Currier Museum of Art Exemplifies Resilience

Resilience depends as much on flexibility as on strength

By Alan Chong, director, Currier Museum of Art

Museums and other nonprofit organizations face specific challenges in times of crisis. We often try to be like a normal business – with profit and loss, cash flow, income projections, and so forth – but in an economic crisis, we simply can’t make the same cuts, or just throw in the towel and start over. An art museum belongs to the public and serves the community, and together, a special kind of resilience is required to weather the storm.

At the Currier, careful planning over the past century has ensured that we have a strong art collection and an endowment to keep the museum running. That being said, resilience depends as much on flexibility as on strength.

NIMBLENESS IS A CORE VALUE

As a medium-sized museum, the Currier makes an impact by responding quickly to the needs of our local community, as well as to national trends in the art world. We tailor programs to audiences with special interests, move quickly on the art market, and have shortened the preparation time for special exhibitions by using more of our own collection in creative ways.

HAVE A MISSION, NOT A PLAN

Five-year plans and strategic plans are problematic in the best of times, but they are almost useless in a crisis. An organization, especially a nonprofit, needs to focus on its mission. We exist to bring art to the community. When the museum is closed to visitors, that mission does not vanish but simply takes new forms. The digital world provided a means of delivering content during the pandemic, and we quickly pivoted to virtual events, curatorial tours, art classes, online art therapy sessions, storytelling for families – even our annual Noon Year’s Eve celebration went virtual.

PLAN AHEAD, BUT NOT TOO MUCH

The pandemic created social problems across the nation, and the museum tried to respond, for example by creating art sessions to address teen isolation and anxiety. While we were closed, our art therapy programs continued and even expanded digitally. For some of our online programs, though, like those for families affected by opioid abuse, issues of privacy at home have been daunting, and made it difficult to convert to an online platform.

PLAN TO THROW OUT YOUR PLANS

Our new digital initiatives had been imagined in advance, but when the pandemic hit, we decided to push ahead more quickly. There seemed to be no point in having long discussions to vet and approve new ideas when we were closed, and our audience was eager for engaging content. Our philosophy was to try something, and if it didn’t work, we would try something else.

In-person events cannot simply be duplicated online. The digital world demands more visuals and shorter segments – and fewer talking heads.

It’s best to keep it fun and dynamic.

By sheer coincidence, we were in the process of redesigning our website in late 2019. When the pandemic hit, we fasttracked the project so that we could launch a new website that would integrate our digital programs in a simple and clear platform. In the course of 2020, we received a grant to develop a web-based sub-site for the museum’s Frank Lloyd Wright houses to reach new audiences. The lockdown taught us that too much planning, vetting and control destroy flexibility.

RESILIENCE IS NOT ISOLATION

The support of the community has helped us survive. Without the museum’s board and government funding, things would have been disastrous. Federal wage support (PPP) and the block grants to the state have kept nonprofits going in a time of crisis. Moreover, the museum’s board made a commitment not to furlough staff, as they fully realized that we had many new digital initiatives to launch, and we would need staff to care for the collection and reopen well prepared.

RESPOND TO OPPORTUNITY

The economic crisis provided the museum with surprising opportunities. The art market continued to operate online, and the Currier Museum has also just purchased the beautiful 19th-century Chandler House across the street from the museum, which enables us to expand our galleries, classrooms and offices. The museum was also awarded funds to create new classrooms for our Art for Vets program – a construction project that had not been planned but could be realized quickly in partnership with other organizations.

NO GOING BACK

We all look forward to returning to restaurants, sports events, gatherings of various types – including real visits to museums. But we need to know that things cannot simply go back to normal. We have built a new audience in the pandemic – online digital experiences, quicker visits to the museum and at-home family art activities with pick-up art kits. These were all opportunities created by the pandemic and will become part of our new normal going forward. ¥