posted 10-04-2006 10:40 AM            

I think there is a win, win, win, win approach to consider. Collector exhibits by Museums (Off site), This could be a win for the museum, the collector, the public and the host of the exhibit.

The Museum's impetus/priorities for this type of project will have to slightly shift from curatorial to marketing. The efforts by all involved will come with a cost but each should feel there is a benefit so the costs to each becomes incidental.

There are places of business (mall, stores, etc) which want to create distinction from other similar places of business and to draw a crowd. Having a Museum credentialed exhibit on their premises that their competitors don't have will certainly do the trick.

The Museum would have to develop easily setup/moved display cases. The cases would securely hold and exhibit a collection and would carry the Museum's logo and marketing info.

Each Museum will have to determine how much curatorial control they want to exercise. I suppose the Museum's marketing people will bare most of the responsibility with moderating from the curatorial department. For most collectors just the opportunity to share their collection with the public and to be able to discuss their collection with a curator will be huge.

The places of business will have or will easily be able to put in place things like insurance, security, advertising, etc.

Since the exhibit is not at/on Museum property the Registrar issues if any should be significantly reduced.

Things like a mini catalogue could be done. Depending on how and by who there will be marketing benefits to the Museum, the place of business and possible marketing/advertising fees paid to the Museum.

Depending on the each institutions individual issues and personalities the approaches to the above will greatly vary. This is just a jumping off place for an idea. The fleshing out of the general idea will require a lot of up front development work. But once it is done then putting out a collector exhibition should be fairly easy and the benefits for all could be awesome.

posted 10-04-2006 01:35 PM            

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I am always amazed at how often, and with such ease, some people can make a good idea bad.

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That's the way the people who worked so hard to put together that exhibit felt, too. Such endeavors - like so many others - require a commitment by both parties. Coming up with a good idea is one thing, but finding someone else equally committed to it to implement it is something else. Half a century of watching faculty try to get administrators behind them (and vice versa) makes one somewhat cynical -- and very careful.

The take home lesson is that you really have to be both a good sales person and planner, carefully selecting the potential participants, and thinking of and addressing the potential pitfalls beforehand.

posted 10-04-2006 04:54 PM            

In the above dynamics, there is a body politic that is often overlooked. This body has crafted something everyone considers important but few have figured out how to measure (at least in a timely way). It is called Marketing (which is related to advertising but is different). The marketeers have crafted a very interesting and powerful influence when it comes to developing such projects/ideas. Getting the marketeers on board will often overcome a significant set of obstacles.

You are correct:

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The take home lesson is that you really have to be both a good sales person and planner, carefully selecting the potential participants, and thinking of and addressing the potential pitfalls beforehand.

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But I am not here to wax on about politics. Here, in the SSF, we may float ideas and discuss concepts (usually more directly silver related). If nothing develops, then there is no harm and if something does develop then we all share the credit. I am floating an idea. An idea which I am willing to explore as to what might be possible. I am not really interested in identifying the "why nots" first, instead lets first take a "can do" approach and let the obstacles surface naturally in the "can do" process of things.

So, Lets hear some positive brain storming!

posted 10-04-2006 11:20 PM            

Does anyone have any experience with these smaller traveling exhibits?

posted 10-04-2006 11:30 PM            

And at the antique shows people always remarked that this was like a museum, only with friendly helpful people to explain things.

One of the most fascinating museums I have ever been to is the Oriental Institute in Chicago. Which is hidden away on the UC campus, with no signs or directions anywhere. You wander around and eventually find it. Maybe.

In Chicago there are a number of ethnic museums that are located in the middle of ethnic commercial districts. They seem to attract a great deal of interest. And they do send out exhibits to schools and so forth.

posted 10-05-2006 06:39 PM            

For years I dreamed of having a "mini museum" in an empty store in the Mall at Short Hills, which is all of eleven miles from Newark. The lack of interest on the part of every corporate entity in supporting such an effort was overwhelming. But, of course, I wanted the space to show off The Newark Msueum's "buried treasures" to people in the mall--people who might not be interested in coming to Newark. A museum wouldn't have any interest in using such a space (and such corporate benefaction, if it existed in this context) to highlight private collections. No federal or state agency will fund museum exhibitions of a private collection, even if that collection is a promised gift to the museum. Exhibitions that include objects loaned from private collections can get funding from all sources, but only when the intellectual content of that exhibition is very high.

You can't imagine how difficult it is to get funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities or the National Endowment for the Arts. One spends literally three months non stop developing a grant, only to have it shot down. But I digress...

Just because a "collector's corner" might be off site for a museum, doesn't mean the museum wouldn't be liable, and thus obliged to jump through all the museum-standards hoops, to oversee shows in such a venue. Now, if an "antiques mall" or some such place wanted to do it, the standards wouldn't have to be so strict. But would collectors want to display their treasures without a feeling of security and supervision?