This article addresses the ways in which museum practice has grown or shifted in the ways it thinks about, implements, and uses visitor research. A brief overview of the role of government policies, funders, and theorists and thinkers in the field of museum practice provides a background upon which current practitioners think about the role and…

Museums often court corporate audiences through special event rentals and development and promotional partnerships. But we rarely approach them as potential adult learners. In overlooking them, we miss the potential of reaching a large number of often novice museum participants who can gain from gallery learning and develop a relationship with our…

The economic downturn has hit everyone hard. The author's organization, the Los Angeles Opera, has completed two years of downsizing, resulting in an almost 25% reduction in staff and overall budget cutting. Change that is not "nipping and tucking," but changing the dynamic and culture of the institution. However, if the organization hadn't done…

Revenue generation is a challenge faced by museums in today's economy. The authors encourage educators to take on a larger role in establishing new revenue streams. By applying Jim Collins' "Hedgehog Concept," their unique knowledge of audiences, and their strong ability to work in teams, educators can rethink what they've always done to influence…

Portfolio analysis is a simple yet powerful management tool. Programs and activities are placed on a grid with mission along one axis and financial return on the other. The four boxes of the grid (low mission, low return; high mission, low return; high return, low mission; high return, high mission) help managers identify which programs might be…

Museum leaders around the country are in the midst of examining and changing their business models in response to new economic realities. Museum educators have an opportunity to play a leading role in this endeavor. To do so educators must understand the relationship between money and mission. For too long there has been a belief that the…

Museum educators at small museums are sometimes thrust, solo, into building budgets from scratch. In this case study an emerging professional discovers that she has limited funding for an existing program that she was hired to run. She finds that she has to rebuild the budget to discover the program's true costs, and that sustainability depends…

Striving to provide public good and maximize public value strike many as highly abstract and idealistic ideas. Written in the form of an interview, this article, written from the perspective of a practitioner, addresses some of the pragmatic issues that arise when trying to conceptualize approaches to museum offerings and demonstrate their…

In 2005-2006, the National Park Service Office of Interpretive Planning at Harpers Ferry Center, in collaboration with the author, conducted an evaluation project to (a) assess the appropriateness and quality of specific elements of National Park Service (NPS) interpretive plans, (b) determine where improvements in planning might be made, and (c)…