How to Get a Job in a Museum Or Art Gallery - By Alison Baverstock Page 0,47
merchandise, a third selling jewellery, specialised clothing and other high-ticket items, and perhaps a bookshop too.
As well as shops, there is a variety of different establishments available for refreshment, from high-ticket restaurants to cafés and coffee shops and, for many, these venues become a ‘third space’ (after home and work) where individuals choose to spend leisure time or meet friends, associating themselves with the institution and the cultural capital it represents in the process, without needing to visit the collection each time. Many galleries and museums have taken out licences to organise events and hospitality and even private functions such as marriages and civil partnerships.
Other sources of income can come from developing aspects of the collection, through an in-house publishing company that produces both exhibition catalogues and a range of associated titles, some co-published with third parties who appreciate the brand. Similarly, image licensing can be profitable – this is where the right is given to include an image from a specific collection within a product produced by a third party, and the product may be anything from a television programme to a t-shirt. The trading profits from all these enterprises, which are sometimes housed within a separate company for tax reasons, come back to support the host organisation.
Case Study: Licensing in museums
Interview with Brenda Conway, Image & Brand Licensing Executive, NMSI Trading Ltd
‘It is mostly only the larger museums (or groups of museums) that have their own licensing department, but where these do exist they can provide a substantial income to the organisation. Broadly speaking, their job is to market the intellectual property of the organisation, to create an income stream out of the information housed within the museum, whether this is held within objects or staff. This may mean working with third parties to create a range of merchandise that the public wants to buy, perhaps toys and gadgets, or items specific to a particular location, such as railway-related items that are produced to link with the collection in the National Railway Museum in York. Or it may mean approaching a potential supplier and asking if they can produce something on behalf of the museum, for which we have spotted a potential market.
‘Most of the merchandise is sold either through our retail outlets or high street stores, and it also often sells well through “off the page” advertisements in the Sunday supplements, where the Science Museum branding can serve to reassure the customer buying at a distance of the quality of the merchandise on offer. A typical item would be a chemistry set sold through retailers, with particularly high levels of sale at Christmas. Whereas there are other sets on the market, the one licensed by us would contain information from the relevant curators within the museum on the science behind the experiments and have an added educational value; thus everyone buying it would be confident they had a superior product within its specific market, and something they could give as a present with confidence. Sometimes we arrange for merchandise to be created that will not be sold, but rather used as an incentive available only with the buying of a membership package, or as a special offer to those who have already taken one out.
‘All this activity has grown since museums stopped charging for entry and were forced to look for a range of other opportunities for funding. Each year we display at the Brand Licensing Show and are active members of LIMA2 (which has its head office in the US but also an office in the UK – see Appendix for contact details). We are a separate trading company offering licensing and also an image bank and we make a significant contribution to the museum’s funding.
‘As a career option, most staff working in this area come from an arts licensing, product development or a legal background. It is a sharper atmosphere than other aspects of museum work, with a huge scope for development. For the individual who finds this work interesting, and wants to be part of this development, such a role offers a lot of potential.’
Why would people give money to museums and galleries?
‘The world is not ungenerous, but unimaginative and very busy.’
EGLANTYNE JEBB, FOUNDER OF THE SAVE THE CHILDREN FUND3
Three key points to bear in mind:
• people may not give unless first asked – or if they do give, probably never at the level they are capable of after research, cultivation and a well-managed ‘ask’;