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Programs, Meetings, and Projects
Mid-Career Training Program Funded by IMLS: An Interview with
Gretchen Sullivan Sorin, Director, Cooperstown Graduate Program
“We’d been thinking for a long time about mid-career training,” Sullivan said. “We know that people who graduated more than 10 years ago from CGP had a different experience from people in the program today, and we wanted to know how we could help those who have been out 10 years or longer.” Sorin contacted MANY Director Anne Ackerson to discuss how the two organizations could collaborate. MANY had recently published the first of its white papers, Who’s Next: Questioning the Future of Museum Leadership in New York State. One fact that emerged from the research for the paper was that mid-career training was an unaddressed need in the field. After Sorin’s conversation with Ackerson, MANY and CGP conducted two surveys, one of CGP graduates and one of the MANY membership. “We wanted to know what was practical, how much time people were willing to give. There are some terrific programs out there if you are single and don’t have any children,” Sorin said, adding that based on the survey results, it was clear that many museum directors could not afford to leave work—much less their families—for the three to five weeks some leadership- training programs demand. CGP’s concept was simple. Design a low-residency program with an online component that would allow participants to stay in contact with a mentor. “We wanted to tie classroom learning to mentoring,” Sorin said, adding that many students suggested that while they understood issues in class, they had difficulty applying them once they got home. Her goal is to extend the program beyond the classroom. “We want students to bring problems to the classroom and then we want to give them a lifeline.” But providing a mid-career tune-up isn’t the only thing Sorin hopes CGP’s program will do. In fact she interested in cultural entrepreneurship, a term she culled from the social entrepreneurial model. “We’d like to teach museum leaders how to take a measured risk to move their institution forward,” she said. “We like to teach them to identify opportunities and to take advantage of them.” And using team-building skills and case studies, along with an advisory committee that includes Stephen Elliot, CEO of the New York Historical Association, Cooperstown, N.Y., G. Rollie Adams, CEO, Strong National Museum of Play, Rochester, N.Y., Pamela Green, Executive Director, Weeksville Heritage Society, Brooklyn, N.Y., Stuart A. Chase, Executive Director, Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, Mass., and Carol Enseki, President, Brooklyn Children’s Museum, Brooklyn, N.Y. With the funding in hand, Sorin said she sees the upcoming year as a building year during which CGP/MANY will pilot its first program. “It may change dramatically after the pilot,” Sorin cautioned. “It may be that three or four days is all the time people feel they can spend. She also hopes to have enough money so that the program can offer scholarships for housing and food for students during the on-campus portion of the program. “We like to pride ourselves about being on the cutting edge in the field,” Sorin said, adding that this current IMLS grant is the third federal grant CGP has had during her 13-year tenure.
GenYers Speak Out at 2008 UHA/MANY Conference Anyone who doesn’t believe there are generational differences between museum goers probably wasn’t in the audience at the session titled Mass Appeal at the MANY/UHA annual meeting April 14. Led by Susie Wilkening of Reach Advisors, the panel gave three Generation Y adults—all of whom were either in graduate school or already working in the field—a chance to comment on what appeals to them and more importantly, what doesn’t, when they go to museums. Wilkening opened the discussion by saying that based on Reach Advisors’ work, fewer than 25 percent of Generation Y adults enjoy visiting museums. She cautioned her audience where there was more gray hair than not, that the Y generation already exceeds baby boomers in size and that 40-percent of them do not self identify as Caucasian. Wilkening’s opening question was: What was your first museum experience? They each remembered particular images: dinosaurs, a mummy, an outdoor sculpture garden. When she asked whether they visit museums now, the answers were mixed. A lot of activities compete for their time. In addition, cost is an issue. They do view museums as potential date territory especially when it meant a free admission perhaps with the added allure of food or music. Her next question dealt with why they and their friends DON”T go to museums. Once again, time—there’s not enough of it—and a competing basket of options from sports to movies to the Internet seems to keep them away. When Wilkening asked her panel to describe what kind of museum experience their generation looked for, the overwhelming answer seemed to be “personal.” And how do you personalize the museum experience? Not surprisingly, the Internet generation’s response involved—well—the Internet. They cited Google and Amazon as Web sites that allow users to personalize their experience and suggested museums think about using search engines that allow