Annelise Koster speaks to the group at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
Annelise Koster is a freshman honors student majoring in finance at the University of Arkansas. Originally from Windhoek, Namibia, Annelise has been actively involved in a number of activities on campus, including the Entrepreneurs’ Forum and Campus Crusade. She is also helping design an app with the McMillion Innovation Studio that will decrease reverse logistics for clothing retailers. Annelise participated in our spring 2019 Honors College forum “Museum,” which took place at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, under the tutelage of the museum’s Strategy Team. Here, Annelise describes an unconventional board meeting at the museum…
A billionaire, a grandmother, an artist, an author and nine others all gathered together to make an extremely important decision. What brought such a diverse group of people together? Money. They have $600,000 and need to spend it in the wisest way possible. Should they build an elevator? Hire more employees? Buy insurance? Light the forest? These 13 people comprise the museum’s board of directors. Their task: how to best utilize the “extra” $600,000 the museum has.
This week the Museum Forum from the University of Arkansas Honors College participated in a simulation arranged by Crystal Bridges. When we arrived at the Crystal Bridges boardroom this week, Tracy Cude, chief financial officer, and Sandy Edwards, deputy director, both members of Crystal Bridges’ Strategy Team, were waiting for us. They were super excited and you could tell they could not wait to start the class. They announced that for today’s class they wanted us to pretend to be members of a museum’s board. They had assigned each of us a role and our job was to act out our assigned part. Cude and Edwards then gave each of us a yellow file, told us to read the contents, not tell anyone else what it said, follow the instructions, and they would be back in a few minutes.
I received my file and attached envelope. I was given the role of “Teacher Teal” in the simulation. Teacher Teal wrote a best-selling book that has become the standard reference in most colleges of education. She believes museums should offer free admission for children and expand their school visit programs. Teacher Teal was also supposed to be vocal about the need for the museum to invest more in education-related programs and services. Once Cude and Edwards returned to the boardroom they proceeded to act as if they were conducting a real board meeting. They began by going over the yearly financial statements (that they had made up for this class) and offering suggestions with what the museum could do with the “extra” $600,000. Once we had discussed each suggestion, they asked us to cast an initial vote on which ideas we thought the museum should prioritize. Each board member then went up to the glass doors and voted by placing stickers next to the ideas they supported till they had spent all of their money. Once all of the votes were cast the discussion began.
Everyone was trying to push for the items they supported to receive more votes. We had to use our judgment to determine which proposals our character would most likely be in favor of and which suggestions best corresponded to the museum’s mission statement. The “grandmother” felt that the museum needed to be more kid friendly, but the “young artist” felt that children should not be allowed at the museum because they could not appreciate the art and were distracting to others who wanted to enjoy the museum. This sparked an entire conversation regarding children and museums and where they should be allowed to be and what they should be allowed to do. Eventually it was decided that all the proposals were good and the board wanted to do all of them so it was decided that the museum needed to host a blockbuster exhibition to bring in more money so we could accomplish all the suggestions that the museum staff had put forward.
The only way we were able to compare such differing ideas and decide which ones to fund was by comparing them to the museum’s mission statement. During the first class of the semester we spent nearly two hours discussing Crystal Bridges’ mission statement. I did not understand why such emphasis was placed on the mission statement until this week’s reading assignment in Making Museums Matter by Stephen Weil. I realized that the museums’ mission statement is their bottom line. It is how they gauge if they are successful or not, and what they compare ideas against to decide if those ideas are in line with the goals of the organization.
What began as a modified game of Clue ended up being my favorite class of the semester. I enjoyed playing the role of Teacher Teal and determining how the museum could best utilize its “extra” $600,000 according to its mission statement.