[Nhcoll-l] Status of Natural Science Collections

Tue Dec 10 10:50:04 EST 2013

Please post. The situation gets more dire daily - Brooklyn Botanic Garden,
Field Museum, now Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Especially note the
comment in this article by Denver CEO George Sparks: "If you worry about
customers, things will work out well. If you worry about scientists or
internal things, generally you are not very successful," he said. "I was
impressed by the [Carnegie museum] team that came here. They were passionate
and seemed headed in the right direction. I was very encouraged."

http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/5182201-74/museum-carnegie-history#axzz2m
uyM2ID7

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2013/12/06/Museum-s-new-focus-on-reve
nue-customers/stories/201312060137

Carnegie Museum of Natural History's new focus on revenue, customers

December 6, 2013 12:10 AM

By David Templeton / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Carnegie Museum of Natural History's new focus on programs, exhibits and
research to generate more public interest and revenues has been unsettling
to some researchers and museum staff.

But museum officials say they are confident they are headed in the right
direction.

"We're going forward, and we want our research efforts to support the
mission of the museum," said David Hillenbrand, interim president of the
Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh -- the parent organization for the natural
history museum, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Carnegie Science Center and
the Andy Warhol Museum.

On Thursday, Mr. Hillenbrand along with Ann Metzger and Ron Baillie, the
co-directors of the Carnegie Science Center who also are serving until
year's end as interim co-directors of the natural history museum, explained
museum finances and the new strategy to heighten public interest and
revenues and maintain the museum's collection of 22 million specimens,
fossils and artifacts.

While the natural history museum is financially solvent, it has been running
a deficit offset by borrowing from the cash flow of the Carnegie Museums of
Pittsburgh, whose board of trustees wants to eliminate the deficit within
four years.

The new research mission will revolve around its newly created Center for
Biodiversity and Ecosystems, which will use the museum's collections and new
research to better understand and manage ecosystems, especially in the
mid-Appalachian Region and upper Ohio Valley. Another research focus is its
new Center of Evolutionary Studies.

The museum also has offered voluntary separation packages to museum curators
who meet a certain threshold of age and years of service. Mr. Hillenbrand
would not discuss the status of individual curators.

The goal is to develop "a more cohesive team rather than a bunch of
individual researchers pursuing topics of their own interests," Mr. Baillie
said. Those who continue with personal topics will be required to acquire
100 percent funding for their research.

Historically, Ms. Metzger said, "researchers pursued topics of individual
interest funded by the wealthy," as was the case with the natural history
museum. "That's no longer the model. The natural history museum contains a
wealth of information about our ecosystem management and habitats in crisis,
and the impacts of climate change. These are issues of social relevance"
that can be topics of museum research.

Museum officials visited museums that pursued that strategy successfully and
followed recommendations from a consultant who recommended an even more
aggressive approach.

For now, the museum is seeking to hire a director of science and research to
help implement the new strategy. It also is seeking a new president of
Carnegie Museums to replace Mr. Hillenbrand, which could occur by April.
Then the board of trustees will seek a new director to replace Samuel
Taylor, who left the position in September 2012That could occur by the end
of next summer.

The strategy also includes more popular traveling exhibits and public
programs, classes and lectures.

George Sparks, president and CEO of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science,
said he began implementing a similar strategy nine years ago with success.
The museum is increasing revenues with no debt, he said.

Its new museum will open in February, with a strong emphasis on customers.

"If you worry about customers, things will work out well. If you worry about
scientists or internal things, generally you are not very successful," he
said. "I was impressed by the [Carnegie museum] team that came here. They
were passionate and seemed headed in the right direction. I was very
encouraged."

David Templeton: dtempleton at post-gazette.com or 412-263-1578

Read more:
<http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2013/12/06/Museum-s-new-focus-on-rev
enue-customers/stories/201312060137#ixzz2muyiMSxi>
http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2013/12/06/Museum-s-new-focus-on-reve
nue-customers/stories/201312060137#ixzz2muyiMSxi

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