Recovering Together

Small museums collaborate to attract visitors and strengthen their fund raising

The Museum of Chinese in the Americas, in the heart of New York’s Chinatown, was never regarded as a major

tourist destination, but its staff of six made the most of a small marketing budget to attract visitors. During 2000 and the first half of 2001, the museum received a steady stream of 200 to 500 visitors each month, mostly school groups or people who stumbled upon the institution.

Then came September 11, 2001. Like many downtown restaurants, shops, and businesses, the museum struggled to stay afloat in the wake of the terrorist attacks. A snarl of traffic and construction, and an alternating fear and reverence of ground zero, where the World Trade Center once stood, kept many would-be museumgoers from venturing to Chinatown and other nearby neighborhoods. In the month of September 2001, the museum counted a total of 84 visitors.

So when the organization was invited to join a coalition of downtown cultural institutions planning a $4.7-million “Museums of Lower Manhattan” marketing campaign to lure visitors back to the area, it jumped at the opportunity.

“We have very limited resources,” says William Dao, communications manager at the museum. “I’m like a kid in a candy store anytime we can get an ad in the paper, so being a part of this major campaign was, and is, very exciting for us.”

It is unusual for museums — often in competition with one another for tourism dollars — to join forces to promote themselves. But after September 11, the 15 Lower Manhattan institutions that joined the campaign, including the Museum of American Finance, the New York City Fire Museum, the South Street Seaport Museum, and the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, knew that to bounce back, they couldn’t afford not to work together.

Since the campaign began in April 2004, the number of visitors at the 15 participating museums has increased by a total of 27 percent — from 7.5 million visitors in 2003 to 9.5 million in 2005, having almost returned to the 10.2 million who visited in 2000.

“There is definitely strength in numbers,” says Mr. Dao. “Us banding together has helped attract more media attention to what this area has to offer and has gotten more New Yorkers and visitors to remember — or to realize for the first time — that we exist.”

What’s more, the campaign has fostered increased collaboration and camaraderie among the 15 institutions, and has helped them win additional funds from grant makers and individuals.

All for One

The seeds for the Museums of Lower Manhattan campaign were planted in early December 2001, when Assemblyman Sheldon Silver, whose district includes downtown neighborhoods, held a series of hearings, including one on the effects of the attacks on downtown culture and tourism.

David Marwell, director of the Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, testified at that hearing; a few weeks later, Mr. Silver suggested to Mr. Marwell that he try to secure a federal grant for his organization when the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that it would provide $2-billion in disaster-recovery funds.

But Mr. Marwell had other plans. He knew other museums were in trouble too, so he suggested that they all work together to secure support for a joint marketing effort.

Mr. Marwell and his staff began contacting other museums to gauge interest. At the time, they defined “Lower Manhattan” as “south of Canal Street,” and found eight other nonprofit educational institutions that fit their criteria. “We originally called the coalition MuBeCa, for ‘Museums Below Canal,’ but it didn’t catch on,” says Mr. Marwell. “It sort of sounded like a virus.”

The coalition idea — which eventually expanded to museums a few blocks north, and grew to 15 members — received an enthusiastic reception from museum representatives.

“We all do what we can to promote our individual museums,” says John Haworth, director of the National Museum of the American Indian’s George Gustav Heye Center, who served in the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs before joining the museum’s staff in 1995. “But none of us — not even the somewhat larger organizations, like ours — has deep enough pockets to do what we felt needed to be done after 9/11: to frame this neighborhood as a thriving historical destination.”

In the fall of 2002, the group’s nearly $4.7-million grant proposal was approved by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the office created by the state to coordinate Lower Manhattan rebuilding efforts and which disbursed the federal grant.

The next step was deciding how to spend the money appropriately, says Mr. Marwell. “Figuring out a one-size-fits-15 plan was a little challenging,” he notes.

Because none of the museums had extra resources to handle the operational duties for such a large campaign, the group asked the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation to serve as its fiscal agent and administrator.

Reinventing History

Among the first orders of business was to choose an advertising agency. Eighteen companies responded to the coalition’s request for proposals, says Carin Cardone, director of tourism and marketing at the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. But one firm — Bandujo Donker & Brothers Advertising and Design — stood out. “They were one of the few firms that came in with solid ideas about how they envisioned the campaign,” she says.

Upon landing the account, the Bandujo executives gathered representatives from all 15 of the organizations for a two-day workshop to develop ideas for the campaign.

“Each of these museums is very different, and they each had been used to marketing themselves in a certain way, so building consensus among everyone was the most difficult thing,” says Tim Lyons, an account manager at Bandujo who oversaw the campaign. “But in the end, everyone realized that all of the museums were about experiences: real, authentic New York City experiences of people who lived or are living in Lower Manhattan.”

From this, the tagline “15 unique experiences, thousands of unforgettable stories” was developed.

The coalition began calling itself the “Museums of Lower Manhattan,” changing from an earlier name, “History and Heritage in Downtown NYC.”

The group’s research showed that many New Yorkers — who were much more familiar with uptown institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim Museum — had no idea that there even were museums located downtown.

“Just by changing the name we ended up creating awareness,” adds José Bandujo, president of the advertising agency. “Many brand names are very vague, but this quickly communicates to people exactly what and where these institutions are.”

The print ads and outdoor advertising that the Bandujo staff created mixes historical authenticity with a modern approach. “We wanted to get away from the feeling that these museums were full of dusty old collections of books,” says Mr. Lyons.

The ads’ bright, colorized images of historical photographs have an Andy Warhol feel to them, and the text on each uses pop-culture references.

