Growing Site by Site

This post on finding a site from 2012 continues the series on Growing a Museum.

Minnesota Children's Museum today

Should we focus on opening our museum in a permanent site with the space and amenities we really want or should we open sooner in a smaller site and assume we’ll move later?

This is one of the most frequently asked questions from groups starting a museum. Mostly I hear it from children’s museums, but it is no different for virtually any new museum. One would think that being asked this question repeatedly over 30 years that I, and other museum planners, would have a good answer. Nope. There are no simple answers to this question. In fact, no single answer could fit every, or even many, museums’ circumstances.

The question itself reveals the complexity and various trade-offs involved in making a decision with far-reaching implications. Realities of capacity and readiness must play a role in whether a museum is able take on a large, permanent home or is better suited to grow site by site. Often opportunity and even serendipity have a deciding, if invisible, hand in what site shows up, where, when, and with what strings. Inevitably, the relativity of time distorts the meaning of permanent. Three years is forever in the life of a 5-year old organization but merely a pause in a 30-year organizational journey.

First Site

Whether a museum operates with no walls, borrowed walls, or permanent walls, in the end each answers the question of it first site its own way. In my experience starting in an unbelievably small space, moving onto a somewhat bigger second space, and then landing in a good-sized third or fourth space is not unusual. Madison Children’s Museum where I was involved during its mobile years and its first two spaces has grown through multiple moves as has Minnesota Children’s Museum where I worked in its second and third sites. Growing site-by-site aptly describes how more than a few established museums have grown.

• Austin Children's Museum (TX) operated as a museum without walls from 1983 to 1987 when it moved into a 5,000 square foot (s.f.) space. Ten years later it opened in a 20,000 s.f. space in downtown Austin. In May 2012, the Museum broke ground for a 40,000 s.f. building in a mixed-use development northeast of downtown and in 2013, it became the Thinkery.

• Bay Area Discovery Museum (Sausalito, CA) opened in a 2,500 s.f. pilot site at a shopping center in Marin County north of San Francisco, in 1987. In 1991 the Museum relocated to a 7-1/2 acre campus at Fort Baker (under the Golden Gate Bridge) and occupied 21,000 s.f. In 1993 and 1999, additions increased the space to 31,000 s.f. and then 31,500 s.f.  New construction on an entry building with classrooms and performance space, improvements on interior spaces, and development of exterior play areas took place between 2003 and 2005 increasing indoor s.f. to 52,000 plus 1.84 acres of outdoor exhibits.  

• Chicago Children’s Museum opened in the hallways of Chicago Public Library in 1982 and moved to a 7,000 s.f. space in Lincoln Park in 1986. A move to a 21,000 s.f. space in North Pier followed in 1989. The Museum opened in its current home of 57,000 s.f. at Navy Pier in1995. The Museum continues to expand at its site at Navy Pier.

• Explore & More Children’s Museum in East Aurora (NY) opened in 1994 with 500 s.f. of exhibit space in a school and added 500 s.f. more in 1997. In 2000 the Museum relocated to a 6,500 s.f. space in an office-park building in a residential neighborhood. Currently planning is underway for new construction of 25,000 -30,000 s.f. of space in a multi-use development at the western terminus of the Erie Canal in downtown Buffalo. (Opened in July 2019)

Madison Children's Museum's first walls 

• Madison Children’s Museum (WI) shifted from traveling exhibits in public venues to a 500 s.f. basement space in the Wisconsin Academy of Science, Arts and Letters in 1980 and was open on weekends and school holidays until 1985 when it moved into a 5,000 s.f. space in the garden level of an old factory building at the edge of downtown. In 1991 the museum opened 8,000 s.f. of space in a renovated bank building on State Street. Twenty years later, it moved 58,000 s.f. in a renovated a 1929 Montgomery Ward Building right off the Capitol Square.

• Minnesota Children’s Museum opened in 1981 in a 6,000 s.f. space in the Itasca Warehouse along the Minneapolis River front. In 1985, it relocated to an 18,000 s.f. historic railroad building midway between Minneapolis and St. Paul. In 1995 the Museum moved into a newly built 65,000 s.f. building in downtown St. Paul. Recently, the Museum announced a 14,000 s.f. addition to its current building and reconfiguration of interior spaces. (MCM reopened with 10 new exhibits in 2017.)

Madison Children's Museum 2012

The earliest spaces these museums called home were modest. Some were so small or incidental–like the hallways Chicago Children’s Museum occupied–that they were not even measured. Some early spaces received minimal preparation and others were renovated. Getting from a first space to a “permanent” home can take 10 years or 30 years. As these timelines illustrate, even when a museum is in its “permanent” home, its physical footprint is likely to change by growing and reconfiguring space. With time, its community footprint will undoubtedly grow and carry greater potential for increased impact. Facility and site changes are a reality; they reflect museums’ responses to changing contexts and to serving visitors whose interests and priorities change.

Bigger Steps

Site by site growth is not the only model for growing a museum. There are fewer, but increasingly more, museums that open “full-size” in a permanent home. Betty Brinn Children’s Museum (Milwaukee, WI) opened in a new 25,000 s.f. space in 1995 without incubating in a previous site. Creative Discovery Museum (Chattanooga, TN) opened in a new 42,5000 s.f. building in 1995. Stepping Stones Museum for Children (Norwalk, CT) opened in a new 19,000 s.f. building in 2000 and opened a 22,000 s.f. addition in 2010.

