{"id":2186,"date":"2017-04-23T08:08:11","date_gmt":"2017-04-23T15:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/?p=2186"},"modified":"2017-04-23T08:08:11","modified_gmt":"2017-04-23T15:08:11","slug":"metrics-at-the-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2017\/04\/metrics-at-the-museum\/","title":{"rendered":"Metrics at the museum"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"too<\/a>The Washington Post<\/em>‘s Philip Kennicott decided to try visiting the popular Kusama exhibit at the Hirshhorn not as a critic, with all its special viewing privileges, but as an ordinary member of the public. The crowds and the rush, as we might expect, reduced the quality of the experience. We might enjoy a play or concert more when the house is full, but that doesn’t apply so well to museums. In one well-executed piece of research, Maddison and Foster<\/a> found visitors would be willing to pay a significant entry fee to the British Museum if it would have the effects of reducing crowd sizes (and having visited that museum, had I been polled I would have had a high willingness-to-pay as well).<\/p>\n

Kennicott observes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

… the mad crowds of the Kusama exhibition raise important questions about the basic experience museums offer, and whether they can continue to offer it in an age when success is measured in foot traffic, admission and other revenue (if the museum has an entry fee), and a host of crowd-based metrics (social media success, including Instagram posts, among them).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The arts, at least in the nonprofit and public sectors, live in the age of metrics, even when appropriate ones can be hard to find. The thing about audience numbers is that it’s an easy metric: easily counted, and who could possibly be against a museum being popular? And so, for example, if I look at the strategic plan for the Philadelphia Museum of Art<\/a>, it includes a target of reaching one million visitors per year, from its current rate of around 800,000<\/a>. What will an increase of 25% do to the museum experience? I’m not sure. Nor is it clear why this would be a target – why is 800,000 somehow ‘too low’? But it’s a metric and a target, nonetheless.<\/p>\n

What are metrics good for? In a thoughtful essay<\/a> from 1994, when the metrics wave was first beginning to appear, Stephen Weil, reporting from the Wintergreen conference, suggests that metrics can be a good tool for which management could make ‘intuitive’ use of what’s going on. But:<\/p>\n

In general, the Wintergreen participants resisted the temptation to devise indicators that attempted to reflect the total performance of museums and confined their discussion of performance indicators to particular aspects of management and to the outcome of specific substantive programs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Good advice. There do not exist sets of purely quantitative metrics that can capture the overall performance of any arts presenter, or arts funder for that matter. And insisting there are will do more harm than good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Washington Post‘s Philip Kennicott decided to try visiting the popular Kusama exhibit at the Hirshhorn not as a critic, with all its special viewing privileges, but as an ordinary member of the public. The crowds and the rush, as we might expect, reduced the quality of the experience. We might enjoy a play or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26,1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2186","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-issues","8":"category-uncategorized","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/too-many-people.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3dIW5-zg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2327,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2018\/03\/is-there-an-ethical-case-against-deaccessioning-by-museums\/","url_meta":{"origin":2186,"position":0},"title":"Is there an ethical case against deaccessioning by museums? Updated","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"March 20, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"In response to a post by artsjournal.com blog neighbor Lee Rosenbaum on proposed sales of works by the Berkshire Museum and the Lasalle University Art Museum, I asked via Twitter whether there was a coherent case to be made that deaccessioning is unethical, and not simply (sometimes) a case of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2369,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2018\/10\/what-the-doctor-ordered\/","url_meta":{"origin":2186,"position":1},"title":"What the doctor ordered","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"October 12, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Doctors will be able to prescribe visits to the Montreal Museum of Fine Art for their patients, reports the Gazette: Doctors will each be able to assign up to 50 museum prescriptions over the course of the pilot project. Each prescription will allow entry for up to two adults and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"after your water break, time for 20 Goyas, you can do it!","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/participaction-293x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":567,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2013\/03\/about-those-museum-prices\/","url_meta":{"origin":2186,"position":2},"title":"About those museum prices","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"March 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"My post staking a claim that $25 to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art was not expensive generated some comments. There are two issues at play here, not entirely separable: first, that compared to other genres of art, high and low, $25 to see what is one of the world's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"we get letters","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/postbox-224x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2287,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2018\/01\/should-museums-have-free-admission\/","url_meta":{"origin":2186,"position":3},"title":"Should museums have free admission?","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"January 9, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I won't link to all the stories on the Metropolitan Museum's new policy of charging out-of-state residents $25 for daily admission - if you're reading this you've seen them already. Here are few additional considerations: A common refrain is that the museum can \"afford\" to have free admission for all,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"I see an externality","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/crowded-museum-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1629,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/10\/deaccessioning-a-puzzle-and-a-speculative-answer\/","url_meta":{"origin":2186,"position":4},"title":"Deaccessioning: A puzzle, and a speculative answer (updated)","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"October 19, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Why is it considered unethical for nonprofit or public sector museums to sell art, except for cases when the proceeds will be directly used to acquire new art? At the Art Law Blog, Donn Zaretsky points out that if a private collector decided to open a space to display some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"so, why no deaccessioning?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ask-a-curator12.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ask-a-curator12.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ask-a-curator12.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ask-a-curator12.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ask-a-curator12.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":424,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2013\/03\/why-does-the-indianapolis-museum-of-art-have-free-admission\/","url_meta":{"origin":2186,"position":5},"title":"Why does the Indianapolis Museum of Art have Free Admission?","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"March 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Preamble: I know what I don't know. Specifically, when looking at any arts organization and its menu of prices, I do not have insider knowledge of its current or potential audience, its donors, or its costs. So when I comment on the price structure of any specific museum or other\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"free love","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/ima-300x168.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2186"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2190,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2186\/revisions\/2190"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}