Museum Store Sunday!

Join Amy Loewenberg as she talks with MSA members Susan Tudor of the Cummer Museum and Tia Bianchini of the Barnes Foundation as they share all things Museums and Museum Store Sunday- a global annual event celebrating the museum stores and their mission-related products which play a vital role in helping arts, cultural and nonprofit attractions educate and thrive. 

Since its launch in 2017, museum store advocacy has been growing and gaining global recognition. On Sunday, November 28, 2021 this year more than 1,700 museums world-wide are registered to participate – from all 50 states, 24 countries, and five continents! This year they are celebrating five years of Museum Store Sunday and special shopping experiences in one-of-a kind stores, showcasing broad assortments of highly curated, unique, mission-specific gifts. From books to jewelry to children’s products to home accessories and gourmet food, there is something for everyone! So shop knowing that you are supporting the missions and programs of each participating museum and cultural institution.   

RESOURCES   
Guest Websites: 
http://www.museumstoreassociation.org/   
https://www.cummermuseum.org/   
https://www.barnesfoundation.org/   

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Transcript

Dondrill Glover: 0:02

Welcome to The New York now podcast, a modern wholesale market for retailers and specialty buyers seeking diversity and discovery, gathering twice a year in America's design capital, New York City. It's where buyers and designers on Earth have refreshed and dedicated collection of eclectic lifestyle products.

Amy Loewenberg: 0:22

Welcome to The NY NOW buyers spotlight Podcast. I'm Amy Lowenberg relations and partnership development manager in NY NOW, and my focus is to bring you important information, conversations and perspectives from both sides of the aisle. Today I'm talking with two women whom I have a great admiration for Susan Tudor, the director of retail operations at the Cummer Museum of Art and gardens in Jacksonville, Florida. And Tia Bianchini who is the Merchandise Manager at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. Both are members of the museum store association or MSA, which is an organization supported by volunteers that is dedicated to advancing the nonprofit retail industry and the professionals engaged in it. Through advocacy, education and collaboration. MSA provides the tools and community to help cultural institutions vendor members and their commercial partners to expand the visitors experience enabling them to take a piece of that experience home. Susan has been a member since her start in nonprofit retail in 1998. Her retail training and background prior to museums was with Federated Department Stores. Bloomingdale's. Susan is a past president of the MSA board of directors, and she has chaired multiple MSA national committees, including the advocacy committee responsible for the inaugural launch of the Global Initiative museum store Sunday, which we're going to dive into in a little bit. Tia graduated with a BFA from Tyler School of Art, with a focus on textiles, printmaking, and art history. Her support of handmade ethical and sustainable production allows the Varnes shop to serve as a platform for amplifying a diverse set of makers and their stories. She is currently serving as co chair of the museum store Sunday committee, and has been a member of the museums Association since 2016. So let's get started. Well, welcome ladies. I'm so glad you could join me today and sing all songs of the museum store association of museums for Sunday. Thank you for having us.

Susan Tudor: 2:42

Yes, thank you.

Amy Loewenberg: 2:43

So of course, of course, as we've all had an opportunity to hear about both of you very talented women and your relationships to the museum store association or MSA for short. Let's jump into your museums and share a little bit about that. Susan, I know that the cover Museum of Art and gardens is the largest fine arts museum in Northeast Florida. Why don't you share some of the finer points? That's important for our listeners?

Susan Tudor: 3:11

Sure. So the other part that's really interesting is that we sit right on the St. Johns River with three historic gardens that are just absolutely breathtaking. We're very proud of that. And our members are as well. And we operate two stores within the museum, plus the online store that the comer Museum has, as well. Oh,

Amy Loewenberg: 3:34

wow. And Tia, I've had the pleasure of visiting your gift shop, but I missed out on viewing your art field walls. So this is a loaded question. But what did I miss?

Tia Bianchini: 3:44

Yeah. Oh, my goodness. Well, it's too much for me to recap in a few seconds. But we have a really unusual collection because we have paintings alongside metalwork, alongside jewelry and pottery, all kinds of really wonderful craft items that our founder Dr. Barnes was trying to elevate to the same level of appreciation as you know what's considered fine art. So it's often overwhelming for visitors the first time because they're called ensembles. We don't have wall plaques, we have kind of really immersive installations of all of the work. So it's always a compliment when people say our shop is an extension of that experience. But you have to come back you have to we have to get you in those galleries.

