Hello, List Members,
Please excuse double posting to RCAAM.
I have recently joined the Museum-L and skim through the messages with
great interest and some amusement. I realized that everyone is
quick to come to the aid of any museum professional in need, and that the
list is the best place to ask for advice for just about
anything.
Therefore----can you help me put together a list of university
museums that are not centrally located and have problems attracting
visitors, especially students? We are “benchmarking” here at Miami
University (Oxford, Ohio not Florida!), as we are now under the auspices
of the School of Fine Arts. We are looking for museums with
comparable conditions to start with, but even when the museum is
centrally located (i.e. Princeton) I have learned that the situation is
similar.
Miami has 15,000 undergraduates and 1,800 graduate students and is
located in a nice little town with a base population of about 6,000
people. The art museum is only about 2 blocks from the center of
the campus, and parking is not a problem. In fact, we find that
people park here and then walk to their classes or jobs elsewhere
(another problem we need to solve!). But the location is just
enough of a deterrent that students don’t come in unless they have a
class assignment requiring them to. Another factor is that there’s
no FOOD here--our expansion plans include a small restaurant.
First and foremost, we need a list! The solutions come later.
Thanks in advance for your help!
Laura Henderson
email: [log in to unmask]
Laura B. Henderson
Museum Registrar
Miami University Art Museum
801 S. Patterson Avenue
Oxford, Ohio 45056
Phone 513/529-2232
FAX 513/529-6555