Measuring What Matters

ID: WMA2026_591

Track:

**Museums in historic buildings come with their own set of challenges, such as accessibility, environmental concerns with collections, and ongoing building maintenance. Because of these issues, our “wins” or measures of success often look different from those museums in purpose-built, modern facilities. Explore how reframing those metrics can demonstrate relevance to your community, improve staff mental health, and celebrate the unique things historic buildings can offer that more traditional museums often can’t.   **

Session Information

Format: Regular session/panel (roundtable, single speaker, etc.)

Uniqueness: This session elevates museums in historic houses and buildings by offering practical, real-world perspectives and strategies tailored to their unique challenges and opportunities.

Objectives:

Our focus for this session is to highlight what ‘success’ looks like for our specific institutions and to create a space where others in the same position can find and celebrate their own unique ‘wins’, even if they don’t fit the textbook standard.

 And of course, we also want to acknowledge that while challenges exist, our historic buildings offer incredible opportunities for community connection and programming in ways that more traditional buildings often can’t.

Engagement: We will begin the session by asking open-ended questions about limitations with historic buildings, with the audience self-selecting answers. The panelists will discuss their challenges in their own space, then the audience will split into smaller group discussions about challenges in their own spaces. Then we’ll repeat the exercises, but this time talk about all the unique opportunities that historic buildings have and how they enhance visitor experiences.

Relationship to Theme:

Audience

Audiences: Events Planning Facilities Management Personnel Registrars, Collections Managers 

Professional Level: All levels 

Scalability: Although all presenters have historic house museums, this session could apply to any museum housed in a historic building. We would assume that many museum professionals suffer from comparing their museums to other, more modern museums and are disappointed by the limitations of their historic building. We will commiserate about the challenges, but reframe the focus to be on the opportunities that these spaces present and how we can change the messaging and measurements of success. This session appeals to many sizes and kinds of organizations with representation from city, county, and state museums, all with small staff sizes and limited resources.

Participants