If you’re a museum professional, I’m sure you’ve said some of this “stuff” (I know I have!).

What “stuff” is unique to your institution?

At the NURFC we find ourselves saying say:

“Food and drink are not permitted in the exhibitions. Yes, that includes chewing gum.”

“No, the Underground Railroad was not an actual railroad.”

“Someone stole the brain, again.”

“No, there are no trains on site.”

“Freeeeeeedom!”

The Cincinnati Enquirer‘s feature, “Freedom Center Could Close” in December 2011 by Mark Curnutte, and its accompanying articles, were written over several months and meetings with Kim Robinson, NURFC President and CEO, and the Presiding Co-Chairs of the Board, John Pepper and Rev. Damon Lynch, Jr. Curnutte received access to the Freedom Center’s financial records and conducted dozens of interviews, with community stakeholders, scholars, anti-tax activists and more.

The articles painted a picture of an institution striving to connect the dots between preserving the past, educating the present and inspiring visitors to “fan the flame” for a better future for all. The NURFC’s mission is:

We reveal stories about freedom’s heroes, from the era of the Underground Railroad to contemporary times, challenging and inspiring everyone to take courageous steps for freedom today.

That’s powerful! And a mission that would receive tremendous community support, right?

Not exactly.

The NURFC has faced criticism for not meeting projected attendance numbers, its inability to connect with the local community and create a sustainable business model, since it opened in 2004. The NURFC has made great progress under the leadership of Kim Robinson, and has cut expenses in light of the decreasing amounts of government funding and private contributions but it hasn’t been enough to close the $1.5M gap in expenses versus revenue. At yesterday’s press conference Robinson said, “We saw a way through to December, but if we didn’t find a solution by January 2013, we would close,” in response to a reporter’s question.

This merger is the solution.

The Cincinnati Museum Center is no stranger to mergers. The Cincinnati History Museum, Duke Energy Children’s Museum and Museum of Natural History & Science were brought together by a series of mergers in the 1980s and 1990s. The Cincinnati Enquirer‘s “Museum Mergers: How Have They Fared” quotes AAM‘s Dewey Blanton saying, “Over the past six months, we’ve probably gotten three inquiries from different parts of the country asking about the success rate of mergers.” The article also features other arts/culture mergers in Pittsburgh, Dayton and Chattanooga.

The NURFC/CMC merger will not only improve the finances of both institutions, it will also create opportunities to reach new donors and develop new exhibits together. While the NURFC and CMC will remain separate 501(c)(3)s with separate missions, together they will reduce payroll expenses by sharing administrative work and eliminating redundant positions. An estimated 15 people could lose their jobs in the merger between the two organizations. The NURFC currently has 34 FTEs, the CMC has 300 FT/PTEs. Kim Robinson will become the Executive Director of the NURFC and report to CMC’s CEO, Douglass McDonald, who will be in charge of the entire operation.

While there are still many details that need to be worked out, this is an exciting time. The synergy between the two organizations is palpable and as John Pepper said, “Truly the proverbial marriage made in heaven.”

My thoughts on the merger?

In December 2011, I wrote a heartfelt post titled, “What Freedom Means to Me.” The NURFC matters. If you read the articles, interviews, tweets, etc. around the news of this merger you will see that both the NURFC and CMC are in agreement:

• Museums inspire us.
• Museums are vital to great communities.
• The mission of the NURFC is vital to our community.
• Together we can better serve our community.

I’m all for it. The merger will give the NURFC the much needed sustainability to preserve and protect the mission of the organization. It’s unfortunate that several NURFC and CMC employees may lose their jobs, however, without the merger the NURFC could close completely and all 34 FTEs could lose their jobs. Change is difficult, but necessary.

To read “Cincinnati museum merger a model for other cities?” click here.

PRESS RELEASE: Cincinnati Museum Center and National Underground Railroad Freedom Center Take Steps to Join

I’ll get us started.

My husband and I go on museum dates on a fairly regular basis. I love museums and he tolerates them. I’m a history person and he is interested art and design.

The last exhibition we saw that we both loved was Supply and Demand: 20 Year Retrospective at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati. The show featured over 20 years of Shepard Fairey‘s work, including illustrations, screen prints, collages, works of wood, metal and canvas. We went on opening night and stood in line a block away from the museum for about 30 minutes in mid-February 2010. It was cold but the crowd was excited and the music was loud. Did I mention that Shepard Fairey was a DJ at the opening party? It was kind of a big deal. We walked through the exhibition (which was huge) holding hands and found ourselves getting lost in the artwork, having discussions about imagery and messaging and running into friends we hadn’t seen in ages. All in all – it was a stellar date night (and we still talk about).

