Museum Store Spring 2014

www.MuseumStoreAssociation.org SPRING 2014

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$15

SELLING ON

CONSIGNMENT

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YEE-HAW! WE’RE HOUSTON BOUND

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EDUCATIONAL PRODUCTS BUYER’S GUIDE

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TWITTER MARKETING FOR MUSEUM STORES

CHIHULY

STUDIO EDITION GLASS Pictured is Zinnia Macchia by Dale Chihuly.

Please join us in offering your patrons a unique opportunity to collect Chihuly glass.

Contact us to find out how this program can benefit your organization.

800.574.7272 paulaj@chihulyworkshop.com P.O. Box 70856, Seattle, Washington 98127 chihulyworkshop.com Photo by David Emery

Spring 2014

Museum Store helps nonprofit retail professionals operate more effectively, find sources of museum-quality products and contribute to the missions of their institutions.

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Volume 42

MSA STAFF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR/CEO

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JAMA RICE, MBA, CAE DIRECTOR OF LEARNING

ANDREA MILLER, MPA MEETINGS & CONFERENCE MANAGER

JENNIFER ANDER SON

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COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER

KATHY CISAR SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR

ADRIANA HERALD ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

LEIGH RUSSO MEMBERSHIP MANAGER

JEFF YEAGER, MBA

SKIES AMERICA PUBLISHING COMPANY

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GRAPHIC DESIGNER

MEG CASTILLO EDITOR

REBECCA OSTER BACH

Yee-Haw! We’re Houston Bound!

Check out the exhibits and events being held this April at MSA member institutions in the Houston area, and get more details about MSA 2014. BY ANDREA MILLER Educational Products Buyer’s Guide Learning is a lifelong adventure! Browse our latest buyer’s guide and find educational products that will appeal to customers of all ages.

Twitter Marketing for Museum Stores Learn some Twitter basics and get ideas on how you can use Twitter to promote your museum store.

Selling on Consignment Discover how adopting a great consignment philosophy can lead to great rewards—for your store and artists alike.

BY SUZANNE SIPPEL

ADVERTISING

MARY PETILLO & DIANA GROSSARTH PRODUCTION MANAGER

CINDY PIKE

4

CIRCULATION

ALLEN NELSON HOW TO CONTACT US EMAIL: amiller@museumstoreassociation.org Please provide your full name, location and institution or company name.

Diana Grossarth: (503) 726-4986 dgrossarth @museumstoreassociation.org

Features

BY JASON MCDONALD

JACQUELYN MERRILL

ADVERTISING: Mary Petillo: (503) 726-4984 maryp@museumstoreassociation.org;

Issue 1

BY APRIL MILLER

DIRECTOR OF CREATIVE SERVICES

MAIL: Museum Store Association 3773 E Cherry Creek North Dr, Ste 755 Denver, CO 80209-3804 www.MuseumStoreAssociation.org Phone: (303) 504-9223 Fax: (303) 504-9585

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Museum Store magazine (ISSN 1040-6999) is published quarterly by the Museum Store Association.

Departments President’s Message It’s worth listening in on the conversations from all our members!

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Executive Director’s Message Bringing all of our voices together in harmony.

8

Strategic Management A museum retailer’s guide to copyright.

BY CARLOTTA RAMIREZ

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Customer Relations Here are 20 ways to increase store sales.

BY RICH KIZER & GEORGANNE BENDER

Postmaster: Send address changes to Museum Store Association 3773 E Cherry Creek North Dr, Ste 755 Denver, CO 80209-3804

© 2014 Museum Store Association Inc. All rights reserved.

Except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, no part of this magazine may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from MSA. Opinions expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of the Museum Store Association. Printed in the USA.

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Merchandise Planning Critical principles to maximize jewelry revenue. BY ANDREW ANDONIADIS

25

Just for Vendors Tips and advice to vendors who are new to exhibiting at the MSA Expo.

45 MSA Board Spotlight

Q&A with Michael Higdon, Retail Manager at the National Building Museum.

46 New Vendor Showcase/Advertiser Index

MSA and Museum Store Association are registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

COVER IMAGE: CAITIE SELLERS, “RICHMOND NECKLACE,” 2012.

STERLING SILVER AND STEEL. PHOTO BY THE ARTIST.

SPRING 2014 | MUSEUM STORE

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| president’s message |

Hearing Voices IT’S WORTH LISTENING IN ON THE CONVERSATIONS!

The core purpose of MSA is to advance the success of nonprofit retail and of the professionals engaged in it. An international association, MSA is governed by an eight-member board of directors.

BY STACEY STACHOW

O

ne of the things I’ve been hearing over the last year is a lot more voices participating in MSA. I don’t know if it’s my listening skills or that people are beginning to feel that when they talk they’ll be heard. This issue of the magazine is filled with voices from corners formerly not so visible within MSA. Particularly there is the voice from those who have been cheering on MSA from what seemed like the sidelines to them: MSA’s Vendor Affiliates. Over the past year MSA has taken steps to move them onto the playing field. These baby steps are the beginning of efforts to strengthen the relationship MSA has with these invaluable members. In the past, plans were made without listening to the voices of vendors and service providers that have supplied so much economic support to MSA and our institutional members. In 2013, the board recognized the importance of these members by appointing an Affiliate Advisor to the board. The contributions of our first advisor, David Howell, have influenced many board conversations and affected several decisions over the last year.

My contribution to this effort is to regularly remind Institution Members of the fact that Vendor Affiliates are indeed members, too. After all, we all have the same goal: to get museum visitors to leave with something from the store. As a shop manager, my vendors are one of my most valuable assets. When a vendor understands what and whom it is you are buying for in your store, they suggest items that are trending or selling well elsewhere that might meet your goals. And museum store buyers help vendors out as well—giving them feedback, whether positive or negative, on products and ideas suggested.

I wonder sometimes if buyers fully understand the important role that vendor companies play in the whole MSA system. Among other things that they do that have a big impact on the association is invest time and money—taking a risk that the investment will pay off—in membership fees, sponsorships, advertising in MSA publications and online, and traveling and shipping goods to and from an expo targeted to our very niche market.

Those advertising dollars are important to MSA so the association is taking another step to strengthen its relationship with vendors with the launch of MSAProductShop, an online product and services directory much better suited to our industry.

Thinking about things from another perspective is good for all of us. Given all the other things that are changing within MSA I’m willing to make this request. Vendors, listen to the buyers; don’t tell us what you have until you understand what we’re trying to do. And buyers, don’t assume that a vendor isn’t interested in your store but only in selling you his or her line. Vendors want to know what people are carrying out the door and why.

Let’s not be like the politicians, whose unwillingness to listen to each other results in government shutdowns and gridlock. Let’s all imagine a Utopia where we all understand that listening to other voices is key, and MSA has the job to connect all of us in sharing good ideas.

Stacey Stachow Stacey.Stachow@wadsworthatheneum.org 4

MUSEUM STORE | SPRING 2014

BOARD OF DIRECTORS PRESIDENT

STAC EY STAC HOW WADSWORTH ATHENEUM MUSEUM OF ART HARTFORD, CONN.

FIRST VICE PRESIDENT

B ARB ARA LENHARD T THE JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS WASHINGTON, D.C.

SECOND VICE PRESIDENT

D AV ID A. D UD D Y DECORDOVA SCULPTURE PARK AND MUSEUM LINCOLN, MASS. SECRETARY

MIC HAEL HIG D ON NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM WASHINGTON, D.C.

TREASURER

G LORIA STERN MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY TWO HARBORS, MINN.

DIRECTOR AT LARGE

MARK W IG G INS CIA MUSEUM/EMPLOYEE ACTIVITY ASSN. MCLEAN, VA.

AFFILIATE ADVISOR

D AV ID HOW ELL DAVID HOWELL & COMPANY BEDFORD HILLS, N.Y.

NEW from THAMES & HUDSON

ASYLUM OF THE BIRDS Roger Ballen & Didi Bozzini A masterful new monograph from one of the most revered and highly collectible contemporary art photographers in the world 90 illus. | $60.00 THE BLOOMSBURY COOKBOOK Jans Ondaatje Rolls Sheds light on the vivid personalities, ideas, and achievements of the Bloomsbury Group from a unique culinary perspective 165 illus. | $39.95 COMICS Dan Mazur & Alexander Danner The first global history of comics from the late 1960s to the present day, comprehensive and lushly illustrated 350 illus. | $39.95 paper THE DUCHAMP DICTIONARY Thomas Girst Illustrated by Luke Frost & Therese Vandling “Girst elegantly unravels the skeins of Duchamp’s thinking. . . . An essential compendium for puzzling out an essential artist.”

—Richard Armstrong, Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation 59 illus. | $29.95

SANCTUARY Hossein Amirsadeghi, ed.

A privileged and unprecedented peek into the lives and studios of contemporary British artists 600+ illus. | $95.00

THE GLOBAL ART COMPASS Alistair Hicks A highly original, wide-ranging, and judiciously illustrated exploration of an increasingly global art scene 150 illus. | $29.95 HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON: HERE AND NOW Clément Chéroux A new career retrospective of the legendary photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson including rare and unpublished work 500 illus. | $75.00 MARTIN CREED Martin Creed The first comprehensive survey of the work and career of Londonbased artist Martin Creed 800 illus. | $50.00 paper

THE SELF-PORTRAIT James Hall Sheds new light on the long history of self-portraiture with fresh interpretations of famous examples and new works, ideas, and anecdotes 120 illus. | $35.00 SHAMANIC REGALIA IN THE FAR NORTH Patricia Rieff Anawalt An astonishing window into Shamanism and the worldviews of our distant ancestors in the Ice Age 109 illus. | $29.95

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| executive director’s message |

Integration BRINGING ALL OF OUR VOICES TOGETHER IN HARMONY.

