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Mystic Seaport, The Museum of America and the Sea™
Founded in 1929, Mystic Seaport, The Museum of America and the Sea™, has long been recognized as the nation’s leading maritime museum. In addition to an unparalleled collection of watercraft, and a coastal village assembled from historic buildings from across New England, Mystic Seaport has gathered extensive collections of maritime photography (over one million images) and two million other maritime artifacts. Mystic Seaport offers extensive educational programs and has published over 70 books. In 2002, Mystic Seaport opened its Collections and Research Center, providing access by scholars and researchers to most of the Museum’s major collections. As competition for leisure time activity has increased and audience preferences shifted, Mystic Seaport and other outdoor museums have seen decreasing attendance levels. In response to this trend, the Mystic Seaport board of trustees and staff took action to understand the reasons for this decline and determine new approaches that would be relevant to contemporary audiences. Starting in 2002, they undertook a series of studies and planning sessions that have resulted in a comprehensive master plan. The determination was that to thrive, the Museum would have to transform their offering, dramatically expanding the summer experience of 19th-century seaport village and ships with an all-weather, all-season indoor facility capable of a wider range of exhibit content and delivery. With little experience in creating a major new facility, Mystic Seaport hired Synthesis Partnership for a series of assignments. First we presented to the board an overview of the strategic, operational and financial issues they would encounter in the creation of a new indoor museum. We then developed an architectural program and budget for the project, set up and guided a process for identifying and selecting an architect and exhibit designer, and assisted in negotiating client-favorable contracts with the chosen firms. We worked with staff and board committees throughout this process, and presented updates to the board as we progressed. Once the design firms were hired we continued to advise Mystic Seaport in shaping the project to meet budget and expectations.
The Corning Glass Center was founded in 1951 as a community center for a remote small town by a corporation that needed to attract and retain highly educated technical employees. Subsequently Corning Incorporated grew into a global network requiring increasingly sophisticated and diverse headquarters staff. The Glass Center became a tool for expanding the small-town economy through tourism to help sustain more sophisticated retail, entertainment and cultural resources than would otherwise be possible. Despite the draw of the Steuben Glass factory and the Museum of Glass, the Glass Center had deteriorated over the years in substance, physical appearance, and attendance. Glass Center visits had peaked at about 500,000 per year, but then gradually settled toward 300,000. For the 150th anniversary of Corning Incorporated the center was to be thoroughly renewed. The target for a renewed facility was set at 700,000 visits per year. All aspects of the Center required dramatic change to achieve the required results. The retail and science and technology areas had to be reconceptualized entirely; the Museum of Glass had to be made more accessible and appealing to a non-specialist audience; the Steuben factory needed to maintain activity to engage tourists on a rhythm different from that dictated by business and manufacturing requirements. There had been years of planning studies headed in unfortunate directions when we arrived at Corning. Various interest groups in the operating entities, the company, and the community had staked out areas of turf. A new vision was required. We helped the interested parties to pare down their concerns and issues to the critical questions, guided them toward consensus and through initial programming and planning exercises before helping them to choose extraordinary architecture and exhibit design firms to realize their vision. All participants were invigorated by the revitalized process and the remarkable design team. After several years of concept development, study, design, and construction, the project was completed and dedicated in the summer of 1999. Several aspects of the project–especially tourism and design issues–were noted widely in the press, including several articles in the New York Times and major feature articles in Architectural Record, Architecture, and Metropolis.
Heritage Harbor Museum is a collaborative joint venture of 19 independent historical and cultural organizations to present the multicultural fabric of Rhode Island, using interactive exhibits, theater, art, and festivals. The project began with two issues: small museums’ lack of mainstream audiences, and costs associated with redundancy of administrative functions among them. The conversation quickly moved beyond sharing space to the appeal of telling many histories side-by-side to an audience immersed in a combined historical experience. Eventually Heritage Harbor evolved into a $60 million destination tourist attraction and an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution. Slated to open in 2004 in a converted historic power plant, Heritage Harbor has completed the bulk of its initial private sector fundraising, and is working with the state and federal governments for substantial public-sector funding as well. Synthesis Partnership was retained to guide Heritage Harbor from the realm of a splendid idea to that of a well-structured business. Heritage Harbor had initially organized itself in an intentionally loose and flexible structure suited to an embryonic venture that needed to remain nimble as it explored the nature of what it wanted to become and achieve. With the imminent approach of substantial exhibit costs, major construction commitments, a broadening capital campaign and significant increase in staffing levels, there were compelling needs for structural changes in governance and management. We analyzed both capital and operating budget assumptions, suggested changes in fundraising goals and accounting procedures, provided manuals of financial and personnel policies and procedures, and suggested revisions of the by-laws and of a participation agreement. We conducted a benchmark study of other consortium-based organizations in an effort to create an optimal model for productive cooperation among 19 organizations who have varying degrees of activity outside of Heritage Harbor. We also offered guidance in the selection of architects for the design of the museum. Working with representatives of the member organizations, we crafted a new governance structure better suited to draw on the expertise and philanthropy of the larger community, and a management structure better able to support the goals of the 19 member organizations. Synthesis Partnership also guided a successful search for a new chief executive officer to lead the organization through the next stage of fund raising, promotion, staffing for full operations, and launch of the museum. We provided the search committee with a highly structured process, elicited a diverse group of qualified applicants from a variety of backgrounds and from across the country, and assisted the committee in selecting, interviewing and negotiating with finalist candidates.
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