Thank you! Thanks to your reading, your comments, and your feedback, Making the Museum (the newsletter) just turned … [drum roll] … 1. A year ago, the first email went out. And it wouldn’t be an anniversary if we didn’t do some Top Ten lists …

Ever wonder why a “small” at Starbucks is a “tall”? Once, you could order short, tall, or “grande” (Italian for “large”), but newbies just chose the middle: tall. The chain tried dropping shorts from the menu and adding a bigger size: “venti”. Guess what happened. …

There is a song we sometimes sing in our exhibition and experience projects: We’re poor. Our projects are underfunded. We don’t have the money those “other” industries have. We’re always the ones that have to do a lot with a little. A common refrain. But is it true? …

What’s value engineering (“VE”)? You might learn it as a euphemism for cost cutting. Like “sanitation engineer” makes “garbage collector” less negative. Regardless, “negative” is a word that many might use to describe VE anyway. Why? …

What if there were a high-quality, peer-reviewed journal for the whole exhibition community? What if it featured the leading organizations, practitioners and ideas that shape the whole industry? What if back issues available for free to see online?

Long-term exhibitions almost always feature an element that got included because it was a hot trend. But is that element part of a long-term trend? Or a short-term one? Hard to know in advance. But dead trends aren’t limited to tech. And no trend is invulnerable. …

This might seem a little crazy. But stick with me. Spending is good. Exhibition and experience project budgets are meant to be spent. We acquired our budget to use it, to achieve a goal for our visitors. The more we spend, the more we get. …

Uh oh. The new visitor experience project is running later than forecasted. Costs are higher than forecasted. There are more slip-ups than forecasted. People are saying it’s one of “those” projects. But wait. What if it’s not? …

What is this thing we call a traveling exhibition? Carol Bossert (Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service / Smithsonian Affiliations) joins host Jonathan Alger (C&G Partners) to reveal the “8 Principles of Traveling Exhibitions”.

What is cost control in a cultural project? Cost control is about controlling costs, up or down, in order to achieve your goal. That’s what it is. Here’s what it isn’t. Cost control isn’t trying to make all the elements in a project equally inexpensive…

If a project is over budget, who does the cutting? What should you do with expensive suggestions? Host Jonathan Alger talks “Black Belt Cost Control Tips.” Along the way: the beauty of modularity, poker wisdom, and ideas that will save you a lot of time and money.

What’s it really cost to build a museum? How can we find out if a project is feasible — before we even start? What are the most common ways museum projects get in financial trouble? Kris Collins joins Jonathan to discuss “A Museum is a Business”.

When is the earliest time you should estimate costs for your exhibition or experience project? A. As soon as you have approved technical drawings. B. As soon as you have a concept design package. C. When you barely know what you’re doing.

When a stakeholder suggests expensive additions midway through a project, make it gently clear — on the spot — if you think it might be over budget. Don’t refuse. Just be clear. (This is a black belt cost control tip.)

Lots of cultural project teams come up with lots of great ideas, have no idea what it will all cost, and wait until some milestone down the road to get a price check from … somebody. Is it any surprise when the estimate comes back crazy high, and the budget axe comes out?

MONIQUE: That exhibition this morning felt like a $1 show. PHIL: Were we on the same tour? That felt like $5,000,000. MONIQUE: Exactly. [Eats blueberry.] PHIL: What? MONIQUE: You were thinking total cost. I was thinking cost per visitor.

Aaaaargh! I am watching a budget train wreck happen to a cultural project team (not mine). And it was avoidable. It’s too late for my friends. But not for you. You seem nice. Take these tips — and use them.

Smart car shoppers consider both the cost of buying and the cost of maintaining. Why isn’t that a more standard step for our exhibitions?The average monthly payment on a new car is about $700 / month. Yow. But don’t forget gas, repairs, maintenance, tires, registration, fees, taxes, insurance, and depreciation.

In the three inaugural episodes of Making the Museum (the Podcast) I have some great guests to start things off.

Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

Caution: potential light-bulb moment below. Which method is more common for representing costs for major projects like museums?
A. Accurate representation. B. Strategic mis-representation. C. A mix of A and B.