We even have the exclusive screen print of the  Zaha Hadid-designed Contemporary Arts Center signed by Shepard Fairey hanging in our living room to remind us of that night. Swoon.

Share your museum date stories!

While checking out the photos (on DAI’s Flickr page) and thinking of the many iconic Saturday Evening Post covers Rockwell created, I started thinking about magazines covers in general. I subscribed to TIME and Newsweek (now The Daily Beast) as a teenager (I liked to stay up to date on current events) and can describe in great detail the covers that followed 9/11. Katina Solomon recently shared a post from her blog, Zen College Life, with me titled, “9 Historic Magazine Covers.”

Every once in a while…magazine editors give us something unforgettable with serious meaning. These covers not only draw you in, but stay with you for the rest of your life.

The post features the haunting glance of Sharbata Gula on National Geographic (1985), Muhammad Ali as St. Sebastian on Esquire (1968) and Life magazine’s “Life Before Birth” (1965),  just to name a few.

Is there a magazine cover etched in your mind? Why did it make such an impact on you? What would you add to the list of “9 Historic Magazine Covers?”

My magazine covers are: TIME‘s Columbine cover (I went to a small town school, suddenly that wasn’t a comfort or guarantee of safety), TIME‘s 9/11 cover (I watched the events of the day unfold in my high school French class) and TIME‘s 2008 Person of the Year cover (“Why History Can’t Wait” article).

Photo: Annie Leibovitz vogue.com

A few weeks ago Meryl Streep did something awesome.

She donated her salary from The Iron Lady to the National Women’s History Museum (NWHM). She also won a Golden Globe – which is also awesome – but not the focus here.

Not only did she donate her salary, when asked to appear on the cover Vogue (January 2012 issue), she stipulated that a group of powerful Washington women, who are all involved in getting the NWHM built and operating, be included. Who are these women? Joan Wages (President & CEO of the NWHM), Sen. Susan Collins, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, poet Maya Angelou, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, and former first-daughters Barbara Bush and Patricia Nixon Cox.

That is an impressive group of women!

The NWHM currently has administrative offices in Alexandria, VA while it works towards the goal of a permanent museum site. According to the latest legislative update on their website on Sept. 8, 2011:

The NWHM bill was attached to other legislation supported by Committee Chairman John Mica (R-FL) and re-introduced as HR 2844, the National Women’s History Museum and Federal Facilities Consolidation and Efficiency Act of 2011. Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) is a cosponsor of the bill.

The legislative language in the new bill revises and further clarifies the boundaries of the site that NWHM will be allowed to purchase at 12th Street and Independence Avenue, SW., adjacent to the National Mall. This change eliminates any questions as to Congressional intent and will be helpful in site negotiations with the General Services Administration (GSA), the nation’s landlord.

The NWHM  has a long way to go (the NWHM was founded in 1996 by Karen Straser) before they have a building on the National Mall but they certainly have the passion, drive and star power to bring this museum to fruition.

While exploring the NWHM website the following ‘general question‘ stood out:

Why “women’s history” – isn’t it all just “history?”

Women’s contributions and accomplishments for the most part have been overlooked and consequently omitted from mainstream culture. The National Women’s History Museum will help fill that void. Rather than rewriting current exhibitions at other history museums or having to decide what to omit elsewhere to “fit in” women’s history, the NWHM will serve to place women’s history along side current historical exhibitions.

Women’s history is half of our national story. The objective is to promote scholarship and expand our knowledge of American history.

Which begs the question: Are “demographic-based” museums a sign that museums aren’t all inclusive?

The following questions were posted on my Facebook wall by dear friend and fellow museum professional, Mark Sundlov:

Are [demographic-based museums] a sign that museums have not fulfilled the public-history promises to be inclusive and engaging with people of all demographics?

Do museums do their best work when they are tightly focused on a single demographic?

Does the National Museum of American History (NMAH) now have an excuse to work less diligently to include women’s history in its exhibits?

These are all fabulous questions.

There is no doubt that at one time museums were for the upper class, well to do, highly educated and directed primarily by white men.

Times have changed and continue to change in the museum field.

We talk about not only engaging but serving our communities, reaching underserved populations, increasing interactivity and user-generated content making museums “open-source.” In doing all of this, are we forgetting to “update” the content in our institutions? Do our collections policies need to change? Do our communities see themselves in or connect with our exhibitions?

