News to Use
from Open Air Exhibits

March 2006

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In this issue:
Is this exhibit right for you?
For the exhibit price-tag challenged - suggestions for raising $70,000 in six months
Patrick Dougherty grows his art in your garden
Come one, come all! You'll have to see them to believe the specimens in Dr. Entomo's Palace of Exotic Wonders!

Welcome

What winter is to ski lodges and summer vacation is to theme parks, spring is for gardens, and it's here! The pent-up desire for things outdoors that has been building all winter is just about to explode, bringing visitors to your venue in droves.

Is it just my age, or is the time between spring and spring compressing? I used to think that people who left their Christmas lights up all year long were real slackers, but now I understand that they may have the common sense not to spend so much time taking them down and putting them up - after all, in another 10 or 11 months it will just be time to do it again!

Preparing for the spring surge to the garden is getting to be a lot like the Christmas light challenge --- no sooner is the last food booth taken down and the last volunteer thanked for making the spring festival a success than it's time to start recruiting new vendors and volunteers, booking new entertainment and getting the publicity ready for another event that celebrates the season for a day or a weekend at most.

An obvious solution to this waning of enthusiasm it to cultivate new volunteers -- to bring in a new class of recruits to regenerate the enthusiasm. Another alternative is to retire the usual rite of spring and replace it with an exhibit. You may want to try it next year. The benefits are threefold. With good planning, exhibits can require a minimum of volunteer support while generating an increase in interest and attendance. Exhibits usually run over many weeks instead of a day or two, eliminating the catastrophe of rain or bad weather on the one day your spring event is scheduled. And since visitors can choose when to visit the exhibit, you don't have to worry about a volksmarch or a band festival or some other community event making a significant dent in you attendance when its date overlaps yours.

And speaking of time, this month's exhibit news includes a collection of features with varying time sensitivities.

		Patrick Dougherty's sapling sculptures don't come ready to install in your garden or arboretum. Instead, he invites your staff, your volunteers and your visitors to join in the process of creating an extraordinary piece of art.
		"Is this exhibit right for you?" gives new meaning to the old admonition "Measure twice, cut once," with advice on how to make sure an exhibit is right for your venue before committing time, money and staff resources
		Picking up the pace, Fundraising Experts Patricia Rich and Rick Daley of EMD Consulting offer their thoughts on how to raise $70,000 in six months to help you bring that perfect exhibit to your venue sooner than later.
		And looking ahead, you'll read about a fascinating exhibit from Outhouse Exhibits coming to market this fall -- Dr. Entomo's Palace of Exotic Wonders, an exhibit with a side show theme featuring 'bugs' as freaks of nature on display.

And it wouldn't be March without a salute to the St. Paddy and his countrymen, so in the words of this old Irish blessing:

	May you always have work for your hands to do.
	May your pockets hold always a coin or two.
	May the sun shine bright on your windowpane.
	May the rainbow be certain to follow each rain.
	May the hand of a friend always be near you.
	And may God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.

Is this exhibit right for you?

Since every enterprise has a finite supply of time, money and staff, every exhibit that your garden or arboretum presents requires a significant contribution of all three at the expense of other potential or ongoing programs.

How do you know you're choosing the right exhibit, if the return will justify the cost and if you are doing the right thing?

For most venue managers, there are tools in place to point to the right decision, and one of the first is the mission statement. Does the exhibit support any of the purposes you have stated for your existence? If it doesn't match up, you may want to keep looking for other rental options or consider creating something yourself.

If it passes the mission statement test, the next measure will be your goal for the display. What do you expect it to do for your venue - increase visitorship, boost revenues, serve as an educational vehicle or provide a family recreational experience? Contacting other venues that have hosted the exhibit is one way to check your goals with the reality of past experience.