T

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(503) 726-4984 6

MUSEUM STORE | SPRING 2014

here’s an expression that I overuse: Are we all singing off the same sheet of music?

MSA is starting to sound like it’s on key. The diverse groups and interests that make up and support MSA are harmonizing their interests and efforts.

MSA chapters are working with the national organization to bring the best value possible to their members, affiliates and other stakeholders in their regions. The board appointed the Chapter Policies & Procedures Task Force to convey suggestions for improving chapter activities and the support needed to make those improvements.

The board basically told the task force: Help the national organization hear the correct pitch! The national office is imagining ways that it can support the chapters in their events and other activities, starting with compensating the chapters for every new and renewing institution member. MSA is building relationships with tradeshows that members attend in the various parts of the country and engaging the chapter officers in organizing educational and networking events in tandem with these shows. There is a rhythm that is developing between the national staff and the chapters.

I’ve been fortunate to have one-on-one conversations with many Vendor Affiliates, some of whom are long-time supporters of the association and great friends with many of its members. They’ve been relentless in sharing how much more they can do on behalf of the association and its members, if only… In listening I’ve come to understand that their interests and those of the museum stores are pretty much in alignment—placing product that sells. The story is just told a bit differently depending

| BY JAMA RICE

on whom you’re talking to. Fortunately, a number of vendors and buyers are willing to help the association identify a few tunes that sound pretty good when both vendors and buyers sing them together: an affiliate advisor to the board, an online directory that can really showcase their products and services to buyers à la MSAProductShop— small little tunes, small little steps, but moving toward a much more harmonious sound.

MSA is building bridges with other associations and organizations working in the broader museum industry. The board and staff have had and are continuing to have conversations with representatives from organizations like the American Alliance of Museums to the Zoo & Aquarium Buyers Group. Current Board President Stacey Stachow and I have logged lots of miles and chatted with lots of folks assessing where there is an opportunity to sing a round or two together. We’ve discovered that there are many organizations that, at the very least, want to come in on the MSA chorus.

There are many ways to encourage singing off the same sheet of music in an association like MSA—the board’s strategic planning work, the business and operations plans the staff implement in support of the board’s work, the clearly stated objectives of the committees and task forces. Most importantly, it is the willingness to listen to the tune that others are carrying and imagining just how it is we can harmonize.

Such beautiful music!

Jama Rice, MBA, CAE jrice@museumstoreassociation.org

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

9 Copyright Myths and Facts THE MUSEUM RETAILER’S GUIDE TO COPYRIGHT.

| BY CARLOTTA RAMIREZ

A

ISTOCKPHOTO.COM / © ALEXSKOPJE

customer wanders in to a museum’s retail store. He is inspired by the art exhibition he just visited and wants to take something home to commemorate his experience. Enjoying the ambient music as he shops, he eventually purchases a magnet featuring a photo of the artist, a coffee cup with an image of one of the artist’s paintings on the front and the exhibition catalog featuring a full set of color plates of the artist’s best works. The customer is probably unaware that all of his purchases, and even

Many think that because a museum operates as a nonprofit entity that it is not subject to the same copyright rules as private companies. The reality is that copyright law applies to everyone equally. the music he listened to while he shopped, contain copyrighted works protected by federal law.

As the above scenario illustrates, copyrighted works are all around us. As a retailer, it is important to know some basic elements of copyright law in order to avoid getting into hot water for infringement under the federal Copyright Act. To begin with, a copyright is an intellectual property right to an original creative work. Just like a title document can be used to defend tangible and real property (like a car or land) from trespassers, a copyright can be used by an artist or author to defend his or her original creative work from infringement by others. Like a title, the copyright to a piece of work can be sold and transferred.

However, unlike a title to a piece of land, physical ownership of an original work is different from ownership of the copyright 8

MUSEUM STORE | SPRING 2014

corresponding to that original work.

For example, when an artist sells her painting to a museum, she still retains her ownership of the painting’s copyright. The museum has the right to exhibit the painting, loan it out or resell it. However, the museum may not copy or otherwise reproduce images of the painting without licensing the copyright from the artist first. This means photographs or digital images of the painting cannot be used in advertising, on the museum website or on postcards and t-shirts in the museum shop without prior permission from the artist. In addition, because she owns the copyright, the artist may license the image of the painting to another person (or museum) for use on products or in books even though she no longer owns the actual painting; she does not need to ask the permission of the museum to exercise her copyright.

Are you confused yet? If so, you are not alone. Consider the following nine copyright myths that can arise in a retail setting when developing a product for sale or using images to advertise an existing product.

MYTH #1: “If I use only a small portion of a work, say, 10%, it is not infringement.”

REALITY: There is no set amount of a work that is automatically safe to use.

Lawsuits have resulted from something as seemingly innocent as the unlicensed use of a single line of text from a Faulkner novel in a Woody Allen movie (Faulkner Literary Rights LLC v Sony Pictures Classic). It is logical to think that if you only use a very small amount of a copyrighted work, such as 30 seconds of a song or 20 words from a published book, you are “in the clear.” However, even using small portions of a copyrighted work may infringe a copyright holder’s rights.

MYTH #2: “If a work is not marked with a copyright notice (©), or is not registered, then

I can use it however I want.”

REALITY: Copyright notice and/or registering the work with the U.S. Copyright Office is completely optional. Since 1989, a copyright attaches to fixed or tangible original creative works automatically—no special actions are needed for it to be protected. This being said, a copyright notice informs others of the identity of the work’s owner, which can be handy if you want to know who to approach for a license.

MYTH #3: “There is an exception for nonprofit museums—right?”

REALITY: Wrong. Many think that because a museum operates as a nonprofit entity that it is not subject to the same copyright rules as private companies. The reality is that copyright law applies to everyone equally, and there is no special exemption or exception for museums.

MYTH #4: “Since the museum purchased the artwork, the museum now owns the copyright.”

REALITY: This is another common

misconception. Copyright law makes an important distinction between owning the physical embodiment of a work and owning the copyright. The two are usually divided, so that the museum may own the artwork, but will still have to ask for permission from the artist to use images of it for commercial purposes. For example, it is permissible for the owner of a physical work (like a painting) to display it in an exhibition, sell it to another or even destroy it. However, unless the artist has assigned his copyright in writing to the owner of the work (in this example the museum) the right to reproduce images of the artwork for things like retail merchandise or advertising is off limits without a license. Of course, copyright protection does not last forever. However, determining whether or not a work is still protected by copyright (also called falling into the “public domain”) is equally challenging.

MYTH #5: “What if I properly acknowledge the copyrighted material when I use it, insert-

ing the © symbol? Isn’t that enough?”

REALITY: No. Acknowledging the source of copyrighted material does not substitute for obtaining permission. If you do not seek permission for the use of copyrighted materials, you risk copyright infringement.

Copyright infringement is not like plagiarism; you cannot remedy it by attribution.

MYTH #6: “If a work is already freely distributed online it must be okay to use.”

REALITY: The pace of technology makes it remarkably easy for anyone to put copyrighted images on the Internet, even when they are clearly not licensed to do so. A simple Google search of “Pablo Picasso images” or “Andy Warhol paintings” yields literally millions of image hits. It is easy to see how confusion about copyright ownership results.

In short, just because the image (or even a part of the image, such as a close-up) is out there on the Internet, it is still protected by copyright and you must seek a license before using it for most commercial purposes.

It is also important to note that a

SPRING 2014 | MUSEUM STORE

9

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

copyright holder, such as an artist, does not forfeit her copyright by posting her own work on the Internet. Consider that many modern artists use the Internet to sell physical copies of their work. This would be impossible if they could not post the pictures without fear of losing that copyright.

MYTH #7: “Well, at least I can take and use images of museum patrons and other individuals on my retail products or advertising without asking permission—as long as they are not celebrities.”

REALITY: This also is a common mistake that retailers make, especially with advertising or promotions on the Web. While each state has its own rules about this issue, generally every individual has a right to control how his or her image or likeness is being used. You do not have to

be a celebrity to have such a right, which is commonly known as the “right to publicity” and varies from state to state. In short, if you want to use models or images of patrons for merchandise or publicity, a written release from that person is a must.

Copyright law is complex and nuanced. While copyright does not last forever, the rules are complicated enough that you should not try to navigate them on your own.

MYTH #8: “Copyright only protects things like artwork and books. Playing a CD or the radio in the museum shop will not get me in trouble.”

REALITY: Copyright protects any fixed or tangible original creative work. Such works include paintings, sculptures, books, music, movies, choreography, dramatic works, computer programs and even archi-

tectural works. Playing a CD or the radio at a venue that is open to the public, such as a museum store, constitutes what is legally a “public performance” under U.S. copyright law. The right to publicly perform a copyrighted work (and this includes playing a recording in public) is one of the exclusive rights enjoyed by the copyright owner. As a result, someone who wishes to publicly perform such works must generally seek permission from the copyright owner(s) of the works.

MYTH #9: “Well, copyright is certainly difficult to navigate, at least my museum’s name and logo are protected.”

REALITY: Not so. A copyright protects fixed original creative works; a registered trademark protects and identifies a corporate enterprise. Because they seem similar, copyrights and trademarks are often confused. A trademark (or service mark) is a word, phrase, symbol or design that identifies or distinguishes a company or product, and can be indicated by TM or ®.

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MUSEUM STORE | SPRING 2014

Essentially, a trademark is a brand name designed to identify the source of goods.

While similar to copyright, trademark is a different concept and has its own set of registration rules and procedures.

Conclusion Copyright law is complex and nuanced.

While copyright does not last forever, the rules are complicated enough that you should not try to navigate them on your own. Museum retailers would be wise to stay especially vigilant when developing and selling retail products that feature copyrighted works. When in doubt, it is always appropriate to seek help from the museum’s legal counsel.

