Description:

Retail stores play central roles in museum operations. Most museum managers and their boards or tribal councils recognize stores' revenue potential. But stores can also help serve the museum's educational mission, support perpetuation and revitalization of traditional arts, and impact audiences beyond the museum's doors. Utilizing expert perspectives and examples from diverse museum stores this course will explain why a museum store should not be just a "gift shop" and will present guidance on inventory management, buying and pricing, retail display, staff training and other administrative issues faced by museum store managers.

Course Outline:

1. What IS a museum store and how does it fit our museum program?

2. Museum Store Staffing and Training

3. Museum Store Design - Matching Our Store to Our Museum

4. Merchandising "Related Merchandise"

5. Selling Native American Art

6. Keeping Track of All the Numbers

7. Museum Store Security

8. Selling Outside the Walls

9. Conclusions

Required Textbook: Museum Store Management, 2nd Edition, by Mary Miley Theobald. Alta Mira Press, 2000. ISBN 0-7245-0431-X (paperback).