Or when someone visits the NMAH and someone asks the front desk where they can find information about Frances Ellen Watkins Harper will they hear, “oh, you have to go to the National Museum of African American History and Culture or the NWHM for that.”

I don’t know the answers to all of these questions but I would love for you to share your thoughts. Let’s start a discussion.

We’re 10 days into 2012 and if you’re like me – you’re still trying to catch up from the holidays (and trying to get rid of a lingering cold).

Step away from the DayQuil, your inbox and your voicemail.

Take a moment to think about yourself.

Yes, I said think about YOU!

What are your professional goals for 2012? What will you bring to the field of museum practice and scholarship?

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 7,300 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Please note: the text in blue is quoted from, “Freedom: The Need for Courage, Cooperation, & Perseverance as the Struggle Continues,” an article I co-wrote with Dina Bailey, Director of Exhibitions and Collections, and Stephanie Creech, External Relations Manager, featured in Museums of Ideas: Commitment and Conflict.

I work at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (NURFC) in Cincinnati, Ohio. Yesterday, the NURFC was featured in The Cincinnati Enquirer, in an article titled, “Freedom Center Could Close.” This article has shared the unique challenges this institution – like so many other museums – has faced since its inception, the corrective actions taken, the many achievements reached and what the future holds for the NURFC.

I don’t want to see this place close. Ever. So, I’m going to hop on my Museum Minute soapbox and tell you a little bit about this essential institution and why this place matters.

As our mission states, “We reveals stories about freedom’s heroes, from the era of the Underground Railroad to contemporary times, challenging and inspiring everyone to take courageous steps for freedom today.” That’s one heck of a charge, right? Challenge and inspire! Take courageous steps!

The NURFC opened in August of 2004, three years after the Cincinnati riots of 2001. Yes… Cincinnati had riots in 2001.

This place matters.

As mentioned in previous posts, I have loved museums since I was a kid. I didn’t know or understand back then that people actually “worked” in museums but I always felt at peace amongst the objects and the history that surrounded me. In the spring of 2006, while studying history at the University of Cincinnati, I landed an internship at the NURFC and it was a bit intimidating. I felt so small in the beautiful building, plus the word “national” is a part of its name and I certainly wasn’t an expert about the history inside. This place is where I began my museum career as an intern and where it continues today, as the Creative and Digital Content Manager. In my time here, I have had the pleasure of working with some of the most amazing, passionate and professional people I have ever met and have grown into a museum professional myself.  My personal journey is one small example of the professional impact the NURFC has had.

This place matters.

The NURFC is a one-of-a-kind museum. Its very location on the banks of the Ohio River, “the River Jordan,” is enough to give a person chills. If you stand on the balcony of the second floor and look at the river and into Kentucky you are looking at the narrow divide that separated a free state and a slave state. Runaway slaves, and the heroic conductors that assisted them, crossed that river in all conditions seeking freedom.

This place matters.

Through changing exhibitions, permanent exhibitions and dialogue-focused programming, the NURFC ties the past to the present and encourages visitors to take action today for a better tomorrow. The foundation of the institution is in the history of the Underground Railroad. The legacy of the Underground Railroad, its natural extension the Civil Rights Movement, and more recent victories, e.g., the end of apartheid in South Africa, have the power to inspire and model movements for universal freedom.  In recapturing historic narratives, the NURFC creates an experience of the past that enables people today not only to question historical perceptions, but also to see how “the past is prologue” in resolving contemporary challenges. 

This place matters.

The museum doesn’t stop there. The NURFC’s new groundbreaking, permanent exhibition Invisible: Slavery Today discusses forced labor, child labor, sex trafficking, bonded labor and domestic servitude still occurring around the globe today. Slavery did not end in 1865; it is alive and well in 2011. An estimated 12 – 27 million people are caught in one or another form of slavery.

This place matters.

The emotions experienced at the NURFC are many. I have seen grown men cry and I have seen rambunctious children leave speechless. Any feeling experienced at the NURFC is legitimate and valued. This is a difficult history but let us not forget that the stories shared by the NURFC are a chapter in American history and must not be ignored. It is a history that affects us all. The NURFC isn’t a museum “just about slavery,” this is a museum about the courage, cooperation perseverance and resolve needed to overcome tragedy and injustice. Through this difficult history, this struggle we find freedom and we find hope.

This place matters.

The NURFC is dedicated to changing the world by changing the way we view ourselves and one another so that, together, we can walk in the footsteps of Mandela, Wiesel, Chavez, King, Gandhi and countless other everyday freedom heroes. There is a spark within each of us. We can all fan the flame for love, justice and peace.