In 30 years, the arts, culture, and education landscape where museums position themselves has changed across the country. Children’s museums have become more familiar in towns and cities and are relatively established in the lives of American children and childhoods. These days, making the case for a children’s museum or science center doesn’t have to start with an introduction to an unfamiliar museum concept.

With the growth of museums, the start-up and expansion process has consolidated and become somewhat formalized. A group starting a museum will often find and identify their own “benchmarks,” museums in communities of similar size or with a similar vision; they will know their histories and growth. Sharing and developing resources for starting museums have also occurred on several fronts. The Association of Children’s Museums published Collective Vision in 1997. It sponsors an annual emerging museum conference and launched Collective Vision On-line Tool Kit in 2011. The Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums has offered an annual Building Museums symposium. In 2012, Minnesota Historical Society published Building Museums: A Handbook for Small and Midsize Organizations by Robert Herskovitz, Timothy Glines, and David Grabitske.

Navigating Site Questions

The site-growth question is not only common, but is also bound up with other long-term strategic choices a museum faces at an early stage in its development when it has few procedures and precedents for guidance. Site questions will always interact with larger questions of a museum’s vision, process, and position. Site and facility are more tangible ways for a board to approach larger, more abstract issues of mission or what the museum is and will become. The relative concreteness of a site’s size, its address, and related costs can offer a kind of comfort in searching for a site compared to exploring intangibles like experience, quality, or learning value.

Finding a first site–or perhaps any site–also requires distinguishing among size-related considerations like location, quality, or vision. For some museums, questions of site and facility are actually a proxy for other issues like fundraising goals (modest or ambitious?); personal or professional relationships in the real estate, construction, or development sectors; or values related to diversity and access. Finally a sense of urgency to find a site can be so insistent for founders and board members that it dominates the other business of starting a museum, overshadows other possible ways the museum could pursue growth, and at times actually derails a museum project.

Learning from Experience, Proceeding with Confidence

There is no formula for finding the right site at the right time in a relatively simple process. A few guidelines do emerge, however, from scanning the experiences–successful and otherwise–of other museums that have wrestled with finding a site.

• Vision: Maintain a roomy vision for the museum, even if it will take a long time to physically grow into that big vision. Keep the vision.

• Discuss. Engage in lots of lively discussion about site and size. Bring new questions and new information to these discussions. Be honest and respectful in discussing the museum’s capacity to successfully raise funds, create an outstanding experience, and effectively operate a site.

• Evaluate. Develop a really solid set of site selection criteria to help frame what is required of a site and to compare sites. Revisit the criteria periodically because circumstances change. This does not mean changing the criteria every month. It does mean bringing new information, perspectives, and questions to the criteria to test, refine, clarify, and strengthen them and the candidates. This builds a strong, shared sense of what they mean–and don’t mean–for longer-term and newer board members. When the real site decision comes up, things can move very fast. 

• Compare. Build a strong list of promising sites well informed by an understanding of the real estate market, neighborhoods, zoning issues, and the health of other culturals. Visit the sites. Always–always– look at multiple sites and compare and contrast.

• Realism. Be realistic about the museum’s challenges and capacity. Be aware of committing to a larger facility than the museum will be able to support financially and will have the capacity to operate well. At the same time, avoid frequent moves. Relocating is demanding. It takes a lot out of a museum staff; and it can be challenging to bring visitors along to a new location.

• Setbacks. It’s not unusual to find an “ideal” site that then falls through. In hindsight, that site turns out not to be as good as it seemed at the time: the area didn’t take off or a site of a better size came along.

• Caution. Even the best-managed site processes can become enmeshed in controversial issues that initially seem minor. Be alert to the early signs of a pubic fuss arising about a site, especially if the museum is associated with it. Contact museums that have had to navigate similar situations and learn from their experiences.

• Opportunity. Keep an eye out for opportunity. Listen for the knock.

Growing Site By Site By Site

Minnesota Children's Museum today

 

Should we focus on opening our museum in a permanent site with the space and amenities we really want or should we open sooner in a smaller site and assume we’ll move later?

This is one of the most frequently asked questions from groups starting a museum. Mostly I hear it from children’s museums, but it is no different for virtually any new museum. One would think that being asked this question repeatedly over 30 years that I, and other museum planners, would have a good answer. Nope. There are no simple answers to this question. In fact, no single answer could fit every, or even many, museums’ circumstances.

The question itself reveals the complexity and various trade-offs involved in making a decision with far-reaching implications. Realities of capacity and readiness must play a role in whether a museum is able take on a large, permanent home or is better suited to grow site by site. Often opportunity and even serendipity have a deciding, if invisible, hand in what site shows up, where, when, and with what strings. Inevitably, the relativity of time distorts the meaning of permanent. Three years is forever in the life of a 5-year old organization but merely a pause in a 30-year organizational journey.

First Site

Whether a museum operates with no walls, borrowed walls, or permanent walls, in the end each answers the question of it first site its own way. In my experience starting in an unbelievably small space, moving onto a somewhat bigger second space, and then landing in a good-sized third or fourth space is not unusual. Madison Children’s Museum where I was involved during its mobile years and its first two spaces has grown through multiple moves as has Minnesota Children’s Museum where I worked in its second and third sites. Growing site-by-site characterizes how a number of established museums have grown.

