Editing Museum (section)

==Planning==
[[File:Computer History Museum Wikipedia exhibit planning meeting 8.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Exhibit planning]]
{{See also|Museum planning|Interpretive planning}}

The design of museums has evolved throughout history. However, museum planning involves planning the actual mission of the museum along with planning the space that the collection of the museum will be housed in. Intentional museum planning has its beginnings with the museum founder and librarian [[John Cotton Dana]]. Dana detailed the process of founding the [[Newark Museum]] in a series of books in the early 20th century so that other museum founders could plan their museums. Dana suggested that potential founders of museums should form a committee first, and reach out to the community for input as to what the museum should supply or do for the community.<ref>Dana, John Cotton. The New Museum (Woodstock, VT: The Elm Tree Press, 1917), 25.</ref> According to Dana, museums should be planned according to community's needs:

"The new museum&nbsp;... does not build on an educational superstition. It examines its community's life first, and then straightway bends its energies to supplying some the material which that community needs, and to making that material's presence widely known, and to presenting it in such a way as to secure it for the maximum of use and the maximum efficiency of that use."<ref>Dana, John Cotton. The New Museum (Woodstock, VT: The Elm Tree Press, 1917), 32.</ref>

The way that museums are planned and designed vary according to what collections they house, but overall, they adhere to planning a space that is easily accessed by the public and easily displays the chosen artifacts. These elements of planning have their roots with John Cotton Dana, who was perturbed at the historical placement of museums outside of cities, and in areas that were not easily accessed by the public, in gloomy European style buildings.<ref>Dana, John Cotton. The Gloom of the Museum. (Woodstock, VT: The Elm Tree Press, 1917), 12.</ref>

Questions of accessibility continue to the present day. Many museums strive to make their buildings, programming, ideas, and collections more publicly accessible than in the past. Not every museum is participating in this trend, but that seems to be the trajectory of museums in the twenty-first century with its emphasis on inclusiveness. One pioneering way museums are attempting to make their collections more accessible is with open storage. Most of a museum's collection is typically locked away in a secure location to be preserved, but the result is most people never get to see the vast majority of collections. The Brooklyn Museum's Luce Center for American Art practices this open storage where the public can view items not on display, albeit with minimal interpretation. The practice of open storage is all part of an ongoing debate in the museum field of the role objects play and how accessible they should be.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Turning Museums Inside-Out with Beautiful Visible Storage|url = http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/turning-museums-inside-out-with-beautiful-visible-storage|website = Atlas Obscura|date = 24 September 2014|access-date = 1 February 2016|archive-date = 1 February 2016|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160201151035/http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/turning-museums-inside-out-with-beautiful-visible-storage|url-status = live}}</ref>

In terms of modern museums, interpretive museums, as opposed to art museums, have missions reflecting curatorial guidance through the subject matter which now include content in the form of images, audio and visual effects, and interactive exhibits. Museum creation begins with a museum plan, created through a [[museum planning]] process. The process involves identifying the museum's vision and the resources, organization and experiences needed to realize this vision. A feasibility study, analysis of comparable facilities, and an [[Interpretive planning|interpretive plan]] are all developed as part of the museum planning process.

Some museum experiences have very few or no artifacts and do not necessarily call themselves museums, and their mission reflects this; the [[Griffith Observatory]] in [[Los Angeles]] and the [[National Constitution Center]] in [[Philadelphia]], being notable examples where there are few artifacts, but strong, memorable stories are told or information is interpreted. In contrast, the [[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]] in [[Washington, D.C.]] uses many artifacts in their memorable exhibitions.

Museums are laid out in a specific way for a specific reason and each person who enters the doors of a museum will see its collection completely differently to the person behind them- this is what makes museums fascinating because they are represented differently to each individual.<ref name=":1" />{{rp|9–10}}

===Financial uses===
{{See also|Economic theory of museums}}
[[File:The Titanic Signature Project, Belfast (16) - geograph.org.uk - 2148869.jpg|thumb|Construction of Titanic Belfast in 2010]]In recent years, some cities have turned to museums as an avenue for economic development or rejuvenation. This is particularly true in the case of postindustrial cities.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |title=Do Museums Still Need Objects? |last=Conn |first=Steven |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=2010 |location=Philadelphia |page=17}}</ref> Examples of museums fulfilling these economic roles exist around the world. For example, the [[Guggenheim Museum Bilbao]] was built in [[Bilbao]], Spain, in a move by the Basque regional government to revitalize the dilapidated old port area of that city. The Basque government agreed to pay $100 million for the construction of the museum, a price tag that caused many Bilbaoans to protest against the project.<ref>{{cite news |title=A Gleaming New Guggenheim for Grimy Bilbao |last=Riding |first=Alan |date=24 June 1997 |work=[[The New York Times]] |page=C9}}</ref> Nonetheless, over 1.1 million people visited the museum in 2015, indicating it appeared to have paid off for the local government despite local backlash; key to this is the large demographic of foreign visitors to the museum, with 63% of the visitors residing outside of Spain and thus feeding foreign investment straight into Bilbao.<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://prensa.guggenheim-bilbao.es/src/uploads/2016/01/NP_Balance-2015_ES.pdf|title = Guggenheim Bilbao Annual Report 2015|access-date = 20 January 2016|website = Guggenheim Bilbao|archive-date = 27 January 2016|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160127030943/http://prensa.guggenheim-bilbao.es/src/uploads/2016/01/NP_Balance-2015_ES.pdf|url-status = live}}</ref> A similar project to that undertaken in Bilbao was the [[Titanic Belfast]], built on disused shipyards in [[Belfast]], Northern Ireland, incidentally for the same price as the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and by the same architect, [[Frank Gehry]], in time for the 100th anniversary of ''[[Titanic]]''{{'}}s maiden voyage in 2012. Initially expecting modest visitor numbers of 425,000 annually, first year visitor numbers reached over 800,000, with almost 60% coming from outside Northern Ireland.<ref>{{Cite news|title = Northern Ireland Focus: Titanic Success Raises Hopes For Tourism|last = Smyth|first = Jamie|date = 16 June 2013|work = Financial Times}}</ref> In the United States, similar projects include the 81,000 square foot [[Taubman Museum of Art]] in [[Roanoke, Virginia]] and [[The Broad]] in [[Los Angeles]].

