Northern States Conservation Center is  excited to offer a new course on a topic that hasn't been covered in an online forum - retail store management for small museums.  Taught by the director of theWhite Mountain Apache Cultural Center and Museum, the course covers basic retail principles within the framework of being part of the museum's educational mission and a key component to revitalizing traditional arts..

MS254: Retail Store Management for Small Museums 
Instructor: Karl Hoerig
Price: $475
Dates: Mar 7 - Apr 1, 2011

Description:
Museum stores play central roles in museum operations. Most museum managers and their boards or tribal councils recognize stores' revenue potential. But stores can also help serve the museum's educational mission, support perpetuation and revitalization of traditional arts, and impact audiences beyond the museum's doors. Utilizing expert perspectives and examples from diverse museum stores this course will explain why a museum store should not be just a "gift shop" and will present guidance on inventory management, buying and pricing, retail display, staff training and other administrative issues faced by museum store managers.

Course Outline:

1. What IS a museum store and how does it fit our museum program?
2. Museum Store Staffing and Training
3. Museum Store Design - Matching Our Store to Our Museum
4. Merchandising
5. "Related Merchandise"
6. Selling Native American Art
7. Keeping Track of All the Numbers
8. Museum Store Security
9. Selling Outside the Walls
10. Conclusions

Text Book:
Museum Store Management, 2nd Edition, by Mary Miley Theobald. Alta Mira Press, 2000. ISBN 0-7245-0431-X (paperback).

Logistics:
Participants in Retail Store Management for Small Museums work through sections on their own. Instructor Karl Hoerig is available for scheduled email support. Materials and resources include online literature, slide lectures and dialog between students and the instructor through online forums. The course is limited to 20 participants.

Retail Store Management for Small Museums runs four weeks. To reserve a spot in the course, please pay at http://www.collectioncare.org/tas/tas.html If you have trouble please contact Helen Alten at [log in to unmask]

The Instructor:
Karl Hoerig is director of Nohwike' Bágowa (House of Our Footprints), the White Mountain Apache Cultural Center and Museum, in Fort Apache, Arizona. The position requires multifaceted involvement in the community, a mix of museum tasks, heritage promotion, cultural heritage resource protection and management, capacity building, economic development and enhancing sovereignty. Karl Hoerig has a PhD in anthropology from the University of Arizona.