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News to use from Open Air Exhibits September 2005
In this month’s issue: Welcome and what’s this all about? Where are all the great, eye-popping photos of gardens? It all started in Better Homes and Gardens Magazine – a visit with David Rogers Ask the expert – How do I control the entrance? Relating the exhibit to your mission – Melissa Wraalstad, The Morton Arboretum How to move your interpretation from “OK” to “WOW”
Welcome to the premier issue of News to Use from Open Air Exhibits
Does your garden or arboretum already have a robust marketing program requiring a continuous stream of new exhibit ideas, or are you just at the point of considering something beyond your permanent collection to add new life to your facility?
Open Air Exhibits -- the marketing resource for managers of outdoor venues – serves both the novice and the experienced exhibitor with an online catalog of traveling exhibits and a resource guide of professionals – from marketers and researchers to performance artists and puppeteers – who have supported outdoor presentations. Both the catalog and the resource guide will be launched in January 2006, and you can get a preview by visiting openairexhibits.com.
The third component of the package is this monthly newsletter – a digest of the best of both traveling and home-grown exhibits -- designed to make it easier for gardens interested in adding exhibit programming or enhancing current exhibit offerings.
Next year’s AABGA meeting in San Francisco focuses on sustainability, and for parks, gardens and arboreta, sustainability has come to mean more than a continuous presentation of an outstanding permanent collection. Our peers in the natural history and art museums understood this earlier than we in the garden world have, and for years they have included traveling exhibits in their marketing plans to:
An informal survey of some 400 garden managers earlier this year revealed that building audience was the number two goal for 2006, following close behind increasing funding. Research indicates that gardens and arboreta that have used traveling exhibits have achieved both desired results, yet over the past decade fewer than a dozen traveling exhibits have been widely available for display in outdoor venues.
That’s what prompted the creation of Open Air Exhibits. A senior vice president and financial services marketer by profession, my volunteer time for the past 15 years has been devoted to the San Antonio Botanical Society. Surprisingly, there is a significant overlap in garden and bank marketing – both require the development of the right product, price and promotion to reach a targeted audience. Both operate in an aggressively competitive environment, and the success of both hinges on the satisfaction of the customer experience.
In 1999, the San Antonio Botanical Garden was ready for a “news hook,” an event that would move it out of the arts/theme park/tourist attraction clutter and into the spotlight as a key community resource. It took two years of research and preparation to find an exhibit that would withstand Texas weather and fit into the budget. Finally, in 2002, Dinosaurus Tex, Texas Dinosaurs and the Plants They Ate, welcomed 80,000 visitors to the garden between September and December.
Since then, I have discovered more traveling exhibits and have seen proof that “home grown” programs produce similar results. Open Air Exhibits shares these discoveries, and with luck will serve as a catalyst for creating more exhibits and exhibit users.
One of the reasons that I have been drawn to the garden world over the years is that “plant people,” on all levels, are genuinely devoted to sharing. Whether it’s a cutting or a case study of marketing success, they have an innate desire to pass it along.
It is my hope that News to Use from Open Air Exhibits will provide one more avenue for sharing, and that you will send your questions, ideas, suggestions, exhibit successes and things that you will never do again to info@openairexhibits.com. I also hope that you will be as generous with your thoughts and time as the contributors to this month’s issue have been, including David Rogers of Big Bugs fame, Melissa Wraalstad, exhibits developer for The Morton Arboretum, Marketing Expert Dianne Powell, George Blasing, an edu-tainer specializing in paleontological interpretation, and Mike Bush, executive director of the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden. Many thanks to you all.
So welcome to the first issue. Read, enjoy and keep in touch!
Where are all the fantastic, eye-popping photos that should illustrate a garden exhibit newsletter?
This is the question you may be asking yourself. To keep transmission as simple as possible and get through all the browsers and networks and other innovative automation tools, the newsletter will be straight copy with links to additional information and illustration on the website as it develops.
It all started in a Better Homes and Gardens Magazine – a visit with David Rogers
The best place to start is at the beginning, and in the world of garden exhibits, that would be with the creator of one of the most enduring and artful outdoor displays, David Rogers.
His Big Bugs were “hatched” at the Dallas Arboretum in 1994 and have marched from coast to coast across the United States over the past 11 years. They’ve returned to Disney’s Epcot Center five times, and the New York Botanical Garden is close behind with four repeat visits. Excellent media coverage and word of mouth promotion keep the bookings rolling in, with venues waiting up to two years to welcome the insect invasion.
What’s the appeal of this phenomenon that's lasted more than a decade?
“I think it is partly the scale and partly the subject matter,” Artist Rogers conjectured. “Bugs appeal to all ages. Kids get it and connect right away, while adults view the pieces in a more intellectual way. There’s also the appeal of the medium – wood and natural materials”…that gives the sculptures added dimension. “I often hear visitors say ‘This is not like what I imagined’,” Rogers said.