When reality matches expectation, the next hurdle is to outline your specific objectives and target audiences. Who do you think that the exhibit will appeal to and reach, and what messages or experiences do expect the members of this targeted audience to carry away? After you've answered these questions, ask one more: Based on previous efforts to achieve similar results, will this exhibit require more, less or about the same resources to achieve the desired outcomes. You may find that renting ties up less staff time and provides a bonus of staff hours that can be directed to other areas, or you may discover that you could get the same results for less doing it in house.

The answers to these questions lay the foundation for carrying the project concept to potential donors and sponsors. The clearer your vision, the easier it is to share it and engage partners - from staff to outside supporters - in making it a reality.

For the exhibit price-tag challenged - suggestions for raising $70,000 in six months

You've seen the ad in Public Garden Magazine. EMD Consulting Group offers to help botanical gardens and arboreta move to higher levels of performance with consultation on strategic planning, fund raising, organizational structure, accreditation reviews, evaluation studies and more.

It caught my attention, because one of the challenges I hear from gardens and exhibit providers is the issue of expense. Garden managers don't think they can raise the rental fee for a traveling exhibit, and exhibit providers say that it takes gardens so long to raise project funds that rental reservations for the short term are hard to come by.

I decided to put the problem to the experts in the Public Garden ad and asked Patricia Rich and Richard Daley from EMD Consulting Group what they would suggest to a venue manager who wanted to put together $70,000 for an exhibit in six months.

Here's the seven-step program they proposed:
1. Write a case statement for the exhibit.

	What is it?
	Why is it important?
	Who will benefit?
	What audience will this appeal to?
	What will be the outcomes of having it?
	How much will it cost? (detailed budget)

2. Create a board/volunteer committee to solicit funds.

Involve three to four people who passionately care about the subject or have a particular interest in the audience.

3. Make a list of potential funders, including a gift chart.

	Try to find a lead donor who will pose a "challenge" or "match" for other gifts.
	Corporate sponsorships - which corporations want to reach the exhibit audience or enhance their community image by sponsorship?
	Individual donors
	Foundations
	Other

4. Create sponsorship packages for potential donors.
5. Solicit gifts, in person if possible.
6. Recognize donors appropriately.
7. Evaluate efforts and inform donors about meeting outcomes.

In addition to the seven-step program, they suggested having a fund raising gala or some other type of event that would bring in large and/or small gifts, sending a direct mail solicitation to members that would generate many small gifts (you could use tickets as a premium) or building some or all to the costs into the exhibit ticket prices and marketing heavily.

What, I asked, about gardens that have never raised that kind of money before?

Undaunted, Pat Rich replied: "If you've never raised this level of project funding, this is your chance! Nothing sparks fund raising like a new project -- a new idea -- that will propel your organization to a new level. This may be the time to thoroughly examine your earned income programs as well to see if those sources of revenue can be improved to help provide the needed funds."

And what if your garden has an ongoing solicitation program, and most of the usual funding sources are committed to the ongoing program? She responded with another practical suggestion: "As with most gardens, your fund raising priority has to be on funding operations, so how do you add on the costs or a new project without jeopardizing existing fund raising? There are times when you just have to pass up good opportunities, but before you decide to do that, think about how to use a combination of the ideas above and especially focus on those that are new to your organization or have stagnated."

Many thanks to Pat and Rick for this excellent advice. If you would like to contact them to discuss a plan tailored specifically to help your garden develop a fund raising plan for a particular exhibit or for other purposes, you can reach them at:

EMD Consulting Group
11111 Conway Road
St. Louis, Mo. 63131
314-692-7551
prich@emdcg.com
or click on this link to their web site:
www.emdcg.com

Patrick Dougherty grows his art in your garden

Patrick Dougherty has combined natural materials and the creative process into a unique experience in hundreds of venues across the country and around the world since beginning his career in 1982. The internationally acclaimed artist is currently working on four large scale sculptures at the Franklin Park Conservatory for an exhibition titled Branching Out: Sculpture Installations by Patrick Dougherty. The exhibit opened February 30 and will run through June 30, 2006.

To bring the creative process to your venue, the artist would make an initial two to three-day visit to select a site for the sculpture, locate a source of saplings and set guidelines for construction. Based on this visit, he then sketches out an idea for the sculpture that will develop on the site.