• Austin Children's Museum (TX) operated as a museum without walls from 1983 to 1987 when it moved into a 5,000 square foot (s.f.) space. Ten years later it opened in a 20,000 s.f. space in downtown Austin. In May 2012, the Museum broke ground for a 40,000 s.f. building in a mixed-use development northeast of downtown.

• Bay Area Discovery Museum (Sausalito, CA) opened in a 2,500 s.f. pilot site at a shopping center in Marin County north of San Francisco, in 1987. In 1991 the Museum relocated to a 7-1/2 acre campus at Fort Baker (under the Golden Gate Bridge) and occupied 21,000 s.f. In 1993 and 1999, additions increased the space to 31,000 s.f. and then 31,500 s.f.  New construction on an entry building with classrooms and performance space, improvements on interior spaces, and development of exterior play areas took place between 2003 and 2005 increasing indoor s.f. to 52,000 plus 1.84 acres of outdoor exhibits.  

• Chicago Children’s Museum opened in the hallways of Chicago Public Library in 1982 and moved to a 7,000 s.f. space in Lincoln Park in 1986. A move to a 21,000 s.f. space in North Pier followed in 1989. The Museum opened in its current home of 57,000 s.f. at Navy Pier in1995. Plans are underway for an expansion.

• Explore & More Children’s Museum in East Aurora (NY) opened in 1994 with 500 s.f. of exhibit space in a school and added 500 s.f. more in 1997. In 2000 the Museum relocated to a 6,500 s.f. space in an office-park building in a residential neighborhood. Currently planning is underway for new construction of 25,000 -30,000 s.f. of space in a multi-use development at the western terminus of the Erie Canal in downtown Buffalo.

Madison Children's Museum's first walls

• Madison Children’s Museum (WI) shifted from traveling exhibits in public venues to a 500 s.f. basement space in the Wisconsin Academy of Science, Arts and Letters in 1980 and was open on weekends and school holidays until 1985 when it moved into a 5,000 s.f. space in the garden level of an old factory building at the edge of downtown. In 1991 the museum opened 8,000 s.f. of space in a renovated bank building on State Street. Twenty years later, it moved 58,000 s.f. in a renovated a 1929 Montgomery Ward Building right off the Capitol Square.

• Minnesota Children’s Museum opened in 1981 in a 6,000 s.f. space in the Itasca Warehouse along the Minneapolis River front. In 1985, it relocated to an 18,000 s.f. historic railroad building midway between Minneapolis and St. Paul. In 1995 the Museum moved into a newly built 65,000 s.f. building in downtown St. Paul. Recently, the Museum announced a 14,000 s.f. addition to its current building and reconfiguration of interior spaces.

Madison Children's Museum 2012

The earliest spaces these museums called home were modest. Some were so small or incidental–like the hallways Chicago Children’s Museum occupied–they were not even measured. Some early spaces received minimal preparation and others were renovated. Getting from a first space to a “permanent” home can take 10 years or 30 years. As these timelines illustrate, even when a museum is in its “permanent” home, its physical footprint is likely to change by growing and reconfiguring space. Facility and site changes are a reality; they reflect museums’ responses to changing contexts and to serving visitors whose interests and priorities change.

Bigger Steps

Site by site growth is not the only model for growing a museum. There are fewer, but increasingly more, museums that open “full-size” in a permanent home. Betty Brinn Children’s Museum (Milwaukee, WI) opened in a new 25,000 s.f. space in 1995 without incubating in a previous site. Creative Discovery Museum (Chattanooga, TN) opened in a new 42,5000 s.f. building in 1995. Stepping Stones Museum for Children (Norwalk, CT) opened in a new 19,000 s.f. building in 2000 and opened a 22,000 s.f. addition in 2010.

In 30 years, the arts, culture, and education landscape where museums position themselves has changed across the country. Children’s museums have become more familiar in towns and cities and are relatively established in the lives of American children and childhoods. Making the case for a children’s museum or science center doesn’t have to start with an introduction to an unfamiliar museum concept.

With the growth of museums, the start-up and expansion process has consolidated and become somewhat formalized. A group starting a museum will often find and identify their own “benchmarks,” museums in communities of similar size or with a similar vision; they will know their histories and growth. Sharing and developing resources for starting museums have also occurred on several fronts. The Association of Children’s Museums published Collective Vision in 1997. It sponsors an annual emerging museum conference and launched Collective Vision On-line Tool Kit in 2011. The Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums has offered an annual Building Museums symposium. In 2012, Minnesota Historical Society published Building Museums: A Handbook for Small and Midsize Organizations by Robert Herskovitz, Timothy Glines, and David Grabitske.

Navigating Site Questions

The site-growth question is not only common, but is also bound up with other long-term strategic choices a museum faces at an early stage in its development when it has few procedures and precedents for guidance. Site questions will always interact with larger questions of a museum’s vision, process, and position. Site and facility are more tangible ways for a board to approach larger, more abstract issues of mission or what the museum is and will become. The very concreteness of site’s size, its address, and expense can mean greater comfort in finding a site than exploring intangibles like experience, quality, or learning value.

Finding a first site–or perhaps any site–also requires distinguishing among size-related considerations like location, quality, or vision. For some museums, questions of site and facility are actually a proxy for other issues like fundraising goals (modest or ambitious?); personal or professional relationships in the real estate, construction, or development sectors; or values related to diversity and access. Finally a sense of urgency to find a site can be so insistent for founders and board members that it dominates the other business of starting a museum, overshadows other possible ways the museum could pursue growth, and at times actually derails a museum project.