Carlotta Ramirez is an attorney and administrator at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, specializing in legal compliance as well as the formulation and implementation of museum policy. Her daily work at the museum spans a variety of legal practice areas, including contracts, intellectual property, trusts and estates, and tax.

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CUSTOMER RELATIONS

Easy-to-Implement Ideas HERE ARE 20 WAYS TO INCREASE STORE SALES. | BY RICH KIZER & GEORGANNE BENDER

ISTOCKPHOTO.COM / ©MONKEYBUSINESSIMAGES

Check Out the Checkouts

I

t’s a busy retail world out there and everyone wishes they had more customers. Keep thrilling your customers with these easy-to-implement, customerpleasing, traffic-building, sales-increasing ideas!

Store Operations what will go on your end features, so assign each one a number, and make a list of product each end feature will house each month. Take this calendar with you to tradeshows and look for merchandise specials specifically for your end features.

On the Sales Floor 1. The customer’s first 10 seconds inside the store sets the tone for their entire shopping trip. What kind of first impression does your store make?

Check it daily.

2. Create “speed bumps”—small tabletop displays of product just beyond your “decompression zone.” Make these displays irresistible and easy to shop: customers are far more likely to buy if they are encouraged to pick up the product.

3. Set your end features to sell! End features are meant to display promotional items, not to house everyday, basic merchandise. You need to plan 12

MUSEUM STORE | SPRING 2014

5. The wall directly behind your checkout counter is major selling space!

Use it to display new items, hot buys and impulse product.

6. Increase sales at the cash wrap with impulse item displays—your customers can’t resist them!

7. Instruct associates not to hang out behind the cash wrap counter unless they are helping a customer.

And when they are assigned the job of cashier, have them work on a project in-between customers.

8. Assign “category captains.” Their job includes making sure the shelves are full, the shelf space is optimized to avoid out-of-stocks, and that top sellers have been given enough facings.

9. Create a “never out item list.” Category captains can check this list daily,

Work the social media! Talk up your store on Twitter, post on Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook. Utilize Facebook Events and get a YouTube channel.

4. Implement a signage program. Did you know that 70 percent of purchase decisions are made in-store? Signs serve a purpose—they act as silent sales people, helping customers until a real person is available to help. And unless handwritten signage is part of your store décor, don’t do it. Professional sign-making software is available from a variety of suppliers.

and re-order product as necessary.

10. Ditch the dogs! Add a “sell by” date to price tags and bin tickets and markdown as necessary. Move product with special sales, grab bags, store-created kits and “last chance” clearance dump displays.

Your “Things to Do” List 11. Do a 360-degree pass-by every single

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day. Begin at the front door and walk the entire store—every aisle, nook, cranny, restroom and service area. Note things that need to be attended to before the store opens for the day.

12. Make time each day to quietly observe your customers. This daily exercise will help you come up with new ways to amp up the customer experience.

Your Team 13. Don’t react to customer questions: respond. When you react you tend to give a short, unfocused answer. But when you respond to a customer, look them in the eye and really engage them in conversation.

14. Have associates carry product you don’t want customers to miss (or that you just can’t seem to move).

After a little schmooze time, the associate can talk with the customer about the item.

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MUSEUM STORE | SPRING 2014

15. Each month ask associates to write three things they could do to exceed customer expectations. Implement their suggestions if possible.

16. Reward associates when they do a good job. Programs like “Associate of the Month” and “Super Star of the Week” are great motivators if they are well run. Have associates nominate one another and vote for the winner.

17. Offer ongoing education. Hold monthly in-store training classes, keep a library of books and DVDs, and ask vendors what they have available to help train your team.

services, in-store events and promotions, charity events, your people, trips to tradeshows and more. Eighty percent of the stories in local media comes from a press release, so send one for each legitimately newsworthy thing you do in your store. Make sure to include a photo!

20. Collect customer testimonials. Add them to your email blasts, newsletters, website and other marketing materials. Customer quotes are also great additions to your in-store signage program. A customer testimonial is 10–20 times more powerful than what you have to say about yourself!

Build a Buzz About Town 18. Work the social media! Talk up your store on Twitter, post on Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook. Utilize Facebook Events and get a YouTube channel.

19. Contact local media and pitch stories about your store, product lines,

Rich Kizer & Georganne Bender are professional speakers, retail strategists, authors and consultants whose client list reads like a “Who’s Who” in business. Companies internationally depend upon them for timely advice on consumers and the changing retail market place.

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MERCHANDISE PLANNING

Jewelry Merchandising CRITICAL PRINCIPLES TO MAXIMIZE REVENUE.

F

irst, let’s establish why the merchandising of jewelry is so important. In a great many museum stores, jewelry is one or all of the following: • Best-selling department • Highest margin department • Highest revenue and/or margin per square foot department • Strongly appealing to women, who are usually the majority of shoppers The selection is clearly the most important aspect of successful jewelry sales, but you must also make sure it is merchandised well to maximize revenue.

Jewelry Case Location Make at least one of your jewelry cases highly visible from a distance to help draw customers across the threshold or deeper into the store. Make sure you can easily provide enhanced customer service, which includes taking the jewelry out of the case

| BY ANDREW ANDONIADIS

however, too often the jewelry customer is required to move so another customer can check out. In a worst-case example, a customer with a 75¢ postcard may displace a customer looking at a $250 necklace.

When a jewelry case is included in the cash wrap area, a highly functional combination of fixtures includes a “drop zone” between the point-of-sale and the jewelry case where product is placed for the checkout process.

Shelving The closer jewelry is merchandised to the floor, the less the perception of quality.

High-end jewelry stores usually have one shelf of jewelry at the top of a fixture. The quality of most jewelry carried in museum stores is best displayed with a maximum of two, maybe three, shelves. The optimal height for a standard jewelry case is 38– 41 inches. Towers work well to bring pieces closer to eye level and for visually

A lighting plan that includes multiple sources increases the sparkle of the jewelry and animates the piece as the customer changes position.

The Denver Art Museum uses special lighting and glass cases to highlight its jewelry selection.

To achieve this level of brightness consider lighting that runs across the front of the case where the horizontal and vertical glass meet, vertically at the front corners of the case or under the shelf above. A lighting plan that includes multiple sources increases the sparkle of the jewelry and animates the piece as the customer changes position.

Props so the customer can get a closer look and try it on. Try to integrate jewelry into or very close to the cash wrap or as part of a cluster of jewelry fixtures with dedicated customer service. Jewelry merchandised away from the cash wrap must be done with a full understanding that proactive selling will be required.

Along with books, customers stand longer in front of jewelry than any other product category. When merchandised immediately adjacent to the point-of-sale, 16

MUSEUM STORE | SPRING 2014

increasing the awareness of the jewelry selection in general.

Lighting The jewelry fixture needs what is often called an “appraising” amount of light that is two to three times brighter than the general light level in the store. This amount of illumination helps to minimize reflection that can reduce clarity when looking through glass. Store ambient and track lighting can’t come close to reaching the same results.

Enhance the merchandising of your jewelry by using props to introduce vertical height variations and eye-catching backgrounds. These props may include elements indigenous to your museum like polished river rock, marble chunks or titanium scraps from the exterior, elegant wood risers, treated tree branches or colorful leaves in the fall, acrylic displays, jewelry pads, etc. Don’t crowd the display with too much product. The more expensive the jewelry, the less dense the

merchandising should be. The top of the jewelry case should be merchandised as little as possible.

Price Tags Part of merchandising jewelry includes determining whether to show the price or not. Some merchandisers believe the customer should see the price to determine if a piece may be of potential interest to them. Others feel showing the price could deter some customers who may ultimately feel otherwise once they start the tactile process of touching the piece. There is no good reason to clutter a jewelry display with price tags, so the tags should be out of sight.

Signage Jewelry greatly benefits from signage that focuses on the artist, connection to the museum’s mission or exhibit, where it was made and the materials used. If you believe the customer should be given some indication of prices, these signs can also be used to provide the price range of pieces arranged by artist, location in the case or other broad criteria without the distraction of multiple price tags.

Mirrors Some jewelry cases have mirrored back doors. Mirrors reflect light, making the case somewhat brighter and reflect product so that it seems like there are more choices.

On the other hand, the reflection of product may make it look like there is too much and can overwhelm and confuse the customer. The back of the jewelry case should be opaque so the lower part of the salesperson’s torso and any clutter behind the counter is not visible. Also, don’t forget to provide a high-quality hand or small standing mirror so customers can see how the jewelry looks on them.

Andrew Andoniadis is the principal in Andoniadis Retail Services, a consulting firm that has specialized in revenue-generating strategies for museum stores for 21 years.

He can be reached at (503) 629-9279, Andrew@MuseumStoreConsult.com or www.MuseumStoreConsult.com.

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Houston Center Contemporary Craft STOREfor | SPRING 2014 18 MUSEUM

Yee-Haw!

WE’RE HOUSTON BOUND!

By Andrea Miller

H

ome to a respected and energetic cultural arts scene, celebrated restaurants featuring flavors from 35 countries, world-renowned theater groups and the brains behind U.S. space exploration, Houston is a diverse metropolis brimming with personality. And it is soon to play host to the 59th MSA Retail Conference & Expo!

With a revitalized downtown and expanded meeting facilities, Houston offers a cosmopolitan setting. As an added bonus for our nonprofit retail industry, the convenient METRORail connects downtown with the Museum District and Reliant Park, making it easy to travel within the city.

With nearly 21,000 concerts, plays, exhibitions and other arts programs presented in Houston annually, residents and visitors have access to a wide variety of cultural programs.

On any given night, it’s a safe bet that there’s a show somewhere in Houston’s Theater District. More than two million people visit the downtown area each year to attend one of the city’s world-class performances. The 17-block area is home to Houston’s year-round resident companies, including the symphony, opera, drama and ballet.