Amy Loewenberg: 4:24

I will be back believe me if I had had any more time I would have been walking through and actually to plagiarize a part of the Barnes Foundation's mission statement. Museums have the desire to promote the advancement of education and the appreciation of the fine arts. But additionally, other than being located on beautiful grounds, both institutions have a focus on gardens and horticulture. Is that kind of a common theme with many cultural institutions? I would think.

Tia Bianchini: 4:53

I think for us, it's a bit unique. We saw again, our founder was very experimental and his wife was He's really into the horticulture horticultural side of things. So they kind of treated their garden space as a way to kind of bring in new species and create hybrids. And on our arboretum grounds, we have some like state champion trees, a really impressive lilac collection. So I think that we refer to it as the living collection. It's very much an extension of understanding and appreciating Lightline color space. And yeah, it's, it's, it's as to borrow Susan's word breathtaking. It's just really breathy taking, especially throughout the seasons, when you're really in tune with the bloom cycles. And, yeah, it's a really nice pair to find our

Susan Tudor: 5:38

Wow, we enter play on what Tia said, we refer to our outdoor spaces as outdoor gowns. And I should point out that these were the original gardens of Mrs. Cummer Ninah Cummer, who's the founder of the company Museum, and they are over 200 years old. So we have an Italian garden, in English Garden, on stage garden, that are just works of art themselves. Of course,

Amy Loewenberg: 6:08

I love living extensions, living exhibits. So let's ask the experts here, why are all museums important?

Tia Bianchini: 6:18

Yeah. So this is something that I feel very close to personally, that being connected to cultural organizations within our community, it not only kind of builds a broader sense of community, but it fosters learning no matter the age of the person. And I think it's a great way to bring families together to bring different kinds of cultures within a city together. And that we like to view it as kind of the hub for a lot of events and information sharing, and just a really great space. But we want people to feel safe, and like they're constantly engaged. So museums have that potential, they have that power. I truly believe that. And I don't know where I would be if it weren't for, you know, my very first museum experience as a child. So I think that they are just really powerhouses of learning, and belonging.

Amy Loewenberg: 7:07

That's beautiful. Well, certain thing. Um, so here's a, here's a really big question. What is the museum store? And why should we shop them?

Susan Tudor: 7:18

So museum store is a connector, it can be a gateway for visitors. Sometimes in our art museums, it's very intimidating to come in through the doors, because a visitor doesn't feel like they understand art and they don't belong there. But everyone, Amy knows how to shop. Oh, yeah. They know how to eat, they know how to enjoy a concert. And so those spaces are our connectors to museums. Museums, stores are also revenue generating outlets, for the museums, everything that is produced. And these are sold in our nonprofit stores go back to the operating budgets of our museums, which helped with the expenses of programming exhibits events. So that's a it's a key revenue generating.

Amy Loewenberg: 8:14

Now that's perfect, it makes it makes perfect sense. And I love that you call it a gateway. Because to your point, if you're not familiar with walking through these hallowed halls, you might be a little overwhelmed. And there's there's it's it's a it's a lovely Welcome to learn about all of your fine exhibits art and culture. It's a lovely gateway, as you say.

Susan Tudor: 8:40

It's, excuse me, but it also I'd like to add extends that experience. So when you purchase your purchase of an item and you take it way home with you, then you can reflect upon your visit at the museum and serves to be education as well. Sure.

Amy Loewenberg: 9:00

So why don't you give us an introduction to the MSA.

Susan Tudor: 9:04

Um, the museum store association is an international group of association 501 C three, that is really the mission to support nonprofit stores and the professionals engaged in them. So by you know, coaching, teaching, providing information on products and best practices, we feel that elevates the the professionalism in the resulting in a better store and experience for the institution, certainly supporting institutions or cultural institutions. And we have we've been in existence for over 66 years, and with about 1200 numbers consisting of institutional store, nonprofit stores and vendors in support of those institutions.

Tia Bianchini: 9:56

Another cool piece of MSA for me as you know, My career is just six years in museum in the museum industry, and that it's also a really great connector of people within different areas of the of the industry, but also in different areas of their career. Like they, they may be really seasoned and have been in museum retail for 20 plus years. And they're always such a great resource and inspiration. I mean, Susan's one of my big inspirations, but it's just nice to know that we have a community that we're not all working kind of silently and independently, that we have these, these great tools that are at our reach, no matter where we're located in the country.