visitors (or virtual visitors) to “find what they want.” They even suggested that in the case of very large institutions, being able to map a personalized tour before you go was a plus. The list of don’ts also included cost. One suggested that if it costs $12 to go to a museum or $10 to go to a movie, she and her friends would probably pick the movie. But having a Web presence isn’t enough. It turns out that this generation is quite demanding about Web sites. “What do you want to see online?” Wilkening asked. The answer? Simplicity. The group defined a bad Web site as one that was difficult or slow to navigate. “Eliminate too many clicks,” one suggested. They also deplored too much text. And they don’t like video much either. And exhibit designers take note. Generation Y’s dislike for the written word extends to exhibition copy too. “Two paragraphs are too much,” one said, adding, “I feel shallow, but I move on.” When Wilkening asked how to deal with that, the answer was once again, fewer words. One participant suggested museum labels should be like bill boards, catching the public while they’re on the run. Worse, it isn’t only what is written, but the way it’s written. “The language of everything is skewed toward history professors, not common people,” one remarked. While another suggested that it’s about making what’s on the wall more attention grabbing. The group suggested “Googlizing” copy by highlighting key words. “Industry has been using color and font for years. Advertising has the research,” a member of the audience suggested. Are we inviting those companies to come to the table?” They feel the same way about technology in museums as they do about Web sites. Simplicity rules. They are not the generation you will see standing in front of a painting with a big Acoustiguide glued to their ears. Instead, they want something small and easy to carry like their Ipod or their cell phone. They were not enthused about museums having a Web presence beyond their own dot orgs though. “Getting a friend request from a museum on MySpace doesn’t feel authentic,” one said. “It’s just weird.” On the plus side, they were enthusiastic about email suggesting a minimal message like “Here’s what is new at…” that employs bite-size information with links to click. Again, personalizing the choice before offering more information. That was a theme that carried over as Wilkening wrapped up the session. The things they liked included personal choice in the museum and on the Web. They appreciated user-friendly and well-thought out exhibitions and Web sites where they felt as though they were making the choice to stay or go, to read or not to read. They appreciate free admission or access to a group admission and they like to socialize and don’t object to meeting their peer group in the presence of great art. Trends We Think Are Important
Now is the time for us to bestow the 2006 Katharine Coffey Award for distinguished achievement in the museum field. Recently, I had the question posed to me about an initiative on which I was working - “Why are you involved in this?” And my response was “Because I asked for it!!” In the case of chairing the Coffey Award Committee and making this presentation for the third time, I am doing this because, indeed, I asked for it. When I served on the Board of Directors of MAAM, I volunteered to chair the committee because I was very intrigued with the award, its history, and its recipients. Leadership and achievement in one’s field has always held a fascination to me – as I have said before, some people are leaders, some are not and some pretend to be! You know when leadership is present and when it is not! For this award, MAAM continues to revere Katharine Coffey and her lifetime of outstanding work within the museum field. When the Coffey Award was established, its purpose was to recognize the high attainment of the professional museum worker. Finding a “person of distinction” was and is not an easy task. Guidelines were established and have been followed to select the Coffey Award recipient. The guidelines are based on personal attainments and service. Service to a particular museum; to the local community, service on the regional, national or international levels; and service to the museum profession. The Coffey Award Recipient must also be a museist…described by Dr. Arthur Parker, former director of the Rochester Museum of Arts and Sciences who wrote “Not every person who works in a museum is a museist. The museist of which we particularly speak is the creative worker…the professional worker…deeply concerned with his objectives he labors long and earnestly.” Katharine Coffey devoted forty-three years of service to the Newark Museum and fittingly, the first recipient of the Coffey Award in October of 1972 was Hanna Toby Rose who retired from the Brooklyn Museum. Today, as we gather in Brooklyn, We are in the perfect place to honor the 2006 museist and Coffey Award Recipient….. Nicholas Westbrook. Previously, I had never met Nick …I spoke to him once…so putting this presentation together was a challenging task. My search to find the “real Nicholas Westbrook” took me on many avenues – including Google!! I read and reviewed at length the very thorough Coffey Award nomination papers about Nick; his extensive resume; and the