Interestingly we recently changed our public hours to accommodate more
evening time, while cutting back on morning hours. We used to be closed
Mondays, open 10-5 on other days and open 10-8 on Wednesdays. We're
still closed on Monday, but on Sept 1 of this year we switched to
opening at noon the other six days and staying open until 8 PM on both
Wednesdays and Thursdays and until 6 PM on Saturdays & Sundays (we still
close at 5 on Tuesdays & Fridays).
It's hard to know yet how this has affected visitation, especially
because October was an anomalous month for us due to lots of public
programming and the opening of the Wild Things movie (we have a major
Sendak collection and got tons of extra publicity). But we should know
more in a few months once we have more data.
One reason for the switch is that we attract a primarily adult audience
and we have lots of evening activities--book groups, gallery talks, etc.
and it was getting tricky to schedule everything into the limited room
space available on Wednesday nights. Having Thursdays as an option has
been really handy.
Having the museum closed to the public before noon has certainly been
nice for us collections folks, since it means we have more time to do
installation, etc. in public spaces. It has been a bit confusing for our
researchers (we are also a functioning research library) since we still
have research hours starting at 10:30 AM, but the museum is "locked up
tight" when they arrive. This has thrown some folks who didn't expect it
and weren't sure how to ring the bell, but I think with a bit more time
and the development of some boilerplate to explain the situation this
should largely fix itself.
In terms of staffing, our non-public staff still work 9-5 or something
similar. Our front desk and shop staff are all paid and their hours have
been adjusted to reflect our new open hours. We use all volunteer
docents and their shifts had to be adjusted as well, but we seem to be
managing. Apparently some of our docents who had been on the weekend
morning shifts complimented us on finally figuring out what they had
known for years, which was that no one was coming at 10 AM on Sunday and
so it was silly for us to be open then.
I hope this is helpful and I'd be glad to share data once we crunch the
numbers in a few months.
Kathy
Katherine Haas
Curatorial Assistant
Rosenbach Museum & Library
2008 Delancey Pl.
Philadelphia, PA 19103
215-732-1600 x129
215-545-7529 (fax)
-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Garet Bleddynn
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2009 11:51 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Question on Operating Hours
Good morning, all,
I just had some random questions about operating hours that I wanted
to ask. This is not a part of any project or class-related activity.
It's just for my own personal curiosity and education so you can feel
free to e-mail me privately at [log in to unmask] unless the folks on
the list think this will be helpful.
1. What days of the week and hours are you open?
I know here at the Tennessee State Museum where I am interning, the
museum is open Tuesday through Sunday. Tuesday through Saturday, the
museum is open from 10am-5pm. On Sunday, the museum is open from
1pm-5pm. I know it seems to me this limits families going to museums.
They would have to attend on either Saturday or Sunday.
I remember reading a paper by Dana in our public history seminar where
he commented on museums' operating hours and locations as needing to
correspond with the communities they seek to serve. This got me to
thinking, always a dangerous thing. If museums are trying to involve
the communities, and if we acknowledge that museums are competing with
other recreational activities for time and money, then maybe we need
to review the hours?
If I work Monday-Friday from 8-5, let's examine my recreational
options. That theme park might be open until anywhere from 7pm-9pm. If
I want to go to a movie, I can go to a 9:00pm or later showing. If I
want to browse the web, that's 24/7. If I want to go to the mall,
that's open until, at least, 9pm, even later now that it's the Holiday
hours.
I just had to wonder. I've seen very large crowds for after-hours
events both at the museum and even at the local zoo. What do you think
your visitation might be like if your hours were 12-8? Also, what kind
of staffing issues do you run into with trying something like this?
Thanks for indulging a graduate student's curiosity!
Garet
--
M. Garet Bleddynn
========================
It is the dim haze of mystery that adds enchantment to any pursuit.
=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:
The Museum-L FAQ file is located at
http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed
information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail
message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should
read "help" (without the quotes).
If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message
to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read
"Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).
=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:
The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).
If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).
|