For instance, an advertisement for the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, which recreates the “immigrant experience” for visitors on guided tours of a preserved tenement building, pictures a huddled immigrant family and uses the text: “See how the original Friends lived.”

A poster for the New York City Fire Museum pictures an old-fashioned, horse-pulled fire truck and urges readers to “Meet the city’s hottest action heroes.”

For the last two years, print ads have appeared in magazines, local newspapers, tourist publications, outdoor banners and posters have decorated subway cars, bus shelters, and street lamps. The campaign has also broadcast radio and television commercials and a Web site was created to provide information on museum offerings and discounted admission coupons.

In March, the museums started a promotion with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, offering two-for-one admission for visitors who show their MetroCard at participating museums. The same month, educators from the museums staffed a booth at a trade show for schoolteachers and administrators, many of whom later called to schedule museum tours for their students.

Getting on the Map

The museums’ executives say they are thrilled with the results, not only because the campaign has helped increase the number of visitors, but also because they now have a more constant presence in the public consciousness.

A study conducted for the museum coalition by Brand Champs, a research firm in Bound Brook, N.J., last October found that awareness of the Museums of Lower Manhattan among the target audience — New Yorkers age 35 and older, with household incomes of at least $50,000 — increased to 35 percent, up from 25 percent a year earlier.

“Even if people who see the ads don’t come to the museum that day, at least we’ve gotten onto their radar screen, and perhaps they’ll make a point to visit us next time,” says Mr. Dao.

People can’t visit a museum, however, if they can’t find it. Even five years after the terrorist attacks, construction in the downtown area has created many confusing detours.

To help alleviate the problem, Bandujo executives created a brochure in the form of a street map, clearly marking the exact location and closest subway stops for each museum, and noting that most are within easy walking distance of one another.

As an unexpected bonus, the map has encouraged more museum hopping. Many of the museums report that they see visitors walk in with maps in hand.

“Most of us are so small and close by that it is easy to visit more than one in a day,” says Mary Weitzman, director of marketing at the New York City Police Museum. “I think one of the reasons we aren’t at all competitive with one another is that we know people don’t need to pick one over another.”

Mr. Haworth says that he, for one, makes a point to be sure all his staff members and volunteers are up to date on what is happening at the other institutions.

“When a visitor asks, ‘What else is going on in the area?’ we can answer intelligently about what our partner organizations are doing and send visitors to them, and they can do the same for us,” he says. “In the end, it helps the entire neighborhood excel.”

This February, the campaign started a Kids Passport Program specifically to promote visits to multiple museums. Children, who are admitted free with a paying adult, receive a “passport” that they get stamped each time they visit a participating museum. Once they rack up three stamps, they received a free Museums of Lower Manhattan T-shirt.

Even beyond increasing awareness and visitors, the campaign has created a sense of camaraderie between the organizations that extends far beyond mere marketing matters, says Ms. Weitzman.

For instance, her museum plans to get a new heating system, and she has sought advice from other coalition members who have had similar systems installed.

Mr. Marwell adds that the museums’ shared post-September 11 experience has created a bond among them that has manifested itself during subsequent crises.

During the massive blackout in the summer of 2003 and the citywide transit strike last December, for instance, colleagues called on one another for help, he says.

“The opportunity to get to know our sister institutions and compare notes on all issues of museum management has really been the most beneficial thing to come out of all of this,” he says.

Fund-Raising Challenge

The Museums of Lower Manhattan campaign’s federal money will dry up next spring, and no more is available.

Beginning next year, “it will be up to the museums to go out and seek people to fund the campaign, and the museums themselves will also need to take over administrative duties,” says Ms. Cardone of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.

Mr. Marwell says the museums are still deciding what to do next.

In many ways, the campaign has already achieved its original goal of helping the museums recover from September 11. Many of the participating organizations have parlayed the extra exposure they have received into additional grant money and donations. Many have announced major capital projects or have expanded their programming.

The Museum of Chinese in the Americas, for instance, is moving next year into a newly renovated, $6.5-million, 12,500-square-foot space designed by Maya Lin, the architect best known for designing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, in Washington.

The Eldridge Street Project, a 119-year-old synagogue in the city’s Lower East Side, is in the midst of putting in modern heating and electrical systems, and making itself accessible to visitors with disabilities, among other improvements.

The Museum of American Finance is finishing up renovations of its new facility, the former headquarters of the Bank of New York, which is scheduled to open at the end of the year.

In March, the state announced that the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation would distribute an additional $27.4-million in federal cultural enhancement grants to 63 downtown arts organizations and projects. Nine out of the 15 institutions in the Museums of Lower Manhattan are recipients.

“Our objective is to create a constellation of cultural groups that will make Lower Manhattan even more of a cultural destination,” says Stefan Pryor, president of the development corporation. “And because the Museums of Lower Manhattan are the foundation of the cultural network that we’re building downtown, we continue our support of them.”

Mr. Haworth, whose George Gustav Heye Center is opening a new $5-million art and performance space next month, says that the Museums of Lower Manhattan campaign not only has helped downtown cultural institutions survive the dark days of 2001, but also will continue to help them thrive in the years to come.

“If you look at any of the places that are now renowned as rich, historical, cultural destinations — Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., New York’s ‘Museum Mile’ — it didn’t happen overnight,” says Mr. Haworth.

“We are trying to brand this area as a history and heritage destination, and if the Museums of Lower Manhattan campaign has started to make that happen just five years after the September 11th disaster, we’re well on our way.”