Now, More Than Ever – Maximizing Museum Store Sunday
October 21, 2020
By Susan Tudor, Director of Retail Operations at Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, MSA Immediate Past President and Advisor to the Board
MSA’s signature advocacy initiative, Museum Store Sunday, is happening in less than six weeks! Are you participating? Whether your institution is open or closed, there is always a way to join in. This year’s event will certainly look different due to COVID-19. However, if you are willing to lean on some new ideas for implementation, you might find your store better able to succeed on November 29 than you can imagine. It’s known, especially in 2020, that shoppers want options. It’s critical to think more broadly in choices that we provide consumers -- and planning a Museum Store Sunday is no different.
Are you ready? Whether this is your first Museum Store Sunday or your fourth, you may still be wondering how to participate during these uncertain times. There is still plenty of time to prepare. Plan to attend the upcoming webinar, Maximizing Your Museum Store Sunday on Tuesday, October 27, 12:30 EST. Join Stuart Hata and me, your 2020 Museum Store Sunday co-chairs, to learn new ways to celebrate Museum Store Sunday during this extraordinary year. Here’s what we’ll be talking about.
- Planning and promoting in-store events given limited access by visitors
- Preparing and communicating online-only events
- Implementing hybrid events – in store and online
- Planning if your institution is closed and without an online store
- Optimizing use of the Store Locator, Tool Kit, and new Online Store page through MSS website
- Partnering with vendor members
In addition, you will hear from Karen McNeely, MSA 1st Vice President. She will provide a case-study on her virtual Museum Store Sunday event. What she has planned is terrific and the information she’ll share is reason enough to attend the webinar. After all the presentations, there will be time for Q&A’s. So, come prepared with your questions!
I hope you will join us for the webinar -- as well as commit to embracing Museum Store Sunday 2020. We believe, this year, consumers and museum visitors will want to support their favorite museum stores, now, more than ever. They are aware of the impacts from prolonged museum closures. We believe they will want to consciously contribute during this holiday season by purchasing gifts from museum stores. Museum Store Sunday is their opportunity to support museums and cultural institutions throughout the world in a tremendously positive way. Even so, we need to continue to get the word out about Museum Store Sunday and what it is to “Be A Patron." We need to advocate that when a patron shops in a museum store:
- They are directly supporting the institution that the store represents
- They are shopping with purpose by purchasing special mission-related products that only museum stores offer
- They are supporting the educational mission of the institution
- They are supporting the artisans, craftspeople, and local makers who create many of the gifts found in that store or online
This year, because of the pandemic, we are in uncharted waters with Museum Store Sunday, but as the saying goes -- together we can do this. Let’s stand up for our stores and the institutions they represent. Let’s unite in telling the world why our stores are important. Let’s commit to our store’s participation on November 29, 2020. To spreading the word that shopping in museums stores makes a difference. That shopping with purpose has lasting effects and helps sustain the institutions in our communities.
In short, let’s work together, continuing our momentum from the last three years, in making Museum Store Sunday an event to support our institutions, our communities, and our world. Remembering that the mission and celebratory nature behind this special day remains true throughout.
Again, I hope you’ll join us on Tuesday, October 27, 12:30 EST to explore how to maximize your Museum Store Sunday 2020. We truly want to help you have a great event. The webinar is free, and a Zoom link is available in the Museum Store Sunday Tool Kit and was sent to members via email.
Susan Tudor is the Director of Retail Operations at the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens in Jacksonville, Florida and currently the Immediate Past President and Advisor to the MSA Board of Directors. Susan has chaired multiple national MSA committees including the MSA Advocacy Committee responsible for the inaugural launch of the global initiative Museum Store Sunday®.