Learning from Experience, Proceeding with Confidence

There is no formula for finding the right site at the right time in a relatively simple process. A few guidelines do emerge, however, from scanning the experiences–successful and otherwise–of other museums that have wrestled with finding a site.

• Vision: Maintain a roomy vision for the museum, even if it will take a long time to physically grow into that big vision. Keep the vision.

• Discuss. Engage in lots of lively discussion about site and size. Bring new questions and new information to the discussions. Be honest and respectful in discussing the museum’s capacity to successfully raise funds, create an outstanding experience, and effectively operate a site.

• Evaluate. Develop a really solid set of site selection criteria to help frame what is required of a site and to compare sites. Revisit the criteria periodically because circumstances change. This does not mean changing the criteria every month. It does mean bringing new information, perspectives, and questions to the criteria to test, refine, and strengthen them and the candidates. This builds a strong, shared sense of what they mean–and don’t mean–for longer-term and newer board members. When the real site decision comes up, things can move very fast. 

• Compare. Build a strong list of promising sites well informed by an understanding of the real estate market, neighborhoods, zoning issues, and the health of other culturals. Visit the sites. Always–always– look at multiple sites and compare and contrast.

• Realism. Be realistic about the museum’s challenges and capacity. Be aware of committing to a larger facility than the museum will be able to support financially and will have the capacity to operate well. At the same time, avoid frequent moves. Relocating is demanding. It takes a lot out of a museum staff; it can be challenging to bring visitors along to a new location.

• Setbacks. It’s not unusual to find an “ideal” site that then falls through. In hindsight, the site turns out not to be as good as it seemed at the time: the area didn’t take off or a site of a better size came along.

• Caution. Even the best-managed site processes can become enmeshed in controversial issues that initially seem minor. Be alert to the early signs of a pubic fuss arising about a site, especially if the museum is associated with it. Contact museums that have had to navigate similar situations and learn from their experiences.

• Opportunity. Keep an eye out for opportunity. Listen for the knock.

Slender Threads from the Past

Founders' reunion: Jeanne, Kay, and Caroline

 

It felt like a class reunion, except the 1980 founding class of Madison Children’s Museum included only four people and we never graduated. We just passed the torch to people who came after us to grow an outstanding children’s museum.

Coming from New York, Minneapolis, and Madison three of the four founders met in Madison on April 19^th to take part in Story Corps interviews that accompanied Madison Children’s Museum’s 2011 National Medal of Honor award. The award, given by the Institute of Museum and Library Services to five museums and five libraries recognizes extraordinary civic, educational, economic, environmental, and social contributions that demonstrate innovative approaches to public service and community outreach.

The Story Corps interviews came as a gift with MCM’s 2011 National Medal for Museum and Library Service. Story Corps is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to recording, preserving, and sharing the stories of Americans from all backgrounds and beliefs; it’s known for its weekly interview excerpts that air on NPR’s “Morning Edition” on Fridays.

The Museum has taken this gift seriously, arranging 36 interviews over three days. MCM has been also intent on developing its organizational archives including the history of its current building. While renovating the current site, John Robinson, Exhibits Developer, researched Block 99 where the Museum, a former Montgomery Wards store, is located.

The Slender Threads of a New Beginning

Four of us had joined forces in 1980 and worked together until 1987 when I moved to Minneapolis to work at Minnesota Children’s Museum. Kay Hendon moved to New York City to work on behalf of services for children. Caroline Hoffman was active in disability advocacy in Madison. Our fourth co-founder, Allen Everhart, worked with a national epilepsy organization and has passed away.

Over the years, I have had flashes of panic when I recalled how very little we knew about starting a children’s museum. In 1980, there were several dozen children’s museums in the country. Among our group of four we had visited perhaps three or four of them. I had visited Boston Children’s Museum and the Children’s Museum of History and Science in Utica, New York. The photos I had taken of exhibits pretty much represented what I knew about children’s museums. For everything else we could only dream of something like ACM’s Collective Vision: Starting and Sustaining a Children’s Museum that came to the rescue for start-ups in 1997.

We had some knowledge of non-profit organizations and serving children and families, but knew very little about museums, except as visitors. We had networks of family, friends, and colleagues to draw on, and we certainly did. Some of our first board members brought critical experience including museum experience. Judith Strasser came on board with experience organizing a capital campaign. Karen Dummer Robison, a local museum professional, developed processes and procedures and led us in hiring our first executive director, Georgia Heise who served an amazing 11 years before finding her way to the Exploratorium.

While we didn’t know much about museums, Caroline, Kay, Allen, and I came together with a strong belief in the fundamental importance of early experiences for all children. Practitioners knew then what research would demonstrate. Early experience and development have a life-long trajectory, contributing to the developmental outcomes we want for our children. The talking and laughing, touching and rocking babies receive build the trust, curiosity, sensory knowledge, and eagerness for exploring an expanding world. Museums, we believed, could have a vital role in nurturing positive, supportive relationships; sharing intriguing objects and materials; and creating engaging environments where children could experience the joy of exploration and wonder of discovery.

Thinking about the interview, I wondered if I could squeeze out a new clue from an early memory or make a useful connection from the last 30 years of experience working in and with children’s museums. The easy memories, signature moments, and funny stories had been harvested. I have often surprised people with the unbelievable response from an insurance agent in 1980 when I tried to get coverage for a temporary exhibit. He said, “We don’t insure children doing surgery in shopping malls.”