Houston is home to 90 consulates—the third-largest consular corps in the nation. Houston radiates with diversity, giving the city one of the most vivid cultural scenes in the country. Project Row Houses, The Ensemble Theatre and The Buffalo Soldiers National Museum are all devoted to showcasing African-American history and culture in the community. Talento Bilingue de Houston is one of the largest Latino cultural centers in the United States, and the Chinatown area showcases Houston’s growing Asian community.

And were you wondering about good eats? Houston’s restaurant scene is as ethnically diverse as its four million residents. ForbesTraveler.com ranked Houston as one of the best restaurant cities in America. The city is jampacked with more than 8,000 tempting eateries that feature culinary flavors from more than 35 countries.

Fast track your way through Houston’s top five mustsee attractions, like Space Center Houston, the Downtown Aquarium and the Museum of Fine Arts, with an oh-sohelpful CityPASS. Offering discounted admission to a diverse mix of attractions, plus helpful hints and reviews, CityPASS is your passport to fun.

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Yee-Haw!

WE’RE HOUSTON BOUND! Whether you are coming in early before the conference, extending your stay or just finding a little free time in between, you’ll want to make sure to visit these MSA member institutions.* Many store managers have graciously offered a discount to the MSA community. You’ll just need to present a business card or your MSA attendee badge.

Contemporary Arts Museum Houston

CONTEMPORARY ARTS MUSEUM HOUSTON

5216 Montrose Blvd.

Houston, TX 77006-6598 (713) 284-8250 www.camh.org Offering a 20% store discount to MSA attendees.

What to see: The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH) is a non-collecting institution dedicated to presenting the best and most exciting international, national and regional art. Through dynamic exhibitions accompanied by scholarly publications and accessible educational programs, the museum reaches out to local, regional, national and international audiences of various ages. On view at CAMH is a video installation by English-born, Mexican-based artist Melanie Smith, who represented her adopted country at the 2011 Venice Biennale.

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Holocaust Museum Houston

HOLOCAUST MUSEUM HOUSTON

5401 Caroline St. Houston, TX 77004-6804 (713) 942-8000 www.hmh.org Offering a 15% store discount to MSA attendees.

What to see: Showing through June 15, don’t miss “The Wartime Escape: Margret and H.A. Rey’s Journey from France.”

More than three generations of Americans have grown up reading the stories of an irrepressible little brown monkey known in this country as “Curious George.” But few people know about the incredible journey made by his creators, Margret and H.A. Rey, to escape the Nazi invasion of Paris at the start of World War II. In the exhibition “The Rescuers: Picturing Moral Courage,” viewers will encounter images and stories of people who engaged in rescue activities during the Holocaust and genocides in Cambodia, Bosnia and Rwanda. “The Rescuers” is based on the work of Leora Kahn, who researched and interviewed rescuers from the Holocaust and other genocides, and runs through Aug. 31.

The Micaceous Ceramics of Christine Nofchissey McHorse,” the works of one of the most innovative contemporary forces in Native American pottery will be presented. Working from traditional materials and techniques, Christine Nofchissey McHorse’s vessel-based art blends the boundaries of pottery and sculpture, erasing the line between function and form. “Spectra: Work

by Adrian Esparza” is a site-specific installation by El Paso native, Adrian Esparza. Through his transformation of low-cost mass-produced products, such as t-shirts, serapes and posters, Esparza combines traditional Mexican-American craft-based practices with the universal language of geometric abstraction.

MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, HOUSTON

1001 Bissonnet St. Houston, TX 77005 (713) 639-7300 www.mfah.org Offering a 20% store discount to MSA attendees.

What to see: The expansive exhibition “John Singer Sargent: The Watercolors” offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to see early 20th-century watercolors by Gilded Age American master John Singer Sargent (1856–1925). The more than 90 watercolors on view through May 26— depicting dazzling scenes of landscape, labor and leisure—are punctuated by selected works in oil to highlight the artist’s experimentation with a variety of techniques and effects.

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

HOUSTON CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY CRAFT

4848 Main St. Houston, TX 77002-9718 (713) 529-4848 www.crafthouston.org Offering a 10% store discount to MSA attendees.

What to see: Two exhibits will be open while MSA is in the city. In “Dark Light: *MSA Members as of Feb. 27, 2014.

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF FUNERAL HISTORY

415 Barren Springs Dr. Houston, TX 77090-5918 (281) 876-3063 www.nmfh.org Offering a store discount of 20% off one item or 10% off entire purchase to MSA attendees.

What to see: The National Museum of Funeral History houses the country’s largest collection of funeral service artifacts and features renowned exhibits on one of man’s oldest cultural customs. Come discover the mourning rituals of ancient civilizations, see up-close the authentic items used in the funerals of U.S. presidents and popes, and explore the rich heritage of the industry which cares for the dead.

THE HEALTH MUSEUM

1515 Hermann Dr. Houston, TX 77004-7126 (713) 521-1515 www.mhms.org

mass viral breakouts. Discover how your body houses thousands of healthy microbes on your hair, skin and even mucous!

BUFFALO SOLDIERS NATIONAL MUSEUM

The Health Museum

Offering $1 off general admission, good for up to four tickets and $2 off one item priced at $4.99 or more in the Amazing Body Store. Not valid with any other offer.

What to see: Discover the mysterious world of organisms that sustain life and those that threaten our health and even our existence in the exhibit “Microbes: Invisible Invaders…Amazing Allies” on view through May 4. Learn how harmful microbes have affected history. See how the discovery of things like penicillin has helped to end

3816 Caroline Houston, TX 77004-3912 (713) 942-8920 www.buffalosoldiermuseum.com Offering a 10% store discount to MSA attendees.

What to see: The mission of the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum (BSNM) is to educate, preserve, promote and perpetuate the history, tradition and outstanding contributions of the Buffalo Soldier. It now boasts the largest collection of African American military memorabilia in the world. The museum’s permanent exhibits include themes covering the Revolutionary War, Civil War, World Wars I and II, women in the military, chaplains in military, the modern day Buffalo Soldiers (NASA astronauts), and much more.

The Assistant Manager™

Proven. Scalable. Affordable.

Point of Sale Merchandise Admission Fast Food Inventory Management

eCommerce Customer Relationship Management Membership Integration

Store Polling and Distribution Accounting Group Reservations

Where retail experience and technology come together.

888.THE.14POS - 888.843.1476 | nonprofitpos.com | See us at Expo Booth #201

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BullpenBooks_2013_Layout 1 10/30/13 10:48 AM Page 1

Do you have PUBLICATIONS that have STOPPED SELLING? Bullpen Book Sales purchases museum publications in the following areas: ART HISTORY PHOTOGRAPHY DECORATIVE ARTS ARCHITECTURE DESIGN

Let’s work together to move out your dead stock and free up storage space.

BULLPEN BOOK SALES Ed Ripp 2638 - 6th Street NW Albuquerque, NM 87107 505-345-7477 ripp505@gmail.com

Yee-Haw!

WE’RE HOUSTON BOUND! CHILDREN’S MUSEUM OF HOUSTON

1500 Binz Houston, TX 77004-7112 (713) 522-1138 www.cmhouston.org Offering a 20% store discount to MSA attendees.

What to see: More than 14 pulsating exhibits make the Children’s Museum of Houston one of the top rated in the country and No. 1 by Parents magazine. Step into “Invention Convention” workshop and use your imagination to create, concoct and construct contraptions. Climb a 35-foot-tall PowerTower in “PowerPlay” and put your body through non-stop physical challenges. Engage in ecological studies and explore environmental issues at “EcoStation.” Packed with daily activities and invigorating performances, it’s the place where minds come out to play!

Children’s Museum of Houston

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2014 MSA RETAIL CONFERENCE & EXPO, HOUSTON

TICKET

SCHEDULE-AT-A-GLANCE (subject to change)

Ticketed Event

Business Relations

Communications

Customer Relations

Financial Management

Merchandise Planning

Human Resources

Strategic Management

(pre-registration required)

THURSDAY, APRIL 10 12−6 p.m.

Registration Open

FRIDAY, APRIL 11 7 a.m.–8 p.m.

Registration Open

8 a.m.–3 p.m.

MSA Nonprofit Retail Boot Camp

9 a.m.–3 p.m.

Houston Museums Excursion

1:30–2:30 p.m.

Exhibitor Advisory Meeting

3–4 p.m.

Opening Reception Hosted by MSA Southwest Central Chapter

4–8 p.m.

Expo Open

5–6 p.m.

Product Development Gallery— Selling Time

TICKET

TICKET

SATURDAY, APRIL 12 6:30 a.m.–6 p.m.

Registration Open

7–7:45 a.m.

Breakfast Available

8 –9 a.m.

Opening Keynote: Integrating the Museum Experience

9 a.m.–6 p.m.

Expo Open

10 –11 a.m.

Product Development Gallery—Selling Time

11 a.m.–6 p.m.

Silent Auction—Bidding Opens

5 –6 p.m.

Product Development Gallery—Selling Time

6 –9 p.m.

Chapter Meeting Room Available for Sign-Up

SUNDAY, APRIL 13 6:30 a.m.–6 p.m.

Registration Open

7 a.m.–1:45 p.m.

Silent Auction Bidding

7–8:30 a.m.

Breakfast Available

7:30–8:30 a.m.

Discussion Groups

9–10:15 a.m.

10:45–11:45 a.m.

Workshop: Creating a Comprehensive Business Plan

3-D Printing: How Will it Impact my Store?

Pricing Strategies for Maximizing Profits

One Big Museum: Making Yourself a Seat at the Table

A “Bookish” Conversation

Copyright Considerations

Product Development: Watch it Live!

12–1:30 p.m.

Membership & Awards Meeting With Lunch

1:45–2:45 p.m.

