I'll preface this by saying that maybe this opinion is largely the way it is because I'm a (relatively) young person.
I'm a member of both the Metropolitan Museum of Art ("The Met" for short here in New York City) and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). I started with MoMA membership a year ago and decided to renew this year. The MoMA is a cool place to hang out, has lots of exhibitions of interest to me, and is pretty accessible to my house by train. This year, I decided to get a membership to The Met. I was mostly attracted by the Alexander McQueen exhibit (I won't lie to you, the opportunity to skip to the members line and avoid a 2+ hour wait was appealing) but I've been to The Met many times before and there are some pieces of their permanent collection that really speak to me. Additionally, I discovered that they have a killer roof deck that overlooks Central Park.
That said, I don't make use of these memberships nearly enough. I wish I could find more time to go, particularly during members-only hours when I could really make the best use of my membership in avoiding the herds of tourists. However, I've noticed some differences in how these museums speak to me as a member and thought it might make interesting fodder for my blog (which, I know, I haven't updated in quite a few months).
I find that MoMA is a lot better at asking for money than The Met is; and I should mention that this doesn't mean that MoMA contacts me more frequently about it. Actually, the reverse is true! I get a lot of mail from The Met asking me for money and I just became a member in August of this year. I would understand if I was reaching the end of my membership period and they were looking to retain me, but it's only been a few months. To be honest, the excessive asking is making me consider NOT renewing my membership next year.
On the contrary, I find MoMA's ask to be less, well, annoying because not only does it happen less frequently, but I get much more useful content from MoMA on a regular basis. Every month, I get a booklet from MoMA that tells me what is going on at the museum. It's a tall narrow book (it looks sort of like a Zagat guide in size) so it is easily portable in case you wanted to take it with you to the museum. In addition, as a member of their "Film Plus" program, I get one or two emails a month about specials screenings that I am able to attend gratis with that membership. These emails even go so far as to make it easy for you to RSVP. If you click on "YES" in the email, you get routed to where you can complete your RSVP. If you click on "NO," they know you are not attending and will stop contacting you about that event.
Now, fast forward to today, I check my mail and find two items from The Met. One is a monthly members calendar and the other is a fall bulletin. I find this confusing. Why mail me two things? Just send me one thing, and kill less trees. The fall bulletin is a large magazine-sized book but on the outside of it is yet another ask for money. I'm not so much bothered by the ask as much as the fact that this jacket on the outside of the fall bulletin was covering a wrap-around cover that featured the restored painting of Washington crossing the Delaware, which looks pretty freakin' cool. Why would you cover that? And apparently the fall bulletin is a lot of in depth information about the restoration of that painting. Very interesting stuff. How about putting the ask for money in the middle of the book? So while I'm perusing it and realizing how hard you guys work, I can think about donating before the year's end.
Instead, I'm annoyed because you keep asking me for money in all the wrong ways and compelled to blog about it!
Posted on November 22nd, 2011 | Tags: commentary, museums, observation, personal | No Comments
Observation on Museums
I'll preface this by saying that maybe this opinion is largely the way it is because I'm a (relatively) young person.
I'm a member of both the Metropolitan Museum of Art ("The Met" for short here in New York City) and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). I started with MoMA membership a year ago and decided to renew this year. The MoMA is a cool place to hang out, has lots of exhibitions of interest to me, and is pretty accessible to my house by train. This year, I decided to get a membership to The Met. I was mostly attracted by the Alexander McQueen exhibit (I won't lie to you, the opportunity to skip to the members line and avoid a 2+ hour wait was appealing) but I've been to The Met many times before and there are some pieces of their permanent collection that really speak to me. Additionally, I discovered that they have a killer roof deck that overlooks Central Park.
That said, I don't make use of these memberships nearly enough. I wish I could find more time to go, particularly during members-only hours when I could really make the best use of my membership in avoiding the herds of tourists. However, I've noticed some differences in how these museums speak to me as a member and thought it might make interesting fodder for my blog (which, I know, I haven't updated in quite a few months).
I find that MoMA is a lot better at asking for money than The Met is; and I should mention that this doesn't mean that MoMA contacts me more frequently about it. Actually, the reverse is true! I get a lot of mail from The Met asking me for money and I just became a member in August of this year. I would understand if I was reaching the end of my membership period and they were looking to retain me, but it's only been a few months. To be honest, the excessive asking is making me consider NOT renewing my membership next year.
On the contrary, I find MoMA's ask to be less, well, annoying because not only does it happen less frequently, but I get much more useful content from MoMA on a regular basis. Every month, I get a booklet from MoMA that tells me what is going on at the museum. It's a tall narrow book (it looks sort of like a Zagat guide in size) so it is easily portable in case you wanted to take it with you to the museum. In addition, as a member of their "Film Plus" program, I get one or two emails a month about specials screenings that I am able to attend gratis with that membership. These emails even go so far as to make it easy for you to RSVP. If you click on "YES" in the email, you get routed to where you can complete your RSVP. If you click on "NO," they know you are not attending and will stop contacting you about that event.
Now, fast forward to today, I check my mail and find two items from The Met. One is a monthly members calendar and the other is a fall bulletin. I find this confusing. Why mail me two things? Just send me one thing, and kill less trees. The fall bulletin is a large magazine-sized book but on the outside of it is yet another ask for money. I'm not so much bothered by the ask as much as the fact that this jacket on the outside of the fall bulletin was covering a wrap-around cover that featured the restored painting of Washington crossing the Delaware, which looks pretty freakin' cool. Why would you cover that? And apparently the fall bulletin is a lot of in depth information about the restoration of that painting. Very interesting stuff. How about putting the ask for money in the middle of the book? So while I'm perusing it and realizing how hard you guys work, I can think about donating before the year's end.
Instead, I'm annoyed because you keep asking me for money in all the wrong ways and compelled to blog about it!
Posted on November 22nd, 2011 | Tags: commentary, museums, observation, personal | No Comments