The Story Corps interviews were a great moment for the Museum. For a generation, it has been in the hearts and lives of children, families, and the Madison area. It has been recognized for leading practices among museums. Now, what might be helpful to the Museum about what endures and becomes assets for the next future?

Slender Threads

After Kay and Caroline completed their interview, I joined Brenda Baker for ours. Brenda has been MCM’s Director of Exhibits since 1991 and was hired by Ann Arneson, MCM’s board president at the time, to create exhibits that could only be in Madison. Over 40 minutes, Brenda and I explored the slender threads from the early days, threads that have proven to be strong. MCM has worked diligently and creatively to work with and carry them forward, bringing great resourcefulness to innovative environments, exhibits, programs, partnerships, initiatives, and practices.

I described MCM’s very early exhibits. Regardless of topic, they all had several things in common. They were literally made of cardboard (Tri-wall and Sono tubes) in people’s driveways and garages. We made everything up as we went along, borrowing tools, collecting found objects, and getting props donated. We drew on community expertise–a teacher who had just returned from Ghana, an architect who had been in Guatemala rebuilding after an earthquake, the Buddhist scholar who understood stories for children. These same humble beginnings characterize many children’s museums’ first exhibits. Maybe we did things somewhat differently. Perhaps we kept children at the center of our thinking more than most new children’s museums do or focused more on what was fascinating to them. I would like to think so.

What Madison Children’s Museum has done remarkably well over three decades is to be both steadfast and innovative, both dedicated to a set of core ideas and probing their deeper purpose.

-        The best interests of children

-        A partner with the community

-        The power of place

In working these ideas intentionally and intently, the Museum has consistently played out new possibilities, not only staying current but also leading, especially in green and cultural exhibits. When a new issue or hot topic has appeared on the horizon, MCM has not pivoted and dashed in new directions. Rather, it has looked harder at its core ideas, found new connections, explored how they work together, and followed them deliberately and creatively.

The best interest of children is a sound principle, rich with meanings related to play, early literacy, and developmental design. Safe, healthy environments for children, free from toxins is central to MCM. Pushed to open its State Street location in just six months in 1991, MCM opened an updated version of its 1986 Toddlers’ Nest exhibit. When an opportunity to rethink Toddlers’ Nest came along in 1999, Brenda and her team did so with thorough attention to natural materials and created First Feats. Concentrating resourcefulness across museum areas, MCM explored the benefits of healthy environments and researched green products, gradually expanding green practices to operations and exhibit planning for its recent renovation. This included a sustainably designed Wildernest built with materials from within a 100 mile radius of Madison. A comprehensive set of practices developed over two decades backs up MCM’s Sustainability Commitment.

A sketchy exhibit development process left from the early days was one slender thread that has evolved into an inclusive, organic process for engaging the community in many aspects of museum, exhibit, and program planning. Before its Hmong at Heart exhibit which engaged Madison’s refugee Hmong community in curating the exhibit, MCM had been moving from being a partner with the community to being a catalyst for collaborating with the community. The Museum engaged students in developing a Kids’ Field Guide to Local Culture for Hmong at Heart and in conducting historical research for the 1840’s Wisconsin log cabin on its site. Integral to renovating its new home were collaborations with an increasing number and variety of partners:  mosaics created by 13,000 local students; a dozen benches and an alphabet of wall quotes produced by countless local artists; and sustainably harvested wood gathered from rural landowners.

With each opportunity and encounter, MCM has advanced the ways in which it explores and expresses, the power of place in its building, exhibits, and practices. At its State Street location, MCM reworked the popular children’s museum grocery store exhibit into a farmer’s market, mirroring the enormously popular and beautifully situated farmers’ market around the Capitol Square, just one block away. The now retired Leap Into Lakes inspired by Madison’s unique location on an isthmus will inform a new inquiry-oriented exhibit floor focusing on pollution and water quality in Madison’s four lakes. MCM’s Only Local initiative carries multiple messages about place in ways children can sense, adults can appreciate, and both can engage with: the story of local materials converted into experiences, the past life of the building as a Montgomery Wards store with olden clothes to try on, and an enormous, refashioned building table squarely stationed in front of the window that faces the State Capitol.  

One Last Question

I didn’t give a second thought to what I figured would be Brenda’s last interview question. How has Madison Children’s Museum affected you and your life? Answering that question was easy. Madison Children’s Museum changed my life in the best imaginable way. Only I couldn’t have imagined it if I’d tried.

Planning Out Loud

Bigger than a prototype, louder than a focus group, and unfolding over months–and possibly years, planning out loud is long-term, deliberate testing of multiple aspects of a museum by engaging the community.

Prototyping components, exhibits, text, and programs has become an established practice in museums over the last two decades. There are many examples, from specific exhibitions to large-scale efforts like’s NySci’s extended prototyping for Design Lab Community engagement, a key component of planning out loud, is also an established strategy for inviting the community into the museum and generating content. Nina Simon highlights an enormous range of examples at multiple scales in Participatory Museum and writes about her experience with everyday community engagement at the Museum of Art and History (Santa Cruz, CA). A recent article in Madison’s Cap Times spotlighted Madison Children’s Museum’s hosting listening sessions with children, youth, and teachers across the community as part of its planning of a new 8,000 square foot floor that looks to serve an older audience.

Planning out loud is based on an assumption that, if being curious, asking questions, reflecting, and learning through social and physical interaction is valuable for our visitors, then it’s valuable for museums as well.

