Starting Right: A Basic Guide to Museum Planning (American Association for State and Local History) by Gerald George

by Gerald George

Are you thinking of starting a museum? Starting Right has been helping non-professionals learn the basics of museum planning for nearly three decades. This fully-revised, third edition will help you understand what you are getting into, evaluate prospects, avoid pitfalls, and take advantage of many kinds of available help. Addressing current and perennial issues facing new museums, from digital technologies to fund raising concerns, Starting Right takes you step-by-step through the process of creating a sound plan for starting your museum.

Genres: Museums, Museology

Paperback

First published June 10, 2004

Reviews

[Karin · Rating 4 out of 5]

While reading the previous edition I was most impressed by the questions the authors recommended people ask themselves - why they wanted to start a museum, what their goals were, how they would sustain the operation, etc etc. In this edition I was more struck by the focus on reaching out and talking to others. We see it all too often, a struggling group refuses to engage with the heritage community for its entire existence, and then when it runs into financial difficulty the group cries foul and demands public dollars. Any resources like this should contain very strong statements about talking and working with colleagues and organizations. So where did the book lose points? I think they could & should have been much stronger in issuing such statements. The reality is that North America cannot sustain the existing museums. Partnership is the name of the game, not re-inventing the wheel.