Xperience This!

What is in a name when it comes to the Morris Museum and Bickford Theater may be at the very core of our work here.  While the Morris Museum and Bickford Theater are technically one entity (and “back in the day” – they were treated as such), over time, the Bickford has strived to create its own brand with its own sense of self.  Through this process, we have heard mixed reviews from both patrons and stakeholders alike as to wether or not this strategy has helped the overall establishment (as well as the individual pieces) or potentially hurt it by making the overall brand harder for people to understand and awareness of either individual part more diluted.  Over the past few weeks, answering the question – one name or two, one brand or two, has become at the forefront of our work (and perhaps a few animated discussions as well!)   More »

For those of you who have been following along – we are reaching the conclusion of our Experience Audit for the Morris Museum and heading into Roadmap time.  Last night was our presentation to the Executive Board reviewing the key themes of our recommendations and the key data points that will be needed as we begin our prioritization and trade off decision for how we are going to address the  areas of opportunity identified.  More »

I couldn’t wait to get back to the office today after a morning of very exciting conversations at the Museum.  Below is a quick recap:

1. Do You Need a Moose?  Yes – you all ready that correctly.  During our community intercepts a week ago, one of our participants offered the museum a taxidermied moose to add to their animal exhibit.  Apparently the participant’s father was a taxidermist who had donated a brown bear many years ago and in his recent passing, the kids found a moose that they could “just picture standing strong and proud next to the bear”.  See what you learn when you ask your audience how they would like to contribute? More »

Hello everyone, I wanted to give you all a quick update on how things are going on the Morris Museum SEA project. First off – thank you to the many people that completed our online survey!  Your insights have gone a long way to helping us understand what people expect of a local museum or theater and why they choose to support (or not support) those that are nearby.  We used those surveys as a control group to put up against two other key pieces of our research – live, informal interviews with museum visitors, and an online survey we sent to with Morris Museum supporters, visitors, and volunteers. More »