Two museums I am working with, the Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota (Mankato, MN) and Tulsa Children’s Museum (OK), are planning out loud. In bringing new museums to their cities and regions, they are going well beyond prototyping components, exhibits, and labels. They are testing across operational areas from hours, to staffing, to how much mess. They are testing the potential of community partnerships and are testing their business model. In a way, they are prototyping the whole museum with the voice-over narrative to accompany the planning.

Evolving in Plain Sight

Planning out loud is an approach that can advance a museum’s planning in particular community contexts. When a museum or a new concept and what it offers isn’t familiar to a community, bringing transparency to the planning process can bring stakeholders along. Building confidence in the effort can be valuable when the memory of a failed museum is fresh in funders’ minds. Finally, it can make good use of the time when the economic climate slows fundraising, delays construction, and postpones opening the doors. 

Founded in 2005 by early childhood educators, the Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota (CMSM) has been diligent about following the steps in starting and opening a children’s museum. Over the same time, the Museum has engaged children and families in hands-on activities at locations across the region including a temporary exhibit. These choices have built awareness and support around what a children’s museum can contribute to local children and families, and the greater community.

In 2007 a committed group of parents and professionals organized Tulsa Children’s Museum (TCM). Reflecting a strong commitment to align the Museum with community priorities, TCM conducted a community survey, a series of listening sessions with parents of young children, a resource scan, and interviews with community leaders to inform the role it would play in the Tulsa area. While learning from stakeholders across the community, TCM was also developing partnerships with other organizations to “borrow walls,” offer mobile and traveling exhibits, bring health and wellness programming to schools, and present a family concert series.

Solidifying foundational ideas and taking activities out into the community are typical early steps in opening a new museum. These museums, however, have started pursuing a different path in planning and operating test sites. They are converting what can be limitations into opportunities. Without permanent homes, they serve their audience in parks, schools, and  libraries. They know they have several years ahead of planning a building, developing and designing exhibits, growing staff, and recruiting volunteers. Yet, they want to be serving their audience now. They are eager to build awareness and a loyal following, grow internal capacity, and develop confidence, their own and funders’, in a sustainable future.

CMSM opened PlayLab in the first of two temporary, long-term spaces in 2010 to share the kind of experiences children and families would enjoy in a permanent home. PlayLab is a location, a state of mind, and an expression of their Learning Purpose: Make the joy and value of play, and its connections to learning and well-being, visible to children, parents, teachers, and the community. The name PlayLab also points to the Museum’s interest in learning how exhibits and experiences play with the Museum’s audiences, and how audiences play with exhibits.

Being “community led” has been a commitment of TCM, one expressed in multiple ways. Since mid-2011, the Museum has been taking steps to plan and open Discovery Lab, a temporary space in which to test topics, activities, themes, and exhibits with the community as its on-going focus group. An extensive site selection process has focused on finding a test site location that is familiar and accessible to families who are less likely to visit museums and that has attractive amenities for families likely to seek out museums.

Inviting stakeholders–partners, community members, families, school groups, service organizations, neighbors, and curiosity seekers–in on the thinking, planning, questioning, and testing says, this is our museum; if we test ideas together, we own them together.

Tapescape at PlayLab

PlayLab has been an invitation for community members to come, explore, play, and bring their ideas. CMSM has been committed to working with ideas and materials that community members contribute. A quilter fashioned a giant farm landscape; a mom wanted to start an art scraps store at the museum; and a board member and architect saw a photo of a tape structure and built TapeScape. Recently, the Museum added prototypes for its Sand, Stone, and Quarry Zone exhibit.

Prototyping sand play at PlayLab

Engaging a wide range of Tulsa area organizations as partners is central to TCM’s community-based strategy. In its first five years, the Museum worked with community arts organizations as well as the Library, Tulsa Historical Society, and Tulsa Public Schools to offer programs, events, and exhibits. In Discovery Lab, Museum partners will sometimes inspire, fabricate, or source activities and exhibits. They will lend expertise, help reach new audiences, co-host events, and very likely add something TCM can’t yet imagine.   

Planning a test site prompts discussions and decisions about what must be happening in the museum for children of different ages with family, school, and community groups in order for the museum to achieve its intended impacts. What are essential ingredients in the experiential mix to encourage this? Questions surface about which audience groups must be served fully because of their high presence; should toddlers have their own area or should there be tod-pods throughout; how much is enough to do; and how should technology be used. Mindful navigation of such questions is necessary to leave open, welcoming room for visitors to contribute, give feedback, and help make the decision.

Many of these discussions and choices were made by CMSM as it developed its Learning Experience Master Plan. As complete as such plans seem at the time, however, there are successive distinctions to make: how finished or “in-process” can exhibits be, what is CMSM’s definition of prototyping, which components must be prototyped; what are the prototyping questions; and what other information should the Museum gather.

In developing its Design Lab master plan, TCM is looking at operations, focus areas, visitor experience, community engagement, partners, and budget. For each area, it is asking: what it wants to test; how to test it; and why it is important. As each question gets answered, new questions surface: which of our partners can help here? what should our hours be? how do we develop our prototyping skills? what does success look like?

