Like Amy I also faced both a physical and perceptual visibility problem when
I became Director.   The museum building is on a busy street corner and had
construction going on across the street.   We had moved into the space two
years earlier from two rooms in one of the College buildings.   We are now
approximately 2 miles from campus.

Since one of the most FAQ's I got from people when I told them I was
becoming director was "where's the front door?"  one of the first things we
did was paint the doors red and clear away a fairly uninspired landscape
with a variety of overgrown trees and shrubs.

While a neon sign on the roof has been suggested (bringing to mind images of
the Grail sign in Monty Python) we do actually invest in a large (4x8 foot)
banner on the main street side of the buidling for each temporary exhibit.

The next step is lightpost banners and directional signs on the street.

Community awareness is an on-going process.   We hired a PR company that
creates and disseminates releases on every new exhibit and program.   This
is costly ($1000/month), and could probably be done by a volunteer once the
distribution list has been established in collaboration with a professional.
Luckily the PR cost is covered by our parent institution (since the same
company does all of their PR).  We have also been fortunate in developing
good relationship with several free-lance writers in the area.   After a
year of work we are regularly listed in most of the area papers, ranging
from local advertising circulars to the Friday section of the Sun-Times, and
often end up in the "Best Bets" section with an extra paragraph or two.
(Once we beat out both the Field Museum and the Shedd Aquarium in the list
of  "5 Shows to See")

A lot of the programming is planned to create awareness of the museum rather
than to make money (please don't let this get back to the financial people).
We rarely charge a separate admission to lectures or other programs -- it is
usually free with admission/donation to the museum.  Most recently we opened
an exhibit of drawings from a local elementary school and invited the
children and their parents to a free reception -- that brought us 20 or more
families that would never have known of the museum otherwise.

There's lots more, including allowing another non-profit to use our space
for the day as a benefit (we figured out what our maximum admission for that
day would be, charged them that and then let them sell tickets and keep the
profit); getting involved with the local businesses (I am still trying to
figure out how to create enough time for weekly Rotary lunches);
participating in a library program that provides a family pass to the museum
to be taken out by library members; joining the AAA's partnership program
(for a discount on admission to AAA members you get a monthly listing in
their magazine).

Is this beginning to sound like an AAM session?

And yes, we are a small museum with a staff of two and a budget of under
$150,000.

Hope some of this helps!

janice

Janice Klein
Director
Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, Kendall College
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