Sharing Solutions From the Field

Adapting Technologies to the Museum Store Environment

TBD: New Session Coming Soon!

Aligning the Museum Store and CFO Office

3:15–4:30 p.m.

Are You Getting in Your Own Way?

So, You Think You Know UBIT?

Increase Profit With Inventory Control

More Than a $1: Benefits of Engaging With Kids in Museum Stores

4:30–5 p.m.

Connecting the Dots: Your Daily Session Summary

6–8:30 p.m.

Networking Reception

MONDAY, APRIL 14 7–9 a.m.

Chapter Meeting Room Available for Sign-Up

8 a.m.–1 p.m.

Registration Open

8:30–9:30 a.m.

Breakfast Available

9–10:30 a.m.

MSA Leadership Series: Enhancing Your Emotional Quotient (Invitation Only)

I’m a Fan of Following: Facebook & Pinterest Optimization

Leaving the Nest (Temporarily)

10:45 a.m.–12 p.m.

Moving Your Volunteer Program From Good to Great!

Sourcing Locally: Pluses, Minuses—and Methods!

Retailers as Storytellers

12:15–1:45 p.m.

Closing Keynote Luncheon SPRING 2014 | MUSEUM STORE

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2014 SPONSORS

MSA gratefully acknowledges the following sponsors for their support of the 59th MSA Retail Conference & Expo:

PREMIER LEVEL

COMING THIS SUMMER! MSA is partnering with three regional tradeshows to bring you innovative learning experiences.

The Library Lounge PHAIDON PRESS Booth #415

PREFERRED LEVEL

General Conference Sponsorship SAFARI LTD. Booth #504

Programs are eligible for certificate credits.

CONTRIBUTING LEVEL

Exhibitor Breakfast Vouchers PARTNERSHIP Booth #559

General Conference Sponsorship POPCORN MOVIE POSTER COMPANY Booth #304

Watch for more details in your email inbox and at the MSA 2014 in Houston!

IN-KIND DONATIONS

Commemorative Mugs DENEEN POTTERY Booth #604

Volunteer Pins HOGEYE INC. Booth #118

Tote Bags VERETTA ART, INC. Booth #733

GOLDEN ISLAND INTERNATIONAL, INC. established 1982 KALEIDOSCOPES | KINETIC MOBILES | SOLAR TOYS | AND MORE…   1935 BAY STREET LOS ANGELES, CA 90021

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MUSEUM STORE | SPRING 2014

T: (213) 622-4179

F: (213) 622-5036

6

| just for vendors |

Are You New to Exhibiting at the MSA Expo?

T

he MSA Expo is a unique experience. It remains the only tradeshow exclusively geared for museum store buyers. Two longtime MSA Expo participants from each side of the booth share their advice to help you have a successful show.

Katherine Kornblau Owner and Designer KJK Jewelry MSA Vendor Affiliate If you have products you can provide to a wide variety of cultural institutions, then this is a perfect show for you. It is a much smaller show than others, but it attracts quality buyers over quantity. The museum store world is about relationships and once you’ve established connections, the buyers are loyal. Highlight “Made in the USA” as it is a motivating factor for many institutions. I recommend your products be reasonably priced or at least have a variety of wholesale price points. Lower ticket items are easy to buy on the spot. If you have quality products at the right price, buyers will shop your booth at the Expo.

who are looking for more than just the sale, help us with issues and keep the lines of communication open are great. I gravitate towards vendors who recommend products for upcoming exhibitions, have high resolution photography ready and are flexible with their quantities.

They agree: Be prepared and organized. Bring an assortment of product. Offer a variety of price points and include some lower cost items that are easy to buy on the spot. Be ready with pricing, order forms, business cards, images of your product and other promotional materials. You need to have a

system set up to be able to take orders quickly and easily. Custom work and big ticket items take time and often need committee approval back at the buyer’s museum. Get to know the type of museum you are talking to, large or small, and adjust your talking points and take-away based on if they are ready to buy or in research mode.

Not all buyers come with credit card in hand. Be adaptable with your payment process. This show is unique and is all about showcasing and selling merchandise museum store buyers need.

Michael Guajardo Director of Retail Operations Virginia Museum of Fine Arts MSA Institution Member I like to be prepared when I go to the show. I like to have my list ready, write orders and get things done. As a buyer, I am always very excited to find something new. Vendors who are prepared, have a good assortment of products/depth in their lines and are able to handle a transaction quickly are what I look for.

Relationships also are important. Vendors SPRING 2014 | MUSEUM STORE

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2014 BUYER’S CHOICE AWARD FINALISTS Attendees of the 2014 MSA Expo will be casting their ballots for the Buyer’s Choice contest with awards in six product categories.

BOOKS & MULTIMEDIA

EDC PUBLISHING #433 “Big Book of Stars and Planets” Open giant fold-out pages to discover the wonders of space! Explore the sun and planets in our solar system, enormous galaxies and lots more.

RANDOM HOUSE LLC #311 “The Noisy Paintbox” In this exuberant celebration of creativity, Barb Rosenstock and Mary GrandPré tell the fascinating story of Vasily Kandinsky, one of the pioneers of abstract art.

WAX WORKS VIDEO WORKS #212 “Ken Burns: American Lives” DVD Set An award-winning documentary, “Ken Burns: American Lives” compiles seven outstanding biographies and stories of some of America’s most celebrated pioneers and historical events.

CUSTOM DESIGN

DENEEN POTTERY #604 Pottery Mug Since 1972, our family business has been producing collectible, hand-thrown coffee mugs. Every piece is food-safe, functional, beautiful, and most of all, durable.

DESIGN MASTER ASSOCIATES #222 Q3 Colored Pencil Set This colored pencil set features 12 colored pencils and one standard writing pencil.

Customer’s unique image is direct-printed on top of product.

DIBBLE & DIBBLE #122 Paintbrush/Pencil Paintbrush/Pencil’s matte black barrel and sable-toned silky brush is a museum collectible. Your museum logo in brilliant silver or gold presents elegantly.

ECO-FRIENDLY

BASKETS OF CAMBODIA #609 The Lunch Hut Stylish lunch box with an original twist that stands on its own and opens up into a private dining experience. Featuring natural and re-purposed materials!

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MUSEUM STORE | SPRING 2014

BUDDHA BOARD #519 Original Buddha Board Paint on the board’s special surface with water; the image appears and then slowly fades away, ready to create again.

NOMAD IMPORTS COLLECTION #642 Music Boxes Colorful, recycled metal sculpture, artistically hand-crafted. Whimsical, fanciful and one-ofa-kind, each is signed and dated with a song in its heart.

Get a sneak peek before you get to Houston! The Buyer’s Choice product categories and nominees are:

EDUCATION & GAMES

BEYOND123 LLC #435 Helicone Inspired by nature and based on the golden angle. Watch it magically transform between a helix and a pine cone with a simple, quick twist.

MUDPUPPY #120 Andy Warhol Green 200-Piece Soup Can Puzzle Mudpuppy’s Soup Can puzzle includes 200 jigsaw pieces made of 90% recycled paper and comes packaged in a sturdy canister made of 70% recycled paper.

UNEMPLOYED PHILOSOPHERS GUILD #315 Planet Plates A set of eight melamine plates featuring watercolor portraits of the planets in our solar system. This lightweight dinnerware orbits from picnic to dinner party to dishwasher.

FASHION

ABRA COUTURE, INC. #313 Cotton Ball Collar This amazing piece of jewelry is created by hand using cotton-based beads and vintage glass and plastics. It weighs nothing and is dramatic!

DAVID HOWELL & COMPANY #401 Cubist Earrings The Cubist Earrings were created for the 100th anniversary of the Armory Show at the NewYork Historical Society. Available in gold or silver finish.

MATA ORTIZ TO YOU #302 Ancient Anasazi Cuff Bracelet Two Native Americans, 1,000 years and 1,400 miles apart, bridged the years and miles with this ancient Anasazi shard/silver cuff bracelet.

PAPER PRODUCTS

GRANDMASUNPLUGGED #525 Custom Museum Note Cards Custom note card created for Texas Ranger Museum using their photo. Inside card description educates unique history of each photograph. Custom envelope seals the deal!

MAGNOTE #618 PIPEROID—Andy & Pino Create your robot with only scissors in less than 30 minutes! PIPEROID paper robot kits are the perfect gift item for both adults and kids.

POMEGRANATE COMMUNICATIONS, INC. #430 Paper Weaving Kit for Kids Fourteen brightly colored, slotted base sheets and hundreds of paper strips inspire endless designs! Includes a booklet providing instructions for a variety of patterns.

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MERCHANDISE PLANNING

[1]

[2] [3]

[5]

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MUSEUM STORE | SPRING 2014

[6]

[4]

Educational Buyer’s Products Guide

BY APRIL MILLER

T

he excitement of learning something new should not stop when visitors leave your museum. Offering guests educational products is one way they will both remember their stimulating trip and enhance and extend the experience of your institution.

“People want to learn something new. Anything that makes them say, ‘hmm…I didn’t know that’ is what you’re looking for, and chances are, if they say that, then they’ll buy the product,” says Kay Kay Zimmerman of GrandmasUnplugged.

And while Jamie Lapetina of Design Master Associates adds that the long-standing trend of learning through playing still holds true, it doesn’t mean educational products need only be the for the youngsters. Learning is a lifelong adventure, so while you’ll want to stock items that are able to teach and reinforce a child’s interests, you’ll also want to source items that appeal to young and mature adults alike.

Visitors of all ages like to interact with merchandise so “have samples sitting out so that people can touch or play with the product,” suggests Lapetina. Interesting displays that invite shoppers to interact can turn browsers into buyers. “While this does require writing an item out of inventory sometimes,” she adds, “there is benefit in a customer being able to touch and play with a toy or game.”