Planning out loud is a way of making the museum’s thinking, testing, and learning visible to itself and to its stakeholders. New staff is learning about meaningful questions to ask, ones to which they need answers in order to provide an activity that encourages cooperation, needs less facilitation, invites greater variations in play, relies less on text, or accommodates multiple players. Some answers will come from visitors. Staff are learning who and how to observe; what information to gather and how to summarize it; how to organize notes, quotes, photos, comment cards, and counts; when to problem solve together to revise or retire an activity. CMSM has been scheduled regular observations and is training its Play Workers as observers. It is sharing its process on FaceBook, sharing, for instance, the unanticipated challenges of dust from sand quarried locally. Blogging can also highlight progress, insights, and surprises internally and externally. When the explicit intention is to learn from and with visitors and partners, the feedback staff harvests and shares and how it adjusts the experience, becomes part of the work.

Leading and Following

Especially for a new museum, planning out loud qualifies as a leadership practice. A deliberate questioning, testing, revising approach that engages visitors distinguishes such extended test efforts from opening the museum doors prematurely or with untested assumptions. At every step of the way, the museum is setting precedence. It is encoding inquiry and collaboration with its partners and audience into its organizational DNA. It is prototyping processes and systems, building internal capacity, fashioning its internal culture, uncovering organizational structure, defining its brand, and growing a toehold in the community. Testing assumptions about attendance, hours, staffing, and pricing provide a reality check on the business model and operating budget.

Planning out loud is not necessarily easier than another planning approach and it has its own challenges. Funders can be skeptical. If this is such a good idea, why test it? Are we funding something twice? Striking a balance between an orderly and open planning process relies on a well thought out approach with clear planning coordinates, a willingness to be flexible, and a capacity to be nimble. At the same time, this visibility can produce an accountability that nips at the heels of planners; some days it feels invigorating and other days it feels like pressure.

By their nature, test sites are dynamic venues with experiences that are fresh, if unpredictable.

Regardless of the choices a museum might make, the exhibit experience mix and role of partners, will change constantly. Some experiences will succeed, while others will not. Some failures can be tweaked while others must be tossed and replaced. Unplanned contributions from partners or neighbors may also come through the door just in time to offer new possibilities and lessons.

Planning out loud is evaluation writ large, lived long, and with open arms.

Collective Wisdom for Starting and Growing Museums

Skyline at Chicago Children's Museum (Eileen Ruan Photograhy ©2011)

A great new tool set is now available and on-line to help power dreams of starting museums for children. It’s the Association of Children’s Museum’s Collective Vision Toolkit for Starting and Sustaining a Children’s Museum.

I can only imagine how starting Madison Children’s Museum might have progressed 30+ years ago had we had had the Collective Vision Toolkit. I’m pretty sure it would have been easier and faster and we would have gotten some things right sooner. That’s probably true as well for other efforts to start hundreds of children’s museums across the country and around the world over the last 30 years.

The Collective Vision Toolkit is a priceless on-line resource of collective wisdom from people who have started museums, lead new museums, and grown museums to become recognized and valued community resources. While I’ve helped start a children’s museum, work as a museum planner with emerging children’s museums, and worked on this Toolkit, I’m still finding new and useful resources and learning new things inside the toolkit.

The idea for an on-line resource that could provide the basics for every start-up came from an anonymous donor and a true friend of children’s museums. In 2008 the Association of Children’s Museums (ACM) began thinking about possible content and format. The next year, it handed off development to Mary Maher, Editor of Hand To Hand and Collective Vision, John Noonan, Executive Director at GreatLake Children’s Museum , and me.

The Toolkit is an ACM members only resource currently available on a demo site for ACM’s new website and available through the summer. Check it out at: www.childrensmuseums.org

Getting to Know the Toolkit

The Toolkit is accessible, conveniently organized, and multi-layered. Toolkit topics are just what you would expect and, perhaps, more important, would hope for in navigating new territory with a group of friends or a fledgling board to plan a museum for children. Topics range from the nitty gritty of getting tax-exempt status to a more philosophical meander through learning in museums. Topic titles such as Site Selection and Marketing are straight-forward. When a topic like Founding Governance does require some unpacking, it’s expanded: Gathering the people and building the structure to govern your museum.

Twelve topics move in a general sequence from the earliest glimmer of, “Let’s start a children’s museum” to opening the doors and considering what comes next. Steps are a clear, intuitive organizing principle. As a step-based approach the Toolkit is still both process oriented and flexible. Reinforcing this, Mary encourages both a beginning-to-end pathway and a pick-and-choose approach in her Toolkit introduction. The Case Studies in the final section, Opening the Doors, demonstrate this in being valuable for a museum at any stage of the process.

Each topic has three sections: an overview, common questions, and resources. The overview starts with highlights of what a museum has typically accomplished when it is at this step. It’s followed by a checklist for moving forward and by some of the sub-steps and issues likely at this point. This is a great set-up for the resources that follow: templates of standard documents, sample letters and policies, links to more online resources and organizations, and a bibliography. The FAQ’s handle perennial questions and address complicated or sensitive situations that arise over the course of any journey.

While valuable for starting any museum, these materials are customized for children’s museums. This is helpful in the somewhat specialized areas of early learning and hands-on exhibits.

Collective Wisdom

Something may seem amiss in calling this blog entry: Collective Wisdom for Starting and Growing Museums. After all, Collective Vision is the well-known title of ACM’s 1997 publication. Its collected advice from those who have created children’s museums addresses a full range of considerations for others on a similar path. In 14 years it has become a touchstone among museum leaders, more than a few of who have used it as a resource to start or expand a museum. 

