Cost of Owning

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. All that can be nearly as high as that payment.

We don’t replace tires in exhibitions. We expect to replace projectors, pushbuttons, and springs. But our plans can cause far bigger, less-obvious ownership costs. If our concept relies on fresh content, we just caused a curator staff position. If our exhibition depends on live spiders, we just caused a contract with a spider … uh … store?

Here’s the thing:
It is hard enough to manage the capital costs of our projects. And harder to also predict future costs. But if we don't, we’ll visit in a few years, and we won’t like what we see.

Consider the cost of owning.

Warmly,
Jonathan

P.S. Hat tip to Carolynne Harris for raising the topic of future staff costs on Making the Museum (the Podcast).