Museums being used as a cultural economic driver by city and local governments has proven to be controversial among museum activists and local populations alike. Public protests have occurred in numerous cities which have tried to employ museums in this way. While most subside if a museum is successful, as happened in Bilbao, others continue especially if a museum struggles to attract visitors. The Taubman Museum of Art is an example of an expensive museum (eventually $66 million) that attained little success and continues to have a low endowment for its size.<ref>{{Cite news|title = Start-Up Success Isn't Enough to Found a Museum|last = Wallis|first = David|date = 20 March 2014|work = [[The New York Times]]|page = F6}}</ref> Some museum activists see this method of museum use as a deeply flawed model for such institutions. Steven Conn, one such museum proponent, believes that "to ask museums to solve our political and economic problems is to set them up for inevitable failure and to set us (the visitor) up for inevitable disappointment."<ref name=":0" />

===Funding===
[[File:Fire - Museu Nacional 03.jpg|thumb|Officials blamed a lack of funding for [[National Museum of Brazil fire|a 2018 fire]] at the [[National Museum of Brazil]] that destroyed over 90% of its contents.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2018-09-03 |title=Brazil museum fire: Funding cuts blamed as icon is gutted |language=en-GB |work=[[BBC News]] | publisher=[[BBC]] |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-45398084 |access-date=2022-08-22 |archive-date=22 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220822135337/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-45398084 |url-status=live }}</ref>]] Museums are facing funding shortages. Funding for museums comes from four major categories, and as of 2009 the breakdown for the United States is as follows: Government support (at all levels) 24.4%, private (charitable) giving 36.5%, earned income 27.6%, and investment income 11.5%.<ref>Bell, Ford W. [http://www.photos.state.gov/libraries/amgov/133183/english/P_You_Asked_How_Are_Museums_Supported_Financially.pdf "How Are Museums Supported Nationally in the U.S.?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181010125711/https://photos.state.gov/libraries/amgov/133183/english/P_You_Asked_How_Are_Museums_Supported_Financially.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://photos.state.gov/libraries/amgov/133183/english/P_You_Asked_How_Are_Museums_Supported_Financially.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |date=10 October 2018 }} Embassy of the United States of America, 2012. Accessed 26 March 2017.</ref> Government funding from the [[National Endowment for the Arts]], the largest museum funder in the United States, decreased by 19.586 million between 2011 and 2015, adjusted for inflation.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/2011-NEA-Annual-Report.pdf | title=National Endowment for the Arts 2011 Annual Report | website=arts.gov | publisher=[[National Endowment for the Arts]] | date=2012 | access-date=26 February 2017 | archive-date=10 January 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190110113135/https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/2011-NEA-Annual-Report.pdf | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/2015%20Annual%20Report.pdf | title=National Endowment for the Arts 2015 Annual Report | publisher=[[National Endowment for the Arts]] | date=2016 | access-date=26 February 2017 | archive-date=11 January 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190111204145/https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/2015%20Annual%20Report.pdf | url-status=dead }}</ref> The average spent per visitor in an art museum in 2016 was $8 between admissions, store and restaurant, where the average expense per visitor was $55.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.aamd.org/sites/default/files/document/Art%20Museums%20By%20the%20Numbers%202016.pdf | publisher=[[Association of Art Museum Directors]] (AAMD) | title=Art Museums by the Numbers | date=2016 | website=AAMD.org | access-date=26 February 2017 | archive-date=19 December 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181219042942/https://aamd.org/sites/default/files/document/Art%20Museums%20By%20the%20Numbers%202016.pdf | url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Corporation]]s, which fall into the private giving category, can be a good source of funding to make up the funding gap. The amount corporations currently give to museums accounts for just 5% of total funding.<ref>Stubbs, Ryan and Henry Clapp. [http://www.giarts.org/article/public-funding-arts-2015-update "Public Funding for the Arts: 2015 Update."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181126051030/https://www.giarts.org/article/public-funding-arts-2015-update |date=26 November 2018 }} Grantmakers in the Arts, GIA Reader, vol. 26, no. 3, Fall 2015.. Accessed 26 February 2017.</ref> Corporate giving to the arts, however, was set to increase by 3.3% in 2017.<ref>{{cite web|title = Sponsorship Spending on the Arts to Grow 3.3 Percent in 2017|website = ESP Sponsorship Report|date = 13 February 2017|url = http://www.sponsorship.com/iegsr/2017/02/13/Sponsorship-Spending-On-The-Arts-To-Grow-3-3-Perce.aspx|publisher = ESP Properties, LLC.|access-date = 15 March 2018|archive-date = 15 March 2018|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180315202959/http://www.sponsorship.com/iegsr/2017/02/13/Sponsorship-Spending-On-The-Arts-To-Grow-3-3-Perce.aspx|url-status = live}}</ref>