This same collective wisdom and more is present in the Toolkit. Questions posted on ChildMus and years’ of helpful responses are covered. Should we hire professional fundraisers? Or, someone has offered us a great space for free in a mall/other location; should we take it? A synthesis of current thinking and practice provides background on and orientation to topics like fundraising, budgets, and staff and volunteers.

As an on-line resource, however, the Toolkit is even more a product of collective wisdom. Links to BoardSource, Guidestar, the Kellogg Foundation Communication Toolkitand dozens more organizations connect to their focused wisdom.

Within a rich range of resources are what I consider working tools: ready-to-use templates, like “Board Phone Log for Donor Thank You Outreach” and “Museum Trustee Evaluation” (with a place for a museum’s logo). They have been road tested by John Noonan who most generously has shared sample documents, templates, and forms. His collection has justifiably been called a goldmine. At past Emerging Museums Pre-conferences John provided templates on a CD. These CD’s were such great resources that afterwards he continued to not only get requests for them, but also received e-mails thanking him for them.

Starting Museums

Besides providing valuable content for starting a museum, the Toolkit is a helpful guide about the nature of the start-up process itself. Although steps in starting a museum are sequential, they are not automatic. The case studies illustrate this with variations in the sequence of a fairly standard process. Site selection, for instance, may happen earlier in the process as an opportunity or later when many pieces are in place and having a location is needed for fundraising to really kick in.

“At this point there is…” followed by a list of key accomplishments relevant to each step actively reaches out to folks navigating this new territory. I was delighted when John introduced this format. It orients and provides a simple diagnostic of whether this is the right step and whether the museum is ready. Is there a board ready to carry the mission to the next level? Are the articles of incorporation filed with the state? Is there a letter confirming your existence? If these and a few other conditions are met, it’s the right time to take the step. On the other hand, if many or most of these conditions aren’t completed, the museum isn’t ready. A close look at those conditions helps determine where to place effort.

“At this point” and “key accomplishments” often refer to other steps in the Toolkit and reflect the inherent interconnectedness of decisions. The checklist for “Moving Forward” extends a helping hand by addressing important accomplishments to focus on at each step. In Staff and Volunteers, a museum is advised to use the strategic business plan and museum master plan to determine the key positions to fill and in what order. Equally important, suggested actions point to the value of thinking of ahead: “Lay the foundation for a positive organizational culture and climate.”

The Collective Vision Toolkit has a strong and natural connection to ACM’s Emerging Museums Pre-conference at InterActivity. Both are ACM services to start-up member museums. Some Toolkit material was prepared for and presented by John, me, and others at past pre-conferences. The Toolkit also has significant potential value as structure and content for the Emerging Museums Pre-conference. In turn, the Pre-conference can become a vehicle for developing and gathering more and current resources, and updating the Toolkit annually.

Growing Museums

The Toolkit is not just for emerging museums. Even experienced executive directors leading museums of every size need to re-ground in areas over the years. Filing for non-profit status happens just once in an organization’s life. But board development and reviewing the mission statement is needed every year-or-so. Revisiting exhibit planning can be valuable before any large project. The Toolkit helps in getting oriented, finding resources, and preparing for work. 

Links to other ACM resources also broaden the Toolkit’s usefulness to more kinds of museums and museums at different stages of development. Building and Exhibits links to the ACM Product and Resources List, to Green Exhibits, and to Healthy Kids, Healthy Museums publication. Staff and Volunteers links to ACM’s HR Support Toolkit.

Established museums share similarities with start-up museums at different times. In preparing to grow or change in a significant way, a museum needs many of the same resources that a start-up museum needs. As a museum explores relocating, expanding at its current site, launching a capital campaign, or rethinking its exhibits, it faces many of the same questions, processes, and challenges as a museum starting up. When a major project is complete, that museum is inexperienced in its new context very much like a new museum.  Having worked with museums that are expanding and reinventing themselves, I know the Toolkit has relevant resources for guiding and strengthening them as they navigate change.

The Toolkit is full of spot-on advice for museums preparing for change, increasing capacity, or trying to meet annual goals. One piece of advice tops my list: “Though different people have different roles, fundraising is everyone's responsibility.”  

Toolkit With a Future

The Toolkit was designed with a flexible format. Individual sections and forms can be updated and added. Updating is not only standard in an on-line world, but also reflects the reality in which museums start and grow. Museums interact with a dynamic environment; practices evolve; established museums take risks and learn; and new tools like ACM’s Benchmarking Calculator are developed. These and other changes can and should be integrated with the Toolkit. New case studies should highlight emerging trends.

When Minnesota Children’s Museum built its new building in 1993-1995, I read and re-read (and re-read) a 1986 draft of a case study of Boston Children’s Museum moving to Museum Wharf in 1976 - 1979 by Elaine Gurian. I think the Toolkit is that kind of resource for others. And more.  As an on-line tool, it’s fast, current, updatable, with direct links to vast resources. Those qualities and the possibility of children’s museums for more communities will make The Toolkit the must-have, often-used, and ever-referenced resource.

The more the Toolkit is used and added to, the stronger, more useful it becomes. I encourage you to visit the Toolkit. Think about and share with me, ACM, and others, your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions.

Add to the collective wisdom.

•                  Are resources you have found helpful included in the Toolkit?

•                  What resources would you like to see added?

•                  Do you know of any resources that are specific to children’s museums to add?

•                  Are there sections that can it be stronger?

•                  Are there more ways the Toolkit can relate to the other tools, such as Collective Vision?