Amy Loewenberg: 10:31

Yeah, I was completely taken with how tight your community is, when I joined New York now and I introduced myself to your association and I have been smitten ever since I had my first conversation with with you guys really truly impressed with the tools and and the the format that you have to help everybody. We love

Susan Tudor: 10:53

to share information amongst each other. And it's it's really unique to our senior to nonprofit, you know, because if when I have a exhibition, let's say it's come traveling from the barns, and I would call TIA or you know, we communicate to but can you direct me on? What would be the Where should I go for product? Would you suggest to your best sellers? Can you give me information willingly does so and that is, you know, throughout the association, we share information?

Amy Loewenberg: 11:25

Well, I didn't even think about that, you know, I think I think there might be a little bit of shift of that happening. Well, we'll get into the pandemic in a minute. But there is a little bit more of a larger embrace. Now to help people I think in general, we were very protective of our business. But the one thing that I that was definitely made very clear to me about MSA is again, how communicative you are and how supportive you are. And when one person succeeds. Another person succeeds. When one establishment does well, another one does, and being, you know, a nonprofit that's really even that much more important to help, you know, embrace your community for success.

Tia Bianchini: 12:06

Yeah, we're not competitors. And I think that that's really exciting, too, that we're allies. And we're all working really toward just supporting our mission and acknowledging that, you know, we need to support these institutions. So they stick around.

Amy Loewenberg: 12:19

Yeah, 100%. I mean, you kind of touched on it just just now. But you know, the impact of the epidemic was a deep one, you know, many are still digging out from that cultural institutions were hit really pretty hard. Hmm.

Tia Bianchini: 12:32

Yeah. It's definitely challenging. And, Susan, I were chatting about this a little bit before this, that there's still stores that are working to reopen, there's still museums that are working to reopen and kind of reimagine staffing and things like that. But there is a lot of positive that so many of these institutions were really resilient and they pivoted in a way, but I don't think like six months before the pandemic that we would have even imagined that we would have pivoted in I know, in terms of retail, a lot of stores that maybe didn't have much of a burning desire for an online presence that that surely changed when you know, they didn't see people coming through the door. So a lot of museums have benefited and now their online presence is more robust and set up for E commerce and it's a really great development.

Amy Loewenberg: 13:16

It is that was one of those crazy silver linings. That insane year, you know, on a side note to for the for the institutions that are open. Museum gift shops are actually they're free to enter. I mean, at least the ones I know, meaning that you know, even if you're not going to peruse the halls of an exciting exhibit, you can still support the museums and institutions by supporting their gift shops, you can walk right on in anybody on a laptop.

Tia Bianchini: 13:45

Yeah, anyone with a laptop. That's that's been exciting to see where some of our shoppers come from, you know, I imagine that they may never make it here. But we have a collection online, and now they're being able to take a piece of that home with them. So it is really exciting when you're kind of getting into the details and the stats of your demographics of the online shopper.

Amy Loewenberg: 14:04

Oh, I can only imagine. That's, that's great. So we can also support museum store Sunday, right? So what and when is museum store Sunday, tell us about this annual event?

Tia Bianchini: 14:17

Absolutely. So we are now celebrating our fifth anniversary, which is such a huge accomplishment. And we we are just ecstatic that we have gained traction. We have inserted ourselves within this shopping holiday as kind of like one of the really advocacy focused, mission focused ways to start your holiday shopping. So back when this was first being conceived, Sunday was an open day within that holiday week. So we had Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Sunday was kind of a free space, cyber monday and giving Tuesday so it was just a natural way to put museum stores on the map and make them really visible to people that love finding unique gifts, which I think we all really enjoy doing, especially when you know, we're preparing for a holiday season of exchanging gifts with loved ones. So it was just kind of a natural fit and museum store Sunday is really about the advocacy. Beyond supporting the museum store, you're shopping local, you're spending dollars within your community, you're supporting artisans. And every little bit that you're spending is directly supporting the institution, staffing, collection, maintenance, everything that happens behind the scenes, it all is important in forming the budget and the potential for the museum. So every postcard adds up. It's all really important. And this is the day that we hope to see people really come out and remind themselves that these shops are highly curated and considered and developed. And like Susan said, they really are an extension of the collection.

Amy Loewenberg: 15:51

Yeah, how do I find out what museums are participating?

