Mile-High Musings on Arts, Culture, Creativity and Philanthropy

About ten years ago I wrote a series of three blog posts on the phenomenon of museum gift shops, the first on Philadelphia (where I was living at the time), one on New York City (where I had previously lived and worked), and a third covering the rest of the country based on museums I had visited in my extensive national travels. I was reminded of these bog posts (which got a lot of attention at the time) by new data just shared by Colleen Dillenschneider on her great Know Your Own Bone blog - "Engagement Insights from the Museum Gift Shop: The Best Thing About Museum Retail Experiences."  For the full report click on the link, but in summary the research found that the five best things from a consumer standpoint are: 5) friendly/helpful staff, 4) finding gifts for a child, 3) finding gifts for adult friend or family, 2) supporting the organization, and the number one reason is: 1) unique merchandise only available at this location. When I wrote about museum gift shops ma...

My past two blog posts have surveyed, first, Philadelphia's arts and culture gifts shops , followed by New York City's cultural gift shops . Essentially I've been exploring museum gift shops, but I have also noted some gift shops at botanical gardens, zoos and other cultural venues. So now, in the third, and probably final, installment of this survey, I am going to cover a selection of shops across the country. This is not scientific - the list is drawn from museum and other cultural gift shops I have enjoyed visiting in the course of my travels. So if your favorite is not on this list, don't be offended - post a comment, and I will do my best to visit it if I am ever passing through that city/town. Getty Center Museum and Getty Villa (Los Angeles and Malibu) - The Getty Center Museum in LA has an excellent gift shop, as well as an excellent online store. Because of their strong photography collection and exhibitions program, there are often good photography-base...

Note: This was originally posted about six months ago, and with the holiday season upon us, I figured it was time to update and repost! The tourism web site UWISHUNU (from the Greater Philadelpia Tourism Marketing Corporation) has also recently published its guide to Philadelphia Museum gift shops, which is available here . Happy shopping! I have been a huge fan of museum and other arts organization gift shops for years. My work has given me the opportunity to explore lots of organizations, in NY, Philadelphia, and to some extent all across the country. Some are well known - others are hidden gems. The best ones have excellent buyers that find products relevant to the exhibitions, collections or presentations of the institution, but also stock unique artisinal creations by artists, craftspeople and designers that have a sense of place or direct connection to the organization's artistic focus. I am not talking about t-shirts and other logo-emblazoned merchandise, or touristy ...