GrandmasUnplugged produces postcards, note cards

and more using a museum’s images and educational information related to the photo. For these types of items, Zimmerman recommends spreading them around the store. “Place them in vignettes with other items.

Don’t place them in just one spot,” she says. “Have one packaged item open so the customer can see what they’re getting. Make a framed sign repeating one of the facts in the note cards, a ‘Did you know X?’ People have short attention spans these days, so if you can educate them with short factoids, they like that.”

In addition to creating enticing displays in your store, keep the educational conversation going online. “Pose a question to your audience,” suggests Debbie Kirkham of GrandmasUnplugged, citing the power of social media.

“The question could come from one of your educational products. Questions make people interact, and that’s what you want.” Utilize Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as outlets to tell the stories of your merchandise but don’t overlook your store’s website as well. Keep it fresh with both content and images, and if you haven’t already made the articles and images on your site easily shareable—think quick buttons that allow browsers to share the item on Pinterest, Facebook and other platforms—consider an upgrade.

Look to the following vendors as you contemplate your educational products assortment.

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[7]

[8] [9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

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[13]

[1] Petite Pastiche, a Mensa Select awardwinning game from Eagle and Gryphon Games, challenges two to four players to recreate famous paintings during 30-45 minutes of play.

All 23 commission cards are masterpieces from the past six centuries.

Players score their commissions by mixing primary colors through clever tile placement and recreating the palette of colors used by the masters.

Entertain families (ages 10 and up) and friends while viewing and encouraging a discussion of art!

[2] Custom envelopes, note cards and postcards are available from Hamilton, Texas-based GrandmasUnplugged.

The company uses your images— from upcoming exhibits or permanent collections—and adds their edgy perspective to create something new. The company owners pride themselves on researching each museum along with their subject matter. Historical and educational information is on each and every card. All are created and made in the U.S.A. [3] Founded in 1982, Golden Island’s mission is to bring out the fun in science. The company offers miniaturized models of classic museum fixtures like the Newton’s Cradle, Tesla’s Plasma Sphere and the Cosmos Planetary Orbit Kinetic Mobile.

Sandscapes, kaleidoscopes and more iconic toys and novelties are available from the Los Angeles-based company.

[4] Mudpuppy’s new Mosaic Animals Magnetic Build-it set encourages freestyle fun with shape, color and form. Includes more than 90 interchangeable magnetic pieces and four background scenes, so those ages 6 and up are able to build any creature they can imagine using the brightly colored geometric shapes. The design is inspired by Chinese Tangram puzzles. All pieces are contained in a

metal tin to which the magnets adhere, making it a great travel toy.

[5] Educators have long recognized that toys can be invaluable teaching tools.

In centuries past, playthings, such as dice and cards, were often imprinted with educational devices—including alphabets, numbers and even historical facts. The Numbers Dice Game from Design Master Associates (an employee-owned company located near Williamsburg, Va.) is inspired by this long-standing tradition of educational toys. Games and activities include basic number identification, counting, addition/subtraction, practice with place value, rounding and simple multiplication/division.

[6] New from EDC Publishing are: “Peek Inside the Zoo” and the “Big Book of Stars & Planets.” The first (ages 3 and up) is written by Anna Milbourne and gives readers a peek under leaves and behind doors to find noisy parrots, playful monkeys, tall giraffes and more. The second (ages 4 and up) is written by Emily Bone.

Open the giant fold-out pages to discover the wonders of space, from the sun and the planets to massive stars, enormous galaxies and more.

[7] The Chihuly Mille Fiori 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle is fun for those ages 12 and up. From the Italian for a “thousand flowers,” the Mille Fiori series is comprised of a variety of work that truly create a mystical garden of glass.

The Seattle-based Chihuly Workshop didn’t make this puzzle easy, but it is worth setting aside a weekend or two to put it together. The color is vibrant and the image is stunning.

Suggested retail: $22.

[8] Learn to draw and paint with Kimberly Watercolor Pencils in this complete kit from General Pencil Company.

The kit includes six watercolor pencils,

Educational ’s Products Buyer Guide a sharpener, one paintbrush, pre-printed watercolor paper plus a 24-page stepby-step instruction booklet in color.

Learn four basic and five advanced skills including color theory, blending and mixing. All of the products are American-made and come from the company’s Jersey City, N.J., factory.

[9] In a world of digital technology, Madison Bay Company offers a glimpse of how it all began through its historic American reproductions such as slates and nib pens. During the 19th century and into the 20th century, writing slates were a staple for school children. Nib pens that accompanied inkwells were then used into the 1930s and 40s. The East Berlin, Pa.-based wholesaler also offers compasses, spyglasses and much more, and introduces new items each year.

[10] Among the best-known schoolbooks in the history of American education are the McGuffey Readers. These popular and effective textbooks provide a fascinating look into schooling of the past and are still used today by homeschoolers. Applewood Books’ paperback facsimiles of the American Book Company’s 1879-1881 revised editions include: “McGuffey’s Eclectic Primer,” “First Eclectic Reader,” “Second Eclectic Reader” and “Spelling Book.” The company, founded in 1976, has more than 5,000 titles in print.

[11] The tawny brown-and-white Wolf Pup puppet from Folkmanis is more cuddly than fierce. The hand puppet is 13-inches long, features moveable muzzle and forelegs, and has a suggested retail price of $29.99. Folkmanis, a family business, was founded in the 1960s and today offers more than 200 heartwarming and realistically designed plush puppets. The puppets SPRING 2014 | MUSEUM STORE

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Educational ’s Products Buyer Guide are consistently awarded excellent marks by such independent toy evaluators as Dr. Toy, Parents’ Choice and Oppenheim Toy Portfolio.

[12] New from the award-winning line of Creative Whack products, the Big Ball of Whacks (ages 14 and up) enhances hands-on creativity with a bigger, better ball. Comprised of 36 magnetic design pieces and two pyramids for greater challenges, the 192 rare earth magnets inside make constructing shapes a snap. Includes a 96-page creativity guidebook. Also available in a six-color version. Suggested retail: $39.95.

[13] New books from Thames & Hudson!

In “Art and Architecture in Mexico,” James Oles offers a new interpretive history of Mexican art from the Spanish Conquest to the early decades of the 21st century. Oles proposes new readings of prints, photographs and more. In “Neanderthals Rediscovered,” readers learn that the common perception of the Neanderthal has been transformed due to new discoveries and paradigm-shattering scientific innovations. Their behavior was actually rather modern.

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MUSEUM STORE | SPRING 2014

Applewood Books www.awb.com (800) 277-5312 See our ad on page 33 Chihuly Workshop www.chihulyworkshop.com (800) 574-7272 See our ad on page 2

Creative Whack www.creativewhack.com (203) 504-6254 See our ad on page 14

Unique private label specialty teas to brand your Museum, your city or your next exhibit!

Design Master Associates www.designmasters.com (800) 322-7583 See our ad on page 48 Eagle and Gryphon Games www.eagle-gryphon.com (270) 259-8833 See our ad on page 37 EDC Publishing www.edcpub.com (800) 475-4522 See our ad on page 10 Folkmanis, Inc. www.folkmanis.com (800) 654-8922 See our ad on page 15 Galison/Mudpuppy www.galison.com (800) 670-7441 See our ad on page 46

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General Pencil Company, Inc. www.generalpencil.com (650) 369-4889 See our ad on page 11 Golden Island Int’l Inc. www.goldenisland.biz (213) 622-4179 See our ad on page 24 GrandmasUnplugged www.edgyenvelopes.com (254) 386-5456 See our ad on page 22 Madison Bay Company www.madisonbayco.com (717) 259-6886 See our ad on page 43 Thames & Hudson Inc. www.thamesandhudsonusa.com (800) 233-4830 See our ad on page 5 SPRING 2014 | MUSEUM STORE

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COMMUNICATIONS

TWITTER MARKETING FOR MUSEUM STORES BASICS, IDEAS AND PROMOTION

BY JASON McDONALD

T

witter, if you haven’t heard, is a social media website that recently went public as a stock and is one of the darlings of social media alongside Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Users create Twitter accounts and then “follow” celebrities like Lady Gaga, political figures like President Obama, news organizations like CNN and even museum stores like the FIDM Museum Shop (@FIDMMuseumShop) or The MSU Museum Store (@ MSUMstore). By using Twitter, users can stay informed about their favorite stores or favorite cultural conversations.

Twitter’s special niche is short, news-oriented Tweets composed in less than 140 characters. That character limit can make Twitter a bit confusing as the service is full of special lingo like handles, hashtags and retweets.

Beyond simple mechanics, the idea of marketing Twitter can be confusing to a newcomer.

This article will explain the basics of Twitter, give you some ideas for how to use Twitter to market your museum store and point you to resources on Twitter where you can deep dive for more information. Let’s get started!

TWITTER BASICS

A

t its most basic level, Twitter is a micro-blogging service of publishers and subscribers. You, your museum store, CNN, President Obama, or anyone else for that matter can create an account and start publishing “tweets.”

Tweets, of course, are short messages that usually point off to a blog post, a picture or a YouTube video for more information. So at the publisher level, think of Twitter as a place where your museum store can set up an account and start acting like a “micro publisher” of interesting information for museum store customers and prospects.

At the subscriber level, anyone with a Twitter account can “follow” your museum store, thereby seeing your tweets in their news feed when they log in to their Twitter account. So you publish, and they follow. You tweet and they listen. That’s the most basic level of Twitter.

Now let’s discuss some Twitter basics. First, as we’ve indicated, each tweet is very short (less than 140 characters, including spaces). So Twitter is all about brevity! Second, each tweet reveals its author through what is called the “handle” designated by the @ sign. So @jasoneg3 is my handle, and a quick way to find my tweets would be the URL http://twitter.com/jasoneg3. The handle in a tweet also becomes clickable in a tweet, and users can click on the handle to see who tweeted something. If they like you, then they’ll follow you, essentially “subscribing” to get your tweets.