Tia Bianchini: 15:55

Oh, sure. And I should mention the date to so Sunday after Thanksgiving, which we know always changes. So it's going to be Sunday, November 28. This year, and museum store sunday.org is a wonderful resource. So we have find a store. And that will let you kind of see a map and you can put in your zip code or if you're traveling, you're going to be in a different city, you can put in the zip code where you're going to be and you can kind of zoom out and see a map of every organization that we have marked down as participating. And then within those little profiles, you could even visit their websites or see what event details they have posted. Because everyone is kind of running their own initiative to to visit, they're running their own events. And each Museum is very unique and kind of interpreting and celebrating museum store Sunday in their own way.

Amy Loewenberg: 16:41

Oh, I love that. It sounds very easy to navigate as well.

Tia Bianchini: 16:45

Yeah, definitely. I mean, I feel like we all are so used to Google mapping everything, just mapping everything in general. And this is going to feel very intuitive. And it's fun. If you have some time to just kind of be like I've always wanted to visit X city. And then just to see that there's museums there that you may not have even noticed, or that you weren't aware of before.

Amy Loewenberg: 17:03

Yeah. Can you share any of some of the special events that are happening across country? Or? Yeah, yeah. So

Tia Bianchini: 17:12

at the Barnes I can speak to ours, first, we are running an in store sale, a discount day. So we do a member appreciation days. But this is this is outside of that we're letting any shopper any visitor is going to get a discount just as if they are a member. We also have a pop up market featuring some local artisans. So we're going to have some really fun things kind of activating the space immediately outside of our store. And yeah, it's it's really fun, because it's some vendors that are newer for us. So it's always a great way to branch out and meet new makers that admire the barn shop that you just haven't had a chance to to work with yet. And of course, they bring their following. And it's a really nice kind of meshing of all of these different groups that maybe they love that company, but they've never been to the barns or vice versa. So it's going to be a fun way to kind of expand awareness about museum store Sunday about the makers, and just about our shop. I know a lot of people will do trunk shows or depending on their collection, like a tasting something else might be really relevant for them. I'm sure that Susan's got some really cool programming too, that she could talk about.

Amy Loewenberg: 18:17

Yeah. What do you have going on season? Yeah,

Susan Tudor: 18:19

and so I sorted Ditto with Tia, I've found that the discounts and the makers coming in local makers, it's really a fabulous day. But in addition, we include other departments within the museum, for example, will have an additional docent led tour for the visitors and for the shopper. We will also offer discounts in our cafe, we will have drawings for free memberships. So I have you know really tried to make an overall museum event bringing other departments to really you know, bring it's a way to introduce shoppers to the store and shoppers to the museum.

Tia Bianchini: 19:00

The raffle is cool. I forgot about that too. We have an Instagram raffle going on. So maybe shops that aren't open yet it is a cool way that you can still engage your your online audience. And family oriented programming is always really fun. So there's so many there's so many ways beyond like what we're talking about the ways we're doing it. There's there's so many ways that we've seen other institutions get really creative with it.

Amy Loewenberg: 19:22

I love how we're able to like mix this whole physical and digital relationship together and experience so even if you're not open yet, but you've got your online presence, if you are open, you can you know meld them together. It makes you feel like you're there all the time.

Susan Tudor: 19:39

Some of our members will have just m digital trunk shows if you will, on museum store Sunday so they will have videos of trunk of their vendors and the product of course to support it. So it's you know, if you can't make it to to the physical store, please check out the web, their web stores, which is Also available, there's an online store locator on the museum store Sunday website. Oh, that's great. That will link you directly. It's different from the find a store locator. It's called on store locator. And so you can go directly there, and it will link to all the different institutions. I think there's almost 300 stores that we have. And that's a page that is shot, you know, you can visit year round. Yeah.

Tia Bianchini: 20:28

It's cool, too. Because say you don't necessarily know what a Barnes Foundation is, which is a popular question. But the way we've categorized it, it's like, if you want to shop art museums, if you want to shop, historical House Museum shops, if you want to shop botanical garden shops, so we kind of break it up so that you don't have to know the geographical location of a store to understand what it is. So if you're like, I have a friend on my list, that's really artsy. And I've never heard of this museum to kind of click around and just find something that you really would have had no other way of finding. So it's organized differently than find a store. But it's also only our second year that we've had that resource. And we do see that it's one of the most visited pages on the site. And it is visited throughout the entire year. So it's it's such a cool addition, I wouldn't have had that we did.

Amy Loewenberg: 21:13

Yeah, you should be it sounds like a resource I should jump all up into as well. Yes, please visit? My definitely well. So how do I support museum store Sunday?