Actual construction takes about three weeks, with the first few days devoted to transporting materials to the site. The remainder of the time is spent creating a randomly woven sub structure that gradually emerges into the form the artist has envisioned for the site.

Volunteers and donations play heavily in the development process. The saplings often come from generous land owners, public parks or power companies, with environmental sensitivity playing a major role in collection of the material. Gathering has no long term impact, and the branches grow back making new sticks for future sculptures. Pliability and color are the key elements in choosing the material, and willow, gum, maple and elm are preferred. Up to 100 large saplings, 2-3" in diameter and 15 - 20' in length are required for the understructure with five more truckloads of medium saplings required for completion. In addition to volunteers, you'll need several paid landscape laborers to assist in the gathering process.

Once the saplings are collected, a scaffold designed to the artist's requirements is set up, and the magic begins. During the process, visitors are involved in the progress of the sculpture in a variety of ways. At the Franklin Park Conservatory, for instance, they can take part in one of six Gallery Talks that the artist will deliver during the course of the exhibit. In addition, they can view more than 30 photographs of Dougherty's work in the Conservatory's Atrium Gallery or participate in the workshops, classes and programs that the Conservatory staff has created to complement the sculpture project.

As host garden or arboretum, you would own the completed sculpture, which usually lasts around two years, depending on the weather in your location.

Details of requirements for presenting a Patrick Dougherty sculpture are available from the artist.

No special security is required, and the artist carries a $1-million liability policy during construction and requires that the host venue also provide liability average during construction and for the entire life of the sculpture. He also recommends insuring against vandalism.

Dougherty's fee is $12,000 plus expenses. There is a $200 a day plus expenses site visit fee, and Artist Talks are $500 per session. Other exhibit expenses include labor and materials and photography.

For a complete project description, you can contact Dougherty at:
9077 Dodsons Crossroads
Chapel Hill, NC 27516
919-967-6533
Email: stickwork@earthlink.net
or click on this link to his web site:
www.stickwork.net

Come one, come all! You'll have to see them to believe the specimens in Dr. Entomo's Palace of Exotic Wonders!

Gardens and museums across the United States have hosted Outhouse Exhibit Services' spectacular, seasonal outdoor butterfly gardens, and this fall the company is adding a whole new dimension to its exhibit selection with Dr. Entomo's Palace of Exotic Wonders. The Palace is a side-show of strange and exotic bug "beasts" including beetles that eat decaying flesh, female insects that eat their mates, insect camouflage artists, mimics and chemical warfare agents.

The exhibit, suitable for outdoor or indoor display, is housed under a big top tent with an interior space of about 1500 square feet. Outhouse Exhibit Services provides full installation, livestock through the run of the exhibit, assistance with all USDA permitting, at both the state and federal level and guaranteed compliance with all USDA guidelines and staff and volunteer training.

The host venue has to supply site preparation and power and water sources and is responsible fore the daily care and feeding of the livestock. The exhibit does require regular rotation by security staffers and needs to be displayed within a secure area. Liability insurance for $500,000 is also required.

Interpretive materials are not part of the package, but the company can develop materials and additional exhibitry based on the initiatives of the host venue.

Mild weather is also a key requirement for the exhibit, which is designed for a 12-week rental term. That means that if you are thinking about using it this fall, your garden will need to be in a part of the country with reasonably good weather at least through November if you open the exhibit around labor Day.

Rental for the exhibit is $35,000 per 12-week run, plus one-way shipping and travel expenses for three Outhouse staff members.

You can see illustrations of Dr. Entomo banners on the Open Air Exhibits web site - openairexhibits.com - and for more information or booking information, contact Mia Schillace Nelson:

Outhouse Exhibit Services
P.O. Box 18736
Minneapolis, MN 55418
612-961-0782
Or click on this link to the Outhouse web site:
http://www.outhouseonline.com

About this newsletter

Editor: Cathy Garison
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