This place matters.

I could go on and on and on. The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is a vital institution to the city of Cincinnati, the state of Ohio, the United States of America and the global community. I’m not saying there haven’t been missteps along the way. No institution is perfect and the NURFC has not been immune to its own imperfection, however, the stories we tell, the mission we seek to embody and the passion of those souls who work to see the NURFC succeed matters, because this place matters.

What does freedom mean to me? It means everything.

To see this institution fail would be a travesty.

Thank you.

(Stepping off the Museum Minute soapbox.)

When I worked at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, we talked about a lovely dream – to have a beautiful, state-of-the-art open storage facility. See, MSI’s collection is lovely, but the institution’s mission and vision have changed dramatically since most of the collection was acquired, which leaves a small amount of exhibit space in which to feature it. Open storage would enable the Museum to highlight items from the collection that are still relevant to the institution’s collecting mission, but may not otherwise be on exhibit.

Some museums are able to turn this dream into reality, such as the Danish Immigrant Museum in Elkhorn, Iowa. (As for MSI, I’m still hoping for “some day”. They do have “Out of the Vault”, which is along these lines.)

Anyhow, when it comes to “open” or “visible” storage, the Brooklyn Museum of Art does it right. The Luce Center for American Art (also, see here) is located just off one of the American galleries, and it allows students and visitors to view many selected items from the collection that they might not otherwise see. I highly suggest you make it a part of your next visit.

Per their website:

Welcome to the Luce Center for American Art at the Brooklyn Museum. This program allows you to access information about the approximately 2,000 objects on view in the Luce Center’s Visible Storage • Study Center and the adjacent American Identities galleries.

And, of course, the 2,000 items they curated for the space are lovely, just lovely.

I can’t wait for my next trip to the Brooklyn Museum of Art! We didn’t even see the mummy!

The four options to choose from were: temple, forum, commons or “other” (you name it).

When I first put the survey out there I received a few tweets regarding the role of ‘educator’ in the community. I did not include it in the “big three” because education should be the foundation of any temple, forum or commons; the definition of each category dictates how you educate.

So, between temple, forum, or commons, what did you choose? Survey says…

Commons comes out on top with 47%.

While I was at Developing History Leaders at the Seminar for Historical Administration (which has a new website – shameless plug – you’re welcome, SHA) we talked at length about the role of the museum in the community. At first, the discussions revolved around the temple vs. forum debate.

Temple: A building devoted to the worship, or regarded as the dwelling place, of a god or gods or other objects of religious reverence.

The objects in our collections are sacred and we are the guardians.

We take significant amounts of time to collect, study, preserve, display and interpret objects. Does this make museums THE historical/scientific/cultural authority? While what we collect changes and the way we collect objects varies, does our interpretation model change over time?

As we look back at history, art or science is there room for revisionist interpretation? Does this come from the museum or from the community? Or both? Does this alter the collections management plans we have in place and the way we display our objects?

Forum: A meeting or medium where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged.

How does the community interact with the objects we house? With our mission? Are they put off by “please do not touch” and “no photography” signage? Is there an opportunity for discussion during a self guided tour? What are the strengths and weaknesses of our programming? Lectures? Films? How often are community roundtable discussions held in the museum?

A forum means dialogue it taking place. What are we talking about and where are we talking?

As the “role of the museum” discussions evolved the three weeks at SHA and programming, evaluation and unique revenue streams were presented, “the commons” became more and more apparent. As museum professionals, we can get so wrapped up in objects, to-do lists and the next exhibition that we don’t always take the time to see the importance of the commons.

Commons: A place or resource shared by all people without barrier or restriction.

Without barrier or restriction. That is BOLD. When museum professionals think of commons we often think of Web 2.0, but what about creating a common space within the walls of the institution? Visitor curation and participation is much easier to facilitate online but if we truly want to engage our local communities, shouldn’t we invite visitors to roll up their sleeves and get a little dirty? Give them an opportunity to say not only that they have a stake in what the museum IS but that they also are a part of what the museum DOES. I know, I’m being pretty radical here.

I’m not saying give your visitor’s a pair of white gloves and let them loose in the collections room. What I am saying is create unique opportunities for your community to create, touch, discuss and become a part of your institution.

Some more food for thought comes from Neal Stimler (@nealstimler). He recently tweeted a series of definitions for museums:

Now that your brain is stewing, is it time to look beyond temple, forum and commons? Or do the definitions from Neal above somehow fall into those three categories?