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TWITTER MARKETING FOR MUSEUM STORES BASICS, IDEAS AND PROMOTION

Beyond the handle as designated by the @ sign, the next important Twitter basic to understand is the “hashtag,” designated by the # symbol. A hashtag in front of a word makes it clickable in a tweet as well. For example, sign in to Twitter and type #art into the search box and you can tune in to all the tweets talking about art on Twitter. The same goes for #houston (everyone talking about Houston, Texas) or #organic (everyone talking about organics). Hashtags cross-cut Twitter, meaning anyone can listen into a conversation, and then by clicking on the tweeter’s @ sign, or handle, thereby subscribe to that person. Finally a retweet, designated by RT, means you liked someone’s tweet enough to re-tweet it to your own followers.

Think of Twitter like an open 24/7 massive talk radio program of thousands of radio stations (designated by the handles or @ signs), millions of conversations

(designated by the hashtags or # sign) and quite a few retweets, meaning shares of hesaid-such-and-such to followers worldwide.

Your job as a museum store is to jump in, participate in relevant conversations and build a subscriber base.

IDEAS FOR TWITTER MARKETING FOR MUSEUM STORES

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ow can you use Twitter to market your museum store? First and foremost, do a little research. Dive into Twitter first, and just listen. Search in the Twitter search bar for themes or topics that might matter to your museum or museum store community, whether that’s modern art, great ideas for birthday or Valentine’s Day gifts, the history of Ronald Reagan, the impact of global warming on nature in Northern California, or anything else. First, listen and see who’s talking about what on Twitter, brainstorming ways to tastefully contribute to that conversation. Second, leverage that to build brand awareness of your museum store.

For my own research purposes, I use Twitter search, but I also like to go to Google.com and type in “site:twitter.com” followed by keywords that interest me. Then diagnose whether you like them, see what they’re tweeting and investigate their followers. Imitation, they say, is the highest form of flattery.

Second, sign up to create your own museum store by following Twitter’s instructions, and upload a nice profile picture and background graphic. Twitter produces a nice guide for Twitter used for business at https://business.twitter.com—just click on Master the Basics.

Third, now the fun begins: Identify a content strategy, which means think about what type of information you can share that potential museum store customers or museum visitors might like to know about via Twitter.

Here are two common content marketing strategies that make sense for retail stores: Coupons and special deals. One common reason people use Twitter is to follow their favorite store, and thereby get coupons

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Go to www.museumstoreassociation.org for more details.

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ISTOCKPHOTO.COM / ©SKYNESHER

Sharing Is Caring: Tips to Get Your Marketing Message Shared Across Social Media

or discounts and special inside deals, such as alerts on new merchandise. Check out @ juicycouture and @rei for examples of this strategy.

Conversation sharing. Twitter is the “go to” place for quick conversations, so when your museum has an exhibit on Egyptian art, the physics of airplanes or any other timely topic, you can post tweets that tastefully connect the mission of your museum store (e.g., books for sale, art objects) with that larger conversation. Check out the hashtags #andywarhol or #streetart for examples of this strategy.

The first strategy is a more narrow, commercial use of Twitter, whereas the second is a more educational strategy. You don’t have to choose: you can use both.

Finally, conceptualize the content you will share on Twitter. People commonly share links outward to blog posts, product pages or full details on a coupon or special deal, for example. With the rise of Instagram (owned

by Facebook) and Vine (Twitter’s own video service), people share pictures and videos more than ever. Drill down to your to-dos, meaning, if your museum has an exhibit on Egyptian art, use your smart phone and take pictures of your most interesting products in the store that relate to the exhibit, and share these on Twitter perhaps with a coupon code or special information about the object.

If blogging and content is more your style, create a blog post on a timely, related topic to your museum store, and then tweet the URL using a URL shortener like http://bit.ly.

Once you have your Twitter account set up, your posting strategy and your content to share, start tweeting. Even if you first have

COMING JUNE 2014

The Return of the MSA Retail Industry Report Useful data and graphs to help you write business plans, make the case for an expansion or remodel, justify budget lines, and more.

RESERVE YOURS TODAY! Contact the MSA office at (303) 504-9223 or amiller@museumstoreassocaition.org.

ISTOCKPHOTO.COM / ©NATALIIAP

THINK OF TWITTER, LIKE ALL SOCIAL MEDIA, AS A SOCIAL ACTIVITY: IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT YOU, IT’S ABOUT CONNECTING WITH YOUR STAFF AND CUSTOMERS.

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TWITTER MARKETING FOR MUSEUM STORES BASICS, IDEAS AND PROMOTION

no followers, just start tweeting, as you have to have an active page to attract followers— you need to break out of the chicken-or-egg problem by just getting started.

PROMOTING YOUR TWITTER PAGE

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ow do you promote your Twitter page?

First and foremost, make sure that the content you are tweeting is relevant to people on Twitter. People use Twitter to find coupons or special deals, to follow conversations that interest them and to comment and participate in timely conversations.

Make sure that your Twitter content strategy aligns with one, or all, of those Twitter uses.

Second, ask your friends, family, business associates and anyone you know to “follow” you on Twitter just to get a few followers. Next, turn to your most important Twitter promotion channel: the real world. When someone walks up to the register, make sure that the clerk asks them to “follow us on Twitter,” or make sure that there is a placard on the register that says “Follow us on Twitter (ask me why).” Educate the clerk to explain why a customer should follow you on Twitter, which is usually a variation on the following idea: Follow us on Twitter for special deals and insider alerts on museum store products and gifts. We use our Twitter account to alert our most loyal customers with insider deals and coupons. Find us at @ourmuseumstore. or We use Twitter to share interesting educational themes of our museum and to connect those themes to interesting books, products, gifts or other items that you can purchase to extend your museum visit.

There needs to be a reason why someone would follow your store. Be prepared to explain that in the real world as you ask people to follow you on Twitter. Go to an online service to print inexpensive business cards with your Twitter handle, Facebook account, Instagram account and other URLs to make it easy for a busy shopper to grab a reminder card on how to follow your store on social media.

LEARN MORE ABOUT TWITTER

T

o learn more about Twitter, here are some of my favorite starting points: • Twitter 101, a guide to Twitter for business.

• Advanced Search on Twitter, used to drill down to interesting topics.

• Mashable’s Twitter Guide, another great learning tool.

• “Social Media Toolbook,”my guide to social media tools including Twitter tools.

Third, promote your Twitter account by cross-promoting with other social media. Make sure your website has a link to your Twitter handle, your Facebook page promotes your Twitter, your YouTube channel, your blog, and so on and so forth.

Cross-promote all of the social media to each other.

Finally, leverage your customer base with contests and incentives. For example, have a weekly contest for the best Tweet including your museum store hashtag. Give that consumer a discount, coupon or even just special recognition on your Twitter account or Facebook page. Think about having Twitter contests for shares of videos or pictures taken in your museum store, and in that way, leverage those customers who are already active on Twitter to promote your store to their own followers. Think of Twitter, like all social media, as a social activity: It’s not just about you, it’s about connecting with your staff and customers.

Dr. Jason McDonald is Founder and Senior SEO/Social Media Director of the JM Internet Group. He comes to the Group from eg3.com, where he had been Senior Editor in charge of content since 1994. In charge of eg3.com’s SEO and PPC strategy, Dr. McDonald built eg3.com into the oldest and largest web portal in embedded systems with more than 25,000 monthly users and more than 35,000 registered eLetter subscribers.

He also teaches in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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BUSINESS RELATIONS

SELLING ON CONSIGNMENT

BY SUZANNE SIPPEL

Adopting a Great Philosophy Can Lead to Great Rewards

T

he Asher Gallery at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC) is a little different than most museum shops. In fact, we don’t even self-identify as a museum shop, branding ourselves instead as a gallery. Why? Well, we work mostly on consignment, have a strong emphasis on placing works with collectors, and we don’t carry anything traditionally mass-produced. We also compose an important link in HCCC’s mission to advance education on the process, product and history of craft. The support we provide is not just financial—we strengthen and enhance the relationship between our visitors, our artists and their artworks.

Our role is to make art more accessible to our visitors, both as purchases and as experiences.

While touching is not allowed in our exhibition galleries, in the Asher Gallery we encourage people to make a closer connection to the work by feeling, examining and spending time deeply looking. By allowing our clientele to physically relate to the objects, and by answering questions on intent and technique, we create a mental connection to the maker. After all, let’s not forget that at the end of the day, our job is to make our artists money.

Think over that last sentence for a minute. Our job is to make our artists money. We are not here solely to make money for us; although that is the right consequence of success, it is not our driving force. What drives us is that our artists succeed financially and artistically. We’ve found that working on consignment is the best way for us to do that, and therefore, about 75 percent of the space is dedicated to consigned works. It’s not a simple way to do business, but it is the most efficient way for us to accomplish our goals.

At left: Artists with their work at the Asher Gallery at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft.

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SELLING ON CONSIGNMENT That’s why I was thrilled to be asked by MSA to write a case study of how we approach this issue. However, I’m not entirely sure how to present the Asher Gallery at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft as a case study, per se. What I do know is how I run my business, and how my artists run theirs. So bear with me as I explain my personal approach, touching on key issues and keeping in mind that there are many variations to these situations.

To begin, a warning: If you are interested in moving into consigned sales to help your bottom line, then this is not for you. It may help your cash flow, since you only pay for work if it sells, is lost or damaged, but you’ll have lower margins and make a much higher staff investment. Take the time to thoroughly assess your market, sales and clientele. It’s crucial that you move forward based on what you know, not what you feel.

The first critical component is your contract. Don’t approach an artist before you have one!