The exhibit was just what Susan Wells, then Dallas Arboretum special events coordinator, did imagine when she saw a one-page feature on the branch sculpture of David Rogers in an issue of Better Homes and Gardens Magazine in 1991.
“She sent me a letter with three bullet points,” Rogers recalled. “She wanted something that would help her raise awareness of her facility, that would provide a visually stunning and engaging experience and that would provide an educational platform for arboretum programs. There were no Big Bugs yet. What she saw in the magazine was a branch dinosaur and some other branch sculptures, but her request started me thinking about concepts – more than humans in the garden, hidden gardeners, the fascination of small things on a giant scale…”
Having developed the concept, the challenge had just begun for Rogers.
“Susan took the idea to her board and got a ‘No’ vote for three consecutive years. When they finally approved it, I told them I needed 10 months to build it, and they told me I had seven. Since necessity is the mother of invention, I decided to build 10 modular units in my studio in New York and then assemble them onsite, and if I had to do all that, I figured I might as well own them.
“I was in debt. I had to rent work space, and I could not believe what I had gotten into,” Rogers recalled of that creative period. “It was just madness. I was inventing as I went along and suffering from severe anxiety attacks. Midway, I hit a wall and thought the only thing to do was give the commission money back. But I didn’t, and the whole thing finally came together.”
Given the continuing popularity of the exhibit, Rogers is puzzled about the lack of competing exhibits in the marketplace.
“I don’t know why there is not a bigger selection of outdoor traveling exhibits. Plenty of gardens have called to tell me they want to build their own Big Bugs or something like it. I used to worry about sharing proprietary secrets, but I don’t anymore. It takes a good idea and a creative person to design and install the exhibit – there’s both inspiration and a lot of grunt work involved in traveling. I guess anybody could do it, but they need to have the passion or the soul for it.
“The success of Big Bugs has been the most amazing gift for me. After the surge of creativity that resulted in the first 10 pieces, the traveling and maintaining is demanding and can get to be a repetitive grind, but I made the decision to continue to pursue the artistic intention, and every time I install it in a new garden I get excited all over again,” Rogers said.
“And when, at the end of the exhibit run, the host garden reaches all of its goals for the exhibit and opens the champagne to celebrate, it’s like winning the Super Bowl all over again every time. It always reinvigorates me.”
Cleveland’s Holden Arboretum is a perfect example of the experience that drives Rogers on. “They were a fully engaged, committed group. They thought through every aspect of the visitor experience, from overflow parking to adequate supplies of bottled water. It’s really rewarding when the host garden staff puts in the time and effort necessary to maximize results,” he said.
Results are a point of pride for Rogers. “Nobody can come near Big Bugs’ history of success in increasing attendance and membership sales figures,” he observed.
Does the artist who has cornered the garden exhibit market have any new projects on the drawing board?
“I worked on a pollinator exhibit for awhile – a bee hive and flowers and a butterfly, but it just didn’t feel right. The bugs are still the key components, and I can’t imagine a show that doesn’t include them as well,” Rogers said.
Any danger of the Bugs retiring before they invade every outdoor venue on the continent? The outlook is doubtful. Their creator remains much too enthusiastic to bring them home permanently any time soon.
“I love the idea that I have brought something different and unique to the garden, and I like being the guy you think of when you think of traveling outdoor exhibits,” he concludes.
If you are interested in booking Big Bugs for your venue, you can get more information on Rogers’ website: www.big-bugs.com. You can email him at davidrogers@big-bugs.com or call 516-759-6422.
Advice: from Mike Bush, executive director of the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden, where the Bugs will appear in October – “Plan ahead! Begin earlier than you think is necessary. Three years is probably not too far out. Developing funding, sponsorship and media connections will take longer than you expect."
Ask the expert – How do I control the entrance?
Each month we’ll take a question submitted from a reader and get an answer from an expert in the field. If you have a question that you would like to submit, please email it to info@openairexhibits.com. Questions will be answered in the order in which they are received, so if you need a speedy response, email yours ASAP.
Q. I’ve been considering bringing an exhibit to my garden, but I don’t have any areas that could provide for controlled entrance. This means that I would not be able to charge a special admission fee for the exhibit, which I would need to do to cover costs since admission to my garden is free.
A. Admission is only one revenue stream that you could use to pay for exhibit costs, and probably the most undependable one, at that. Since gardens are so weather dependent, it could take only a few weekends of rain to put you in the red.
Many gardens use an exhibit as a fundraising tool – a project that adds immediacy to an appeal for support. It can be the catalyst to approach corporate donors with sponsorship opportunities as well as underwriting requests. Your success in this area will depend on matching your exhibit to a business’s needs and target customer audiences. You’ll also make it easier to get a “yes” if you make an extra effort to get a board member of staffer who is acquainted with someone in the target business to make the initial introduction.