wonderful letters of support from his colleagues. I even spoke with a few of them…for personal stories and I came away with a few conclusions… First, since I never saw a photograph of Nick Westbrook…I had no idea of what he looked like until I met him last night. I kept looking for photographs of him in the Fort Ticonderoga publications…and never saw one! But, his imprint was everywhere! So my first conclusion about Nick is that he is a modest man who works without fanfare…but, gets the job done! In the words of one of his colleagues… “I respect Nick for his strong work ethic, tireless striving to reach difficult goals and nurturing the museum community of New York.” In looking over his resume, I saw that he has had a wonderful education that crossed several institutions: he ranked 10th in the humanities division in the national Swedish university matriculation examination…and since I am part Swedish, I thought that was rather special. I hope he will tell us about that! He is a graduate of Amherst College with honors and the University of Connecticut and has studied for his Ph.D at the University of Pennsylvania. Another part of the puzzle of Nick Westbrook emerged: he is well educated! In reviewing his professional work in the museum field, I could literally follow his progress from one institution to another: He started as a museum director at the Saratoga County (NY) Historical Society and then, moving on to Saratoga National Historical Park…back to New England at Old Sturbridge Village and on to the Minnesota Historical Society and finally to become Executive Director and CEO of Fort Ticonderoga. My revealing clue here was that he must enjoy cold climates!! But, it is IN his membership and IN his service to the Museum of Association of New York (MANY) that finally gave me his real measure. The authors of the supporting letters, listed and wrote with glowing sincerity of Nick’s contributions and I quote: 1.) “His leadership as President proved pivotal in the evolution and progress of the organization. Without question, his direction, diplomacy and perseverance reinvigorated MANY.” Randall Suffolk, Director, the Hyde Collection 2.) “Early this year (2006) the New York State Board of regents approved new, more rigorous standards for the permanent chartering of museums in New York. The total package is intended to ensure that institutions do not stumble and fail because of ignorance of professional practice, lack of appropriate planning or of understanding ethical and fiduciary obligations. Without the leadership of Nicholas Westbrook, these new standards would not be in place. To achieve this result, Nick brokered a partnership with the New York State Education Department, the chartering entity for museums; and the New York State Council on the Arts, the major source of State Funds for museums. This could hardly be a match made in heaven. The museum community in New York is diverse and vocal; State government is complex and often seems impenetrable from the outside. Nick Westbrook stormed the battlements with confidence and determination. He solidified a strong and positive public/private coalition, persuading the State leadership that dealing with the issue of standards was a priority and in the public interest.” Carole Huxley, Deputy Commissioner, Office of Cultural Education, The State Education, Department, the University of the State of New York. These provided for me the characteristics of courage and determination possessed by Nick to tackle State bureaucracy and his own museum community to indeed be that museist…the creative worker, the professional worker…laboring long and earnestly.” And finally the last clue…his work at Fort Ticonderoga has been for him like a dream come true … according to Anne Ackerson, one of my Nick Westbrook sources: “He is living a boyhood dream by being at Fort Ticonderoga…as a boy he thought it was a magical place.” According to Deborah Mars, President of the Fort Ticonderoga Association of Trustees: “Nick has built the senior staff – filling and creating positions for curatorial, office management, landscape management, development and many more. He has not only managed to assemble an extremely competent and dynamic staff, but has inspired each of them to serve the institution with above average commitment.” “All of his achievements spring from a passion and a dedication that puts Nick’s own personal stamp on everything he does. The time, energy and focus that Nick gives to every aspect of Fort Ticonderoga’s operations has served as an inspiration to me and to many that know him.” So, now I have given you a few clues about Nick: we know about his dedication, passion, focus, imagination, courage and determination. All of these clues bring me to one conclusion…in a world looking for heroes…we have one in Nicholas Westbrook! I believe that Nick typifies the definition of heroism according to the late tennis great Arthur Ashe …. “True heroism is not the urge to SURPASS all others at whatever cost BUT the URGE to SERVE others at whatever cost.” To sum Nick up is not easy …but, I believe that I have found something that I have on good authority that he DOES Wear…HOLD up the SUPERMAN tee shirt! Museist, superman and hero…. Nicholas Westbrook please come forward and accept the 2006 Katherine Coffey Award!