While there are many topics to cover, the two key issues are the cut and the payment schedule. The most common split is 50/50 of the retail price, but if you can

Bubble Necklace by Margarita Mileva (photo courtesy of the artist)

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offer more you will attract more artists.

This will probably be the biggest difference from traditional retail that you will face.

Rather than starting from the wholesale price, and using your mark-up formula to set the retail, the artist will set the retail price and you’ll work from that to determine the cost. Although pricing is no longer in your hands, you can offer input and suggestions. As for the payment schedule, talk with your accounting department to form the most efficient procedures, and stick to it. For example, we pay all monthly sales on the 15th of the month following.

With your internal procedures in place, now it’s time to find some artists. If you plan on accepting submissions, make sure that there are clear instructions available on your website. Don’t accept submissions just because you like them.

It’s counterintuitive, but ask yourself some hard questions. Will it be successful with your audience? Can you support the price point? If you don’t believe you can sell it, you must pass. Then work on growing your clientele to support the kind of work you want to show.

When approaching artists, keep the following tips in mind. Don’t approach them at shows to bring up consignment un-

Cow Whistle by Connie Roberts (photo courtesy of the artist)

less you have a really good rapport. They are at these shows for a reason, and disrupting their work flow is not going to demonstrate that you understand sales. My method is to look at the work closely, ask a few questions, take some notes, and then wait until later to contact them via email. In my message I state why I feel I can sell their work and attach my consignment sales philosophy and contract for their review. At this point, I’m prepared to hear no. Many, many artists have had bad experiences with consignment, and a goodly number are understandably upset. However, the longer you work well with consignment the easier this process will be as your reputation for accuracy and care grows.

So now that you have the work, how do you care for it? Inventory, inventory, inventory. We constantly perform miniinventories at the Asher Gallery. As a matter of procedure, we count before we order, before we receive and before we return. As a matter of standard, we count whenever

it seems right: high sales, high traffic, any suspicion of error, and of course, to doublecheck ourselves. It’s a much deeper staff commitment to the items in your space. If wholesale numbers are off, that is purely an internal issue. Those vendors have already been paid! Consigned works must be monitored, as missing pieces need to be paid for as soon as possible. If they are not paid for or returned, it is theft. This is a common frustration for artists, and it’s why you’ll hear “no” so often.

With all those obstacles, why would artists work on consignment terms? Jenne Giles, a fiber artist in Oakland, Calif., shares: “I love consignment because we (gallery and artist) take equal risks. Also, it allows me more freedom to develop new work, rather than reproducing items on a product sheet.”

We’ve represented her successfully for many years. Whereas Jenne has a business plan that allows for her to track and maintain consigned inventories, that won’t necessarily work for everyone. It’s important not to take just one view—we all do what we need

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Are your MSA benefits working for you?

Would you like to participate in the great line-up of MSA webinars at no cost?

Are you enjoying the new content and find you want to share it with others?

Do you miss the print version of Museum Store?

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Basic to Enhanced Upgrade—$156 Basic to Premium Upgrade—$366 Enhanced to Premium Upgrade—$210

Visit the MSA website to compare the three levels of Institution Member benefits and contact Member Relations at (303) 504-9223 x618 or jyeager@museumstoreassociation.org to upgrade today!

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SELLING ON CONSIGNMENT

See us at MSA Expo Booth #318

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to be most efficient and to make a living.

That’s why we allot about 25 percent of our inventory to wholesale artists. I find that raises our margins and allows for work that would not otherwise be consigned.

Reading this over, I’ve perhaps painted a discouraging view of working with consignment. But there are so many rewards!

Though the margins are less, it’s a great incentive for staff to sell. Think of it. Rather than just working for numbers, perhaps for unattainably high goals (hello, boards!), now you and your staff are working for the artists, who are colleagues rather than suppliers. Our sales are critical to the makers.

Those sales mean rent, supplies and other crazy things like groceries to our artists.

It also means growth. We can be an ideal place to try out new ideas, a sounding board for critiques and sometimes a source of support for a new direction. I’ve counseled artists to both hold the course and sometimes to just start over. It’s a fine line we walk, between being faithful to their artistic integrity and to their pocketbooks.

In the end, that’s why the Asher Gallery focuses so heavily on consignment sales. It allows us the flexibility to work with our artists to make the most money. It keeps us from having a sale section which protects the inherent value of their work, since unsuccessful pieces go back to the makers.

Most importantly, it allows us to play the role we are meant to do for our artists—to promote them to the public and keep them in the studios.

Of all the benefits to working at HCCC, there is no better feeling than selecting an artist, believing in their work, and then seeing that piece purchased. It’s exciting and happy, and nothing can top it. Visitors to the gallery often ask me if I am an artist myself. I always answer the same way: “No, I just make them money.” And so I do.

Suzanne Sippel has a BFA in photography and two years of post-baccalaureate study in art history. She has been the Asher Gallery Manager at HCCC since 2007.

| MSA board spotlight |

Q&A with Michael Higdon RETAIL MANAGER AT THE NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM How long have you been associated with MSA? I’ve been a member of MSA for almost 15 years. I was working at the U.S. Capitol Historical Society at the time I joined.

How long have you been on the MSA Board and in what role?

I joined the board in April 2013 as a Director at Large and more recently stepped into the role of Secretary.

Tell us a bit about the work you do.

I run the museum shop at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. I am responsible for managing the staff and volunteers in the day-to-day activities of the shop. I am responsible for the buying, coordinating reorders, receiving, approving invoices, entering data into our inventory system and all daily activities of the museum shop. As part of the senior staff, I spend a portion of time overseeing how the shop interacts with other departments in the museum.

How have you seen the nonprofit retail business change in the last five years?

In the museum business overall, I’ve seen an increase in the competitive nature between museums to attract visitors. A lot of this has to do with the Internet and how we’ve become an information-driven society. This has caused store professionals to be more aware of the trends and practices in museum stores around the world. We’ve also seen the level of sophistication in consumers change. If you don’t have an online store you are lagging behind greatly. It’s become an important part of how people find out about your store and the products that you sell.

MSA has undergone a lot of changes over the past two years. Can you speak to that and the new vision that has emerged?

As an organization we have seen a greater need to become more relevant to the museum world. What has emerged is a stronger organization with more inclusion of the members as a whole. In the past year, we’ve reached out to include vendors in more active roles within the association, such as the addition of a vendor liaison to the board. We are currently redefining how MSA Chapters and the national office can better work together for mutual growth and benefit. We also have launched new education initiatives from webinars to a change in the educational content at conference and future plans to create an

official program that will lead members to be professionally certified. We are working to include other stakeholders to be actively involved in the organization, including other people within the larger museum world who support the work of MSA. What are some things members can continue to expect?

ShopTalk isn’t going to change, and that’s something members can always take part in. One of the strongest things we’ve always had is our community. We remain a tight and committed organization.

What are the new things members can expect from MSA going forward?

Members can continue to expect an organization that is evolving and growing to meet the demands of its entire membership. You will continue to see stronger educational opportunities with more relevant communications coming from MSA with regards to our industry.

Why do you recommend anyone get involved as a volunteer with MSA? It gets you out there working in our community. What you learn from being actively involved just increases the wealth of knowledge that you gain and the support you are able to get from others.

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| new vendor showcase |

A

s a member of MSA, you have access to some of the best product vendors. When you purchase from them, you are supporting your community. The following are some of MSA’s newest affiliate advertisers, all of whom are vendors waiting to help you stock merchandise that will coincide with your museum’s mission.

| ad index |

1000Museums Inc.......................................... 44 American Heritage Chocolate......................... 7 Applewood Books........................................... 33 Baskets of Cambodia..................................... 25 BeadForLife.................................................... 38

MADISON BAY COMPANY East Berlin, Pa. | (717) 259-6886 | www.madisonbayco.com Madison Bay Company was founded in 1976 and began as a historic image archives. Over the years the product line has vastly expanded to include numerous American historic reproductions. The product line includes Revolutionary War, Civil War, equestrian, nautical, toys and games, holiday, writing accessories, blown glass, porcelain, tinware, wood, metal, silhouettes, jewelry and prints.

Additionally, the company is capable of customizing several of its wood, horn and bone products. No other company offers such a vast line of historic reproductions to meet the needs of museums, parks and gift shops.

Breeke and Company Inc................................. 9 Bridge Brands Chocolate............................... 11 Bullpen Book Sales........................................ 22 Chihuly Workshop............................................ 2 Clear Solutions, Inc. ...................................... 39 Creative Whack............................................... 14 Design Master Associates Inc....................... 48 Eagle and Gryphon Games.............................. 37 Eastern Shore Tea Company (A Div. of Baltimore Coffee & Tea Company).......... 33 EDC Publishing/Usborne/Kane Miller........... 10 Folkmanis Inc................................................. 15 Found Image Press.......................................... 6 Fractiles, Inc................................................... 32 Fullart Perú.................................................... 47 Galison/Mudpuppy.......................................... 46 General Pencil Company Co. Inc................... 11 Golden Island Int’l Inc.................................... 24 GrandmasUnplugged..................................... 22 Live Your Dream Designs............................... 38 Madison Bay Company................................... 43 MSA Membership........................................... 43 MSA Retail Industry Report........................... 37 MSA Webinar.................................................. 36 Museum Store magazine.................................. 6 On the Wall Productions, Inc......................... 32 Pine Garden Baskets...................................... 39 Q3 Art Inc........................................................ 17 The Rose Lady................................................ 17 Schiffer Publishing Ltd................................... 13 Screencraft Gifts............................................ 44 Solmate Socks................................................ 38 TAM Retail (A Div. of Lode Data Systems)..... 21 Thames & Hudson............................................. 5 For detailed contact information about any Museum Store advertiser, please visit www.MuseumStoreAssociation.org and log in to the Member Directory.

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