If a business “Presenting Sponsor” is just too commercial for your comfort, foundations are another source of exhibit funding. Most large cities have a Non-Profit Resource Center with a library of information on foundations, their giving histories, their special interests and contact information. Do your research and target those with a purpose or interest compatible with the subject matter in your exhibit.
Both sponsorships and foundation grants require a long lead time for research, proposal preparation, review and approval, and you have to allow time for regrouping when your request is turned down. As a rule of thumb, you’ll need to start preparing and get the process started at least a year in advance of your targeted exhibit opening date and maybe longer, as Mike Bush of the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens advises, depending on corporate marketing calendars and foundation grant making cycles.
If you haven’t done this before, it may all sound intimidating, but with a plan and the discipline to work it, even a novice fundraiser has an excellent chance of success.
In addition to bringing new visitors to your venue, increasing public awareness of your facility in your community and adding a new dimension to the interpretation of your plant collection, exhibits can stretch you to improve your fundraising skills. The results benefit not only the one-time exhibit effort, but the ongoing work of your garden as well.
This advice is from this month’s expert, Dianne Powell, president of
Sellmark, a full service marketing company where non-profits are a specialty. Whether writing marketing plans, identifying development prospects or establishing brand awareness, SellMark can help you reach your goals. SellMark can
deliver turn key projects from planning to producing marketing materials, fundraising, developing programming and special events, public relations and advertising. Dianne has worked on several successful projects with the San Antonio Botanical Garden. You can reach her at 210-824-9474 or at
Dpsellmark@aol.com.
A case study from The Morton Arboretum Relating the exhibit to your mission
“InTREEguing TreeHouses” proved the perfect “home-grown” exhibit when The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois, wanted to host a program that was relevant to its mission, delivered a strong message and attracted new audiences.
Melissa Wraalstad, exhibit developer for the arboretum, explained the thought process behind the creation of the treehouse display. “We have a loyal core of visitors, but we wanted to reach new audiences and enhance our draw from nearby Chicago. The treehouses connected people to our permanent collection, and the designers who participated put conservation into practice, as the criteria for the structures specified that no treehouse could in any way damage the tree it was built around,” she explained.
The 12 Chicago area designers who accepted the challenge included artists, architects, construction workers, landscape designers, exhibit designers and builders, a neighborhood community and even Arboretum staff.
The exhibit, which ran from May through September 2004, produced impressive statistics. “The project was done in the midst of the construction of the new Visitor Center, which opened in September of 2004,” Wraalstad said. “The construction caused a substantial drop in membership and attendance levels. ‘TreeHouses’ helped us rebound and bring back an audience after being under construction for over a year. We reached record levels of both attendance and membership. Our store hit the $1-million mark before the end of the year, a real achievement since it was only open from September to December. That was a record for us, too, and though ‘TreeHouses’ wasn’t the only reason, the exhibit did help a great deal. Normal programming and educational activities adapted to treehouses also reached record attendance levels, and we are still getting phone calls about the exhibit,” she added.
Stats June - September Attendance 2004 -- 167,700 2003 -- 100,500 (construction year) 2002 – 133,500
June -- September new members 2004 -- 2,488 2003 -- 836 (construction year)
For more information on creating a treehouse exhibit for your garden or arboretum, email Melissa at
mwraalstad@mortonarb.org
or call 630-719-4888.
How do you move your interpretation from “OK” to “WOW”?
We asked Dino George Blasing, an edu-tainer who has perfected the art of blending education with entertainment to almost magnetically engage children, what he would suggest for taking interpretation from “ho-hum” to “What a great place! Let’s come back to see more!”
Having spoken to more than a million grown-ups and adults in more than 1500 schools, museums, universities and gardens since he started Dinosaur World in 1997, George drew on his experience to advise:
“You also really do well with kids by respecting their intelligence and treating them as adults when they ask questions,” George observed.
“If you are bringing an exhibit to your venue, you can significantly increase the impact by stepping outside of your usual garden mindset -- your comfort zone. Don’t rely on what you have done in the past, but use it as ground work for something fresh and new. What would happen if, instead of trying to force the exhibit to fit your garden, you looked at creative ways for the garden to enhance the exhibit?”
George, a former retail executive, became “Dino George” full time after he received a letter from the mother of one of the children in his school audiences. “My son came home telling me he no longer wanted to drop out,” she wrote. “He wanted to be a better student so he could become a dino man like George.”
“If I can change one life by lecturing to children, then that’s where I need to be,” was George’s response.
You can reach George by calling 210-798-6224, or email him at george@dinosaurworld.com.
Editor: Cathy Garison To unsubscribe, email info@openairexhibits
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