I’ve been roaming around the continent via the Internet for the last several days, writing about museums in Las Vegas, Fargo, Alberta and Tampa — and in the course of this I’ve found two museum website “innovations” I want to single out. With strawberries — which I hand out from time to time. (No raspberries today.)
The first, especially, is a no-brainer. The Delaware Art Museum has added to its home page, right at the top, in red and white that stands out, a “Please Donate Now” button. Take a look (I can’t copy it).
I checked about 15 other museum websites around the country, and none has so direct, so easy an appeal. Most are leaving their appeals to small “Support” or “Give” or “Make A Donation” links in their web navigation. Of all those I checked, only the Worcester Art Museum comes close — but its “Donate” button is softer.
Donate Now appeals may not work in ordinary times, but these aren’t.
On a completely different note, the Tacoma Art Museum has, at the bottom of its home page, something really smart: buttons that translate the site (Google translation) into six languages — Spanish, German, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and French.
The Metropolitan Museum offers its visitor page information in nine languages other than English, but that’s all. I couldn’t find any foreign language accommodations at MoMA, which like the Met draws many international visitors.
Yet with so many people around the world visiting museum sites remotely (rankings here), it’s a wonder more museums don’t offer this service.
Strawberries to both.