Troubled Times Present an Opportunity to Focus

The recent news that The Metropolitan Museum of Art is eliminating 74 jobs from its merchandising staff is probably not a surprise to many. With the downturn in the economy, spending on the Met's gift shop wares obviously was impacted significantly. The Met's success in retail based on their amazing collections has long been touted as a model for others in the museum sector. What kind of signal does this send to other museums as they search for sources of revenue to replace declines in every area? Is this a natural readjusting of museum operations that had ballooned based on the consumerism bubble that popped recently? With this news, museums need to rethink their mix of revenue generating activities. Tourism and merchandising will always be fundamental activities, but for now, a much smaller piece of the puzzle. Now museums need to look to other activities that may not have been areas of focus. What are these other areas? Possible suggestions could be: community building and engagement; collaboration with other nonprofits (which are all being impacted); or focusing more efforts online. Share your own suggestions. This is a time of opportunity, to refocus, and strive to do what nonprofits do best.