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Frankenberg Examines The Inner Workings of Museums Ask most entrepreneurs how they measure success and the answer will usually come down to dollars and cents. Ask someone in the field of museum studies the same question and the answer is less likely to be so cut and dry. For Susan Frankenberg, Program Coordinator of Museum Studies at the University of Illinois and a 2008 Faculty Fellow at the Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership, looking at answers to this question and others is at the core of her course, “Organizational Behavior of Museums.” “Entrepreneurship is defined as creating something new with value,” says Frankenberg. “Since museums are creating an experience for people—making new exhibits and providing something meaningful—they can also be entrepreneurial, but how do you measure that?” Frankenberg explains that before determining a method for measuring value, students in her course first have to examine ways in which a variety of museums operate. Like any business, museums can differ greatly from one institution to the next, and particularly from one nation to its next-door neighbor. “There’s a pretty universal idea that museums provide an experience,” Frankenberg says. “But what differs in who is controlling that experience.” To highlight differing forms of business models, Frankenberg’s curriculum includes a wide array of readings, lectures and a number of case studies, both of successes and failures in museum innovations. Discussion is often focused on the roles innovative, creative or entrepreneurial behaviors have on defining recourses and achieving a museum’s mission and vision. “Students try to evaluate practices,” says Frankenberg. “How do these organizations work? How do you predict successes or failures and how do you think ahead?” Students think ahead in part by looking to the past. The course also examines historic administrative and organizational practices and compares them to current behaviors, hoping to better understand the challenges facing museums today. “We look at marketing ideas, business strategies and how policy and procedure documents are actually used in museums today,” says Frankenberg. “ Students take away a lot of practical work. They’re able to see day to day life in business terms.” Frankenberg has seen the practical work done in her classroom pay off in the real world. Not long ago, she received email from former students currently interning at the Frank Lloyd Preservation Trust and the Field Museum. One student explained how in her work she was faced with a crisis that she knew how to handle using skills gained in Frankenberg’s course. Frankenberg describes emails like this as one of the major rewards of the course. “Those are definite ‘ah-ha’ moments,” says Frankenberg. “Getting to find out that what students learned was helpful to them is extremely rewarding for me.” Beyond seeing students employ lessons learned in her class, Frankenberg sees her fellowship with the academy as providing her with a multitude of other positive experiences. “It’s pulled me in new directions,” Frankenberg admits. “I can investigate things I didn’t know about. I’ve met people on campus with overlapping interests, so I’ve been given a lot of opportunities to kick around ideas.” Since the start of Frankenberg’s fellowship, she has been a part of a group who wrote a grant through Focal Point, a program at the University of Illinois “intended to engage faculty and graduate students to advance knowledge in areas of critical national and human need.” The grant Frankenberg worked on was for a year-long discussion board about civic entrepreneurship within the context of sustainability. Currently, Frankenberg has a research grant through the Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership to do survey work on entrepreneurship and value creation in U.S. museums. She’s also working with the Spurlock Museum to investigate ways for them to gain financial support. “There’s always the aspect of convincing people that what museums do is important,” says Frankenberg. “I’m using the research I’m doing to help our local museum argue for their own value.” The value Frankenberg sees in museums and their function in society is obvious. Through her work with the academy, she has seen her interest in the field grow even stronger. “My fellowship has allowed me to pursue ideas that aren’t purely museum administration. We’re asking the big questions now about how much of a difference are museums really making in the world?”
Entrepreneurial course taught by Professor FrankenbergANTH 199, Strategic Resource Development in Museum Contexts Although museums are non-profit entities, they are increasingly entrepreneurial in seeking funding for daily operations and blockbuster exhibits, and competing for visitors in an urban landscape of multiple “edutainment” venues. This course conceptualizes entrepreneurial behaviors and environments in museums in terms of strategic resource development. The overall goal of the course is to identify and frame the entrepreneurial elements of museum activities within the schema of museum operations. The course will
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About Professor Frankenberg |