Nick Westbrook's Acceptance As I began my formal museum career nearly four decades ago, my role models and mentors were the giants who comprise the Coffey Award roster. I am deeply humbled to find myself now in their company. I have had the good fortune to work with really inspiring people at Old Sturbridge Village, the Minnesota Historical Society, and now at Fort Ticonderoga. I have learned an enormous amount from our circle of colleagues here in New York State through the Museum Association of New York and across the country. Best of all, I can look forward from this point in my career with great joy and say that history museum work is still fun, still a challenge, still bursting with interesting projects and people. Emerson tells us that that there is no history, only biography. So allow me to be a little autobiographical this afternoon. This is the biography of a history nerd, of someone who is truly living his dream. I have a strong sense of vocation, deriving probably from my Calvinist background. My parents first brought me to Fort Ticonderoga in 1955—50 years ago last October—for the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the start of construction of the Fort by the French army in the opening year of the French & Indian War. I fell in love with the place, and its heroes and their stories, and decided that what I wanted to do when I grew up was to have a fort and museum of my own. My boyhood friends wanted to be cowboys and firemen—something exciting! I wanted to run a museum. (We have talked a lot at this Conference about career planning and the serendipity of career paths. There has not been much serendipity in my case! I have known what I wanted to do since I was six.) I soon started a museum in my bedroom closet: labeled the artifacts (as they did at Fort Ticonderoga); charged the neighborhood kids admission (as they did at Fort Ticonderoga). The magic for me was that every object in my collection was a touchstone; each had a story to tell. In my vocation as an historian today, I can put more high-falutin’ words on it. I know that my work is rooted in the root of ancient Homer’s historia: story. So let me share with you a trajectory of stories during my journey. The French & Indian War unfolded in my home area of upstate New York. So I grew up learning and dramatizing the heroic stories of that war—learning those stories from museums like Fort Ticonderoga. On one early visit to the Fort, I bought a set of prints in the museum store, reproductions of paintings commissioned at the turn of the previous century by the Glens Falls Insurance Company. Those dozen images pinned up on my bedroom wall fueled my dreaming imagination. The neighborhood boys and I recreated those scenes. One depicted Major Israel Putnam, captured by the French and Indians, tied to a tree where the Indians were about to torture him with a fire set at his feet. We persuaded my four-year-old brother to play the starring role as Major Putnam. Just like in the painting, we gathered sticks, set them at his feet, and—just like in the painting—we lit the fire. Just like in the painting, my brother (Major Putnam) was rescued at the last possible moment. The original by a passing French officer; my brother by a passing motorist who surely recognized the secret Masonic sign for help! So I have been an historical re-enactor for a long while! My interests began to deepen. Under the inspired leadership of another Coffey Award recipient, Dr. Louis C. Jones, in the 1950s and 1960s, the New York State Historical Association ran a youth program of history clubs, the Yorkers, focused on doing research and creating exhibits in an annual statewide competition. In fifth grade, I persuaded my teacher to launch a Yorker Club in our school—and persuaded Dr. Jones to allow elementary school students to infiltrate a high-school-oriented program. Over the next several years, our Yorker Club created a series of prize-winning exhibits on topics which still fascinate me today: the Battles of Saratoga, industrial history, 19th-century tourism. Lou Jones took a chance on an eccentric 10-year-old. I am proud to honor his memory today. In graduate school, I had the wonderful opportunity to study and work at Old Sturbridge Village for three years when Barnes Riznik and Richard Rabinowitz were defining the outdoor history museum world. From Barnes, I learned to strive for “museum-quality work” in all that I do. I learned about the intersections of graphic design and scholarship, of architecture and education. I learned from his role model that one could combine careers as historian and administrator—and the necessity of being passionate about both. Barnes, too, took a chance by mentoring VERY junior staff, and provided me the freedom and the challenge to develop skills in exhibit development, administration, even film-making with two other students, Tim Brennan and Ken Burns. At the Minnesota Historical Society for 12 years, I had the extraordinary opportunity to build a museum exhibition program where none had existed before. I built and mentored a terrific staff. We created a series of award-winning exhibitions, and built enough momentum for the program that the state eventually constructed a $57 million museum which opened in 1992. My wife and I came back to Fort Ticonderoga in summer 1986 from Minnesota enroute to a research project in Vermont. I had not visited the Fort in more than 15 years. But she had never been to the Fort, despite our shared lives of 25+ years in history teaching. Here was an opportunity for a touchstone experience, I thought. But it was a grim one, indeed! The venerable museum was a shambles. The collections were at grave risk. Even the museum store was a disaster. I distinctly remember standing at the foot of a stairway up from the parade ground telling Virginia that I hoped that “someone would take hold of this world-class museum and collection before it was too late.” Two years later, in 1988, a colleague sent us the notice of the job opening for Director of the Fort. I applied. The rest is history. Or perhaps it is a young boy’s destiny. It is certainly his vocation, and I do mean that in a quasi-religious sense. I never felt that more certainly in my life, then or now. Vocation: I have a compelling personal vision that I am a steward, a shrine-tender, a keeper of the