Reason Why So Many Museums Fail

Why So Many Museums Fail [http://failfaire.org/2011/12] Well, taking a cue from FailFaire NYC 2011, there are many common reasons for failure in the non-profit sector – 1. The project wasn’t right for the organisation (or the organisation wasn’t right for the project) 2. Tech is search of a problem 3. The museum was too static in its conceptualization syndrome 4. Know thy end-users and where they are 5. Trying to please donors rather than beneficiaries (and chasing small pots of money 6. Forgetting people and ignoring the wider market 7. Too narrow in scope and “Feature creep” – again being too static – or too few bells and whistles 8. Lack of a backup plan – sole feature museums rarely survive 9. Not connecting with local needs 10. Not knowing when to say goodbye – or to re-invent your project Sound familiar? I thought so. 1. http://themythofhome.blogspot.ca/2011/05/why-museums-fail.html 2. http://www.freshandnew.org/2012/01/call-submissions-epic-fail-museums-web-2012- san-diego/ 3. http://www.aam-us.org/ My advice to all would-be museum operators, as a travel writer, a historian, and a history professor involved in the non-profit sector, is to be professional in all things. We will enjoy the museum more, and maybe even recommend it to our friends. In the meantime, a lack of imagination and an inability to understand capitalism, within the heritage industry if you can call it that, is destroying our nation's history faster than the bulldozers of condominium and real estate developers. Posted by Eric D. Lehman at 11:57 AM May 17, 2011. [New York Symposium] Most museums are simply run on government money or sole proprietor funding with little or no connection to the wider market or public at large. Opening a single focus static museum based on presumed demographics for sustainable "public-hits" [visitations] distant from a large urban setting but within market reach which has already closed numerous similar operations has never been a recipe for success. Posted by Eric J. Macklin at 12:45 AM September 3, 2012. [San Diego Symposium]