimens. Here, you can do it, and save it, online. That's terrific public engagement.

The site launched just last week - with much pomp and circumstance. Looks worth it! Try it - http://nhm.nmolp.org/creativespaces

~ SB

Colbert, Humor, and American Museums

Last winter there was a large-format digital print hanging temporarily at the National Portrait Gallery. Yes, the one on the way to the second-floor bathrooms. Yes, Stephen Colbert’s portrait.

Originally the Gallery had planned to keep it on view for six weeks. It garnered so much public attention that the Gallery extended its stay four more weeks until ~ April Fool’s Day.

There were lines down the hall on Saturdays. Strangers took pictures for each other as they posed with the portrait. Teenagers and young men -- not the Gallery’s usual demographic -- came in droves. Compared to the same months last year, attendance jumped 20% in January with only two weeks of Colbert exposure. It jumped 33% in February, and then 57% in March as the public got in its last month of portrait-viewing.

The run was good for Colbert; it could be great for museums.

Museums and their staff value humor much more than the stereotype implies or our performance illustrates. Clearly the public values any humor we museum-folk might dare to share. Still, some museum-types (people and institutions) are uncomfortable with what might be considered a media ‘stunt’ to attract attention. They worry that it might lead to dilution: of mission, message, importance, quality…all very valuable associations for museums.

The Colbert Episode shows that humor (and the media) can lead to discussions, engagement, excitement, new opportunities…all very valuable associations for museums.

The Gallery’s foray into public humor, and so into public discourse, was a masterful example of sharp minds at work: that of Colbert, his staff and the Gallery staff.

And it’s a sorely-needed example of public playfulness in a museum. May we see more of it and may the public help museums practice it and relish it.

~ SB