flame, a priest of essential civic values. I lead the preservation of a landscape of immanent stories of destiny and beauty. The colleagues I try to mentor and I preserve Fort Ticonderoga as a vibrant source of stories and inspiration for generations to come. That’s our shared “noble goal.” At Fort Ticonderoga, I have been blessed with mentoring from a remarkable Board leader and a challenging donor. From them I have learned how to build new realities from our shared passion. We collect many things at Fort Ticonderoga: maps and manuscripts, paintings and powder horns. But the collection I am proudest of having assembled during my tenure is the remarkable staff team. I am not working alone. We are working together from our shared passion. I am gradually learning to exercise greater “blind faith” in the capabilities of the staff team I have assembled around me. That means knowing and celebrating their value, and trusting that they can manage the collections, programs, and people they have been entrusted with. Learning when to trust the judgment of others creates a shared place of trust from which my colleagues can reach new plateaus. Sustainability will only come when we all continue to take risks, and expand our safety zones. My colleagues’ faith in my leadership is often myopic; my trust in them is becoming more unconditional, more blind. During my service on the Board of the Museum Association of New York, I have grown enormously through engagement with the statewide museum community, and especially our inspiring leader, Anne Ackerson, and my colleagues on the MANY Board. We have undertaken the slow, plodding work of addressing issues challenging the statewide museum community, seeking reform in the State Legislature of laws governing “old loans,” or abandoned property. We have undertaken another form of mentoring, focusing particularly upon the newest and most vulnerable museums. We have partnered with the State Department of Education and the Regents of the University of the State of New York to articulate a clear set of standards and best practices for museums, reforming the state’s process for chartering museums. We launched a training program to introduce Trustees at these newest institutions to their fiduciary responsibilities. So this has been a wonderful ride over the last forty years. But a lot has changed in the museum landscape. The number of museums has more than doubled. Attendance at outdoor history museums like Colonial Williamsburg and Old Sturbridge Village is about half what it once was. (Might there be a connection?) There is decreasing attention to teaching history (with all respect to Senator Byrd who has been a lonely voice for history in the Congress). We may now be “leaving no child behind.” But it is pretty clear that our schools are leaving history behind. The Reagan economic revolution of a quarter-century ago is catching up with museums and cultural institutions of all kinds. The shift of wealth to the wealthy leaves our core middle-class audience with diminished resources. We have seen an enormous shift of public investment away from cultural institutions. I used to despair that cultural organizations did so well in securing government support from the Republican administrations of Nixon, Ford, and Reagan. Now those seem to have been the “salad days!” There are rising expectations for robust employee benefits, echoing major gains won in the public sector. There are rising fixed costs: minimum wage, fuel, health insurance. There is a de facto ceiling on admission fees. At some point (and some of us have passed over that threshold), we price ourselves out of affordability for families. And then we have lost the battle! That is some pile of gloom and doom! So what can we do? Some suggest radical solutions: reinventing ourselves as children’s museums, or replacing artifacts and interpreters in period clothing with holograms and action heroes. The answers are not clear yet. But I am confident—even more so after the stimulating discussions of the past two days—that the next generation of museum leaders will find the answers. I have an abiding faith that we as a people will continue to need great stories, and that our collections will be the touchstones for those stories. How does all of this come back to our Noble Goal, and our desire to create inspiring education opportunities for all? The museum’s Noble Goal is to use our collections and their stories to educate and inspire people to learn from the Past. How can we introduce our modern guests to people from the past? Novels, theater, and TV dramas introduce us to a variety of human dilemmas and dramas. Equally informative—and often more compelling—stories come to us from the past. I spoke at the outset about touchstone artifacts, those objects that connect us to people in the past. Here is one of those objects: We have in the Fort Ticonderoga collection a plain canvas knapsack, painted barn-red for waterproofing. Inside is a short note written in the scratchy quill-pen writing of an 80-year-old. This napsack I cary’d through the war of the Revolution to achieve the Merican Independence. I transmit it to my oldest son, Benjamin Warner Jr. with directions to keep it and transmit it to his oldest sone and so on to the latest posterity and whilst one shred of it shall
remane never surrender your libertys to a foren envador or an
aspiring demegog.
That’s Benjamin Warner speaking across the centuries to us, reminding us of the museum’s Noble Goal: to inspire “the latest posterity.” We can all conjure images of the Founding Fathers; we carry images of them on the coins and currency in our pockets. But here is the voice of another Founding Father, an ordinary person like any of us, caught up in the extraordinary events of his day, reminding us why sacrifice is necessary. Benjamin Warner’s tombstone says simply: “A Revolutionary Soldier and a Friend of the Slave.”
Back to the Future: MANY Looks at
Succession Planning
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Westbrook Receives
Prestigious Katherine Coffey Award from the Mid-Atlantic
Association of Museums|
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Funding for MANY's programs comes, in part, from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency. |
sponsors:
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