Susan Tudor: 21:25

That's a great question. And it's an easy question. And we would say simply sharpen support, go out to the museums in your location, or wherever you might be on the Sunday after Thanksgiving in sharpen visit, and support. By doing so. And if you're unable to get into the physical location, as we said earlier, go visit us online and find those stores that you might support. Also just share the information. You know, so much talk will be about Black Friday shop small Saturday, this is a grassroots effort, this initiative. And you know, by just sharing Have you heard about museum store Sunday, it puts more spotlight on the event and helps us well that

Amy Loewenberg: 22:13

I can do.

Tia Bianchini: 22:16

And we know you love Instagram, and you know you're all over social media. So we do have some hashtags that are another good way to be engaged even if you can't physically be there. So hashtag be a patron, and hashtag museum store Sunday are other really easy and fun ways. Like say you're in a museum shop and you see something really cool. It's a fun way or like there's a photo of you and a friend in the galleries. I feel like it's just as significant and just as supportive of the holiday in raising awareness.

Amy Loewenberg: 22:42

100% Well, we will share that when we share this podcast as well. So we mentioned the fifth anniversary is being celebrated. But what is Blackwing doing with museum store Sunday?

Tia Bianchini: 22:55

That's a really great question. So Blackwing is contributing by working with us to release a limited edition pencil co branded with Blackwing. And as you know, as their new york now vendor, they have a really huge following. They said they have supplied pencils to really notable creatives. And it's really relevant to the museum goer museum patron base. So it's a nice way for us to kind of come together and for them to remain culturally aligned. This also was kind of in tandem with another initiative that they did for indie bookstore day. So we're kind of hoping to see a similar level of success and awareness. And again, it's all about kind of cross marketing and feeling to Blackwings base and Blackwings you know, base discovering these new museums.

Amy Loewenberg: 23:39

I mean, it sounds really like a very smart partnership. You know, also add that Blackwing one one best new product for gift and stationery at the New York mail summer 21 market. So we are all proud supporters of black wing, it's really it's lovely to hear that that you have the relationship with them as well. I think it's gonna be it sounds amazing is what what else can we do during the rest of the year to support this amazing community.

Tia Bianchini: 24:09

I think it's just important that you remember that our museums are here all year round that it is great for Advocacy Days to call upon, you know, to call to action, your visitation and support. But it's important that we kind of have this ingrained in our everyday lifestyle and that shopping small and shopping local, you're kind of accomplishing multiple things when you do that. That museum stores so just remember us all year for all kinds of occasions and not just at the holidays.

Amy Loewenberg: 24:37

I love it everyday lifestyle. We're gonna quote Yeah, on that one. That's great. Well, we've covered a lot. Um, there's always so much more that we can dive into. But I think we covered the most important facts and I think that we have piqued the interest of people who are not familiar with the MSA or museum store Sunday. We know how to connect. We know how to research. We know how to join in on supporting this year, November 28. And absolutely helped celebrate five years of museum store Sunday. And I will say if you haven't already done so register now, correct?

Tia Bianchini: 25:18

Absolutely. Yeah, you can register up until museum store Sunday. And our site is a resource that's up year round. So your participation will be recognized beyond museum store Sunday.

Amy Loewenberg: 25:30

Fantastic. And you can also meet many of the MSA members in the aisles of New York now, as we are proud supporters of the MSA and all of their members, both important vendors to be seen at the show and the buyers who support us. So I hope that we will be seeing you two lovely ladies, this February 6 through ninth in the aisles of New York now,

Tia Bianchini: 25:50

cannot wait one of my favorite places to be always. Thank you. Thank you so much, Amy.

Amy Loewenberg: 25:57

Oh, you are so welcome. It was a pleasure to see and talk with you. And we will do it again soon. Thanks. Wonderful. Pleasure. Thank you so much for joining us today. I hope you enjoyed our conversation as much as I did. I always learned so much when I'm talking with these women. Please make it a point to connect with them, their museums, the MSA. And please be a supporter of this very important shopping tradition of museums store Sunday, which this year will be Sunday, November 28 2021. And make sure to use the hashtags museum store Sunday and be a patron. Make sure that when you're walking in the aisles of New York now that you seek out all MSA vendors, another very important way to support the museum store Association and all of their members. Thank you again so much and I will talk with you soon.

Dondrill Glover: 26:51

Thank you for listening to the New York now podcast. Make sure to tune in weekly for engaging and insightful conversations touching on the most relevant topics facing our community today. Is it to your mouth comm to learn more about our market, and how you can join in on the conversation