MUSEUM SHOPS
Sara Birmingham’s Good Taste Longtime Museum Shops Director Retires Sara Birmingham, Museum of New Mexico Foundation Vice President of Retail, retired in January after 18 years. Here, she reflects on valuable lessons and highlights from her time managing operations for the Museum Shops. Member News: You came to the Foundation after a career at Nordstrom? Sara Birmingham: I was a vice president of the accessory division at Nordstrom. When I got to Santa Fe, I had sworn off retail. Then I saw an ad in the paper for a manager-buyer at the art museum. I went in and talked to the woman there. I thought to myself, “After having a budget of $85 million a month, I could manage this little store.” MN: What was most important to learn about your job? SB: It’s so important to know what’s going on in the museums. The best parts have been working with curators and directors around a new exhibit—deciding what we can do to promote the exhibit, how to take it a step further and build more product into the shop. MN: How do you balance merchandise? SB: With good taste, and without going outside the bounds of what our museums should represent. Can it be handcrafted? Can it come from an individual artist? When you’ve really bonded with the topic of the exhibit, it’s handed to you on a silver platter. It’s all built in for you. You just have to learn to build around it. MN: What exhibitions stand out? SB: The Red That Colored the World and New World Cuisine [Museum of International Folk Art], Fractured Faiths [New Mexico History Museum], Nicholas and Alexandra [New Mexico Museum of Art], Clearly Indigenous [Museum of Indian Arts and Culture]. The blockbusters make so much revenue for the shops.
MN: What are some of your most treasured shop memories? SB: To go to Peru to buy for the Folk Art of the Andes exhibition [Museum of International Folk Art], or to Guatemala for a textile show. I’m still working with the people I met there. At the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture and the History Museum, it’s the Native American or Hispanic jewelers I’ve worked with. I almost get chills hearing their stories. Just about the difference made in their lives, for being able to give them a check for something like two bracelets. It sounds ridiculous, but we can affect people’s lives. MN: How would you like to see your legacy continued in the Museum Shops? SB: By maintaining the integrity of what they purchase in the future. We have worked so hard—a whole group of people, even before me—to create these gallery museum shops. Our numbers are so far beyond a normal museum shop because of our dedication to handcrafted art. I believe we will maintain that integrity, and probably even get better.
Top right: Photo by Saro Calewarts.
20 museumfoundation.org
